you read any of those books which are so frequent now-a-days, which speak of the wonderful works which surround us in the earth below and in the heaven above; and which unfold to you that marvellous connexion of cause and effect which binds all things together, with a secret and subtle spirit, do not forget that these are mere names to mark the operations of God! Forget Him not in his works. It is not nature, which is only a word and not a power, but the living God, whose creature and instrument it is, who maketh and sustaineth the frame of heaven and earth.

When you open his holy word, or hear it read or preached, do not separate it from Him. Treat it not as words in a book, or as issuing from the lips of a man, or you will quench the living fire that is within it, and the breath of the eternal Spirit which sendeth it forth. The words of the Bible are no more mere sounds than promises or threats of men like ourselves.

And as the one make known to us the thoughts and purposes of the human spirit which we see not, any more than we see God, so the other unfold the Almighty. They are God speaking, inviting, threatening, loving, judging.

When you speak, or read, or think of the history of past days, or of your own life, beware of such thoughts or words as chance, destiny, and so on.

chance; it is God's willing, or

There is no

God's dis-
For He

posing, or God's permitting. knoweth and ordereth all things, and without Him not so much as a sparrow falleth to the ground! When you kneel down to pray, imagine not that your words are idle wind, that they have a long way to travel before they reach the throne of Him that sitteth in the heaven of heavens ; and that the prayer of dust and ashes matters not to Him, amidst the adoration of the saints, and the shouts of the cherubim and seraphim. The Almighty is close to you; heareth you, looketh at you, and

holdeth the balance in his hand wherewith He weigheth the very hearts and reins. Very precious to Him is the prayer of his servants, which the blood of his dear Son hallows and purifies, and fiercely does his indignation burn forth against the hollow, heartless petition of the hypocrite, and the profane worship of the ungodly.

In his house, in his sacraments, when the water is sprinkled, when the bread is eaten and the wine drunk, the very God standeth by you. Nay, He sendeth his Holy Spirit to cleanse the soul, and cometh and dwelleth, by faith, in the hearts of the faithful; a saving, pardoning, comforting, real living God. Thanks be to Him for his great mercy that He thus revealeth himself to us. "The Lord is my shepherd, therefore shall I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my soul, and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea,

VOL. II.

C

though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for

thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff comfort me."

27

SERMON II.

JOHN i. 26. "John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not. He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's-latchet I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."

It is worth your remarking, from this and many other expressions in holy writ, what little evidence can be drawn from men's own consciousness or thoughts upon the subject, of the great things which, all the while, God is working in the midst of them. If we except the early dealings of God with his chosen people, when the flame, or the earthquake, or the trumpet,