national difficulties are connected with our unfaithfulness to so important a trust? This was the case precisely with the Jews of old: "Ye looked for much, and lo! it came to little: and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it: he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag of holes. Why? saith the Lord of hosts: because of mine house, that is waste; and ye run every man into his own house." For though something more has certainly been done in late years, than formerly, yet, after all, how little compared with what this highly favoured country might have done; how little compared with what remains to be done! how little compared with our national advantages and privileges, and peculiar facilities of spreading the gospel! For what purpose has he, who is heir of all things, and to whose hands all things are delivered; for what purpose, I say, has he committed to the control and government of this small island, the dominion of such vast territories in Eastern India? For what purpose has he recently enlarged those territories, by conquest in the Gorka and the Burman wars? For what purpose has he delivered to us our maritime power, and our naval superiority as a nation, and the extension of our commerce almost to every part of the known world? Was it merely to aggrandize this country, and emblazon our fame, and thus to gratify our national pride and ambition? Was it only to add to our stock of luxuries, and to increase our temporal comforts and enjoyments? O, surely not; but rather for the purpose of promoting his own interests, furthering his own cause, and extending the limits of his own spiritual and glorious kingdom. However God may have decreed and determined that all nations shall be brought to the knowledge of the truth, yet it is equally true that, nationally and individually, we are each of us accountable to God for the various talents with which we are entrusted: and what talent is so precious, as that of the "glorious gospel of the blessed God?" The real Christian, however he may be cheered and encouraged by the promises and predictions of God's word as to the final establishment of the Redeemer's kingdom, yet is not so entirely taken up with divine decrees as to lose sight of human responsibility; though he cannot know exactly how to reconcile them, yet he firmly and cordially believes the one, while he humbly and reverently bows to the other. However clear it may be, that "the Father hath put all things in subjection to the Son," in his mediatorial character, it is equally clear that a strict and solemn account will be given of the use of the different talents that have been placed in our hands. Should any perish through our neglect, or indifference, or refusing to do what was in our power to save them, their blood will, in some

measure, be required at our hands. The weight of blood-guiltiness will awfully rest upon us. "The voice of our brother's blood will cry unto God against us." "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?” Finally. Whatever may be the secret decrees of God respecting the final spread of the gospel, the Christian finds a powerful motive to active exertion in the reward that Christ has promised to every effort that is made to promote his glory. He knows who has said, "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." "He that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." "He that hath pity upon the poor," (and who so poor as the perishing heathen?) "lendeth to the Lord: and look! whatsoever he giveth, it shall be repaid him again," either in kind, or in kindness. Hence we find the most encouraging promise to those that were engaged in building the second temple.-" Consider now from this day and upward, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, from this day will I bless you." Accordingly he has promised to reward even a cup of cold water that is given in his name;' ;" much more when we carry the waters of life and salvation to thirsty souls, and direct perishing sinners, from love to him, to the fountain of living waters; and we know on what solemn occasion he will say, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

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Christians in general are content with aiming at the bliss and happiness of heaven, at being admitted just within the gates of the new Jerusalem: but we must ever remember that there are various gradations of glory, and that one star differs from another star in degrees of glory—whilst, on the one hand, there are some who will "scarcely be saved," and others who will be "saved as by fire;" there are others, who will receive "an exceeding and eternal weight of glory," who will have an "abundant entrance administered to them into the everlasting kingdom." It will indeed be an unspeakable mercy to have the lowest seat around the throne; to be the least in the kingdom of God; to shine as a jewel, however small, in the Saviour's crown: but there is a reward more precious still; and that is, not only to shine as a gem in the Redeemer's diadem, but to have around us a coronet of our own. So thought the great Apostle when he "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For

said:

even ye,

ye are our glory and joy." This is indeed a noble ambition, worthy of the high aspiring of an immortal soul, not only to aim at reaching eternal glory, but to press forward to a high degree of glory; not only to be a vessel of mercy, but to have one's capacity of bliss, and the powers of enjoyment enlarged and strengthened to the highest degree.

But, after all, we must ever remember that the reward is not a reward of debt, but of grace; all is rich, sovereign mercy, and unmerited grace, from first to last; and the top-stone of this glorious and heavenly temple will be "brought forth with shoutings of Grace! grace! unto it."

SERMON XXI.

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN ZEAL.

Preached before the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY, at Tottenham Court Chapel, May 10, 1832.

BY JOHN JONES.

2. KINGS X. 16.-And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.

TRULY, it is delightful and instructive to see any creature exhibiting the proofs of an ardent zeal for the glory of the great Creator, and directing the energies of his nature to this one object as the chief end of existence. Then, and then only, may it be said that he fills and adorns the station allotted to him in the scale of being; and he becomes sublimely associated with Deity when every selfish consideration is absorbed by an intense desire that God may be all in all. We admire, for instance, the fidelity of angels, when fulfilling their commissions of vengeance, or of love, when these ministers of heaven deal destruction with impartial hand to the foes of the Almighty, or impart, with all the tenderness of brotherly affection, consolation to his friends, "the heirs of salvation.” And if angels find any thing to admire in our species so debased by sin, it is when they descry here and there an individual renewed by sovereign grace, leaving the beaten track of iniquity and folly to follow the directions of the Eternal-sacrificing every private feeling and interest on the altar of God, in order to execute the commands of his justice or to subserve the purposes and display the riches of his boundless mercy. Such a character, and such conduct, will always secure the admiration of the wise and the good. Alas! that the full and striking illustrations of this should be, like angel-visits, SO few and far between."

Such character and conduct Jehu affected to exhibit in this history. And in the person of Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, he found

a witness of his deeds the most suitable he could have desired. This man was esteemed as a well-known reformer in that degenerate age, and was the founder of the first Temperance Society that perhaps ever existed. Possessing an unbending decision of character, he was likely to admire the stern unflinching severity with which Jehu was about to destroy the abettors of idolatry. Their interview was mutually pleasing and satisfactory,* when Jehu immediately proposed to make Jehonadab the companion of his future course; "And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord." But why this thirst for being admired and applauded? It gives reason to suspect the character of the principle by which he was actuated. Genuine zeal proceeds with too determined a regard to her great object, to pay much attention to the opinion of spectators; through good report and evil report, she keeps the even tenour of her way nay, more, she prefers the path of unostentatious privacy, if her object can be equally well secured. Let us then, for a moment, glance at the zeal of this boasting man. Towards the house of Ahab he fulfilled the word of the Lord, and he is commended and rewarded of God. Beyond this, he proceeds to terminate the worship of Baal. But further he will not go. It was as much his interest as his duty to act thus, because it established his power in Israel; but the moment his authority is fixed, he adopts the policy of Jeroboam, "who made Israel to sin." There was now no fear of the house of Ahab, or of the priesthood of Baal who were attached to that house: the only apprehension that could be entertained was, that if the people went up to Jerusalem to worship, there might be a defection in favour of the house of David; and to prevent the possibility of this, the man who destroyed the worshippers of Baal, out of zeal for the Lord, has so little regard to his service, that he gives a public sanction to the idolatry of Bethel and of Dan. So long as the injunctions of the Lord coincide with the suggestions of selfinterest and pride, the zeal is abundant and ardent; but when these paths diverge, the reigning selfishness preserves its full ascendency, and the zeal for God is gone. The conclusion to which we are irresistibly carried, is, that such zeal is at best essentially defective, and that its limitation and evanescence are but the natural consequences of a radical defect.

Our object, then, is obvious in selecting the passage which has been read as the theme of discourse. It is not to hold out an example, but a caution. The light of sound instruction is to be found here,