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repenting all obdurate, all callous, all tearless? No good news to go to heaven!" At that very moment a poor sinner was smitten to the heart; and Whitfield, seeing the tears run down his cheeks, cried out, in his own peculiar manner, "Stop Gabriel! stop Gabriel! there is good news to carry to heaven after all; here is a poor sinner beginning to weep." O that it may be so in many instances to-night!

Secondly, if there be joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth-and there is what must be the joy when many sinners-not one, or two, or three, but when hundreds and thousands-repent at one time! What must have been the joy in heaven, when under one sermon of the apostle Peter's, three thousand souls were converted! What a jubilee must that have been in heaven! What will it be my friends, when the Word of the Lord triumphs over all opposition! What will it be when more agents and instruments are employed; when sinners all over the world shall be instructed, and become repentant and converted sinners! What will it be when all shall know the Lord, and every knee bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father! OI wonder not that the holy prophets were entranced when they looked onward through the long vista of the future, and beheld all those lovely paradisaical scenes, when all should know the Lord, and when this dark world should be enlightened with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness. I wonder not at the bold figure, proceeding from the vivid imagination of the poet, that represents all nature as alive, all nature as sympathizing in the general joy; that represents the hills as vocal, and the rocks and streams as pouring forth their pious notes, and all the trees of the field as clapping their hands. Yes, yes,

"The dwellers in the vale, and 'mong the rocks,
Shout to each other; and the mountain tops,
From distant mountains, catch the falling joy;
'Till nation after nation taught the strain,

Earth rolls the rapturous hosannah round."

And earth and heaven, and men and angels, and (with reverence be it spoken) the Saviour of the world-the Saviour, the angels, and men-participate in the general joy.

Thirdly; if there be joy among the angels on the conversion of a sinner, then I infer greater still must be the joy when that sinner is finally saved. Conversion, my friends, is but our entrance on the path of life: we have to travel the road; the journey lies before us. We have to strive against sin; we have to resist the devil, and crucify the flesh, and overcome the world. The Christian soldier has enlisted; he has taken the King's bounty, and he has put on the King's livery, and taken to him the whole armour of God; and the battle is before him, and the battle is to be fought, and the battle is to be won: he has not yet won the prize. He has commenced a voyage towards the port of life: but there are seas before him, and it will not always be calm: there may be tumultuous seas, and many a storm he may have to encounter. I sometimes think, who can tell how these pure and benevolent spirits are caring for us when we are not caring for ourselves. Perhaps, when we are looking another way, they see the snare laid for us, and they are afraid lest we should be entangled: they see the temptation, and it is true, they see something like incii

nation on our part; and when they see the balance trembling on its axis, who can teil how these good beings are alarmed lest we should dishonour the God whom they love; lest we should bring guilt on our consciences? But when the journey is accomplished, and the pilgrim arrives safe at home, when the battle is fought and the victory given; when the race is run, and the palm is borne off triumphant; when the voyage of life is over, when after weathering up on the broad stream we at last, with a full sail, and a spring tide, and fair wind, enter the port, how will these angels rejoice! "Welcome, welcome; the storm weathered, and arrived safe in port!" Or, to speak without a figure, when the redeemed human spirit is just about to escape away from the poor dying world, what think you, do not angels wait round the post of honour and of joy? How happened it with good Lazarus? Why, when the heavy hand of adversity, poverty, and disease, laid upon his lacerated body, crushed his happy soul out of that body, it was to the embraces of angels: he was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. And will these benevolent beings wait around your dying bed, and when your happy spirit takes its flight, will they be your convoy? Yes, they will, and conduct your pious spirit up to the Father's courts of light. And on their arrival there, will they not say, in a secondary and subordinate sense, as was said of the great Redeemer in the first place, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, that this heir of glory may come in?"-not "the king of glory," no; but some seraph, bending down from the battlements of heaven asks, "Who is this heir of glory; whence comes he?" "O he was a repertant sinner; under such and such a sermon he sought and found mercy through Jesus; he has honoured his profession, lived and died in the faith of Jesus, and he is an heir of glory. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, that this heir of glory may enter." And what then will be the joy!

Lastly, if the conversion of sinners be an event of such magnitude, interest, and importance as to occasion angelic joy, then I infer that all possible endeavours, and suitable means, ought to be put into operation with the view of increasing the number of conversions. What ought there not to be sent forth; what agencies, what means, in order that the myriads of lost wandering sheep may be sought and found? Then let sinners be called to repent by the mercy of God, by the tears and the prayers, the accumulated sufferings, by the agony and the bloody sweat, by the cross and passion, the death and burial, of our blessed Redeemer; and by his glorious resurrection and ascension, and by the coming of the Holy Ghost. Let them be called to repentance by the fear of hell and the hope of heaven, by the value of the soul and the importance of eternity. Let them be called to repentance by the church on earth, ready to give them the right hand of fellowship, and by the spirits of the just before the throne ready to hail them as fellow heirs. And let them be called to repentance by angels waiting, ready to tune their harps afresh, and ready to rejoice and sing over their conversion.

Well, now my friends, why was this chapel erected, but that the message of mercy might be published, and sinners converted, and souls saved, and Christ magnified? Why was so large a sum expended, but because those who expended it had a conviction of the value of the soul, and that one soul is worth all the silver and gold in the universe? Ah, my friends, we have been talking about angels to-night. It just now occurs to me that God designs to honour

you in a way he never honoured an angel; even Gabriel the archangel. Angels take a lively interest, angels look on, angels love, angels admire; but then angels are not instruments: no, no, Gabriel and Michael, the highest cherubim and seraphim, silver and gold have none. But, thank God, silver and gold have you; you have what angels have not; and God designs to honour you in a way angels are not. Envy you they cannot; but they admire, and they will give glory to God, when they see your liberality and your zeal on an occasion like this.

CECLARING THE COUNSEL OF GOD.

REV. W. JAY,

ARGYLE CHAPEL, BATH, SEPTEMBER 20, 1835.

"For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."—ACTS, xx. 27.

My brethren, I need not say that we live in a parting world. Death is always invading us, and producing separation among neighbours, and friends, and relations. Alas! who has not tasted the bitterness of this cup? They who have lived for a considerable time in our world have been often called to drink it; yea, and others not so far advanced in life have had reason frequently to exclaim, "Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness."

There are not only partings by death, but in life. These are commonly deemed temporary, and we expect to meet again after the lapse of some weeks, or months, or years, and to intermingle our feelings and our communications. Yet any of these separations may be final, considering the frailty of the body, and the numberless diseases and accidents to which we are constantly exposed. Whenever we shake hands, it may be the last shake; whenever we salute, it may be the last salutation. Sometimes from the distance to which we go, or the length of the intended absence, we may reckon upon the parting as likely to be final. This was the case here with Paul and his connexions. "When he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him; sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more." Previous to this, his interview with them was the most solemn and affectingly interesting In his way from Macedonia to Jerusalem he came to Miletus, and he wished to go to Ephesus, but was not allowed. He therefore called the elders of the church from thence; and when they were come he said unto them, "Ye know that from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations which befell me, by the lying in wait of the Jews; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, That bonds and afflictions abide me. But Lone of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of

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the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Happy is the minister who can make this appeal his own, and after leisure, and after reflection, and after comparison of his preaching with the infallible standard of truth, can say in humble confidence, "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."

Observe, first, the subject of his attention-" the counsel of God:" secondly, the manner in which he announced it; he shunned not to declare it: thirdly, his satisfactory consciousness of it; "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."

First, THE SUBJECT OF HIS ATTENTION-" the counsel of God." Counsel now signifies advice, direction, deliberation: but when the Bible was translated it more commonly signified scheme, purpose, design. Hence you read, "His counsels of old are faithfulness and truth:" "My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure:" "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever:" "He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Hence you read in the liturgy of the Church, that from God "all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works proceed." "Good counsels" there mean just aims and designs: they are distinguished from "holy desires" going before, and “just works" following after. Here the word intends the scheme,

the purpose, the design of God with regard to the salvation of his people; and it is so called, not because God deliberates or consults, (for, as Isaiah says, "With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of • judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?") but to shew us that he abounds herein towards us with all wisdom and prudence.

My dear hearers, to bring sin into the world was an easy thing: to take it away was a work to which God, the only God, was equal. We have imperfect views of the evil of sin, and also of the holiness and justice of God; and therefore we are not sufficiently struck with the difficulties that stood in the way of our salvation: but God knows them perfectly, and his scheme for removing them all and restoring us to himself is contained in the Gospel. This is what the Apostle means by "the counsel of God:" and this was the Apostle's subject of attention in all his preaching; not human science, though he was a man of genius and education himself, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel : not the politics of this world; he left human governments where he found them; he knew that reason was available for all these, and that the Christian did not abolish the man and the citizen: not the petty interests of mortality; he looked "not at the things which were seen, but the things which are not seen," knowing that "the things which are seen are temporal, but that the things which are not seen are eternal." He was "the servant of the Most High God, to shew unto men"-what?" the way of salvation," even Jesus, therefore, who is "the way, the truth, and the life," (for "no man cometh to the Father but by him ;") to shew how a rebellious subject can be reovvciled to his displeased and injured sovereign-how a wretched siave can be redeemed from the curse of the law and the bondage of corruption, and issue into the

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