boundaries of space to seek me out, and to find me, an outcast from his presence, and on my way to destruction, in order to make me this offer of reconciliation. I may be assured, that instead of sending after my alienated soul the thunderbolt of his wrath, and thereby justifying his righteous laws, he has preferred to send after me a message of peace and an offer of reconciliation. And when this is believed and realized, the way to repentance is sure. My brethren, how admirably does the covenant of mercy accord with our experience. If a prodigal or a wayward child leaves the paternal roof which has sheltered his helpless infancy, and, regardless of the misery which he may cause to those who nurtured and brought him up, should take his journey into a far country, and there waste his substance with riotous living, what would be, think you, the most effectual mode of bringing him to his deserted home? Would the message of a father's wrath, and a threatening of a disinheritance cause him to retrace his steps? Nay; it would but harden his heart, and set him more against the home he had so wilfully abandoned. But let a messenger arrive with an invitation to him to return, and, with an assurance that all the past should be forgotten; let him be told that the parent so justly offended had been melted into tenderness by a report of the destitute condition of his son, let him be informed that the doors of the mansion are opened wide, and not a single reproach will be made when he enters once more the abode of peace and love, and this will have its effect. The very offer of reconciliation so graciously and unexpectedly made, will bring out all the tenderness of his heart, and his sorrow for his disobedience will be of that kind which "worketh repentance unto life." And thus it is, my brethren, that Christ came to call sinners who had wandered far from God and were either ashamed or afraid to attempt to return. He came "to call sinners to repentance," by an offer of reconciliation, having first slain the enmity that existed between God and man by his cross.

IV. But, lastly, let me remark, that Christ calls sinners to repentance by raising in their minds hopes of future glory. "God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he hath loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ;" but this, my brethren, is not all, for the inspired apostle continues, "and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." There is something alluring in the thoughts of peace and reconciliation with God, as we have already, I trust, made clear to you; but in the contemplation of everlasting joy and felicity, "sitting together with Christ in heavenly places," there is something inspiring. To have before us as the end of our faith the prospect of an eternal

inheritance, to become creatures of hope from creatures of despair, to pass from the means of grace to the hope of glory—this draws out the affections and brings the wanderer home to his father's house. It is with this offer of eternal life that Christ draws sinners unto him, for the gracious declaration which has converted so many thousands of souls and saved them from death is, "whosoever believeth on me shall not perish but have everlasting life."

These, my brethren, are some of the chief modes by which the Redeemer of the world calls or awakens sinners to repentance. He calls them by appeals to the conscience, by the preaching of an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, by the offer of reconciliation, and by inspiring hopes of glory into the renewed mind. I have purposely abstained from dwelling upon the various ways in which Jesus calls sinners to repentance in the outward dispensations of his providence-by affliction, by events which change or affect the worldly condition of the individual, by intimations of an approaching death, by the removal of all that renders social life delightful--each and all of these are used as so many calls to awake from the death spiritual; but I would confine the inquiry to those essential calls of the gospel which we have this day endeavoured to illustrate, and leave each of you, my brethren, to ascertain by an honest appeal to your own hearts whether you have been called to true repentance by any one of these means, and whether or no you have accepted the invitation which bids the weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest. I know not, my brethren, to whom, as an ambassador in Christ's stead, I address the evangelical invitation this day. I may be like that man of whom we read in the Book of Kings, who drew a bow at a venture; but unlike the result of that fatal weapon which entered by the joints of the harness and took away the life of the sinner, the arrow of conviction which is directed by an invisible hand to smite the heart and conscience is the first process in the giving of life to the sinner. Let not, my brethren, these days of festivity which will become annals in the history of Europe be spent by us in forgetfulness of him "by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice." The very pageantry which fills the streets of this luxurious metropolis by its transitory glory, is a call to us to seek those pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore. The pomp and circumstance of triumphal processions pass away, the fashion of this world changeth continually, the vicissitudes to which all earthly glory is liable, and the uncertainty which attends the most promising alliances-all remind us that this is not our rest, but bid us look for a city whose walls are salvation, whose gates are praise, and whose Builder and Maker is God. The mission of an emperor may be to give prosperity to a people who have long been tossed on

the waves of revolution, the object of an almost unprecedented event in the history of modern Europe, may be to cement an alliance, which perhaps is for the mutual advantage of two nations, powerful enough, when united, to give laws to the Eastern hemisphere; but the humble mission of Jesus, and those whom he sends in his name, rises in importance above all these considerations, and it is comprised in this "faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." He came not in pomp and majesty, but he came "in the form of a servant;" "for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich." And, wonderful to add, he came that he might call sinners, such as we are, to repentance, that believing in him we might have eternal life.

812

Paris Exhibition Sermons.

Delivered in the Church of the Oratoire, Rue St. Honoré, under the sanction of the Right Rev.

the Lord Bishop of London.

No. 1, Rev. J. Sinclair, M.A.-On the Beautiful in Creation.

2,

3,

4,

7,

8,

G. R. Gleig, M.A.-The True God, and Life Eternal.

R. Bickersteth, M.A.-Redemption, the Ground for Anticipating every Blessing.

The connection between sin and suffering.

J. Murray, M.A.-The happiness apart from the hope of the resurrection.

9, Hon. & Rev. H. M. Villiers, M.A.-The benefits derived from drawing near to God. Ditto

10,

Watchfulness against sin.

The Te Deum, and the Apostles' Creed.

11, Rev. W. Whewell, D.D.-Heavenly Mansions.

12,

Ditto

R. Burgess, B.D.-The groaning of Creation, and its future de'iverance.

PARIS EXHIBITION SERMONS.

NO. XV.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNION, AND THE DANGER OF NEGLECTING THEM.

A Sermon

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON, AUGUST 26, 1855,

BY THE REV. C. MACKENZIE, M.A.

(Prebendary of St. Paul's.)

IN THE CHURCH OF THE ORATOIRE, RUE ST. HONORE, PARIS.

"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech."-Genesis xi. 1.; and 66 They were all with one accord in one place."-Acts ii. 1,

It is not usual to preach from the Old Testament and the New at the same time. I trust that the present departure from custom may be excused, both because the circumstances under which we are met are peculiar, and because the design I have in view, is to illustrate the common working of the one Spirit under whose will we are brought together, just as completely as the Old Testament and the New were and are harmonized into one. The first chapter of the Bible informs us that the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters, ere material light and animal or human life sprang into being. This was the first act in the great drama of creation: that act closed with the awful catastrophe of the flood; and the second commenced with the words of our first text. Begun with words of peace, this second was wound up with a more dreadful catastrophe even than its predecessor. The former closed with the destruction of man in the flesh; the latter with the crucifixion of that One Man in whom dwelt "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The third act has been introduced into the world by the words of the second text, which is the herald of the peace of the Christian life in its corporate character. None of us now assembled will probably witness its termination. Does any one of us dare to prophecy definitely when or how it will end?

I make no apology for using the illustration of the drama, in introducing this solemn subject to your notice; the writings of the wisest and most patient of inspired men, Solomon and Job, would have justified it—the example of the Saviour in his parables has sanctified it. If you refer to your Bibles, as to the double text chosen for our reflection, and keep in mind the passage from the first of Genesis referred to as the introduction to both, you will probably apprehend the view, in the visible effects of that unseen Spirit, which I desire you to realize to your minds. It would not assist the development of this truth to dwell at any length on the condition of the antediluvian world. We may leave to the controversialists of science and theology the question which I believe to have been settled by one who was an adept in both-how far the Mosaic record is consistent with the physical facts of creation. I am not disposed to believe that that controversy can unsettle the faith of any practical Christian ; and assuming that we are assembled together as practical Christians to-day, I may proceed at once to the consideration of our texts.

"The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." The deluge had subsided; the Spirit of God, who had ere while summoned light and life into organized existence, and harmonious motion, and beautiful analogy, had sent his dreadful visitations on gifts abused. Mercies slighted had turned into a curse. Man, "made a little lower than the angels," but destined to be crowned with glory and sonship, had withered under the blight of sin. Elevated in conceit, but dwarfed in power, he was taught in the awful judgment of the flood, that the preachings of Noah were no fiction; and the dreadful realities of physical destruction made man feel the unreality of those magical delusions which are supposed to have misled him into the attempt to scan the mysteries of heaven. And what have the waters of the deluge done? We are wont to look upon them merely through the glass of physical terror, and art has lent her skill to this tendency of nature, and given us pictures to realize the horrors of the oppressive scene of God's judgments; but surely the true view of the flood is only to be seen beneath light analysed. It is the rainbow of the covenant, that sheds upon the regenerated earth the light of God's forgiveness, that shows us how justice was satisfied, and how mercy reigned, that points to the water that purged away sin by the punishment of the condemned, and indicates a "like figure," whereby we who are "buried with Christ by baptism into death," should “walk in newness of life," even as Christ was "raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father." And surely this idea of the newness of life, even though achieved through such a terrible death to many is indicated in clear terms by that text which tells us of a growing world being "of one language and of one speech."

The brief record of the tenth chapter of Genesis—a most interesting part of Scripture, as throwing Divine light on the moral science of theology