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of this, that He is the Christ; to have not a doubt upon it-to bave no hesitation that He is not only Christ, but the Christ of God as revealed in the Word; and to rest your whole soul upon what He is as revealed in the Word. Oh! would that nothing short of this— nothing short of this personal reception of Christ may satisfy you and This is the best preparation for glory. Do we speak of living in Christ?-may all the life you live be as one with Him, and realising your oneness with Him, every day realising your oneness with Him, seeking it of the Holy Ghost, being very earnest with Him on this point, and being honest too, and willing to avoid whatever hinders your personal reception of the blessing. Oh! to be willing to live as one with Christ, accepted in Christ, "made the righteousness of God" in Him; and to seek earnestly so to live in Him, as to see all the circumstances of every-day life, as so many circumstances to enable you to experience this blessing, as so many objects to take As you want grace for love, peace, joy, you to a throne of grace. sanctity, comfort, and advance, oh! to go for grace to help in all these things; to have a covenant right to it-to have a covenant God and Father-to have a covenant Jesus as your Intercessor, and to go to Him for all! Oh! the happy state of living much with Christ! When I have been brought much into that state of mind, I shall act in my family, in my office, in my shop, in my every transaction, as if Christ were at my right hand. As if I were seen of Him-and as if I beheld Him! why, He is here now, and sees me far more distinctly than you see me !-not as man, but as essential God He is here, in the souls of His people by His blessed Spirit He is here, (it may be, searching you and humbling you at this present moment). Then aim to live for Him. Oh! how many are, I believe, desiring much comfort and much joy-saying, 'I did not receive much consolation from the sermon, it was very much preceptive, it was very much exhortatory, I want the consoling part of Divine truth.' My brother, if thou wast stirred up to more active energy God's service, thou and many a soul would find that walking in Christ, beholding His glory, and aiming to please Him is the very best preparative for receiving large communications of the anticipated glory, and the best preparative for heaven. May the Lord help us to realise it, by the power of His own Spirit, for Christ's sake.

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ON BEHALF OF HIS PEOPLE.

A SERMON,

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

PREACHED IN JOHN STREET CHAPEL, KING'S ROAD, BEDFORD ROW, ON SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 26, 1846.

"O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee; but I. have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me."John xvii. 25.

IN considering the subject of the former verse, I endeavoured to place before you this truth, that the great happiness of heaven is in the presence of Christ, and "to be with Him where He is:" that the great enjoyment there is to behold His glory-" that they may behold My glory." I am far from thinking that that will be the only occupation of bliss; I believe that heaven will be a scene of activity: yet this will be the main, the great element, of all the happiness there. And this conclusion sprang from it necessarily if there are are any here or elsewhere in the whole world, that do not love to be with Christ here, and to see aught of His glory here, they are in a state, at this moment, wholly unprepared to be with Him for ever. The first step towards eternal glory is being with Christ here, and loving to behold His glory here. I then considered the mode of that prayer; not being content with looking at it as a mere request, but as containing in it something far more. It was a request grounded on covenant right,-the whole prayer from first to last being based upon what the Lord Jesus Christ had undertaken to do; and that which is sheer mercy to His people, is as a right to Him. When you and I come to lay our heads upon our dying pillows, that truth, applied by the power of the Holy Ghost, may just lift us up above all the fears of death. "Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." This verse is to be read in connection with that which we have now to consider-" O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee; but I have known Thee, VOL. XIII.-No. 458.-October 8, 1846.

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and these have known that Thou hast sent Me"-therefore "I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” Or if it embraces the whole of our Lord's prayer, it takes in a wider sweep, but the foundation is still the same; namely, that our Lord prays to His Father as a "righteous Father," that that which He has been praying for may be accomplished fully and eternally.

There are two or three points here for our prayerful consideration The first is, what is that world which our Lord meant, when He says, "the world hath not known Thee;" secondly, let us consider the contrast, the wondrous contrast: though the "world hath not known Thee, I have known Thee, and these bave known that Thou hast sent Me;" and then, thirdly, let us regard the title that He gives to the Father-" O righteous Father!" and wherefore it is that He urges it.

I. With regard to the first point, "the world" that our Lord meant is manifestly, as I conceive, the Jewish world. The Jewish nation, beloved, as you are well aware, was the nation peculiarly distinguished by God's mercy. From the time of Moses to the end of Josiah's reign was about eight hundred years, or rather more, during which time there was amongst them an acknowledgment, more or less, of the God of the Bible; but truly there can be no doubt that the great mass of the people were carnal, debased, depraved, and strangers to spiritual religion. Their best period was while in the wilderness-that was bad enough, you will say-yet I am inclined to think that it was the best part of their history. But this marked them, that whenever any righteous judge died, they instantly veered to idolatry; whenever any king rose up that himself went to idolatry, the people followed him; whenever any one rose up that did not fear God, the people went with him. There can be no greater proof of want of vitality, than when a nation follows their king or judge merely because he is a king or a judge; it shows, indeed, that there is but little vitality.

But at the time of our Lord they were in such a state that they seemed to be lost in ignorance of the true God. In the seventh chapter of this same Gospel, and the twenty-eighth verse, our Lord speaks of them. "Then cried Jesus in the temple, as He taught, saying, Ye both know Me, and ye know whence I am"-(in some degree they knew it)" and I am not come of Myself, but He that sent Me is true, whom ye know not." In the eighth chapter and nineteenth verse, He asserts the same truth: "Then said they unto

Him, Where is Thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know Me, nor My Father; if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also." Again, in the fifty-fifth verse: "Yet ye have not known Him, but I know Him; and if I should say I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you." Again, in the fifteenth chapter of this same Gospel, and the twenty-first verse: "But these things will they do unto you for My name sake, because they know not Him that sent Me." And in the sixteenth chapter and third verse: "And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me."

What an awful thought! Yet I doubt not but that the Jewish nation was at this time the most religious nation upon the face of the earth. Let us not vaunt ourselves above them, for we were in the depths of barbarity at this time; sunk to the very lowest amongst the nations that we should now look down upon; we were as despicable as they, and in some respects more so than the most of them. Yet, although the Jewish nation was, perhaps, at that time, the most religious people upon earth, the Lord Jesus Christ says, “Ye neither know Me, nor My Father."

But what shall we say of the Gentile world? Is there any difference? If I turn to the first chapter of Romans, from the twenty-first to the twenty-third verses, what an awful picture does it present! "Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." When you and I remember, that when a nation forms idols, the idols are in their own souls before they make their idols, is it not a sad picture of what a state the Gentile world was in at that time? And see too, in the third chapter, how the apostle classed both Jew and Gentile under one order. "What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin: as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."

Yet perhaps it may be said, ' But with us it is different; we are not as the Jewish world that then was, nor are we as the Gentile world that then was.' My dear hearers, we ought to be deeply thankful that there is a difference, a vast difference, a perceptible difference;

for us not to acknowledge it, is to be deeply ungrateful. But is there a vital difference? Is the worldly man now totally different from what he was then? I deny it altogether. The worldly man is at the present moment really the same. Look throughout the whole world; the worldly man is ignorant of the God of the Bible. I do not say every worldly man is an atheist; far from it—I believe an atheist is a rare creature. I know there are some who talk bravely and boldly-let them tell us their secret migivings; there are some that reason on-let them tell us their secret sinkings of heart; there are some that have brazened it out before friends-but let us see them in sickness, in the near approach of death. I do not deny that there are atheists, because I can believe that God may give a man up to strong delusion, so that he shall "believe a lie." When we blink the light that we have, when we cease to regard it, and act against the dictates of conscience, God can give us a strong delusion, so that we shall believe a lie;" and that which is manifest to any other man as a clear lie, we shall believe to be a clear truth. I do not deny that there are atheists, but I believe that they are rarely to be found. And no wonder; because if in the common and ordinary course of life I trace up all effects to their immediate causes, and see an immediate cause for all the effects around me, my mind travels up to the great First Cause; and there is a sort of mental violence when this is not the case: so that I believe that there are very few atheists.

But the worldly man is, notwithstanding this, ignorant of the God of the Bible; he has no real acquaintance with Him, no scriptural acquaintance with Him, no spiritual acquaintance with Him. If you ask what I mean, it is this, the view he takes of God is different from what the Scriptures tell me of Him. He has no real communion with Him, he has no real delight in Him; and till a man has communion with God, he can have no real knowledge of Him. He has no real acquaintance with God as a just God; and to this the words of the text more immediately and peculiarly refer.

I would lay stress upon this. Look at it. "O righteous Father! the world hath not known Thee," as a righteous God. Perhaps there are some that doubt this. Then I would say to such, talk with a worldly man, a well informed, moral and decent man, well instructed in other things-talk with him for five minutes, and mark how many sad mistakes come from his lips with regard to the God of the Bible. You might go on putting down the testimony that would come from his lips-if you do not like to talk with him, hear

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