dance. It would also be easy to show that there is not in the word of God a single instance of an exalted saint whom his gracious Master did not make more abundant in the fruits of holiness by this gracious method. The first record that we have of Abraham is, that he was made to experience the keen north wind in the command, "get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee." Yet soon he experienced the genial blessing of the south, when God made a covenant with him, "surely in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee." Again, long subsequently God demanded of him that he should take his son-his only son Isaac the child of promise, whom he dearly loved, and offer him as a sacrifice on a mountain which God would show him. Abraham did so he obeyed the heavenly command-the north wind produced precisely the effect designed by God, and in the substituted sacrifice, the south wind blew and Abraham rejoiced to see the Lord's day, and saw it and was glad. And the exalted faith and the blessings which accompanied that faith remain as spices of the Lord's garden, still flowing forth, still exhaustless, and still refreshing all the Lord's faithful people from age to age. The case of Paul may be adduced to prove, how exactly in a similar way his gracious Master dealt with him. He was raised up to the third heaven where he saw things which surpassed man's imagination, which mortal tongue might not disclose; yet it was needful for him, that he too should experience the keen blasts of the north. He was consequently visited with a thorn in the flesh; it was permitted by God that the messenger of Satan should buffet him. How keen his anguish, and how intense his pain was, under this visitation, is evident from his own account of his prayer, "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." But then came the genial influences of the soft south wind on his soul-this delightful and consoling answer was given, "my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Then those spices flowed forth from the apostles heart, which, up to this day constitute the wonder and admiration even of the most advanced of the servants of God.

Through the influence of this trial, and the subsequent consolation, he attained to such a pitch of absolute resignation to the will of God that he could go on to say, "Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak then am I strong."

O dearly beloved brethren, it was a hard matter, doubtless, to bear that thorn in the flesh; but where is the faithful servant of the Lord who would not cheerfully take the thorn, however sharp it might be, provided that this answer of divine grace might follow it, and that thus he might at once learn, by his own blessed experience, that when he was weak, then was he strongest of all; and when he had nothing in himself, to which he could look for support or encouragement, then Christ, his adorable Redeemer was to him, indeed, all in all. Such then is God's way of dealing with the church; and now, it only remains that I should, in conclusion, endeavour to apply this subject to our own hearts, and while doing so, may God, the Holy Spirit who alone opens the avenues of joy and sorrow, who alone can take away the heart of stone and put in its place a heart of flesh, may he vouchsafe his presence and power among us.

First, I shall apply the subject to ourselves as it regards the past. There are none here, I should think, who have arrived at the age of maturity that have not passed already through a mingled tissue of trials and blessings; then, dear friends, if this be so, the text furnishes us with a good criterion by which we may test our own condition. In looking back on the time of trial--in looking back to the season when some keen affliction has cut us to the heart, O ask your own conscience "where did I then look for comfort? on what stay did I then lean? what was then my hope, and whence alone did I desire that my consolation should come ?" I trust there are many here present who can say, "at that hour, I got me to my Redeemer in the midst of my sorrow right gladly; my voice was then a plaintive one, but that voice was made to be heard even in the inmost shrine of the temple of my God; and in such a season imperfect, sinful, and unworthy as I felt myself to be, yet by God's mercy I can say, that such an

answer of peace was vouchsafed to my prayer, as I can ascribe only to the grace of God when he bids his south wind blow. I cannot but acknowledge, that I have experienced in my heart so much of submission and resignation to his will, as carry with them the absolute verification, the true realization of the promises of God to my own soul." Every one here, such as I have now described, can say, "In sorrow I sought for grace and obtained comfort; in affliction I sought for grace, and was blessed with resignation." But alas! it is hardly conceivable, that all here can be true believers. Then, dear friends, look back on any period of affliction and if you cannot find, that any blessing came along with, and grew out of it-if you perceive nothing like I will not say the attainment of grace, but even the desire for grace; if the seasons of sorrow, through which you have passed were unheeded and unimproved, permit me with all affection to ask you, what ground have you to believe that you are a true and living plant in the garden of the Lord ? Oh remember, I beseech you, that the vine of the visible church bears unfruitful branches, and that our Lord's own sentence is, that such branches should be cut off and cast into the fire. Hear again, I beseech you, the voice of the keeper of the garden, of the Lord of all these wonders of love, as he goes round in his garden and examines the plants that grow therein. He cometh to a fig tree and seeketh on it good fruit, but finds that it beareth bad fruit; he cometh to another and seeketh fruit thereon in its due season, and findeth none-the sentence which he passeth is this, (which will be the final sentence at last) cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" But that awful sentence has not yet issued from the mouth of God with regard to any one here present. O ye can turn to God in Christ this day, if it be but in the faint language of your hearts, and obtain righteousness, holiness, pardon, and peace. If but a true desire go up from your souls-if words fail you so that you cannot express that which you long for, yet if your hearts are moved to long for a blessing, the Saviour still stands as Mediator at God's right hand, and will plead the cause of that imperfect, but heart warm prayer, and such a blessing will come down as will

lead you to pray on still, until at no distant period when both the north and the south wind have blown upon you, the spices of the Lord's garden will "flow out" from you too.

But, let us further consider the text in another application, as it regards the future.

As there can be no one here who has not experienced sorrow in time past, so it is equally true, that there is not a single being present who will not experience sorrow in time to come. Yes, beloved, sorrow will come-the keen north wind will blow-your heart strings will be torn and rent, and I long that, for your own soul's comfort and the Redeemer's glory, when the keenest blasts of the north wind blow, you may at the same time experience the refreshing breath of the south. How shall this be? The means which I propose are simple indeed, yet, if as the only result of what I have been permitted to say here this day, but one single believer now present be enabled to do what I am about to recommend, I shall not have laboured in vain. What then do I propose? propose that you should treasure up in your hearts the words of the text: and then suppose that hereafter; all outward joys,-all pleasure of this world, should be withdrawn from you; if your joy should be blighted, your domestic comforts all removed, and you be left sorrowing and alone with a desolate heart, what will be the effect which this one small portion of the word of God will produce? You will look up by faith to heaven; you will behold your Mediator at God's right hand, and if the north wind do blow very keenly to your hearts, you will know that it is only because He has bidden it.

We know that the cold and frost of winter check vegetation, not to destroy but to preserve. And thus, if I perceive by faith that my trials, however grievous, come, tempered and proportioned by infinite wisdom to my need, from him who loved me, and gave himself for me, can I doubt the message which this north wind bears? No, I shall only see in it the needful severity of a most tender, yet omniscient love, and I shall kiss the rod; and even in the very act of thus submitting, the spirit of comfort will breathe into our hearts, and we shall taste an earnest of eternal bliss when the

south wind comes, and love, and peace, and joy, the spices of the king's garden flow out.

But let me, very briefly, make another application of the subject to the state of your own church. It seems to be singularly applicable to that church. How many are assailing her in the present day, who cry "down with her, down with her, even to the ground?" How many rude hands seize the axe and the hammer to break down her cedar and her carved work, and would consume all her beauty by the devouring flames? Know ye whence this fierce assault, this rude opposition comes ? It is the will of the head of the Church, which alone bids the north wind blow. But has no south wind blown ? I came over here from the sister land, and I met with a large body of your clergy, whom God in his mercy has given you. I found them actuated by an increasing love of the Gospel, increasing simplicity, and an increasing desire to preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified, and to know nothing else among their flocks. I further heard of increasing congregations, growing proofs of holiness and plain manifestations that the Spirit of God is at work in this land, and blessing the church of Ireland. What are we to understand by this, but that God's time of mercy is mingled with times of chastisement, if the keen breath of the north be experienced, that the south wind is blowing too. And shall we stop here, when our text leads us on another step? Shall we not ask ourselves the question, what is the end which God proposes to himself by these mingled dispensations? Our wisdom should be to enquire in what particular our church has hitherto been most wanting to her God, and what particular spices, as far as we can judge, he desires that she should now produce in far richer abundance than she has ever done before. I need only mention one, and it is my confirmed belief, in accordance with an opinion which I heard expressed by one of your own excellent clergymen, that there is hardly a single point in which the United Church of England and Ireland has been more wanting to her God, there is hardly any spice of which so little fragrance has been flowing forth to the world from that church, as Missionary exertion. If these things be so, ought we not to ask the

further question, may not the very object which the gracious head of the church has in view, be the calling forth of increased effort in the holy cause of missions. And may we not further hope, that if these efforts be made, all our trials will pass away, that the keen blasts of the north will cease, and that our God will vouchsafe to bless us, even more than before, with the refreshing breath of his Spirit?

This leads us to consider the society for which we plead; a society which furnishes you with an opportunity, in strict accordance with the liturgy and discipline of your church, of supplying this deficiency in your duty, and which supplies the only means which I know of, that churchmen can use to send the Gospel to the great body of the heathen. There is, indeed, another society of which I would speak with the deepest respect, but while her design may be, ultimately to extend the blessings of the gospel of Christ to the heathen, her first and main object—an object not yet satisfactorily attained—is to provide for the spiritual wants of our countrymen and colonists abroad. And while the heathen are perishing in thousands every day, our Church must not be allowed to remain wholly unproductive and unfruitful in this grace which God himself seems, especially in this our day, to call for at her hands. I might further add that the circumstances of the Society for which I plead are almost precisely similar to those of the text. Last year the Lord sent the north wind and our funds fell short; this year they are refreshed again, God having put it into the hearts of his people to contribute more largely and liberally of their silver and gold.

Last year two of our missions were suspended, but the Spirit of God has descended, as we have reason to hope, on one spot of India, and thousands are seeking the way of salvation. In New Zealand, fresh difficulties arose, and we were exposed to the most unfounded charges at home. But a very favourable testimony has been borne to the success with which God has blessed our efforts by a distinguished Prelate of our church, and now we learn, that through the instrumentality of native teachers the knowledge of God is spreading rapidly through that land. The more carefully you trace the operations of the Society,

the more clearly will you perceive that | the north and south wind are blowing together. Again, we ask, why does the great head of the church permit this? The question seems answered by my text. When he bids the south wind alone awake, it may be merely for the comfort and consolation of his people; when the north wind alone blows, it may be only to humble and to prove them, but if the two blow together, then there is, plainly, a particular grace required— | a particular offering of the fragrance of the spice garden which the Lord obviously demands. Do you remember what St. Paul says of the liberality of the Phillippians? that it was "an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God." Increased and more self-denying liberality is the especial grace which these circumstances call for, and God seems to be demanding, that the church shall offer larger contributions, that she shall present more willing offerings to the missionary cause, that thus the spices of his garden may flow forth.

And now, dear friends, with two or three further considerations I will leave this subject to your own hearts. And first, I would remind you that if you are influenced by the Spirit of God, the contributions which you will this day present will be the large and liberal offerings of christian love. God looketh to the heart. There can be no fragrance in that which is given grudgingly, and as it were of necessity. The spices can only flow out from hearts that are warmed and enlarged by the genial glow of christian love. And let this love be called into liveliest exercise, when we remember what an untold amount of blessings this day's contributions may be instruments of producing. How wonderful the thought that the offering of any true believer, here to day, presented as an acceptable sacrifice to God, in Christ Jesus, may diffuse a holy fragrance which shall extend far beyond the shores of our own favored land. The sweet odours of these offerings may be wafted to Ceylon, and there may shed forth in the heart of some poor Cingalese a fragrance wholly surpassing her far-famed cinnamon groves. The same sweetness may visit some poor labourer in the rose gardens of the East, and may convey to him, in the holiness of life, and the peace of death, the fragrance of that

saving name which is as ointment poured forth.

But further, I would remind you that the words of the text require that the spices should "flow out." These offerings must not come from any other source than from a hearty desire to give, not as to man, but unto the Lord. It is a beautiful expression which St. Paul uses, and one which I would commend to your heartfelt consideration, when speaking of the churches in Macedonia, he says "That in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." If you possess, or ever seek, the abundance of Gospel joy, doubtless it will abound to the riches of your liberality. Hear, moreover, the description which the Saviour himself gives of the spice fruits which grow in his garden, "thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits, camphire, with spikenard; spikenard and saffron ; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices."How rich, how fragrant, how teeming are the spices of the Lord's garden.

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O, I would have each christian heart here put to itself the question, the offering which I purpose to give to my God to day, be in the freeness of love and the largeness of liberality, with which I give, something analogous to the fragrance of those spices here described as growing in the garden of my Lord?"

With one further consideration I shall conclude. Hitherto, except by a brief explanation, nothing has been said of the answer of the church, yet this must not be wholly passed over without notice. Now I would have you remember, that since I am permitted to address you, by the appointment of your own pastor, I have a right to regard the claims which I now make upon you, as the claims of the church. I know the privileges you enjoy-I cannot doubt the blessed result of those privileges on many a christian heart. The church trusts the reality of divine grace, and at the stated time, and at the proper season invites the people to contribute, and, as it were, summons her Redeemer to come and

accept of their fruits. Such is the case to day, and if the Saviour were visibly to obey the voice of the church; if, in his human form, and in all the splendor

of his divine glory, he were to enter this part of his garden, and go round from plant to plant to see how rich the spice fruits were that were growing thereon,-Oh, how large-how abundant would be the offerings presented to him. But he does come. He is here, though unseen by sight-he is known to be present among us by faith; and I would ask, whether it be not the cha

racteristic, the essential, distinguishing characteristic of the christian, not to let sight triumph over faith, but so to seek aid from God, that faith shall triumph over sight.

Come then Lord Jesus, will I say in the prayer of the church," Come, Lord Jesus, into this part of thy garden, receive of the people their offerings and eat this day thy pleasants fruits."

ONE name survives-may it live for ever! a name of more value than ten thousand of those which form the more prominent figures in the page of the historian, or are the heroes of the poet's song-the dear, the ever-to-be-adored name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. The name of Jesus is still fresh in the recollection, and still warms the hearts of thousands. The lapse of eighteen centuries has neither obscured its glory, nor diminished the interest which Christians feel in it. The fair temple of his fame, built on the immutable foundation of the greatest personal dignity and worth, and reared by a series of services the most laborious, and of sufferings the most painful, to which, compelled by no necessity, he generously submitted for the best interests of mankind, continues entire and unimpared; it has not been defaced by the rudest assaults of the tongues and pens of the infidel mob, nor shaken by any of those convulsions which have agitated the world, and so often overthrown the firmest fabrics of human power, and the proudest monuments of human fame. His fame has,

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without a figure, reached the skies. His name at this moment stands first in the list of celestials, for "God hath given him a name which is above every name.' His unrivalled excellencies, and matchless achievements are the wonder of the heavenly host, and his praises the subject of their sweetest and incessant songs. And on earth, though multitudes have never had an opportunity "to hear his fame, or see his glory;" and though many to whom his name has been published have been so stupid as not to perceive, or so perverse as not to acknowledge his high title to universal admiration and love; yet, blessed be God, many exist to whom "his name is as ointment poured forth;" who confess that "in all things he hath the pre-eminence;" on the tablet of whose memories and hearts his precious name is engraven in indelible characters; and who would ten thousand times rather that skill should part from their right hand, and their tongue cleave to the roof of their mouth, than that they should ever forget their best benefactor, or cease to speak in his praise.