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says the Apostle, came to you not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” They did not receive the grace of God "in vain."

Thirdly. The gospel is received in vain when it is received unperseveringly. Peter speaks of our receiving "the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls :" and our Lord says, "He only that endureth unto the end shall be saved." It is not the first step, but the last, in the journey that brings you to your home. Many have gone far, but not far enough: they have been informed, but not illuminated; they have been reformed, but not regenerated. The Galatians did run well; they began in the spirit; but the Apostle entertained fears concerning them, lest they should end in the flesh. And our Saviour says, “If ye continue in my words, then (alone) are ye my disciples; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Apostacy from the faith and practice of the Gospel generally go together; sometimes the one takes the lead, and sometimes the other; but the other is soon after. Bad practices render bad principles desirable; and then you have recourse to infidelity as to a refuge, and a relief. You make the Bible your enemy, and then you question it because it does not prophesy good concerning you, but evil. On the other hand, “whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God." It is a very easy thing to destroy your religious convictions if you please. There are two ways of doing it; the one is by assassination, the other by starvation; and in either of them you may completely succeed if you wish. God can let a man alone; the man does not like to retain God in his knowledge; his vain jangling is increased unto more ungodliness; he will make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience; he refuses the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God ceases to strive with him on earth. God withdraws his restraints, in consequence of his provocations, and the man runs wild, denying the Lord that bought him, and bringing upon himself swift destruction. How many have we seen of this awful character during our lives? How many are there now lulled to sleep by principles that once made them tremble, and who can now turn into ridicule truths that were once to them as life from the dead. It had been better for them not to have known the way of Christ, than, after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. The last state of that man is worse than the first. But that which is divine will always endure; that which came from God shall live to God. The devotion it produces will not be like a blazing straw, but like the fire on the Jewish altar, which was kindled by the breath of heaven, and never went out. It will not resemble the summer brook, but the perennial fountain. "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.'

In the third place, let us notice THE REASONS OF THEIR ANXIETY AND EARNESTNESS. They "beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." There are two principles on which their importunities are foundedthe possibility, and the deplorableness, of the event.

They beseech you not to receive the grace of God in vain, because they apprehend the event which very commonly follows. In all ages God's servants have been compelled to complain, "Who hath believed our report?" Four sorts received the very same seed, in the very same season, from the very same hand and what is the result? Only one of the four yields any thing to the

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purpose. Why, you will say, This is very censorious. Nay, it appears to me that the application shows the candour of the interpreter: for I would now say, Appeal to the lives and tempers and conversation of those who hear the word, and who hear the word of the Gospel too; and tell me what reason have you to hope that one in four of these who hear the Gospel believe? that one in four of the large number of hearers have received the grace of God to the salvation of their souls? Is it not awful?

These workers together beseech you not to receive the grace of God in vain because they dread the event as deplorable. They know, whatever you may think of the case, that nothing is so much to be dreaded as this. They are affected with the thought, and they are affected on three accounts. First, by the thought of it on God's account: they know how he is dishonoured, his authority despised, his commands to believe disobeyed; how his infinite wisdom and goodness are reflected upon; how they frustrate the grace of God, and make Jesus Christ, as it relates to themselves, to have died in vain. They are affected with the thought of it on your own account: they know what your infirmities are; they know that hence will arise your chief sin and your chief condemnation; they know that in consequence of this it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for you; they know that you cannot escape if you neglect so great salvation. And this will be found the savour of death unto death; that is, you will have to endure the condemnation of the Gospel added to the condemnation of the law; the one, because you have transgressed it, the other because you have neglected it. They are affected with it on their own account. It is painful in the extreme to plant and not to gather, to sow and not to reap. How distressing it is to labour in vain, and to spend your strength for nought! There is a sense in which this is not painful; for they are not answerable for their success, but for their fidelity and diligence and zeal; they are unto God a sweet savour, both in them that are saved, and in them that perish. See, therefore, that they may be able to hail you in the day of Jesus Christ as their joy and crown of rejoicing. This gospel early reached our highly favoured isle; and, notwithstanding our national sins and manifold provocations, it has continued among us to this day; and "to you is the word of this salvation sent:" "Receive not the grace of God in vain." Let me then speak to you freely for a moment. I would not address you indiscriminately, and it does not become me to address you hopelessly: but, after all the allowance that tenderness requires, is there not enough to alarm? Some of you have had a religious education; you early kneeled around the family altar; from children you have known the Scriptures; prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not scen them, and to hear the things you hear, and have not heard them; but blessed are your eyes, for they have seen, and your ears, for they have heard. What opportunities have some of you enjoyed! Where are they all now? Have you forgotten them? Have you not, knowing the value of them, trampled them under your feet? Is there not an awful responsibility on your part touching these things? Is there not an awful insensibility amongst many? Do not some, while they hear the Gospel constantly, walk according to the course of this world? Do not some attend the house of God and places of dissipa tion? Do not some endeavour to serve God and Mammon? Wearing the form of godliness, but denying the power of it, some get rid of all their early impressions. There was a time when under the preaching of the Gospel

they, like Felix, trembled; but they don't tremble now: there was a time when they were afraid; they are not afraid now: there was a time when they loved retirement to meditate and to seek God; but now they wish to shun him; and in actions, if not in words, they say, Depart from us, we desire not the

knowledge of thy ways."

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Allow me to address you with all that compassion you ought to have for your own souls. How good has God been in sparing you through all this! 'Tis of his mercies you are not consumed. Why is it your harvest is not past, and your summer not ended? Can you imagine God has protracted your lives only to get money, to eat and to drink, and to adorn your bodies? Oh no; he has a far more noble object in view: the long-suffering of God leadeth to repentance; it is your salvation; and despisest thou the riches of his goodness and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance; but, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God?

To say that these are things you never regard is not your excuse, but your crime: you know you ought to regard them, and you can regard them, and you know you can; and it is in vain therefore for you to say that it is not in your power, for you know this is not the principle you act upon; and you know 66 Ask, that even inability can be remedied. How remedied? In a moment: and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For if ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." Oh that you may make use of this blessed promise. Newton says, "When I was first awakened, I read this promise, and I reasoned thus- If this book be true, this promise also of the Spirit is true: then if I ask I shall obtain.' I did ask, and did obtain." You should be induced to do the same. We beseech you, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, and in the name of your perishing souls, no longer to oppose or disregard these truths. longer," says God, "spend money for that which is not bread, nor labour for that which satisfieth not; but hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your souls shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David."

"No

THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL.

REV. J. PARSONS,

TREVOR CHAPEL, BROMPTON, JANUARY 30, 1834.

And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ."-ROMANS, xv. 29.

THE opinions which have been formed by men in different ages respecting the system of Christianity, have in various ages, and are still now very different in degree. Some have rendered to the system a heart-felt homage, as possessing the very highest authority, and as comprehending in it those principles which are the one rule of duty, and the one source of happiness. Some again have accorded to it a loose and general approbation, from which the fervour and the feeling of personal piety have been absent, and which has been associated with practical carelessness, aad practical neglect. Some have again denounced it as a system all whose pretensions are erroneous, and all whose results are pernicious to the general interests of mankind. Here are perhaps not a few by whom any controversy with regard to the merit of these different conclusions would be regarded as trifling and insignificant; but I trust that none are now in the presence of God, who do not at least theoretically admit, that a just estimate of their different merit must be regarded as of transcendant importance, especially as the reception or rejection of Christianity must lead to our eternal happiness or torment in a future state of being.

The writer from whose language it is our intention this evening to address you was led to form for himself such a system of Christianity, or of Gospel truth, and to commend, at the same time, the same system to others, who acknowledge it the one governor of the heart, and the one great blessing of the human soul. That system we are prepared to state, and you doubtless are prepared to agree, from unimpeachable evidence must be regarded as perfectly conclusive and right. It arose from the direct agency of the Spirit of God on his soul; it was secured by the same agency on the minds of the persons who went out as companions with the Apostle that they might be the devoted champions of the Christian cause in the world, and it must be by all men as essential to whatever is tormenting in misery, and delightful in felicity. There are, perhaps, few portions in the writings of the apostle Paul, in which the majesty of the revelation of Christianity are more beautifully vindicated than in the chapter from which we now address you; and there are few expressions in which more of the value of Christianity can be regarded as comprised than the expression at the close of the verse on which your attention is to be directed-“ I am sure that when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the * For the Irish Evangelical Society.

Gospel of Christ." It is our intention, my friends, this evening, to request your pious and your patient attention, while we present some general propositions with regard to the Gospel, which, while they will assist to promote the object for which we are ostensibly convened here, at the same time will commend themselves to the best affections your hearts can render.

First we observe, that the Gospel originates in a source of supreme elevation; secondly, that the Gospel is fraught with abundant blessings to the world; and thirdly, that the ministry has been specially appointed as the instrument for conveying the blessings of the Gospel. And let it be our individual and fervent prayer, that for ourselves we may possess the "fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ."

First, it is observed from these words, that the GOSPEL ORIGINATES FROM A

SOURCE OF SUPREME ELEVATION.

You are of course aware, that men are naturally apt to form their opinions as to the character of existing systems, by referring to the character of the founders from whom they are ascertained to have been derived. The absence, for example, of dignity and worth in the founders of systems, is always converted into an argument against the principles they have propounded; and on the other hand, the real or imagined possession of that dignity and worth is considered as an argument of no common strength for rendering to those principles commendation and favour. This mode of reasoning is, of course, liable to great and continued abuse; but, my brethren, if it be applied without prejudice, fairly and impartially, we have reason to think it cannot be impeached. If it be applied aright to the Gospel, and to the character of Him who is its founder, it will be discovered as possessing every claim on the human mind to what that mind can render of reverence, of admiration, and of love. You will remark, that to the being possessing the emphatical and memorable designation of "CHRIST," the gospel is indebted for its existence and hence in the text the association of his name-" the Gospel of Christ." Christ unfolded its promises and principles; Christ established its essential laws; Christ performed its confirmatory miracles; Christ bestowed its inherent and intrinsic efficacy; and Christ constituted those various arrangements, by which it was to be propagated in the world, and throughout the lapse of interminable ages.

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There are some admitted facts in the history of Christ when he was dwelling upon earth, that seem to common view, to separate him entirely from what we are accustomed to denominate "greatness," and to assign to him a state of humiliation, and to constitute what is emphatically called in Scripture, "a stumbling block," on account of which many are disposed to deny and disown him. He associated with men in the most despised circles of society; he selected his companions from those ranks on which men are especially accustomed to look with fear or contempt. Thus, prompted by the impulses of Almighty mercy and love, he trod perpetually on the very confines of poverty and want. He was finally seized and tried on two separate charges of sedition and blasphemy, was convicted as a guilty malefactor, was condemned to die, and did die, the painful death of the cross. If these facts stood alone, we shall at once admit they would be startling and forbidding; but you are aware they are to be explained in such a way that they do augment and redound to the splendour of his glory.

And then, my brethren, there are truths with regard to him, which render to

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