which, after they had been wrecked, where property changeth hands at the became a loadstone of death to all the instigation of passions not more terriships which came within their necro- ble and terrific than those which surmantic influence; and, indeed, are round the gaming table, and oft by worse than these, who were only fixed means not more dishonest. The uncentres of evil attraction; whereas the meaning folly, and the ostentatious wretched men and women whom you extravagance, and the sensual indulmeet in the street, are not fixed, but gences, and the mixture of envy, varove about with all the wiles of the nity, pride, and falehood, which lie devil:-If further, you reflect on that disclosed to the eye of heaven under which is behind the scene of observa- the fretted roofs and festive avenues of tion, and dare not show its face-if magnificent mansions-I question wheyou reflect on the thronged houses of ther it be not more hateful in the eye dissipation, upon the receptacles of of God, than all that is enclosed within lust, upon the dens of thieves, and the grim walls of Newgate, and beupon the bear-gardens of cruelty, and neath the roof of Bridewell. And if upon the helpless offspring of these the theatre be harmless (whereof I give lawless crimes, bearing contagion from no verdict at present), there passeth their birth, nursed up in wanton wick- under the same licensed roof, take it edness, taught to lisp and speak false- | for all and all, the saddest, disgraceful hood, and reared in the arts of decep- sights whereon the eye of heaven looks, tion to be little panders to a father and and from which the merciful hand of mother's licentiousness :-If, finally, heaven withholds its striking thunders. you reflect on the throngs of unfortunate people from all the ends of the earth, who flock hither to hide the heads of their shame, or to make a last effort to retrieve the wreck of their fortunes: -when all this within this city you see and reflect upon, (and no reflection is equal to the reality, no picture equal to the truth) are you not ashamed of your lethargy in well doing? are you not moved with tender compassion, and earnest enquiry, what can be done for the mitigation of these evils which smell rank to heaven, and make a pious man apprehend the signal vengeance of heaven on the place which hideth such abominations in its wide and wicked holds ? But this is the lowest chamber in the house of our city's wickedness odious in the sight of men because of its naked and exposed miseries, and because of the unsightly condition with which it is served; yet, for that reason, less odious in the sight of God, who seeth not as man seeth, and beholdeth in higher and better conditions, sights and scenes which he hateth more. The bribes for which truth and trust worthiness are deliberately sold (I say it), are as hateful, perhaps more hateful, than the frauds and rewards in which the wicked more openly live. And the gaming tables, where hoards of wealth are lost and won amidst the most turbulent and terrific passions of the soul, are as hateful in the sight of God as highway robberies perhaps, Now, what is it that makes the eye of heaven look on such sights patiently? What is it withholds the striking hand of heaven from such doings? What preservation hath heaven made for the cure and remedy of such evil? and who are appointed to carry these remedies into effect? Who are the preserving angels of the city? Who are the physicians of the moral contagion? Hear the word of the Lord, and know who are its saviours and physicians, and who guard it from the angry arm of God: hear scripture, and know. In the days of Noah, when all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth, when the wickedness of man was great, and the imagination of his heart was only evil, and that continually, God resolved to bring on the earth the tide of his vengeance. But that it might not perish without a witness and a warning, he appointed Noah to be to them a preacher of righteousness; in which avocation of calling the world to repentance, when he succeeded not, the Lord ordered him to save himself, his wife, his children, and their little ones; for whose safety having taken order, then, but not till then, he opened the fountains of the heavens, and washed the earth clean from its abominations. Hear another instance from the word of God. In the days of Abraham, when the city of Sodom and Gomorrah rose up, and their sin was very griev ous before the Lord, the angel of the Lord went forth to see and to behold their wickedness, whether it was so. And he communed with Abraham, the friend of God, by the way; at whose intercession the angel of the Lord showed himself willing to preserve the foredoomed cities-on what conditions? If there were found fifty, or forty-five, or forty, or thirty, or twenty, or even ten righteous men within its walls: and there being none save Lot, whose righteous soul was vexed with their abominations, the Lord gave to him, his wife, and daughters, warning to escape to the mountains; and then, but not till then, he brought the fiery shower which consumed the cities of the plain. with figures of the utmost expedition, to flee to the mountains: and those who believed on him did so, when they saw the signs approaching whereof he had told them. And it is left on record in history, that the righteous were saved before the city was given up to destruction. From this enumeration of the judgments of God on wicked cities, it doth appear that the city is preserved for the sake of the righteous that are therein: and when it cometh to pass that the seed of the righteous is rooted out, or banished away, then the city is ripe for destruction, and the vengeance of the Lord sleepeth no longer over its guilty head. The godly are its defence-the saints are for its bulHear another instance from the word wark round about against the judgof God. In the days of Jonah, when ments of Jehovah. The disciples of the wickedness of Nineveh was 'come Christ are the salt which preserveth up before the Lord, and the Lord was its hot and tasteful mixtures from puminded to destroy it, he had compas- trescence: and every church, therefore, sion on the multitude of the people to wherever the word of life is ministered, spare them, and commissioned his pro- is, as it were, the ark in which the phet to go forth and preach to them, charter that the city hath from God that, if they repented not within forty is preserved safe. The preaching of days, they should be overthrown. To sound doctrine in the churches is the which fearful summons of the pro- chief condition of the city's prosperity. phet, the men of Nineveh giving heed, The saints are the defenders of the and repenting in sack-cloth and ashes, city, and do stand in the breach in the it pleased the Lord, in his great cle- day of the Lord's revengeful march mency, to repent of the evil that he among the nations. Aye, and the had said he would do to them, and to brotherhood of saints, the soldiery of do it not. Christ-that corporation which of all the corporations hath no inheritance but an inheritance of scorn-is, nevertheless, the honoured guardian of the soul's safety, when the Lord girdeth his sword on his thigh, and goeth forth as a man of war. It may be truly said, that if ancient Troy was safe from the hosts of Greece so long as the sacred image of Minerva remained in her lofty shrine; so while the image of Christ remaineth in any city, it is to that city for a Palladium, which being preserved from all the powers of Satan, which riot in hot confusion within its walls, all the foreign powers which can be embattled without its walls, shall not be able to overthrow it or to lay its glory in the dust. That this may be confirmed, hear another instance from the word of God. In the days of Isaiah, when he was raised up to show God's people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins, he found the daughter of Zion left as a cottage in the wilderness, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. After calling on heaven and earth to hear, and bear testimony against her worse than brutal insensibility to the father-like cry of God, he added this most fruitful instruction ;-" Except the Lord had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." | Finally, in the days of our Saviour's flesh, when Jerusalem was ripening herself for destruction by rejecting the prince of life, and crucifying the Lord of glory, and invoking his blood on themselves and their children; the Son of man warned the people of their overhanging doom, and instructed them, Therefore, men and brethren, we who have laboured, and do still labour, in the work of laying another foundation for an altar, whereon to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, reckon that you are engaged in the great patriotic work of giving to the city of your habitation another security for the continuance of the Lord's favour, and another defence against the enemies of our blessed land, who are ever plotting its destruction and downfall. I say, you are building a sacred bulwark of righteousness and truth-a tower, a beautiful tower of holiness-a sanctuary of faith and temperance-a temple of peace and love. You are building them against the pride of place, against the cruelty of ambition, against luxury, and levity, and vice, and against all the other moral evils, which must ever infest this store-house of wealth, this seat of power, this emporium of the world, by erecting a church for the service of God, and by taking all human foresight that sound doctrine should be preached therein. I say, you are doing whatever man can do to stop the tide of wickedness, which must ever follow where Mammon the god of riches, and Belial the god of fashion, and Satan the god of pride, have their chosen cities. You are philanthropists on the largest scale, and after the soundest principles. You are sowing the seed of all good: you are propagating the plant whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. It is not one province you are taking up you are making the philanthropist; for I declare it, that in every church wherein Christ crucified is preached, every such church is a nursery of philanthropists, VOL. I. wherein the enemies of men are converted into the friends of men; where men are taught how they may labour for the world in the widest way and with the largest success. Therefore, men and brethren, the second time I say it, you have done well to erect another house for God, wherein sound doctrine, the doctrine of the reformed church, may be held forth in the hearing of this city. Ye have done it who are chiefly in the middle classes of the people; you have laid the foundation of it who are labouring for the bread of your wives and children; for whom, rest assured, the Lord will not less carefully provide, that you have lent to him and to his church a portion of your time: in which respect ye have set the example; and the example hath been taken by those who have still a higher influence, and a higher state in the realm. Oh, that they may profit from the example. Oh, that the anxious nights which you have consumed for the sake of the highest interests of your country, might set the example to men of rank, to men of influence, who serve their country in war and peace, in the field and in the senate, and to whom God hath committed large domains of power, and to whom it hath pleased him to make even his children in no small degree dependant. To these, who have such power over the church, the poor come weeping: to them the broken hearts of parents over their children, lost in this city, come wailing; to them despised merit in the church comes suing; to them the church in saddest weeds (that church of which Christ is the living head), like Rachel mourning for her children that are not, comes G entreating, that they would use their greatest influence in spreading over the land, the knowledge of our Lord, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, by the ministration of faithful priests; for lack of which this land groaneth, and is in jeopardy. Then, when the ancient aristocracy of this land arise from their ancient seats to do a work of good-then, when the servants that surround our sovereign's throne arise to the help of God-then, when the gentlemen of England and Scotland, and our free-born yeomanry, arise to serve the God of their fathers-then shall we need to be afraid of that spawn of the pit which hath spread the defilement of Atheism over the land, seeking to sap the foundation of our goodly fabric of society, and to subvert the ancient constitution of these realms? I do see, through much confusion, the dawning of such a felicitous morning, when, stung by these serpents, the giant genius of this land shall shake itself from its slumbers; and, by the power of its awful presence, strike mute these tongues of discord, and send them across the waters to seek shelter with the tyrant and the slave. Oh, that they had ever dared to lift their heads from the abyss to which they were chased by the martial spirit of our two churches. But they are permitted to stir abroad, only in order that they may raise up men of the ancient mood in this realm, to shoot forth the arrows of truth, to confound them with hideous ruin again, a glory to the admiring earth and heaven, a spectacle to the powers of hell and darkness. While I anticipate such high and excellent things of our native land, it pleaseth my mind to look abroad over the suburbs of this city, and to behold the new churches which are rearing their stately heads in every quarter, and which only wait for faithful pastors, men that fear God, and not man, in order, each one, to be a blessing to its neighbourhood. It pleaseth me, moreover, as I know it pleaseth those who hear me, to think that we live in an age when two churches, which once stood in battle order against each other, can now lift together their towers into the skies-towers of peace, from which no battle cry will ever be heard—towers of peace, from which no envious summons of hostility will ever be sent forth-no sound, but the summons of the church-going bell to invite the passengers to turn in, and take counsel concerning the things which belong to their souls. Therefore, men and brethren, take heart, and be of good courage; go on with cheerfulness, filling your hearts with the goodness of your device. Labour not, as in a secular concern, with secular motives; labour not, as in an ambitious concern, with ambitious motives; but labour, as in a pious and religious work, with your hearts full of godly zeal and resolution. And when ye speak of it by the way, speak of it with a solemn tone; speak of it with a serious face; not without expressions of pious thankfulness to God, and aspirations to the Most High, that he would bring it to pass. When your opinions discord, yield with charity, and speak with charity, one toward another. Let the love of Christ reign among the servants of Christ, which is for the glory of Christ. Oft, very oft, make it the subject of your most earnest prayer to the Most High, that he would carry forward the work till the top-stone of it be brought out with shouting. Put your trust in his strength in your straits lift up your voice to him for succour. He who hath joined us together, he who hath brought us from being no people to become a people, he will assuredly bless us if we trust in him; that the people may know that there is a God who beholdeth his servants, and whose ear is open to their cry. A Sermon delivered BY THE REV. J. BLACKBURN, Job, xix. 28.—" But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?” Ir all things come alike to all-if there be one event to the righteous and to the wicked—then it becomes a very hazardous matter to attempt to decipher the symbols of Divine Providence, and to interpret the dispensations of the Most High. Concerning those dispensations it may be said, Clouds and darkness rest upon them;" though we know that righteousness and judgment must ever attend them. Our Divine Master has forbidden any censorious interpretation of the mysterious events of Providence, in that memorable saying-" Suppose ye that those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." It was the mistake of Job's friends to attempt to define the hieroglyphics of Divine Providence: they saw events happening to Job which they chose to interpret as indicative of the divine displeasure. We find, therefore, that when he expected consolation at their hands when he welcomed Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, as those who should comfort his spirit, he was mistaken for Eliphaz opens upon him by unkind insinuations of his integrity; Bildad charges him with hypocrisy; and Zophar unites with them, and reiterates the charge of certain wickedness which must lie against him. We find that he argues with them on this matter through the preceding part of the book; and, at length, is driven from argument to pathetic appeal. No individual can read the former part of this chapter, These remarks may help us to asin which he describes the gloomy condi- certain what the Patriarch meant by tion of his soul, under the chastisement" the root of the matter:" which will of the divine hand, without commiseration and pity. Their hearts must indeed have been hardened, seeing they could listen without relenting to such lamentations as these. These lamentations show that the Patriarch's mind was under great darkness: he seems to have recognized the divine sovereignty, and beyond that not to have proceeded. He seems to have some fear whether God was not displeased with him, and about to cut him off. In this way did he address his friends :-" Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh," wasted, and emaciated, and enfeebled as it is. But light arises in the darkness; and his faith, which seemed to be like an autumnal sun when rising over our metropolis, enveloped in clouds, and mists, and fog, at length breaks through all the gloom; and then he says, "Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!" This emphatic exclamation introduces the noblest confession of faith which is contained in the Old Testament-" I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. Having made this confession, we may suppose that be the first thing to be attended to. Secondly, How the Patriarch manifested that this root was in him. Thirdly, What the Patriarch expected, seeing this root was in him. |