of darkness?" Has he merited such treatment at your hands? Ah, had he thus neglected you when your interest was at stake, where but in eternal misery would you now have been? Arise, ye wretched wanderers, and return. Shake off this drowsiness and sloth; strip away the film from your eyes; tear the world from your hearts; and arise to action and to comfort. Think of the service which you owe him who served you in death. Think of the invaluable interests of the Church which are in a measure committed to you. All this time your usefulness sleeps, while the world is dying around you for want of your prayers, your zeal, and your godly example. Look at the stupidity of your children; see the growing irreligion of your houses; mark the looseness of your streets; (streets and houses in which the voice of the Son of God has been often heard:) and here you are, (some of you I fear,) sleeping over the distressing scene, with a heart as stupid as death and as cruel as the grave. In the name of God, if that heart ever felt,—if those eyes ever wept,-awake and feel and weep. Come, return to the ark of your rest and bring your families with you; for a storm is gathering: I hear the roar of approaching floods: step into the ark or you are swept away.

SERMON XXV.

MANNA.

REV. II. 17.

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.

The hidden manna is Jesus Christ, the bread of life, including all the blessings of his purchase. He is called by this name because the manna which supported the Church in the wilderness was a lively type of him. The application of the name of the type to the antitype is not uncommon in Scripture. Thus Christ is called David, and the high priest, and the lamb slain, and the passover. Many are the features of resemblance between Christ and the ancient manna.

Did this manna descend from the skies? Christ is "the living bread which came down from heaven." For though his human nature commenced its existence on earth, and his divine nature could not change place, yet by the union of the two na

tures in one person, it became true that the same person that had eternally lived in heaven appeared on earth; the same Mediator that had chosen the heavens for the principal scene of his manifestations, at length manifested himself in this world. Before, he had appeared in heaven; now no Mediator was to be found in the universe but in the streets of Judea and Galilee.

Was the manna provided for people in a desolate wilderness, who had a long and wearisome way to pass before they could find their rest? Christ and the blessings of the Gospel are provided to solace a company of pilgrims who have to wander a while in this thorny maze, and to encounter all its dangers and hardships before they reach their heavenly home.

Was the manna provided for people who had no other supply, who were reduced to the greatest straits and must have perished without it? So Christ was sent to rescue those who were in a perishing state, who had no other helper, and must eternally have died without that provision.

Was the manna sent to a nation who felt their necessities and realized their dependance on heaven for relief? So Christ is provided for those, and none but those, who feel themselves to be poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked; who renounce every hope of helping themselves and fix their dying eye on him alone. He was anointed to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken hearted, to comfort all that mourn.— The manna was not sent to the full-fed Egyptians,

nor to the Amalekites or Amorites, the avowed enemies of God, but to the holy people, the Church. And Christ is not sent to benefit the stout hearted and the obdurate. He will not take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. A rebellious world, however they may expect deliverance by the blood which they trample under foot, will find a dreadful disappointment. None but the obedient and believing can partake of the hidden manna.

The ancient manna was as much the daily food of the meanest of the people as of the princes of the tribes. "Man did eat angels' food," or as it is otherwise rendered, "the bread of the mighties ;" intimating, as the advocates of this construction believe, that the common people enjoyed as free a use of the manna as the heads of the congregation or as Moses himself. In like manner the believing beggar has as free access to Christ as the prince on his throne. Many of the children of God are doomed to coarse and scanty worldly fare; but they enjoy as rich a share of the bread of life, and fill as honorable a place at the table of the Lord, as the great and noble of the earth. Here they need not stand behind the crowd, but are as welcome and will be as kindly treated as the most honorable. Most honorable, did I say? Who in the kingdom of Christ are more honorable than the fishermen of Galilee? Here the scale of merit is reversed. In the kingdom of him who estimates every man according to his worth, a broken heart, a heart swelling with love to God and man, is reputed more honorable than an understanding distended with human

science, than coffers filled with golden treasure. than a character emblazoned with worldly glory. To cast discredit on the scale by which the world estimate merit, our Saviour for the most part passes by the great and noble, and chooses "the foolish things of the world to confound the wise," and "the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty:" for "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." The poorest Christian in this assembly will be as welcome as the rich to the feast now prepared, as welcome to come daily to the Gospel banquet. Here is food, here is an inheritance, which cannot be taken from them. Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be in the vine, yet this unspeakable privilege to feast on the body of Christ and to draw refreshment from the fountain of eternal love, would still remain. No change of fortune, no blast or mildew, no rust corrupting or thieves breaking through to steal, can filch this blessedness from them; a blessedness which in the midst of poverty makes them richer than the wealthiest monarchs without it. It seems like profanation to call an heir of glory poor. The treasures of the universe are his.

The manna was bestowed freely, without money and without price. This cannot but remind us of that heavenly invitation, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Had Gospel blessings been put up at any price, they