And how comes it to pass that so many of his people are strangers to this blessed joy of the Lord? Numbers are entangled still in the old covenant-they still cleave to the covenant of works, and though, in their judgment, they are partially convinced that salvation is only by grace, that righteousness is only in another, yet they have never been properly divorced from their first husband. They still cleave to the old covenant, the covenant of doing, the covenant of works, instead of the covenant of receiving, which is the covenant of grace. Still they wait to bring a price in their hand. One has read of a poor dull countryman standing by the brink of a river, expecting the time when the river should stop, and he should be able to pass over. Just the same is it with numbers of those, in whom there is a work began by the power of the Holy Ghost, they see enough of sin to make them wretched, they see enough of the defect in their own righteousness to leave them, in their judgment, convinced they cannot stand before GOD in them but still, just like the rind that binds the branch to its own dead stock, still they cleave to them and still hang upon them. Oh, that the blessed Spirit this day might sever that rind in twain, and lead them to see what a full, free, finished, great, gracious salvation, there is in the

I believe, my dearly beloved, that the grand secret for maintaining habitual joy in the Lord, is to set the Lord Jesus always before us. The moment the eye is off the cross we sink. Place me doctrine, or precept, or promise, take me away from the cross, I sink; place me the lives of the holiest, place me the example of the best, and take away my eyes off the cross, I sink. As true is it in the new dispensation, as in the old, I can never enter the tabernacle and approach GOD, but by the brazen altar. Oh! brethren, as Goodwin counsels, first wash and then worship. First plead the sacrifice, and then I can work, and not till then. Do you desire the joy of the Lord? if these were my last words that came from these lips, I would say, place Christ, the crucified man, God in our nature, perpetually before your eyes: one sight of a crucified Emanuel will more remove the cobwebs of legality, drive away the despairings, and despondings, and the distrust which springs from a legal covenant, than all other principles whatever.

Then be very careful and very prayerful in thy walk. Take good heed of not making excuses for neglected duty. Oh, may God the Spirit keep you and me ever bearing this in mind, that to walk in the joy of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, we must walk in the fear of the Lord. Be very teachable when God lays a duty before you, be careful how you tamper with it or neglect it; when GoD places a neglect upon your conscience, beware how you turn from it. It is God's blessed messenger to your

THESE words, as the history declares, were spoken by Hagar, Sarai's maid, after the angel of the Lord, who appears to have been no other than the angel of the covenant-the Lord Jesus Christ had appeared to her in the wilderness. She had gone there, you will find, in petulance and passion, disgusted with the hard treatment of Sarai: and there was seated in dejection and despondency near a fountain of water. Here it was the angel of the Lord met her; and he came, we are told, with a very searching question—“ Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?" And she said," I flee from the face of my mistress, Sarai." This answer tells whence she came; but it does not tell whither she was going; for this, like many others under the influence of passion, she, probably, could not tell and did not know. The angel then bid her "return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands." Thus GOD, by his angel, established the duty of mutual subjection and subordination. The doctrine is the same with that of St. Peter:-"Servants be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward." The angel of the Lord then promised to Hagar a numerous posterity; also the birth of Ishmael, whose name signified-God shall hear; because the angel told her the Lord had heard her afflictions. He then describes his future character-that of a wild man; with his hand against

every man, and every man's hand against him: and dwelling continually in the presence of his brethren. A description which has been exactly fulfilled, both in Ishmael himself and in his descendants, the wild Arabs of the desert unto the present day. Then after this, it was that “she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her-Thou God seest me for she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me? wherefore the well, the fountain was called Beer-lahai-roi ;" that is, the well of him, that loveth and seeth me. Here, then, in this, her language at that moment, we have first of all the conviction of one who had been out of the way of duty.

Other thoughts will open upon us as we proceed, but let me first endeavour to urge this-Hagar had evidently done wrong in leaving Sarai's house so abruptly, though she had been harshly used by Sarai, whose conduct towards Hagar was quite unjustifiable, being full of jealousy, envy, and domineering pride. Yet, this and much worse usage than this did not justify Hagar in flying from Abraham's house without permission. She had, it is true, reasonable cause of complaint; she might have told it to Abraham; she might have solicited for her dismissal; she might have poured out her complaint to GOD, and looked to him for deliverance and support; but no, full of passion and pride, which commonly forms the very essence of angry passion, she

Now have we all thought of this as we ought, "Thou GOD seest me," in regard to our wanderings from GOD. God knows every step of your devious course, He marks every proud aspiring after independence of him, each longing after vanity, each coveting desire of things which he forbids. When man beheld you not when you seemed altogether as unperceived by any human eye as Hagar was in the solitary wilderness, when you thought the darkness of the night might shroud, or the closet of the heart might screen-thou O GOD sawest me, thine eye, O thou omniscient one, beheld me, thine ear heard the whispered murmur. "Thou knowest my down-setting and mine up-rising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether."

My friends, this thought of the omniscience of GOD is most affecting in recalling to us our former sins. I envy not the man who would deem it an unmanly thing to weep like a child at the remembrance of his transgressions; as soon would I envy the millstone its hardness, or the rock its insensibility. You have committed sins in days that are past, and thou, O GOD, hast seen them all; sins, too, which the presence of a human being would often have restrained, for would we like men to know all our sins? Yet GOD has known them all, all things are naked and open unto him with whom we have to do. I call on you, then, in the name of God to be deeply humbled at the thought; I entreat you to cherish this consciousness of sin. Let none amongst us ever be found again to speak of sin with levity; never, even in thought, to glory in what should be our shame, never, no never, forget what God has seen

in us. If He in his mercy is pleased to forget it and to blot it out of the book of his remembrance, we should not, we should remember it to deepen our gratitude and to heighten our love to him, we should remember it in order that, knowing the native corruption of the heart, we may evermore walk humbly, watchfully, and circumspectly. And, we should remember too that the Saviour of sinners, and the doctrine of his cross, and the record of his grace, and the pledges of his love, and the influences of his sanctifying spirit, may be more precious to one who has so much, so often, and so deeply revolted against GOD.

But I come to a second thought. Our text is not merely the language of one who had been out of the way of duty, but also of one, who, while out of the way of duty, had been met by the Lord pleading with a solemn searching question. This is very clear in the history, so clear that I may proceed at once to the application to ourselves. Now when you, my friends, were out of the way of duty, I mean living in carelessness, folly and neglect of GOD, he has met you, not in a visible appearance in person, but by his word, his providence, his ministers, and, above all-Oh let me hope it for you, by his grace. He finds you in regard to your souls, like Hagar in the desert, faint, friendless, and hopeless; He questioned you in somewhat the same manner as he questioned her, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou, and whither wilt thou go." The manner in which this question is put is very remarkable,