will share the fulness of his joy? Cling with confidence to his veracity, and abide in his love! Nothing shall separate you from that love. It is from everlasting to everlasting. It is a love victorious over every obstacle, and which many waters of ingratitude have not quenched!

Rejoice, then, in the Lord, and in the power of his might! Grasp the shield of faith, and resist evil unto the end!

A few years, or months, or days, and your hearts will be at rest for ever!

20

SERMON II.

THE UNWILLINGNESS OF MEN TO GO TO CHRIST.

JOHN V. 40.

" AND YE WILL NOT COME TO ME, THAT YE MIGHT HAVE LIFE."

WHEN the aged Simeon blessed the parents of the infant Jesus, in the temple, he said unto Mary, his mother, "Behold, this child is sent for the falling and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed;" and the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, "that the gospel was a savour of death unto death, as well as of life unto life." The substance of these assertions has been verified, more or less in every age and place in which the tidings of salvation have been proclaimed. Wherever the gospel of Christ has been simply and plainly unfolded, it has always led to the display of human character. It has led to "the revelation" or detection" of many thoughts." It has unmasked the polished and plausible moralist, as well as convicted the open sinner of his iniquity. Under the workings of natural

conscience, it has displayed the pride and enmity of the human mind towards God; and there it has often paused in its efficacy. In this case it has proved a "savour of death unto death," by augmenting the light, and therefore aggravating the guilt of those who have spurned its friendly guidance into the paths of peace.

But where the convictions of heart which it has occasioned have been of God; where such convictions have been "the drawings of the Father," and have gladly led the sinner to take his full shelter in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, there it has proved the "savour of life unto life," having been the instrumental cause of imparting a life, not like that derived from Adam, mortal and precarious, but a life unassailable by any power, and “hid with Christ in God," even "eternal life." "I am come," said the Saviour, in reference to the sheep of his fold; "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

The publication of the gospel by the lips of Christ himself, produced precisely this twofold result. It always displayed character, while it sometimes saved the soul alive by faith in him of whom it testified; and it has ever since performed the same office. It accomplishes the same effect amidst ourselves. The minister of Jesus Christ, in the name of his great and good

Master, sets forth the grace of the gospel through faith in Jesus, and the people listen precisely with this result. Some hate the light, and will not come to it: its brightness gleams upon their deformities, and compels them to recoil even with indignation and disgust. Some, taught from above, sink down oppressed under the discovery of these deformities, and apply with contrition and gladness to Him who came to give "beauty for ashes, and life for death." This manifestation of character on the part of the proud, was the subject of the deepest grief to the Son of God: "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." On one occasion, his grief broke forth into sacred but bitter tears: "When he beheld the city, he wept over it, and said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children, even as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!"

The reluctance with which the message of the gospel is heard in the world, is a theme as deeply afflictive now as it was in the days of the Son of God. The relations of time and eternity are not altered-without Christ the soul dies for ever. No gleam of hope falls upon a human heart, save from the Sun of

righteousness as its source. Imperfect is the sympathy which thrills the heart of the messenger of God, or he would still weep as he takes up the complaint of Jesus Christ, and exclaims, in his name, before many around him, "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life."

I purpose to consider a little more at large this case of perverseness, ingratitude, and misery. It is a very common case. It may be true of many sitting here, that "they will not come unto Christ, that they might have life." I would I would contemplate and unfold the condition of such, in the hope and prayer that the Spirit of God may be pleased to convince them of the unreasonableness, yea, insanity of their conduct, and lead them at length to that mighty Deliverer who is "the resurrection and the life;" in whom whosoever believeth shall never die."

"Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life."

The persons to whom this complaint was originally made, imagined themselves to have little need of the blessing which they rejected. They judged themselves to be the children of Abraham, and were elated with the privileges which such a relationship was supposed to convey. They esteemed God to be their Father, and had no fears for the future and yet