A SERMON,

BY THE REV. J. H. EVANS, M.A.

PREACHED AT JOHN STREET CHAPEL, KING'S ROAD, BEDFORD ROW, ON SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 6, 1845.

"Watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."-Ephesians vi. 18.

WHEN the penitent believing soul is introduced into the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost, it feels itself to be in a new world. There are new trials, new difficulties, new temptations, new dangers; but there are also new privileges, unutterable privileges. He has given up the shadow for the substance, the show for the reality, the tinsel for the silver, and the glitter for the gold. He leaves many of his former acquaintances, and he becomes more acquainted with those who are more acquainted with God. He is left off by many of his former friends; but the believer now finds those to be his friends who are friends with God. He has lost much of the sympathy, it may be, of those who were once his friends; and he has now, (and according to the measure of his faith he feels it,) the sympathy of Jesus. He has now made this blessed exchange. How the apostle felt it, when he "counted all things but loss, and dross, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ!" And he has another blessing too which he becomes acquainted with, and that is the sympathy of God's children. It is true, our great inheritance is the sympathy of Christ, and His intercession; we have seen Abraham to fail in his intercession, but when did ever the intercession of the Son of God fail?-but for that intercession you and I were at this moment without one hope; notwithstanding all our faith, those of us who have faith-notwithstanding all our new principle, those of us who have the new principle, the Divine nature-it would have all been swept away just like chaff before the wind. And yet, beloved, we are not to undervalue the intercessions, the prayers, and the sympathies of the children of God. When the believer is introduced into this new kingdom, he not only finds new privileges, but he finds new obligations spring up. Just as when a stranger is introduced into a family of which before he knew nothing, now the members of that family stand in a new relation to him, and all that he can do for their good he is to do: so with the privilege, obligation springs up; they always come together. Our very obligations are privileges; and it is no small thing to the VOL. XI.-No. 394.-July 17, 1845.

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believer in the loss of the dearest earthly friend he has, if he has the sympathy, the love, and the prayers of God's praying people. If we have their sympathy, their love, and their prayers, then we have the heart of Jesus, the promises too of Jesus on our side; for this is one of the channels by which God conveys a blessing to His saints in this vale of tears.

It is to this subject the words of the text actually and necessarily direct us. We have spoken of the subject of prayer, the first evidence of real grace-oh! how some of you parents long to see the first evidence in some of your children! Could ye but see them withdraw to pray-could ye amidst all their ignorance, amidst their many apparent inconsistencies, could ye but see them withdraw to pray to God! Some of you can look back, and ye ought to look back with joy and thankfulness on that first evidence with which God brake in upon your souls, and drew you out in prayer at His throne. Thus we have spoken of it, as being the means whereby God speaks all the blessings of His providence-" open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." And that happy way of peace, which if you and I did walk more in, how much more happy should we be !-" be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God." We have considered too something of the quality of this prayer, what it ought to be; "praying always"-always desiring to be in a praying frame of soul, mingling prayer with all that I do. It is Satan's work to endeavour to persuade you that prayer is only for great occasions. It is for all occasions; and as ye can find in all occasions time to sin, oh! may you find in all occasions time for prayer. Praying always;" and that too," with all prayer;" not confining, or dictating to the Holy Ghost, but in every mode of prayer, in secret, in the family, or in public, or social, or as we go along the streets. Happy souls are they, who, since I last preached to you on these words, have known something of what this is-as they go along the streets to pray to God. Who is the most spiritual person here? I will not ask his creed, but I will say it is that man who has such views of Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost, as lead his mind upwards in longing desires for God, and His grace, as one accepted in the Beloved; and that, in all the varied occasions of life and being. We see too another truth, with what earnestness it ought to be-"with all supplication in the Spirit;". and " watching thereunto," before prayer, in prayer, and after prayer. But I must not delay in speaking upon the words immediately before me. Hitherto, beloved, you observe all has had respect to ourselves. It has been praying for ourselves that comes first; and it ought to be first; it would be unnatural to be otherwise, it would be unscriptural if it were otherwise; but it is not to be confined to ourselves. The religion of the Gospel is from above; it is from God, and it is like God. Not only is it holy and spiritual, but it is bene

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volent and diffusive. The moon is an emblem of the Church; she receives her light from the sun, and she diffuses all the light that she receives. No one can look on the surface of God's creation, but he must see this truth in all its bearings. No one can look on the earth, on the ground, on the grass, on the meanest insect, on any one member of our bodies, but he must see the unselfish principles of the God that created them. So whether I look at God's creation, or the works of God's providence, or at God's grace, there is in all, the principle of diffusion. You have received-diffuse; you have receiyed, that you may diffuse; diffuse therefore because God, your God, is diffusive in all His works.

In directing your minds to this passage, there are two points to which I would confine my attention. First of all, the persons for whom we are to pray; the "saints," and "all saints:" and then, secondly, let us remark on the words immediately preceding, “watching thereunto with all perseverance."

I. With regard to the first point, when it is said, we are to pray for the saints, or the saint to pray for the saint, it does not mean that we are not to pray for others. Not pray for those who are "without hope!"- -we might say, "God forbid !" for you and I were "without hope" once. We find clear testimony of Scripture on this point in the second chapter of the first epistle to Timothy and first verse" I exhort therefore, that supplication, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men: for kings"-whether they be infidel kings or heathen kings, or abominable kings, whoever they may be-" for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved”—that is, some of all men, of all ranks, of all circumstances, of all conditions of life"who will have all," or some of all, "to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth." Therefore, we are to pray "for all men." We are commanded to "love our neighbour as ourselves"-I am sure there is no proof of our love for our neighbour if we do not pray for him. How few are there who can do any substantial good to their neighbours!—you that can do it, remember your obligations but how do you "love your neighbour as yourselves" if you do not pray for your neighbour? And if you ask, how is this love spoken of in the Gospel of Matthew? how is this love to show itself? our Lord tells us. We are to "pray for them that despitefully use us" -"love your enemies, and pray for them that despitefully use you." This is how we are to show our love. It is not in mere kind words, kind greetings, kind expressions; they are very easy, they cost us but little-but oh! to pray for them! If you open your purse to your neighbours, it costs you something; but when you go to God in the spirit of prayer, when you are led to Him in the spirit of prayer,

you open oftentimes the very treasury of God for them. How many will have to say in eternity, 'It was the effect of your prayers! It was according to God's eternal purpose, His unchangeable decree, undoubtedly, but His ear was prepared to hear, therefore He prepared your heart to ask.' Oh! beloved, if you and I are to pray only for the saints, what an error poor Moses was in! Look into the fourteenth chapter of Numbers, and see how selfish he was- -(from the eleventh to the nineteenth verses). The Lord had said in the twelfth verse-"I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." Moses had his personal friends, he had his relatives, he had his brethren; yet he prayed for them, the whole of his prayer is for them, and he prayed pleading with God His great and wondrous perfections

The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Thy mercy.' Oh! when have you and I had so much grace in circumstances of great trouble, as that our hearts were drawn out in fervent supplication for those around us? Observe too, how Samuel reasoned. It is in the twelfth chapter of the first book of Samuel and twenty-third verse-" Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you." How have you and I sinned, then, against Him? I believe what I was led to utter in my prayer, that whatever blessing we want, whatever we covet, whatever we long for-is it the descending power of the Spirit ?-we are first of all sensible that we do want it, and we are never so sensible that we do want it, as when we are led on our knees to pray earnestly to God, preparatory to our receiving it. See, beloved, how Samuel felt. A man may be very fervent in praying for himself; he may be fervent in praying for his own soul; but he will sin against God if he does not pray for those around him. Shall we turn to some higher exhibition of this? Look at the apostle, in the ninth chapter of Romans-"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart; for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Never can I believe that the apostle could ever for one moment give up the prospect of eternal glory, or lose the Divine presence for any child of man; but, beloved, he is here led to show the intensity of his love; he was willing to forfeit all his privileges, to be separated even from the children of God as to privileges, as one cast out, for their sakes, his "brethren and kinsmen, according to the flesh." Remember the twelfth chapter too-"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." Beloved, we see clearly enough then, that the saints of God are not merely to pray for the

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saints, but they are to pray for those around them. Oh! I would say, look around, and see how many come to this place week after week; some have heard me for years and years-now, in a sense, we are coming to a close-they have heard me for years, they have listened to my voice, they assent to the truth, they acknowledge it to be the truth, but they still remain in their sins; they are in the world, lovers of themselves, they have never yet felt the plague of their own hearts, never have truly prayed, never have called upon God in truth, and have never yet been humbled before Him. would say, is not this your case? and is this not cause for prayer? Observe, the American Churches-for we dare not deny their revivals, we must be half infidels to deny them, and we have had one proof of them in this pulpit over and over again; why, they had, at the time of his conversion, thirty converts in one week; when have we had such a time in John Street? Is he no proof of His converting power? I would we had dozens such. Oh! look around, you will see many causes for praying for poor sinners; you will see ample cause on all sides, to be urgent with God for them. Look at our country; look at our present position; look at our nation; look on our Churches. I would say, look out of yourselves, for the saints of God are not only to pray for the saints, but to pray for those who are ready to perish for lack of knowledge. We can rejoice in the covenant "ordered in all things and sure;" we can rejoice that God will not lose one of His, but will "accomplish the number of His elect," when He shall come in His glory and in His kingdom; but that should never hinder us, no, not for one moment, from pleading hard at the throne of grace, that He would put forth His mighty power in the hearts of these poor, desolateah! desolate sinners; desolate, for there are many here without God, without Christ, and they go to rest at night in that state with no thought. Oh! they are desolate men and women.

But it is the saints of God that are here to be the especial subjects of prayer; it is the saints of God for whom we are especially to pray. Ah! these saints of God-they are they who bear His image, chosen before all worlds, redeemed by the precious blood of an incarnate God, "called out of darkness into marvellous light;" those who fear God, those who love Him because "He first loved us;" of whom in is said, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." Oh! if any of you are dreaming of the promises, and yet know nothing of the converting power of the Spirit, beware; you are walking on worse than the edge of the volcano; it is but a little moment and destruction will be your portion, for "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." But these have received the wondrous change, they "have passed from death unto life;" they "were darkness, now are they light;" and they are made "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Yet, notwithstanding all this, they are poor, imperfect creatures. In their faith they are imperfect, in