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those words which he spake when he bade Judah and Jerusalem judge between him and his vineyard :"What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" If you desire me to draw you closer to this dispensation, take the solemn question which the Apostle introduces to the Corinthians; What, know ye not that you are not your own? For ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's." Are you believers, and yet are you ignorant of the first principles of a believer's faith? And then, as if he felt conviction must be the consequence of this powerful address, he bids them do, and re-echoes, that which God before had taught. This is firm ground; and, as I stand on it, I have the clearest insight into the truth of the first proposition, that every intelligent immortal being is a steward. Oh, that you were all wise, that you would consider this, that your understandings would bow to it, not as to a mere general principle, indistinct in its nature, and undefined in its application-but as to a living operating principle, which must be lodged in each particular heart, and which it is every one's business fully to believe, and cordially to embrace.

If the Spirit should level the way to your consciences and make them ready for the reception of this truth, the second thing I have to propose will be comparatively of easy access. For if a man allow he is a steward, he will scarcely deny that to be a good steward he must be faithful in the trust committed to him. But do I not hear you say, Who is sufficient for those things? Not the weakness of the creature, certainly, who can do nothing but in borrowed strength. God can do it, God has done it, God will do it-the same Omnipotent who has managed it from the foundation of the world, and who is pledged to be the helper of his people even to the end of it. Go to him; go, and his strength shall be made perfect in your weakness. Call on him, and he will send the rod of his power to deliver you. Put up your request to him, boldly, without wavering; and you shall find

the supply of his grace to help you in the time of need. You—and Í suppose there are such present-you who have been hitherto blind as to the most glorious light, and led about as prisoners by the unrighteous Mammon, you will soon see the day-star arise in your hearts, and yourselves transformed into good and faithful servants.

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But let me attempt to show you, in a few particulars, what are the requirements of God in this matter. First, he will have us faithful in the exercise of our faculties. Go back to the creation, when all the parts of his unbroken and unsullied workmanship were very good. The members of Adam were members of righteousness. God gave to him a heart that he should glow with love for his commandments; he furnished him with a tongue that he should speak his praise; and so ordered his thoughts that they not only ranged freely from the footstool of his throne, but held sweetest intercourse there with God: and although we have now lost these marks of purity, and are sunk down to such an extremity of wretchedness that the natural tendency both of the tongue and the heart is totally the reverse of what it then was, yet he has so contrived it, that each of these may again honour him; and he expects from his redeemed that with the heart they believe unto righteousness, and with the tongue confess unto salvation. For we, brethren, have a new covenant that is established on a better promise; we have a new way consecrated by the blood of Christ. The corrupt nature of the children of Adam is not forgotten; but they have a new heart, and the Spirit proposes so effectually to do the work that old things, yea, all old things shall pass away, and they shall become new : and whoever he is that has no evidence to show of this new birth, who lived, and who died, a worldling-who often talked of Jesus, but never followed him

such barren branches as have scattered their leaves to the north and the south, but have yielded nothing to the husbandman, these shall have no place among the fruit-bearing trees that flourish in the Paradise of God.

Again, how shall we be faithful in our appropriation to others of the good things we have ourselves received? Do we love him that has blessed us

above our brother? How can we so express it, as by loving the brethren for his sake, by visiting the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and helping them for a moment to forget their wretchedness. God is a Spirit whom no man hath seen at any time. He asks not for our gold and silver for himself the simple prayer of the heart is all he values. We may indeed speak loudly of his goodness from day to day, and adore him in hallelujahs and praises, but the practical expression of our faith is far less shown in empty protestations, than in the silent work of looking after the destitute of Adam's race, who are left destitute that we may succour them, and who are suffered to want that we may fill them, and to be despised that we may pity them. The master throws them on the bounty of his steward; and if he says to the miserable petitioner, "Depart in peace, be you warmed; and notwithstanding gives them not those things which are needful to the body, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" But, my friends, the corruptible body is the least valuable part of the creature. Supposing, therefore, that you have given bread to the hungry, and have sweetened the cup which but for you would have had a bitterness hardly to be endured, have you been equally faithful to the soul? Is it not rather to be apprehended, that this part of your stewardship has been overlooked altogether? that in watching over the flesh you have made no enquiry whether there were not some spiritual wants more pressing even than those of nature; whether there was not a broken heart to be soothed, or a rebellious soul to be rebuked, or a mourning spirit to be comforted?

Let it not be said, that, in bringing my exhortations to this point, I am drawing you out of your sphere, and forcing you into the province of the ministers of Christ. The believer moves not a step beyond his sphere when he accompanies his act of charity by a friendly consideration for the soul, by reminding his fellow sinners that they must be otherwise fed and otherwise clothed, if they would not be beggars for eternity. Would any head of a family pretend to say he was not in his place who made Joshua his example, and carried his declaration into

effect-"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord?" How many servants-how many friends—and, alas, how many children, have died under your very roofs, uninfluenced by Christian hopes, and unblessed by Christian consolations. Animated by nothing but the flattering tale of returning health, it runs the round of assembled friends, and, alas, as I myself have witnessed repeatedly, even when the lamp of life is expiring in its socket. Have you, believers, been as faithful as you might have been? Have you ever suffered the spirit of an associate to pass the confines of this present being, to go from hence to judgment, without a thorough understanding of its utter hopelessness, without a knowledge of Christ, of its certain misery without Christ, and of the inadequacy of the purest system of morality to open the gates of the eternal city? Have you repaired to the well-springs, and drawn up those waters of joy which can refresh your spirits, and cause you to hear the voice, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, and will not remember thy sins." These are rich cordials for a dying chamber; and, if thy are but prudently administered, may make the sinner triumphant in his latest moments, and to cry out, "Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

It is in matters of this kind that the Christian's faithfulness consists. We are not at liberty to separate the particulars I have named, and to make choice of that which we deem the easiest. There must be no halting between two opinions; there must be no shrinking from the real one because it would lead to warfare and self-denial.

Now, there is a time appointed when the term of our stewardship will be dissolved: we shall not live for ever. It is an alarming, it is a solemn, and it is a comforting consideration, to know that we shall not always continue stewards. It is alarming to the unbeliever, and to the unfaithful: for what will be the end of their stewardship but a scene of distress such as never has been since the world began. Where, at that strict balancing of accounts, where shall the ungodly and

the sinner appear? It is solemn to all: for who can realize such a scene in his mind as that of universal judgment, and not feel something like awe steal over him? What serious man can reflect on men's hearts failing them for fearthe sea and the waves roaring-the earth convulsed-the heavens parched and melting away like a scroll-and not sigh over those who will be found wanting in that great day? Lastly, it is comforting to the attached followers of the Lamb, to the new-born disciples who have been with Jesus, to be assured that they will be stewards no longer-that having been faithful in a few things, they shall have a possession of their own, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. And oh, it is an increase of comfort to remember that this glorious estate comes not as the price of any service of man, but, with all our other blessings, from the same source, from the free and the wonderful grace of God. This inheritance is Christ's own kingdom: he had it as Mediator when he was stretched on Calvary: he keeps it as a resting place for his little flock, when they shall have done with the enemy who now assails them from without, and the fightings that keep them wrestling within. What a day will it be for the true disciples, when the same angelic host who rejoiced over their conversion shall robe them with the garments of praise, usher them to the gates of Zion, and bid them there lay down the spirit of heaviness.

But I must not forget, in seizing, as it were, by anticipation, these high privileges of glory, I am addressing a congregation of persons still in their stewardship. Give, therefore, your attention to the last portion of the subject, while I make an application of the text to the particular object for which I am now to plead and God knows whether it may not be set before your hearts, to-day, as a touchstone to try and to prove them. What this object in its nature is, your own eyes may have seen; what it is in importance your own understandings may discover; but the entire value of it, in length, and in breath, and in height, you will not know until some fruit shall be ripened in eternity. I may describe it to you in a word.

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It is to fence in, and to set in order, and to water, the tenderest plants of God's vineyard. It is to train up these little ones in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and thus to provide the means by which, under the teaching of God, they may flourish in the better soil of his spiritual kingdom. It is for eternity we would qualify them, and not for time. I am sure it is a proof that defies contradiction, that within the whole range of this kingdom, abounding as it does with hospitals for the sick, and sheltering institutions for the destitute, there can be none on which the eye of Deity will look down with more complacency than the National Schools of our own land, where the most indigent of this world are taught how to make an appeal for the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the most friendless are let into the blessed mystery, that, if they are Christ's friends, as they may be on earth, they will have a friend, an unchangeable friend in glory. should not dare-I would not dare, as a member of Christ, to advocate any institution where the gospel trumpet was not daily to be sounded, where every other science should be boldly set forth but that noblest of all sciences, Jesus Christ and him crucified. But this is not the character of that for which I am now pleading: it is vitally and essentially Christian: it encourages the young to seek betimes the kingdom of God and his righteousness, to be early in the race, to be vigilant in the battle, and to fight under Christ's banners against sin, the world, and the devil. Such an asylum has a claim upon every individual who believes the record of the Bible, and whose knowledge and experience tell him that the soul has something else to do in its place of trial than to eat, to drink, and to be merry. This is no charity of a questionable kind, that would send its funds into foreign channels and amongst strangers. It is a home institution; it is placed at your very gates; and there it asks your bounty. I am not ashamed in such a cause to be a beggar, and to beseech you to befriend these infant plants as God in his tenderness has befriended you.

Before I conclude I would ask for a moment's attention from those for whom this day we are more imme

diately concerned. My dear children, | weak and helpless as you now are, yet you are ripe enough in years to hear and understand my present address, the simple address of one who knows you not, but who knows you to be interested in all the gospel promises, and therefore loves you. I suppose there are none amongst you but daily feel the wants, and the weaknesses, and the infirmities of your mortal bodies. But do you know that your souls are by nature as feeble, nay, more feeble than your bodies, disposed to run wild and headlong into every folly, and to hate the presence of God, of him in whom you live, and move, and have your being? Yes; it is the High One who inhabiteth eternity, who has said to you and to me, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." But do you not love the merest trifles, and the toys and pleasures of childhood, all better than God? The Bible tells you to pray-not to say your prayers, but to feel your prayers-not to repeat so many words, but to confess out of a broken heart that you are miserable sinners. Have you done this? I will answer the question for you, and say, This duty you have either coldly done, or else you have left it undone. And what is the cause of this corruption? Your own evil nature, full of wickedness and unbelief. As soon as you are born you go astray and speak lies. Now, my dear young friends, it is our sad experience of this truth that fills us with such a desire to gather you out of the high-ways and hedges, and to place you under the light and guidance of the Spirit of truth; that you may become followers of Christ as dear children, and be like the angels, the cherubim and seraphim that you read of, when you come to die. Young as you are you may die, and however old you must die. I have seen earlier flowers than yourselves withering under the scithe of the mower. I have

watched them struggling with disease

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then sighing out their last breaththen laid out in their winding-sheetsand then let down by weeping parents into their last home. Do you tremble at this picture? I will teach you that which will ease every young bosom of its terror. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ: hate all sin, and forsake it and whenever you think of death, think of him who has taken the sting out of death; think of him who bled for you, and who is to put death for ever under his feet: think of the rich and precious promises of the gospel, and of that country where God and holy children do always see the face of their Father who is in heaven.

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Lastly, my brethren, one word more as to your responsibility, and I will dismiss you. The stewardship of some amongst you may be just expiring. Are you prepared with your accounts? Can you review the expenditure of your talents with an approving conscience? It matters not whether they have been few or many: but the great thing you have to learn is, whether that which has been committed to you has been laid out for Mammon or for God-whether such cases as the present have been wasted or improved. almost all cases like this which now presses to be heard, every man's excuse is the same-aye, the same hacknied apology is echoed from tongue to tongue" I am too poor to give." To these lovers of self I would reply, that in true Christianity self must be abandoned-that the widow was not too poor to cast her mite into the treasury, and Mary was not too poor to break her box of ointment upon the head of Jesus. Remember that every worm of the dust, rich or poor, is only a steward of God; and be diligent to write another remembrancer upon your minds, that it is required in stewards-not by me, or by any other minister of the word-but it is required by Omnipotence itself, that a man be found faithful.

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. J. H. EVANS,

AT JOHN STREET CHAPEL, KING'S ROAD, TUESDAY EVENING, OCT. 12, 1830.

Acts, xiv. 22.—“ Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God."

THAT the people of God are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation-that he who began the good work will also perform and finish it that the sheep of Christ shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of Immanuel's hand-does not arise from any other source than from the immutability of God's love to the Son. There is nothing in the heart of the child of God that will keep him, any more than there was in the heart of the first Adam to keep him. It is the covenant that preserves the people of God; it is because God has given himself to be the covenant God of his people that they are preserved, protected, restored, blessed, and at last made more than conquerors: it is because he puts his fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from him.

The principle of grace in the child of God is in itself capable of the greatest decay. We find the church at Jerusalem no sooner formed than it began to decay; no sooner was the great outpouring of the Spirit manifested in Jerusalem than that church instantly began to decay. There was a wrong spirit crept in, the spirit of murmuring, which evidently sowed the seed of decay. The church of Corinth, though it had been under the especial guidance of the Apostle for years, though that church was composed of his own children-for he had been its founder in a sense-yet we see the great principle, I am now speaking of, manifested there in a most remarkable and especial way. One of the most holy truths that you and I can contemplate this night is, that there is nothing in us that can keep us for one single moment; and if we are kept, we are kept by the power of God alone. We find the same principle exhibited in the hearts of God's saints -perpetual proneness to wander-per- |

petual proneness to depart-starting aside like a broken bow. I would desire that my soul and that your souls might deeply feel the truth, that proneness to depart, readiness to go astray, is one of those things which you and I ought to mourn over as much as any actual departure. We find the Apostles fully persuaded and convinced of this principle. They did not leave the saints of God to themselves; they went every where confirming the souls of the disciples. God has appointed means of keeping his people. Secret prayer, confession, me ditation, the word of God read fairly and not in parts, fairly and honestly, read out as before God-these are among his appointed means for preserving and upholding the souls of his people. I hardly know one, next to secret prayer, that we ought to esteem more than communion with some of God's established saints. A man that lives near to God is a blessing whereever he goes; as the light-minded professor is a sort of bane wherever he goes. A broken-hearted man full of Christ, is a blessing wherever he goes. A man who has the anointing of the Holy Ghost in his conscience will soon discover it; he is made a blessing wherever he goes. Look at the Apostles. We find in the fifteenth chapter, that, "Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them."In the eighteenth chapter we read, "After Paul had spent some time there, he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening"-the word that is in the text rendered confirming, is here called strengthening-"strengthening all the disciples." In the text we find, that "when they had preached the gospel at Derbe, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra,

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