SERMON XII.

GOD THE DISPENSER OF WEALTH.

The same object.

2 Chron. xxv. 9. And Amaziah said to the man of

God, What shall we do for the hundred talents

which I have given to the army of Israel? And the

man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee

much more than this.

SERMON XIII.

GOD GLORIFIED IN THE BUILDING OF

Haggai i. 8.

CHURCHES.

The same object.

191

Go up to the mountain, and bring wood,

and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it,

and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.

SERMON XIV.

208

THE DUTY AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF ACTIVE

EXERTIONS IN THE CAUSE OF RELIGION.

With reference to zeal in religious societies.

Hebrews x. 24, 25. Let us consider one another, to

provoke unto love and to good works: not for-

saking the assembling of ourselves together, as the

manner of some is; but exhorting one another :

and so much the more, as ye see the day ap-

proaching.

226

SERMON XV.

MOTIVES FOR PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL.

Acts viii. 4. Therefore they that were scattered abroad

went every where preaching the word.

SERMON XVI.

THE DUTY OF SUPPORTING MISSIONS.

. 250

Matt. x. 8. Freely ye have received: freely give. 268

With reference to district visiting.

James i. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God

and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and

widows in their affliction, and to keep himself

unspotted from the world.

SERMON XIX.

LABOUR IN THE LORD.

The same object.

319

Rom. xvi. 12. Salute the beloved Persis, which

laboured much in the Lord.

335

SERMON XX.

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE.

With reference to public hospitals.

John xiii. 34. A new commandment I give unto you,

That ye love one another; as I have loved you,

that ye also love one another.

352

SERMON XXI.

THE BLESSINGS ATTENDING THE CONVERSION

OF A SINNER.

With reference to a penitentiary.

James v. 20. He that converteth a sinner from the

error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and

hide a multitude of sins.

SERMON XXII.

THE GUILT OF NEGLECTING THE STATE OF

OTHERS.

With reference to an asylum for offenders.

372

John ii. 9. He that saith he is in the light, and

hateth his brother, is in darkness, even until now. 389

SERMONS.

SERMON I.

CHRISTIAN FAITH MANIFESTED IN THE HABITS OF LIFE.

JAMES ii. 22.

Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

THERE are two feelings which will be found existing in the mind of every man who has fully imbibed the spirit of the Gospel. They are not exactly similar, though they are by no means inconsistent with each other.

The first is, a sense of his unworthiness: of the meanness of his best works, the insufficiency of all his services to recommend him to the favour of God. Compared with what he ought to be; compared with what he might be; com

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pared with the rule prescribed to him and the glory set before him, how lamentably cold is his heart, how grievously deficient his practice! "Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him ?"

It is from an overflowing sense of this unworthiness that St. Paul so constantly reminds his disciples of the truth-the humbling, yet consoling truth-that "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." "By grace are ye saved; not of works, lest any man should boast." By Jesus Christ "all that believe are justified from all things." "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The other feeling which the Christian will also cherish in his mind, is a sense of the obligation laid upon him,-upon him to whom so much mercy has been shown-that he walk worthy of the price by which he has been ransomed, of the vocation to which he has been called; that he "let his light shine before men;" that he prove himself to be "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ;" that he labour "to bring every