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“Unto you, men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man.” PROV viii., 4

1. These are the words of wisdom; and wisdom in the book of Proverbs is no other than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is evident from chap, i., 23, where he says, ‘Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you;” but it is Christ alone who has the gift of the Holy Spirit. And again, from viii., 22, where he says, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way;” and verse 30, “Then I was by him as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” These words are true of none but of Jesus Christ, the Word that was with God, and was God, by whom all things were made.

2. The places he goes to with the invitation. -1. He goes to the country. He climbs every eminence, and cries there; then he descends to the highway where many roads meet. 2. He goes to the city. He begins at the gates where the people are assembled to make bargains and hear causes; then he proceeds along the principal avenue into the city, and cries in at every door as he passes. He first goes out into the highways and hedges, then goes into the streets and lanes of the city, carrying the blessed message.

3. Observe the manner in which he invites. -He cries aloud, he puts forth the voice; he stands and cries; he calls and lifts up his voice; he seems like some merchant offering his wares, first in the market and then from door to door. Never did busy crier offer to sell his goods with such anxiety as Jesus offers his salvation: verse 10, “Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowiedge rather than choice gold.”

4. Observe to whom the invitation is addressed. -Verse 4. ” Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.” Merchants only offer their goods to certain classes of the people tha will buy; but Jesus offers his to all men. Wherever there is a son of Adam, wherever there is one born of woman, the word is addressed to him; he that hath ears to hear let him hear.

Doctrine. -Christ offers himself as a Saviour to all of the human race.

I. The most awakening truth in all the Bible. -It is commonly thought that preaching the holy law is the most awakening truth in the Bible; that by it the mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God; and, indeed, I believe this is the most ordinary mean which God makes use of. And yet to me there is something far more awakening in the sight of a Divine Saviour freely offering himself to every one of the human race. There is something that might pierce the heart that is like a stone in that cry, “Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man.”

1. Had you lived in the days when Noah built the Ark, had you seen that mighty vessel standing open and ready, inviting all the world to come into its roomy cavities, would it not have been the most awakening of all sights? Could you have looked upon it without thinking of the coming flood, that was to sweep the ungodly world away ?

2. Had you lived in the times when Jesus was on the earth, had you seen him riding down the Mount Olivet, and stopping when he came in sight of Jerusalem, lying peaceful and slumbering at his feet, had you seen the son of God weep over the city, and say, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes,” would you not have felt that some awful destruction was awaiting the slumbering city? Would he shed these tears for nothing? Surely he sees some day of woe coming which none knows but himself.

3. Just so, dear friends, when you see Jesus here running from place to place; from the high places to the highways, from the highways to the city gates, from the gates to the doors; when you hear his anxious cry, “Unto you, O men, I call,” does it not show that all men are lost, that a dreadful hell is before them? Would the Saviour call so loud and so long if there was no hell?

Apply this to slumbering souls.

1st, Mark who it is that calls you; it is Wisdom! Jesus Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. “Unto you, O men, I call.” Often, when ministers prick your hearts in their sermons, you go home and say, “Oh! it was only the word of a minister; shall I tremble at the words of a man?” But here is the word of no minister, but of Christ. Here is the word of one who knows your true condition, who knows your heart and your history; who knows your sins done in the light, and done in the dark, and done in the recesses of your heart; who knows the wrath that is over you, and the hell that is before yon. “Unto you, O men, I call.”

2d, Mark in how many places he calls you. -In the high places and the highways, in the gates, in the entries, at the coming in of the doors. Has it not been so with you? Have you not been called in the Bible, in the family, in the house of prayer? You have gone from place to place, but the Saviour has gone after you. You have gone to places of diversion, you have gone to places of sin, but Christ has followed you. You have lain down on a bed of sickness, and Christ has followed you. Must not the sheep be in great danger, when the shepherd follows so far in search of it?

3d, How loud he cries. -He calls and lifts up the voice. Has it not been so with you? Has he not knocked loudly at your door, in warnings, in providences, in deaths? Has he not cried loudly in the preached word? Sometimes when reading the Bible alone, has not the voice of Christ been louder than thunder?

4th, He cries to all. -Had he cried to the old, then the young would have said, ” We are safe; we do not need a Saviour.” Had he cried to the young, the old men among you would have said, “He is not for us.” Had he called to the good or to the bad, still some would have felt themselves excused. But he cries to you all. There is not one person hearing but Jesus cries to you. Then all are lost -old and young, rich and poor. Whatever you think of yourselves, Jesus knows you to be in a lost condition; therefore this piercing cry, “Unto you, O men, I call.”

II. The most comforting truth in the Bible. -When awakened persons are first told of Jesus Christ, it generally adds to their grief. They see plainly that he is a very great and glorious Saviour; but then they feel that they have rejected him, and they fear that he never can become their Saviour. Very often awakened persons sit and listen to a lively description of Christ, of his work of substitution in the stead of sinners; but their question still is, “Is Christ a Saviour to me? “Now, to this question I answer, Christ is freely offered to all the human race. “Unto you, O men, I call.” If there were no other text in the whole Bible to encourage sinners to come freely to Christ, this one alone might persuade them. There is no subject more misunderstood by unconverted souls than the unconditional freeness of Christ. So little idea have we naturally of free grace, that we cannot believe that God can offer a Saviour to us, while we are in a wicked hell-deserving condition. O it is sad to think how men argue against their own happiness, and will not believe the very Word of God!

All the types showed the Saviour to be free to all.

(1.) The brazen serpent was lifted up in sight of all Israel, that any one might look and be healed; and Christ himself explains this. “So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

(2.) The Refuge City set on a hill, with its gates open night and day, showed this. Whosoever will may flee for refuge to the hope set before us.

(3.) The angels over Bethlehem repeated the same thing? ” Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” And the last invitation of the Bible is the freest of all: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Mark, also, in the text before us, ” Unto you, O men, I call.” This shows that he is not free to devils; but to all men, to every one that has human form and human name, the Saviour is now free. It is not for any goodness in men, not for any change in them that Christ offers himself; but just in their lost condition as men. He freely puts himself within their reach. There are many stratagems by which the devil contrives to keep men away from Christ.

1. Some say there is no hope for me. “There is no hope, no; for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go. I have committed such great sins, I have sunk so deep in the mire of sin, I have served my lusts so long, that there is no use of me thinking of turning. There is no hope, no.” To you I answer, there is hope; your sins may be forgiven for Christ’s sake; there is forgiveness with God. Ah! why should Satan so beguile you? True, you have waded deep into the mire of sin; you have destroyed yourself, and yet in Christ there is help. He came for such as you. Christ speaks in these words to you -you are of the human race, and Christ speaks to all of the human race -”Unto you, O Men, I call.”

2. “I have not the least care about my soul. Up to this moment I never listened to a sermon, nor attended to a word in the Bible. I have no wish to hear of Christ, or God, or eternal things.” To you I answer: Still Christ is quite free to you. Though you have no care for your soul, yet Christ has, and wishes to save it. Though you do not care for Christ, yet he cares for you, and stretches out his hands to you. Christ did not come to the earth because people were caring about their souls, but because we were lost. You are only the more lost. Christ is all the more seeking you. This day you may find a Saviour. “Unto you, O Men, I call.”

3. “If I knew I were one of the elect I would come, but I fear I am not,” To you I answer : Nobody ever came to Christ because they knew themselves to be of the elect. It is quite true that God has of his mere good pleasure elected some to everlasting Lfe, but they never knew it till they came to Christ. Christ nowhere invites the elect to come to him. The question for you is not, Am I one of the elect? but, Am I of the human race?

4. Some of you may be saying, “If I could see my name in the Bible then I would believe that Christ wants me to be saved.” When Christ called Zaccheus, he said, ‘Zaccheus, come down.’ He called him by name, and he came down immediately. Now if Christ would call me by name, I would run to him immediately.” Now, to you I say, Christ does call you by your name, for he says, “To you, O men, I call.” Suppose that Christ had written down the names of all the men and women in the world, your name would have been there. Now, instead of writing down every name, he puts them all together in one word, which includes every man, and woman, and child -”Unto you, O men, I call; and my words are to the sons of man!” So your name is in the Bible. “Go and preach the Gospel to every creature.”

4. “If I could repent and believe, then Christ would be free to me, but I cannot repent and believe.” To you I say, are you not a man before you repent and believe? then Christ is offered to you before you repent. And, believer, Christ is not offered to you because you repent, but because you are a vile, lost sinner. “Unto you, O men, I call.”

5. “I fear the market is over. Had I come in the morning of life, I believe Christ was offered me then -in youth, at my first sacrament; but now, I fear, the market-day is done.” Are you not still a man, one of the human race? True, you have refused the Saviour for years, yet still he offers himself to you. It was not for any goodness that he offered himself to you at first, but because you were vile and lost. You are vile and lost yet, so he offers himself to you still. ” Unto you. O men, I call.”

I would here then take occasion to make offer of Christ with all his benefits to every soul in this assembly. To every man, and woman, and child, I do now, in the name of my Master, make full, free offer of a crucified Saviour to be your surety and righteousness, your refuge and strength. I would let down the Gospel cord so low, that sinners, who are low of stature like Zaccheus, may lay hold of it. Oh! is there none will lay hold on Christ, the only Saviour?

III. The most condemning truth in the Bible. -If Christ be freely offered to all men, then it is plain that all who live and die without accepting Christ shall meet with the doom of those who refuse the Son of God. “He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul; all they that hate me love death.” Ah! it is a sad thing that the very truth, which is life to every believing soul, is death to all others.” This is the condemnation.” We are a sweet savor of Christ unto God. When the ignorant heathens stand at the bar of God -Hindoos, and Africans, and Chinese -who have never had the offer of Christ made to them, they will not be condemned as those will that have lived and died unsaved under a preached Gospel. Tyre and Sidon will not meet the same doom as Chorazin and Bethsaida, and unbelieving Capernaum.

Oh! brethren, you are without excuse in the sight of God if you go home unsaved this day. The Gospel cord has been let down as low as to every one of you this day. If you go away without laying hold, your condemnation will be heavier at the last day. If Christ had not come to you, you had not had sin, but now you have no cloak for your sin.

Obj. But my heart is so hard that I cannot believe, my heart is so set upon worldly things that I cannot turn to Christ. I was born this way. Ans. This does but aggravate your guilt. It is true you were born thus, and that your heart is like the nether millstone. But that is the very reason God will most justly condemn you ; because from your infancy you have been hard-hearted and unbelieving. If a thief, when tried before the judge on earth, were to plead guilty, but to say that he had always been a thief, that even in infancy his heart loved stealing, would not this just aggravate his guilt, that he was by habit and repute a thief? So you.

O brethren, if you could die and say that Christ had never been offered to you, you would have an easier hell than you are like to have. You must go away either rejoicing in or rejecting Christ this day; either won, or more lost than ever. There is not one of you but will yet feel the guilt of this Sabbath-day. This sermon will meet you yet. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, “How shall we escape if we neglect so gieat salvation?”

St. Peter’s, 1838

PERSONAL CONSECRATION: “QUIT YOUR MEANNESS.”

“Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in every thing give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” -1 THESS. v. 16-18.

A MAN who understands practically what those three verses teach is not only a Christian, but a philosopher. There is a great deal of philosophy in Christianity, and the best philosophers make the best Christians. This term “rejoice” is a very different word from “happy,” or “happiness.” Our word “happy ” comes from the same word that “happening” comes from, and my happiness depends largely on my happenings; but joy is very different in its meaning, and different in its effects on the human heart. Joy, when we analyze it, is a sort of trinity in unity: 1. I am satisfied with the past. 2. I am contented with the present. 3. I am hopeful for the future. If you will combine these three elements in a human life, I will show you a man who rejoices evermore.

“I am satisfied, first, with the past.” How many persons can look back over the past and say: “I have done my best since the day I started in on a religious life?” Let me say right here, brethren, that heaven is just the other side of where a man has done his best; and sanctification, when you bring it down to where you can get hold of it, is nothing more nor less than doing the best you can under the circumstances. (Mr. Jones would insist that divine grace is a circumstance not to be left out.) That’s practical sanctification, and, really, I don’t care much about any other sort. I want a practical religion.

“I am satisfied with the past,” That’s the grandest thing a man ever said -”I have done my best.” I was talking some time ago with a grand old man in our State -one of the noblest men I ever knew -and he said, ” Jones, I don’t know what people talk so much about a second blessing for. I got all that was necessary in the first place.” “Well,” said I, “what do you mean?” The old man replied, “Jones, when I got religion I told the truth, and I have stuck to it ever since. When I told God I was going to quit my meanness, I quit it; I meant what I said.” I asked him, “Do you mean to say you never repeated a sin you repented of?” and he said to me, “Certainly not, sir; never.” Right here, brethren, I bring in this point: I have said that if we would only quit our lying we would get nine-tenths of our difficulties out of the road. Mr. Finney relates an incident that occurred at one of his revival services. One of the elders in the Presbyterian Church received an overwhelming baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that day there came in from an adjoining town an elder from another Church. At the dinner-table this elder discovered the traces and movements of divine power in the very face of his host. Finney says he himself was sitting at the table. This visiting elder looked at his host and said: “Tell me how you have received such heavenly baptism? How did you get it?” The host looked at him and answered: “I fell down on rny knees and said to God, I have told my last lie. I will never tell thee another while I live;” and the Holy Ghost descended on me, and I have been so gloriously filled since that time I scarcely know whether I am in the body or out.” This elder to whom the host was speaking then jumped up from the table, and ran into a sitting-room near by, and fell down on his knees and prayed: “My God, I have told my last lie. I will never tell another on my knees or off my knees in my life,” and when they arose and walked from the dinner-table the holy blessing fairly beamed. He had received the baptism, and went on his way rejoicing.

Brethren, that’s our trouble. We have been promising God all our life that we would quit our meanness and get to doing right, but we never have done it. If I were to stop at this point and ask every Christian in the house who never told God a lie to stand up, how many do you suppose could stand up and say: ” I told God the truth at the beginning, and have stuck to it to this hour. I said I would quit my meanness, and I did it. I said I would do right, and I have done it.”

I want to tell you that every man s condemnation is bottomed on this one word, neglect. Take the best citizen in this town, and let him be everything else you want him to be, and yet let him neglect to pay his debts, and there isn’t a tramp on your streets who would have any respect for him. Isn’t that a fact? My duty is my debt to God, and if I neglect to pay my debts to God, there isn’t an angel in heaven who would respect me, even if I had sneaked in there unnoticed.

Duty! “I am satisfied with the past, with my self as a father. I have set a good example, and have led a Christian life before my children.” “I am satisfied with myself as a mother; I have done my duty to my children.” ” I am satisfied with myself as a member of the Church. I have kept my vows to it.” Brethren, here’s a source of joy -”I have done my best from the time I started until this hour.” Can you say that? Brethren, did you ever, when your innocent children played about in your lap, say: “I am the purest father God ever blessed with children?” Did you ever say that? Mother, have you looked at your innocent children, as they threw their soft, white arms around your neck, and said: “I am the purest mother God ever blessed with children?” What is your home life? ” I am satisfied. I have done my duty.” Sister, you may be satisfied with some things in your home to-night, but you’ll be be very much dissatisfied later along. You card-playing fathers and mothers! Playing cards with your children! You may think that’s very nice now, but when you turn out on the streets of this city three more gamblers from your so-called Christian home, you are going to get very much dissatisfied with the way you have made things at your house.

I think statistics will bear me out when I assert that nine out of every ten gamblers in this country were raised in Christian -so-called Christian -homes. They are refined, educated, and well raised men -many of them -and they come from the homes where mother and father have dedicated them to God, and, it may be, had them baptized in the name of the Trinity.

I want to say another thing. People say, ” Jones, you hit a little thing as hard as you hit a big thing.” Yes, I do, brethren. The Church is paralyzed in this country. It hasn’t the power, and we may just as well acknowledge it. Hear me! It is not lying that is hurting the Church, nor stealing, nor drink. It is not this kind of meanness that is hurting the Church. Every body knows that Church members who do these things are vagabonds, and pays no attention to them. Hear me. If you want to know what is demoralizing the Church, and paralyzing the Church, I’ll tell you. It is this tide of worldliness that is sweeping over the Christian homes of this country. That’s it! O, my, sister, the day you entered society you laid down your piety, and you know it as well as I do, and you have learned that when a woman gives up her consecrated life to enter society, she begins a life of misery that hardly a damned spirit can exceed in bitterness.

Now, when you can say, “I am satisfied with the past, with the way I have lived before my family, my Church, my community, satisfied with my example in all respects,” you are laying the foundation for Scriptural joy.

Then the next point is, “I am contented with the present.” When a man looks back with the consciousness that he has done his best, and is contented with the present, he is rich, and rich enough. St. Paul said: “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” He said another thing on that line: “Godliness with contentment is a great gain.” Brother, contentment is one of the elements of real Scriptural joy in this life. When a man builds on God’s pattern, and is contented with his lot, and is hopeful for the future, that man is happy anywhere and everywhere.

Hear me, brethren. Hope, as it shines out of a consecrated past and a contented present, is like the mile-posts on the way to God, telling us how far we have come, and how much further we have to go. Thank God for hope in the Christian life, and we sing:

“O, what a blessed hope is ours
While here on earth we stay!”

Satisfied with the past, contented with the present, hopeful for the future -a joyous Christian -you will find the secret right along in there.

Now, brethren, what are you going to do? Thank God, you can do something; thank God, there is only one thing necessary to be done. Quit your meanness. Go to God in honest penitence and tell him: “My Lord, this night I burn up the cards; this night I turn out the wines and entertainments; this night I draw the line, and I come over to God’s side. Good Lord, forgive me for the way I have lived as a professor of religion.” Then comes in the pardon.

O, mothers, fathers, let’s call a halt; let us bring those matters to an understanding at our homes, and say, “We are done.” Let us call a halt, and, on our knees before God, repent of these things.

I want to live before God and my family, so that when I come to die I can say to my children, “Go and live just as your father has lived, and do just as he has done, and as certain as Christ died for sinners, some of these days we will all meet in heaven.”

Satisfied with the past, content with the present, and hopeful for the future ! This gives me the attitude and the attitude where I can rejoice evermore.

Then we take the next verse, “Pray without ceasing.” You say,” I can see how a fellow can act when he can rejoice evermore, but to talk about praying without ceasing -that is all foolishness. A man has got to work; he has got to do other things. A man can’t pray all the time. That won’t do at all.” I heard of a fellow once who had so much work to do on a certain day that he had to lay all down and stop and pray three hours in order to get through with it. Well, you say, “That is the big gest foolishness I ever heard of in my life.” Do you see that engine stopping yonder? The schedule of that passenger train is forty-five miles an hour, and that train has stopped still. I look at it and I say: “What does this all mean? The engineer has stopped, and he is on schedule time. Why doesn’t he go on? What has he stopped for? He has stopped one minute, two minutes, three minutes, five minutes. O, why doesn’t he go on ?” I look a little closer, and I see he is taking on coal and letting water into the tender. He has spent six minutes at the station, and has secured a supply of coal and water, and now he says to himself: “I have lost six minutes, but I have got steam power enough to carry me along sixty miles an hour if I want to go that fast; but if I had run by that coal station I would have got stalled on the first grade. But now I have power enough to carry me through.” I will tell you, brethren, when you run up to God Almighty’s coal and water station, you must take on enough for your needs. That is it. That is the way to get steam to make the trip. That is the meaning of prayer.

I will say a thing now, and I would say it loud enough for all the earth to hear me. We have got men that won’t pray in public and won’t pray in their families. Do you want to know why that is? It is because they don’t pray anywhere. Hear me. I want to be understood now, if you don’t under stand any thing else to-night. The man who really prays anywhere, will pray everywhere. The man who maintains secret prayer will pray everywhere in God’s world that you call on him. You say the reason you don’t pray in your family is just because you are timid. That is a lie. It is because you are mean, and you know it. Talk about a great big fellow, with whiskers six inches long, who will go down town on Change and talk bigger than any man in the pit, and he won’t go home and pray with his children. “You know I would do it,” he says, “if I were not so timid.” Look here. If a man doesn’t pray in his family there is but one reason for it, and that is because he doesn’t live right before his family. I know what I am talking about. I recollect once since I was converted I got up one morning out of humor, and I said some things I had no business to say. I had the dyspepsia they said. It was meanness. Every time a fellow gets his meanness off, it is dyspepsia. Do you hear that, wife? As I said, I was talking right smart around that morning, and directly, just before the breakfast bell rang, wife got down the Bible. I looked at it, and I would have given fifty dollars that morning if I had had some preacher there to have prayer in the family for me. O, how I hated to get down after talking that way. Brother, when you get to living right before your family, it is just as easy to pray before them as it is to sit down and eat before them. If I didn’t have sense enough to pray in my family, I’ll tell you what I would do. I would go and hire me an old colored man that wife and children had confidence in, and I would pay him by the month to come and hold family prayer for me. I would.

Talk about a man being religious who does not pray in his family ! Ridiculous ! I found out long ago that religion is a good thing to have, and a father who becomes religious wants his wife and children to have all the good things in the world; and the next thing you hear from him he will be leading in prayer and demonstrating his religion in his family, and they will fall into line with him. Brother, if you don’t pray in your family, go home and begin to-night. Do you hear that? Begin to-night.

“Pray without ceasing.” How many people in this house hold family prayer and go to the theater? How many people in this house that pray in their families, play cards in their families? How many people in this house who give wine suppers pray at night and morning with the children? Ah, brother, those things won’t mix, and you needn’t tell me they will. They won’t. Pray in your families. I like family prayer, and I can’t get along without it at my house.

I want to get God’s old family prayer elevator down into my house every night, and let wife and children get into it and all go to heaven for a few minutes, and then come back and go to bed. And then in the morning before the breakfast bell rings, down comes God’s old family prayer elevator, and we will all get into it for a few minutes and go to heaven, and come back and get our breakfast and go to work. If I can just get wife and children to heaven that way a few years, they will be such children that when they come to die, they will go to heaven as naturally as they breathe. The Lord save my home. If there is one thought that my mind dwells upon in restful, peaceful moments, it is when I am looking ahead to that happy time when I shall dwell with my wife and loved ones in heaven. Mother, children, all of us at home in heaven forever! Then will I have received pay for every lick I have ever struck for God and right on this side of the grave. God bless and save you, brethren.

“A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: it is sharpened to make sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter; should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.” -Ezek. xxi., 9, 10.

FROM the second verse of this chapter, we learn that this prophecy was directed against Jerusalem; Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel.”

We have already told you that Ezekiel, while yet a youth, was carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar, and placed, with a number of his countrymen, by the river of Chebar. It was there that he delivered his prophecies during a space of twenty-two years. The prophecy I have read was delivered in the seventh year of his captivity, and just three years before Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple burnt. From verse 2, we learn that these words were directed against Jerusalem, for though God had taken Ezekiel away to minister to the captives by the river of Chebar, yet he made him send many a message of warning and of mercy to his beloved Jerusalem. “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel.”

God had already fulfilled many of the words of his prophets against Jerusalem. He had fulfilled the word of Jeremiah against one of their kings (Jehoiakim). ” He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the walls of Jerusalem.” He had fulfilled the word of the same prophet in carrying another king (Jehoiakin) to Babylon with all the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord. But still, neither prophecies nor judgments would awaken Jerusalem; so that we are told (2 Chron. xxxvi., 12) that Zedekiah the next king, “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord.” V. 14. “Moreover, all the chief of the priests and the people transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place: But they mocked the messengers of God. and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.”

It was in a time of great hardness and impenitence in Jerusalem that the prophecy before me was delivered, and just three years before the wrath of God was poured on them to the uttermost. (1). All was mirth and sensuality in Jerusalem. (2). The false prophets prophesied peace, and the people loved to have it so. (3.) There was no noise but that of revelry within the devoted city. But in the midst of that din and revelry, the lone prophet by the river of Chebar heard the muttering of the distant thunder. The faithful servant of God saw God arming himself as a mighty man for the war, and the glittering sword of vengeance in his hand, and he calls aloud to his countrymen, all at ease, with awakening thunders, “A sword, a sword is sharpened and also furbished; it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter; should we then make mirth?”

My friends, those of you who are unconverted are in the very same situation as Jerusalem was. In the years that are now fled, like the mists of the morning, how many messages have you had from God? How many times has he sent his messengers to you, rising up early and sending them? His Bible has been in your houses, a silent, but more mighty pleader for God; his providence has been in your families, in sickness and death, in plenty or poverty, all, all beseeching you to flee from the wrath to come; all, all beseeching you to cleave to the Lord Jesus, the only, the all-sufficient Saviour. All these messages have come to you, and you are yet unconverted, still dead, dry bones, without Christ and without God in the world; and you are saying, Soul, take thine ease, eat and drink, and be merry. But do, my friends, hearken once more, for God does not wish any to perish. I have a word from God unto thee, “A sword, a sword is sharpened and also furbished; it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished
that it may glitter; should we then make mirth?”

Doctrine. -It is very unreasonable in unconverted persons to make mirth.

1. It is unreasonable, because they are under condemnation. -The sword is sharpened and also furbished. It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter. Should we then make mirth? There is a common idea that men are under probation, as Adam was, and that Christless persons will not be condemned till the judgment; but this is not the case. The Bible says, “He that believeth not is condemned already.” “He that hath not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” “Cursed is every one (not shall be) who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” Christless souls are at present in the horrible pit, every mouth is stopped, and they are guilty before God. They are in prison, ready to be brought out to execution. Therefore, when God sends us to preach to Christless persons he calls it “preaching to the spirits in prison,”*(I believe he afterwards understood 1 Peter iii., 19, to mean “the spirits who are now in prison”) that is, who are under condemnation. The sword is not only unsheathed, it is sharpened and furbished. It is held over their heads.

Should they then make mirth? It is unreasonable in a condemned malefactor to make mirth. Would it not greatly shock every feeling mind to see a company of men condemned to die, meeting and making merry, talking lightly and jestingly, as if the sword was not over them? Yet this is the case of those of you who are unconverted and yet live lives of mirth. You have been tried in the balance and found wanting. You have been condemned by the righteous judge. Your sentence is past. You are now in prison, neither can you break out of this prison; the sword is whetted and drawn over you. And oh! is it not most unreasonable to make mirth? Is it not most unreasonable to be happy and contented with yourself and merry with your friends? Is it not madness to sing the song of the drunkard? ” Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die.”

2. Because God’s instruments of destruction are all ready. -Not only are Christless persons condemned already, but the instruments of their destruction are prepared and quite ready. The sword of vengeance is sharpened and also furbished. When swords are kept in the armory, they are kept blunt, that the rust may not hurt their edge; but when work is to be done, and they are taken out for the slaughter, then they are furbished and sharpened -made sharp and glittering. So it is with the sword of the executioner; when not in use, it is kept blunt; but when work is to be done, it is sharpened and made ready. It is sharpened and furbished just before the blow is struck, that it may cut clean. So is it with God’s sword of vengeance. It is not sheathed and blunt, it is sharpened and furbished, it is quite ready to do its work, it is quite ready for a sore slaughter. The disease by which every unconverted man is to die is quite ready, it is perhaps in his veins at this very moment. The accident by which he is to drop into eternity is quite ready, all the parts and means of it are arranged. The arrow that is to strike him is on the string, perhaps it has left the string, and is even now flying towards him.

The place in hell is quite ready for every unconverted soul. When Judas died, the Scriptures say, “he went to his own place.” It was his own place before he went there, being quite prepared and ready for him. As when a man retires at night to his sleeping room, it is said he is gone to his own room, so a place in hell is quite ready for every Christless person. It is his own place. When the rich man died and was buried, he was immediately in his own place. He found everything ready. He lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torments. So hell is quite ready for every Christless person. It was prepared, long ago. for the devil and his angels. The fires are all quite ready, and fully lighted and burning.

Ah! should Christless souls then make mirth? A malefactor might, perhaps, say that he would be merry as long as the scaffold was not erected on which he was to die. But if he were told that the scaffold was quite ready, that the sword was sharpened, and the executioner standing ready, oh! would it not be madness to make mirth? Alas! this is your madness, poor Christless soul. You are not only condemned, but the sword is sharpened and ready that is to smite your soul; and yet you can be happy, and dream away your days and nights in pleasures that perish in the using. The disease is ready, the accident is ready, the arrow is on the string, the grave is ready, yea, hell itself is ready, your own place is made ready; and yet you can make mirth! You can play games and enjoy company. How truly is your laughter like the crackling of thorns under a pot: a flashy blaze, and then the blackness of darkness for ever!

3. The sword may come down at any one moment. -Not only are Christless persons condemned already, and not only is the sword of vengeance quite ready, but the sword may come down at any one moment. It is not so with malefactors; their day is fixed and told them, so that they can count their time. If they have many days they make merry to-day at least, and begin to be serious to-morrow. But not so Christless persons; their day is fixed, but it is not told them. It may be this very moment. Ah! should they then make mirth?

Some malefactors have been found very stout-hearted to the very last. Many have received their sentence quite unmoved, and with a determined countenance. Some have even gone to the scaffold quite unmoved; some even with a light, careless spirit. But when the head is laid down upon the block, when the eyes are covered, and the neck laid bare -when the glittering sword is lifted high in the air, and may come down any one moment -that is a dreadful time of suspense. It would be very horrible to see a man in a light, careless spirit, at that time. Oh! it would be madness to be merry then? Alas ! this is your madness, poor Christless soul. You are not only condemned, and not only is the sword ready, but it may fall on you at any one moment. Your head is, as it were, on the block. Your neck is bared before God, and the whetted sword is held over you; and yet can you make mirth? Can you take up your mind with business and worldly things, and getting rich, building and planting, and this night your soul may be required of you? Can you fill up your time with games and amusements, and foolish books and entertaining companions? Can you fill up your hours after work with loose talk and wanton behavior, adding sin to sin, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, when you knew not what hour the wrath of God may come upon you to the uttermost? Can you go prayerless to your bed at night, your mind filled with dark and horrid imaginations not fit to be named, and yet you may be in hell before the morning? A sword, a sword it is furbished!

4. Because God has made no promise to Christless souls to stay his hand one moment. -All the promises of God are yea and amen; that is, they are true. He always fulfils his promises. But the same Scripture says they are “yea and amen in Christ Jesus” All God’s promises are made to Christ, and to sinners that cleave to Christ. I believe that it is impossible, in the nature of things, that God would make a promise to an unconverted man. Accordingly, all God’s promises are made to Christ, and to every sinner that cleaves on to Christ. But unconverted persons are those who have never come to Christ; therefore, there are no promises made to them. God nowhere promises to make them anxious. He nowhere promises to bring them to Christ. He nowhere promises to keep them one moment out of hell. “Should they then make mirth?”

Let me speak to Christless persons who are at ease. Many of you hearing me know that you are in a Christless state; and yet you know that you are at ease and happy. Why is this? It is because you hope to be brought to Christ before you die. You say, another day will do as well, and I will hear thee again of this matter: and therefore you take your ease now. But this is very unreasonable. It is not worthy of a rational being to act in this way. God has nowhere promised to bring you to Christ before you die. God has laid himself under no manner of obligation to you. He has nowhere promised that you shall see to-morrow, or that you shall hear another sermon. There is a day near at hand when you shall not see a to-morrow. If this be not the last, there is a sermon yet to be preached which will be the last you will ever hear.

Let me speak to Christless persons who are anxious about their souls. Some hearing me know that they are in a Christless condition, and this made them anxious, and yet it is to be feared some are losing that anxiety, and now going back to the mirth of the world. Why is this ? This is most unreasonable. If you are still out of Christ, however anxious you have been, remember God has made no promises to save you. The sword is still over you, furbished and sharpened. Ah! do not then make mirth. Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Take the kingdom of heaven by violence. Press into it. Never rest till you are in the bonds of the covenant. Then be as happy as the day is long.

5. It is a sore slaughter, “A sword! a sword!”

1st, Sore, because it will be on all who are Christless. -The dreadfulness of the slaughter in Jerusalem was that all were slain, both old and young. The command which the prophet heard was (ix., 5), “Go ye through the city and smite. Let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity. Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women; but come not neat any man upon whom is the mark.” Such is the sere slaughter waiting on unconverted souls. All Christless persons will perish, young and old. God will not spare, neither will his eye pity. Think of this, old grey-headed persons, that have lived in sin, and never come to Christ; if you die thus, you will certainly perish in the sore slaughter. Think of this, middle-aged persons, hardworking merchants and laborers, who make money, but do not sell all for the pearl of price. Think of this, ye Marthas, who are careful and troubled about many things, but who forget the one thing that is needful, you also will full in the sore slaughter. Think of this, young persons, who live without prayer, yet in mirth and jollity; you that meet to jest and be happy on Sabbath evenings, you that walk in the sight of your own eyes, you too will full in that sore slaughter. Think of this, little children, you that are the pride of your mother’s heart, but who have gone astray from the womb, speaking lies. Little children, who are fond of your plays, but are not fond of coming to Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of little children, the sword will come on you also. Oh! it is a sore slaughter, that will not spare the young, nor the lovely, nor the kind; the gentle mother, and affectionate child; the widow and her only son. Should you then make mirth? Unconverted families, when you meet in the evening to jest and sport with one another, ask this one question, should we make mirth? Is your mirth reasonable? Is it worthy of rational beings? Unconverted companions, who meet so often for mirth and amusement, should you make mirth together when you are in such a case? Ah ! how dismal will the contrast be when God says,  “Bind them in bundles to burn them!”

2d. Sore slaughter, because the sword is the sword of God. -If it were only the sword of man that is furbished and sharpened for the slaughter, it would not be very terrible. But it is the sword of Almighty God, and therefore it is very terrible. “Fear not them that kill the body, but after that have no more that they can do; but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him who, after he hath killed the body, is able to cast body and soul into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. “If it were the sword of man, it could reach only to the body; but, ah! it is the sword of God, and the iron will enter into the soul. It is the same sword that appeared in the garden of Eden. “A flaming sword, that turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.” It is the same sword which pierced the side of Jesus Christ in his agony. “Awake, O sword! against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts. I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” It is that sword of which Christ speaks when he says,” It shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with hypocrites; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Dear brethren, it is not a few flesh wounds that that sword will make. It will cut asunder, it will be a death-blow; eternal death. It is a death which body and soul will be always dying, yet never dead.

1. Let me speak to the Old. -There may be some hearing me in whom these three things meet, namely, that they are old, and Christless, and full of mirth. Oh! if there be such hearing me, consider your ways -consider if your mirth be worthy of a rational being. I have shown you plainly out of the Scriptures what your case is: (1.) That you are condemned already. (2.) That God’s sword is ready. (3.) That it may come down any moment. (4.) That God has made you no promise to stay his hand. And (5.) That it will be a sore slaughter. Consider, then, if it be reasonable to believe a lie, to deceive your own soul, and say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. In the ordinary course of things, you must soon go the way of all living you must be gathered to your fathers; and then all that I have said will be fulfilled. Should you then make mirth? Are you tottering on the brink of hell, and yet living prayerless and Christless, and playing yourself with straws, telling over the oft-repeated tale of youth, and laughing over the oft-repeated jest? Alas! what a depth of meaning was there in the word of Solomon! “I said of laughter, it is mad, and of mirth, what doth it? Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.”

2. Let me speak to the Young. -There may be many hearing me in whom these three things meet; They are young in years, far from Christ, and yet full of mirth. Now, my dear friends, I entreat you consider whether your mirth is reasonable. The sword is sharpened for a sore slaughter. Should you then make mirth?

Obj. 1. Youth is the time for mirth. Ans. I know well youth is the time for mirth. The young lamb is a happy creature as it springs about on the green pasture. The young kid leaps from rock to rock with liveliest glee. The young horse casts its heels high in the air, full of life and activity. But then they have no sin, and you have; they have no hell, and you have. If you will come to Jesus Christ now, and be freed from wrath, ah! then you will find that youth is the time for mirth; youth is the time for enjoying sweet peace in the bosom, and liveliest intercourse with God, and brightest hopes of glory.

Obj. 2. You would have us be gloomy and sad. Ans. God forbid. All that I maintain is, that until you are come to Christ, your mirth is mad and unreasonable. If you will come to Christ, then, be as happy as you will; there are no bounds to your joy there, for you will joy in God. And when you die, you will come to fulness of joy in his presence, and pleasures at his right hand for evermore.

Obj. 3. If I be Christless, it will not bring me into Christ to be sad, and, therefore, I may as well be merry. Ans. True, to be sad will not bring you into Christ; and yet, if you were really awakened to cry to God, peradventure, ne would hear your cry. If you were striving to enter in, you might find entrance. If you were pressing into the kingdom, you might take it by violence. Seek meekness, seek righteousness. It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. If you stay where you are, you are sure to be lost. If you live on in carnal security, in mirth and jollity, while you are out of Christ, you are sure to perish.

“Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.”

Dundee, 1837

“As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet unto my taste.” -Song of Solomon ii., 2, 3.

IF an unconverted man were taken away into heaven, where Christ sits in glory, and if he overheard Christ’s words of admiring love towards the believer, he could not understand them, he could not comprehend how Christ should see a loveliness in poor religious people whom he in the bottom of his heart despised. Or again, if an unconverted man were to overhear a Christian at his devotions when he is really within the veil, and were to listen to his words of admiring, adoring love towards Christ, he could not possibly understand them, he could not comprehend how the believer should have such a burning affection towards one unseen, in whom he himself saw no form nor comeliness. So true it is that the natural man knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. There may be some now hearing me who have a rooted dislike to religious people, they are so stiff, so precise, so gloomy, you cannot endure their company. Well then, see here what Christ thinks of them, “As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” How different you are from Christ! There may be some hearing me who have no desires after Jesus Christ, who never think of him with pleasure; you see no form nor comeliness in him, no beauty that you should desire him; you do not love the melody of his name; you do not pray to him continually. Well then, see here what the believer thinks of him, how different from you -”As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” O that you would be awakened by this very thing, that you are so different from Christ, and so different from the believer, to think that you must be in a natural condition, you must be under wrath.

Doctrine. -The believer is unspeakably precious in the eyes of Christ, and Christ is unspeakably precious in the eyes of the believer.

I. Inquire what Christ thinks of the believer -”As the lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”

Christ sees nothing so fair in all this world as the believer. All the rest of the world is like thorns, but the believer is like a beautiful lily in his eyes. When you are walking in a wilderness all overgrown with briers and thorns, if your eye falls upon some lonely flower, tall and white, and pure and graceful, growing in the midst of the thorns, it looks peculiarly beautiful. If it were in the midst of some rich garden among many other flowers, then it would not be so remarkable; but when it is encompassed with thorns on every side, then it engages the eye. Such is the believer in the eyes of Christ. “As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”

(1.) See what Christ thinks of the unconverted world. It is like a field full of briers and thorns in his eyes. 1. Because fruitless. “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” So Christ gets no fruit from the unconverted world. It is all one wide, thorny waste. 2. Because, when the word is preached among them, it is like sowing among thorns.” Break up your fallow ground and sow not among thorns.” When the sower sowed, some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them; so is preaching to the unconverted. 3. Because their end will be like that of thorns; they are dry and fit only for the burning “As thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.” “For the earth, which is often rained upon and only bears thorns and briers, is rejected, and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.” My friends, if you are in a Christian state, see what you are in the eyes of Christ -thorns. You think that you have many admirable qualities, that you are valuable members of society, and you have a hope that it shall be well with you in eternity. See what Christ says you are thorns and briers, useless in this world, and fit only for the burning.

(2.) See what Christ thinks of the believer. “As the lily among thorns so is my love among the daughters.” The believer is like a lovely flower in the eyes of Christ. 1. Because, justified in the eyes of Christ, washed in his blood, he is pure and white as a lily. Christ can see no spot in his own righteousness, and therefore he sees no spot on the believer. Thou art all fair, my love, as a lily among thorns so is my love. 2. A believer’s nature is changed. Once he was like the barren, prickly thorn, fit only for burning; now Christ has put a new spirit in him; the dew has been given to him, and he grows up like the lily. Christ loves the new creature. “All my delight is in them.” “As the lily among thorns so is my love among the daughters.” Are you a Christian? then never mind though the world despise you, though they call you names; remember Christ loves you, he calls you “my love.” Abide in him, and you shall abide in his love. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. 3. Because so lonely in the world. Observe, there is but one lily, but many thorns. There is a great wilderness all full of thorns, and only one lonely flower. So there is a world lying in wickedness, and a little flock that believe in Jesus. Some believers are cast down because they feel solitary and alone. If I be in the right way, surely I would not be so lonely. Surely the wise, and the amiable and the kind people I see round about me, surely, if there were any truth in religion, they would know it. Be not cast down. It is one of the marks of Christ’s people that they are alone in the world, and yet they are not alone. It is one of the very beauties which Christ sees in his people, that they are solitary among a world of thorns. “As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” Do not be discouraged. This world is the world of loneliness. When you are transplanted to yon garden of God, then you shall be no more lonely, then you shall be away from all the thorns. As flowers in a rich garden blend together their thousand odors to enrich the passing breeze, so, in the paradise above, you shall join the thousands of the redeemed blending with theirs the odor of your praise. You shall join with the redeemed as living flowers to form a garland for the Redeemer’s brow.

II. Inquire what the believer thinks of Christ. -”As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.’

1. Christ is more precious than all other saviours in the eye of the believer. As a traveller prefers an apple-tree to every other tree of the wood, because he finds both shelter and nourishing food under it, so the believer prefers Christ to all other saviours. When a man is travelling in eastern countries, he is often like to drop down under the burning rays of the sun. It is a great relief when he comes to a wood. When Israel were travelling in the wilderness, they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and seventy palm-trees, and they encamped there by the water. They were glad of the shelter of the trees. So Micah says that God’s people “dwell solitarily in the wood;” and Ezekiel promises “they shall sleep in the woods.”

But if the traveller be hungry and faint for lack of food, then he will not be content with any tree of the wood, but he will choose out a fruit tree, under which he may sit down and find nourishment as well as shade. He sees a fair apple-tree -he chooses it out of all the trees of the wood, because he can both sit under its shadow and eat its pleasant fruits. So is it with the soul awakened by God. He feels under the heat of God’s anger; he is in a weary land; he is brought into the wilderness; he is like to perish; he comes to a wood; many trees offer their shade; where shall he sit down? Under the fir-tree? alas! what fruit has it to give? he may die there. Under the cedar tree, with its mighty branches? alas! he may perish there; for it has no fruit to give. The soul that is taught of God seeks for a complete Saviour. The apple-tree is revealed to the soul. The hungry soul chooses that evermore. He needs to be saved from hell and nourished for heaven. “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.”

Awakened souls, remember you must not sit down under every tree that offers itself. “Take heed that no one deceive you; for many shall come in Christ’s name, saying, I am Christ, and deceive many.” There are many ways of saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. You will be tempted to find peace in the world, in self-repentance, in self-reformation. Remember, choose you a tree that will yield fruit as well as shade. “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.” Pray for a choosing faith. Pray for an eye to discern the appletree. Oh! there is no rest for the soul except under that Branch which God has made strong. My heart’s desire and prayer for you is, that you may all find rest there.

2. Why has the believer so high an esteem of Christ?

Ans. (1.) Because he has made trial of Christ. “I sat down under his shadow with great delight.” All true believers have sat down under the shadow of Christ. Some people think that they shall be saved because they have got a head-knowledge of Christ. They read of Christ in the Bible, they hear of Christ in the house of God, and they think that is to be a Christian. Alas, my friends, what good would you get from an apple-tree, if I were only to describe it to you; tell you how beautiful it was, how heavily laden with delicious apples? Or, if I were only to show you a picture of the tree, or if I were to show you the tree itself at a distance, what the better would you be? You would not get the good of its shade or its pleasant fruit. Just so, dear Brethren, what good will you get from Christ, if you only hear of him in books and sermons, or if you see him pictured forth in the sacrament, or if you were to see him with your bodily eye? What good would all this do, if you do not sit down under his shadow? O my friends, there must be a personal sitting down under the shadow of Christ, if you would be saved. Christ is the bush that has been burned yet not consumed. Oh! it is a safe place for a hell-deserving sinner to rest.

Some may be hearing me who can say, “I sat down under his shadow.” And yet you have forsaken him. Ah ! have you gone after your lovers, and away from Christ? Well, then, may God hedge up your way with thorns. Return, return, O Shulamite! There is no other refuge for your soul. Come and sit down again under the shadow of the Saviour.

Ans. (2.) Because he sat down with great delight.

1st. Some people think there is no joy in religion, it is a gloomy thing. When a young person becomes a Christian, they would say, Alas! he must bid farewell to pleasure, farewell to the joys of youth, farewell to a merry heart. He must exchange these pleasures for reading of the Bible and dry sermon-books, for a life of gravity and preciseness. This is what the world says. What does the Bible say? “I sat down under his shadow with great delight.” Ah! let God be true, and every man a liar. Yet no one can believe this except those who have tried it. Ah! be not deceived, my young friends; the world has many sensual and many sinful delights; the delights of eating and drinking, and wearing gay clothes ; the delights of revelry and the dance. No man of wisdom will deny that these things are delightful to the natural heart; but oh! they perish in the using, and they end in an eternal hell. But to sit down under the shadow of Christ, wearied with God’s burning anger, wearied with seeking after vain saviours, at last to find rest under the shadow of Christ, ah! this is great delight. Lord, evermore may I sit under this shadow! Lord, evermore may I be filled with this joy!

2d. Some people are afraid of anything like joy in religion. They have none themselves, and they do not love to see it in others. Their religion is something like the stars, very high, and very clear, but very cold. When they see tears of anxiety, or tears of joy, they cry out, Enthusiasm, enthusiasm! Well, then, to the Law and to the Testimony. “I sat down under his shadow with great delight” Is this enthusiasm? O Lord, evermore give us this enthusiasm! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing! If it be really in sitting under the shadow of Christ, let there be no bounds to your joy. O if God would but open your eyes, and give you simple, child-like faith, to look to Jesus, to sit under his shadow, then would songs of joy rise from all our dwellings. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice!

3d. Because the fruit of Christ is sweet to the taste. All true believers not only sit under the shadow, but partake of his pleasant fruits; just as when you sit under an apple-tree, the fruit hangs above you and around you, and invites you to “put out the hand and taste; so, when you come to submit to the righteousness of God, bow your head, and sit down under Christ’s shadow, all other things are added unto you. First, Temporal mercies are sweet to the taste. None but those of you who are Christians know this, when you sit under the shadow of Christ’s temporal mercies, because covenant mercies. ” Bread shall be given you; your water shall be sure.” These are sweet apples from the tree Christ. O Christian, tell me, is not bread sweeter when eaten thus? Is not water richer than wine ? and Daniel’s pulse better than the dainties of the King’s table? Second, Afflictions are sweet to the taste. Every good apple has some sourness in it. So it is with the apples of the tree Christ. He gives afflictions as well as mercies. He sets the teeth on edge; but even these are blessings in disguise -they are covenant gifts. Oh! affliction is a dismal thing when you are not under his shadow. But are you Christians? look on your sorrows as apples from that blessed tree. If you knew how wholesome they are, you would not wish to want them. Several of you know it is no contradiction to say, these apples, though sour, are sweet to my taste. Third, The gifts of the Spirit are sweet to the taste. Ah ! here is the best fruit that grows on the tree: here are the ripest apples from the topmost branch. You who are Christians know how often your soul is fainting. Well, here is nourishment to your fainting soul. Everything you need is in Christ. “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Dear Christian, sit much under that tree -feed much upon that fruit. “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.” Fourth, Promises of glory. Some of the apples have a taste of heaven in them. Feed upon these, dear Christians. Some of Christ’s apples give you a relish for the fruit of Canaan -for the clusters of Eshcol. Lord, evermore give me these apples; for oh! they are sweet to my taste.

St. Peter’s, 1837