him to a distance-having left him-looks | afford; then he will say to you as he did to back again and prays-"The God which the Jews of old, when they had laid the founfed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lad, and let my name be named on him, and let him grow into a multitude." Though in such circumstances he still engrosses af fection and solicitude, he is no longer immediately under the notice of parents. They have given him instruction; they can maintain a correspondence by writing-but they are no longer near him; and he may fall into mistakes, which will decide his condition before they can know the danger or offer advice. To such a youth God says, "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?"

sures and resources, and sighed and asked gain. Or should your time be lengthened for a better country? When you have seen out to a number of years-life will be a blessbelievers tranquil in affliction, and happy evening, and your "hoary head will be a crown in dissolution, have you not prayed, "How of glory, being found in the way of righteous goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy taber-ness." Indeed a preparation for death is the nacles, O Israel! Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his?" These are cords of love, by which he would draw you to himself and will you cut them off? These are so many ways in which he addresses you and will you refuse him that speaketh from heaven? Oh! cherish these emotions. 66 To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?"

only preparation for life; and were you sure to live the age of Methuselah, it would be your wisdom and interest to commence the course here recommended immediately, and to enjoy as soon as possible all those incomparable advantages which can be derived only from divine grace. And therefore-" Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?"

Such is the question with which God addresses you this evening. And what answer In a word: this is the case with the season do you return?-I cannot imagine of youth in general. For if you ever mean any thing more awful than this moment of to attend to the things which belong to your suspense. Your relations; your Christian peace-the time of youth is unquestionably friends; the enemy of your souls; the angels the best season. Let me mention only two of God, and God himself—are all waiting to things. First. If you wish to befriend others, hear what reply you will make to the solemn it is the best season. "One sinner destroyeth inquiry. Whether your pious connexions much good." His example and his influence shall rejoice or be miserable; whether you in a course of years will produce injuries to shall be the plagues or the blessings of sosociety, which if brought to repentance, he ciety; whether you shall add to the safety will deplore, but will not be able to repair. or danger of your country; whether there And how painful will it be when he is ad- shall be joy in heaven or hell; whether you vancing to heaven to see some of his fellow-shall be saved, or perish for ever-all-all creatures going down to hell, and reflect that depends upon the nature of the answer you he was the means of leading them astray! return! If a thought could imbitter the happiness of heaven, it would be this.

On the other hand, one real Christian may do much good, especially if he begin young. And here let me quote a passage from that devoted man of God, Richard Baxter. In the place where God made him most useful, which was at Kidderminster, "My first and greatest success," says he, "was among the young and so it was, that when God had touched the hearts of the young with a love of goodness, in various instances their friends, their fathers, their grandfathers, who had lived in ignorance and sin before, became religious themselves, induced by their love to their children, who now appeared so much wiser, and better, and more dutiful than before. In a little time religion spread through many families, and after a few years there was scarcely a house in which the worship of God was not maintained."

But solemn as all these circumstances are, I forebode from many of you a negative reply. For such efforts as these have already been made in vain. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."-Already perhaps some of the desires of the flesh and of the mind have gained an ascendency over you. Already perhaps you have armed yourselves with sceptical principles, or loose notions of religion. The temper of the times in which we live is peculiarly discouraging; for the days are come, foretold by the Apostle, when "men shall be lovers of their ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." To all this we may add that the heads of families do not second the your-endeavours of ministers by adding private inFor "godli-structions, discipline, admonition, and examness is profitable unto all things, having pro- ple to public means of religion. mise of the life that now is, and of that which Hear then the answer of these youths to is to come. Its ways are ways of pleasant- this all-important question--" Wilt thou not ness, and all its paths are peace. Should you from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou succeed in the world-it will keep your pros-art the guide of my youth?" Some, less perity from destroying you. Should you meet with disappointments-it will comfort you in all your tribulation: for to "the upright there ariseth light in the darkness." Should it be said to you as it was to one of old, "This year thou shalt die"-death will be your eternal

Secondly. If you wish to befriend selves, this is the best season.

daring, hesitate a little, and say, "I pray thee have me excused." But others, more bold, reply-No. They "say unto God, Depart from us: we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." Such is the language of your dispositions, pursuits, and lives. Ah! who could

have thought that you could act such a disingenuous, such a foolish, such a shameful, such a destructive part?

But so it is. You have refused the terms of peace. The armistice is broken-and from this hour God and you are at war. And who will prevail? "Who ever hardened himself against him, and prospered? Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?"

But are all here like minded? No. While the generality are gone in another direction -I see some" asking the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward." Here, O Lord, they are, ready to "join themselves to thee in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten." Take them under thy guidance; and say unto their souls, "I am thy salvation. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

DISCOURSE XLVI.

THE UNBELIEF OF THOMAS. (EASTER.)

in the narrative which I have read, and from which I would derive a few reflections suited to a season which commemorates the Saviour's victory over his enemies, his deliverance from the reproach of the cross, and his acknowledged glory as "the resurrection and the life."

Following the order of the words, we shall consider, 1. THE INCREDULITY OF THOMAS, II. THE MEANS EMPLOYED TO ESTABLISH HIS FAITH. III. THE NOBLE CONFESSION HE MAKES IN CONSEQUENCE OF HIS CONVICTION. May he who favoured these disciples with his bodily presence, be in the midst of us, by the influences of his Holy Spirit! May he reveal himself to us, not as the object of sense, but of faith; and enable us to receive the kingdom of God as a little child, that we may share in the blessedness of those who have not seen and yet have believed!

I. Let us consider THE INCREDULITY OF THOMAS.

The occasion which drew it forth was this. Our Lord rose early in the morning of the first day of the week. In the evening he suddenly appeared to his disciples. The disciples were assembled together, and had shut the door for fear of the Jews. But it was easy for our Lord and Saviour, who had all power in heaven and in earth, to open himself a passage. He did so, and came unobserved, and stood in the midst of them, and having blessed them, withdrew. "But Thomas was not with the disciples when Jesus came.' We are not informed of the reason of his absence-but no sooner had he returned, than his fellow-Apostles said unto him, with a rapture becoming the discovery: We have seen the Lord!"

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Upon hearing this, who would not have expected that Thomas, after some inquiry, would have exclaimed, "Happy you who have been privileged with the sight of a risen Saviour! Oh that I had been with you! Could I have foreseen that he would have honoured this place with a visit, nothing should have induced me to quit the sacred spot." But in place of these emotions which were so natural, he cries out, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Thus he will not only have the evi

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. John xx. 24-28. WHETHER the sacred writers be them-dence of sense, but he will trust no one's selves the characters they record, or whe- senses but his own. He is not even satisfied ther they describe the lives and actions of with the sight of his eyes-his very hands others in all their relations we discover must minister to the wants of his faith. He an impartiality that cannot fail of being not only disbelieves himself, but he seems highly acceptable to a lover of truth. Every willing to shake the confidence of his brething is expressed without prejudice. The thren. He accuses them, not indeed of lyfailings of good men are exposed as freely as their excellences; and we are equally instructed and edified by their wisdom and folly, by their faith and their unbelief.

Witness the history of Thomas contained

ing, but of mistake: he supposes that they had not exercised proper caution, but had been deceived by a phantom, which their imaginations had taken for a reality; or rather by an apparition, which they had sup

Yet after all this-says unbelieving Thomas, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." But all this is very instructive. Let us learn from it—

The value of Christian fellowship. With this the Apostle was well acquainted; and therefore he exhorts us "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is." He does not only refer to a total forsaking of social devotional exercises, but to a partial and an occasional one. Circumstances will sometimes arise to prevent our attendance; but we should be careful that they are reasons, and not excuses, that detain us. What an injury did Thomas sustain in consequence of his absence--and had he not been with the Apostles the Lord's day following, he might have continued still in his unbelief. We know not what we lose by neglecting even one opportunity of going to the house of God when it is in our power. There might have been perhaps something

tion: something which might have scattered our doubts or relieved our distress. Has not the Saviour said, "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them?" Is he not "known in his palaces for a refuge ?" Do you not long to see his power and glory, so as you have seen him in "the sanctuary?"

posed to be the body of our Saviour. Two things it is probable made him think so. First, the Jews had adopted the notion, that souls occasionally appeared after death, clothed in subtle bodies. From whatever quarter this prejudice originally came, or whatever degree of truth was to be attached to it-it seems the disciples, as well as their countrymen, had embraced the belief. Hence, when our Lord walked upon the water, they believed that they had "seen a spirit," and were filled with fear; and hence also these very disciples drew the same conclusion when our Lord appeared to them after he was risen from the dead: And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit." Secondly, what strengthened the prejudice of Thomas was, that he showed himself to them in the night-the very season in which ghosts and spectres were supposed to appear. If we pass from the occasion of this unbe-in the sermon peculiarly suited to our condilief to the evil of it, we shall find that the behaviour of Thomas at this season was rash and foolish and obstinate-and every way blameable. For consider only the importance of the truth disbelieved. It was the foundation of the Christian religion-and of all our hopes for "if Christ be not risen, our faith is vain: we are yet in our sins." Consider also the greatness and force of the evidence We learn, also, how prone we are to es he had to resist. Jonah had typified his re-tablish improper criterions of truth. How of surrection; David had clearly foretold it; Job had rejoiced in it; and our Saviour himself had more than once affirmed that he should not only be crucified, but be "raised again the third day."-Here was a number of witnesses-for not to mention that Mary Magdalene had seen him, that Peter had seen him, that the two disciples going to Emmaus had seen him-here were ten united testimonies; and these witnesses were his companions, and fellow-Apostles, of whose integrity and capacity he was conscious: and their witness was eye-witness and ear-witness; and the disciples had doubtless told him, that they had not only heard and seen him, but that he had shown them the marks of his passion, and had even eaten with them: for this was the fact, as another Evangelist has informed us. "And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts! Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb and he took it, and did eat before them."

ten do we judge of things exclusively by our experience, our reason, our senses! But what can be more foolish than this! To how small a distance do these powers extend! How many things are certainly true, the truth of which falls not within the compass of either! How many things can a man relate which appear impossible to a child! Tell the inhabitant of the sultry climes that, at a certain season of the year, water, which they have only seen in a fluid state, becomes solid, and hard enough to walk upon-and it will seem to him an idle tale: he has witnessed no such thing; and, reasoning from what he knows, he deems it incredible. If Thomas had constantly judged according to the rule he professed, how little could he have believed at all! He could not have believed that ever there was such a lawgiver as Moses, or such a prophet as Isaiah. He could have believed nothing recorded in the Jewish Scriptures-for nothing of all this had he seen and heard. And it is worthy of inquiry, whether many of the objections commonly urged against several of the leading doctrines of the Gospel do not very much arise from a similar source. It would be easy to prove that they are clearly revealed; but ignorance and pride rise up and ask, "How can these things be?" It is improbable; impossible.

Whereas having ascertained the Bible to be | tation. This was well. Let us remember it. the word of God, we should implicitly em- And bad as our present frame may be, let us brace all its contents. Our belief should not always resolve to repair to the means of be rendered easy or difficult by the proba- grace. For "they that wait upon the Lord bility or improbability, by the plainness or the shall renew their strength." How often have abstruseness of the subject; but be always and the people of God been pleasingly disappointed simply determined by "the authority of the in holy exercises! How often, before they revealer." This obtains even with regard have been aware, have they passed from to human testimony and if we believe the darkness to light, and from fears and sadness testimony of man, the testimony of God is to confidence and joy! Therefore "wait on greater. To believe no more than we can the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall comprehend, or reduce to some of our modes strengthen thy heart: wait, I say, on the of knowledge-is not to honour the authority Lord." of God at all-yea, it is a reflection upon his wisdom and his veracity: upon his wisdomas if he could tell us no more than we know; and upon his veracity—as if he were not to be trusted, if he could.