been injured; and will you be silent, or cold, or indifferent, in behalf of your native land, which contains every thing you love and value here below? If you have never yet interceded with God for the mass of ignorance, and impiety, and sin, by which we are surrounded, let me urge you to commence in earnest this day; pray for the general outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the thousands and tens of thousands who disgrace the Christian name and dishonour this Christian country. Pray especially that those misguided men, who by their infidel harangues, and widely disseminated atheistical publications, are, we fear, at the present time, injuring the principles, and jeoparding the souls of thousands, may be brought to the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, before they have called down the vengeance of the Almighty upon themselves and their misguided followers, and the country whose evil lot it is to be the theatre of their guilty exertions.

While remembering that it is your duty thus to intercede for all who require your prayers, be still more earnest for those who have the closest claims upon you. Remember at all times, more particularly when drawing near in faith and love to the

table of your Lord, those who are endeared to you by the ties of affinity and friendship. Intercede especially for your parents, the wife of your bosom, the children of your love. If any of these be still unhappily at a distance from God, be earnest, be unceasing in your petitions that they may be "brought nigh by the blood of the cross.' Abraham's zeal, Abraham's prayer, although for a noble purpose, were for a purpose infinitely inferior to yours; his were to save the bodies of sinners from a fiery sepulture, yours to pluck their immortal souls" as brands from the burning." Will you be remiss, can you be indifferent in interceding for such an object as this? Can you bear even for a moment to dwell upon the thought, that they whom you have loved and caressed on earth, shall, as Chillingworth expresses it, instead of shining gloriously as the stars in the firmament of God's love, glare hideously as the flames in the dungeons of his wrath? God forbid that you should cease to pray for them! The day will come which will bring its reward with it, when every faithful prayer shall be answered, either by the salvation of those for whom you have pleaded, or by the increase of peace and joy which it shall bring when it returns into your own bosom.

While, therefore, you remember with Abraham, that you are but "dust and ashes," that in your own name, and in your own merits, you cannot venture to address yourself to God, remember for your consolation and encouragement, that you have a High Priest within the veil, who will present your poor petitions at the throne of his Father; who will do more than this-who will intercede for you, and for the object of your prayers, in a manner that Abraham never interceded; for the intercession of Jesus cannot weary, his petitions cannot fail. Whether, therefore, you pray for others, or for yourself, let the eye of faith be fixed on Him, even on that Saviour, who "ever liveth to make intercession for you." Who stands before the heavenly altar, with the golden censer; and the smoke of whose incense, even his own merits, accompanies the prayers of the saints, ascending up in perpetual intercession before God, out of the angel's hand. How comforting, how delightful a thought to the true believer! Abraham's intercession, with all his fervency, and after all his efforts, could only avail to save the devoted cities of the plain, if ten righteous men could have been found in Sodom. Our glorious Intercessor has availed to save ten thousand times ten thou

sand of the guilty progeny of Adam, though not one righteous man has been found throughout all their generations. Well may we unite with grateful hearts in that angelic hymn on earth, which shall be the burden of our songs in heaven: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing," now, henceforth, and for

ever.

LECTURE X.

GENESIS XXI. 10.

"She said unto Abraham, Cast out this bond-woman and her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac."

"THE gifts and callings of God are without repentance," says the inspired word of the Most High. If it were otherwise, assuredly Abraham would never, after all his trials and all his difficulties, have been the progenitor of the promised seed. He had before sinned by equivocating with Pharaoh; he now sinned by equivocating with Abimelech; declaring again that Sarah was his sister, leaving it to be inferred that she was not his wife and thus, from a base and cowardly distrust of the divine guardianship and the divine protection, exposing her to the very danger from which, by a sinful evasion, he was endeavouring to shield her. Happy was it for Abraham, happy is it for ourselves, "that the Lord is our keeper!" There is not a blessing which we enjoy, either in possession or in prospect, from the most common endowment