been no more than he has often done to his most faithful servants. Jonathan the son of Saul-the brave, the pious, the disinterested, the amiable Jonathan, fell in battle, together with his impenitent father. Such providences argue no defect of love on the part of Almighty God; and heaven will make ample amends for all. Yet the Lord knows, and feels for, all our griefs; and, when he sees good, can and will prove this, even by temporal deliverances. He did so in the present case

preserving the life of a slave, and giving him beforehand a gracious assurance of his purpose. Go to him, therefore, in all your sorrows, be they many or few, great or small. Expect at his hand every thing which he shall think it wise to grant. Faith in God, and love to a poor prophet, did wonders for Ebed-melech. What may not love to the great Prophet, Priest, and King, do for you, even in temporal things? Of this be assuredhe will remain in debt to none. They that most simply love him, and most unreservedly trust their affairs with him, shall be the happiest men in the end.

But, finally, if there be any here who will not repent, because they will not believe God's word, let them reflect, How unflinching is the Anger of God! Lest others should still presume, because of the compassion expressed in this message to Ebed-melech, all the former threatenings are repeated-and their truth was in a short period

experienced: "I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good." So will it be, perhaps, with some of you! But oh, believe in time! repent in time! that, when the last and heaviest judgment shall arrive, you may "lift up your heads with joy," knowing that "your redemption draweth nigh."

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SERMON X.

JEREMIAH XXXVIII. 14-20.

Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him, into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me. Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken [or rather, thou wilt not hearken] unto me? So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life. Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house. But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall

this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire; and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.

WE still linger over the last days of ancient Jerusalem. It is true, we cannot now "walk about. Zion, and tell the towers thereof;" we cannot obey the summons to "mark well her bulwarks, and consider her palaces:" these are fallen before the sword of an incensed and ruthless conqueror, " and the smoke of them ascendeth up to heaven.' But we can ask, as Moses long ago foretold that we should," Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger?" Alas! no other reply can be given, than that which he has already put into our mouths: "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them, when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; therefore hath he rooted them out of their land, in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day." Oh, what a warning is

here, to every other nation, however distinguished by civil or religious privileges! "If God spared not them, take heed lest he also spare not thee!"

But to whom shall we preach this warning? To our own nation? Yes;-but there is this difficulty standing in the way: the nation collectively cannot hear it-cannot obey it. It is only as composed of individuals, that a guilty land can be addressed. We must therefore speak the warning to you, my brethren, man by man. Nor will our labour be in vain, even if but one heart be affected by it. The repentance of individuals may, through the mercy of God, be for the salvation of multitudes; while, on the other hand, the fate of a nation may depend on the unbelief of a single person.

Of the truth of this remark we have a striking illustration, in the case of Zedekiah—the last king in Jerusalem before the captivity. His compliance with the Divine admonition would have saved the city from destruction. His unbelief was the last drop that made her cup of guilt to overflow.

The progress of his sin, so graphically set before us in the passage which you have just heard, may be arranged under the following heads: 1. The secret Misgiving; 2. The Divine Counsel; 3. The weak Excuse; 4. The solemn Re-assurance; 5. The silent and fatal Refusal.-May the Spirit of God bless our reflections on this subject, to the awakening of every faithless soul!