objects of the Divine Complacency, and finally as the Angels in Heaven.

3. The Joy of our Lord arose, we may conceive, from HIS KNOWLEDGE OF THE CERTAIN EFFICACY "OF THE GOSPEL, A'S THE MEANS OF SALVATION TO ALL WHO SHOULD BELIEVE.

This seems to be distinctly implied in the latter part of the text, confirmed by his more special address to his Disciples in the thirty-eighth verse. The seed of the spiritual harvest, we know, is the Word of God. Vast is its power. It cannot be lost. Wheresoever it goes forth, it cannot return void; but must accomplish a great purpose. The reflex of the Divine Mind-the Law of the Lord, holy and just and good, the rule of the Eternal Judgment, howsoever it be received by them that hear and them that read it, remains, and must remain, every where, in every age, a testimony in every conscience, by which the Divine Name must finally be glorified.

The entrance of thy Word, saith the Psalmist, giveth light: it gives the light of the knowledge of God, and conviction of sin unto repentance and free justification, or unto condemnation. It was in the former of these views-from his knowledge of the saving efficacy of the Gospel as the ministry of reconciliation, the seed of regeneration, the word of eternal life-that the Redeemer now exulted. It was his predicted delight, as the anointed Prophet of God, to preach his righteousness in the great congregation - his faithfulness and his salvation, his loving-kindness and his truth. (Ps. xl. 8-10.) With authority he had also commissioned others to

the same work: and precious to him at this time, we may believe, were his beloved Disciples, and dear the memory of the holy men who preceded them, when, appealing to the testimony of their own preaching hitherto, and in the prospect of the greater things which they should yet see and suffer and do for him, he said unto them, I sent you to reap that, whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours: (v.38). New fields of great promise appeared before them; and the soul of the Blessed Jesus rejoiced in the assurance of fresh triumphs of grace and salvation through his Word, among a people so willing to hear. Nor was he disappointed. Many of the Samaritans of that city, we read, believed on him for the saying of the woman; but, many more believed, because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world: (vv. 39, 41, 42).

From the Text, thus explained, can we fail, my Brethren, to mark, to admire, and adore the mercy and grace of our God and Saviour! Recall, for an instant, that will of the Father and that work of the Son, which, in infinite wisdom and goodness, the one had devised and the other undertaken. Awful as was that will, and terrible as was the work to be done, in respect of the great sacrifice of our Atonement, yet how do we see the Sacred Persons rejoicing in the whole process of its execution! My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish his work. How am I straitened till it be accomplished! (Luke xii. 50.) Thus spake the Son: and, again and again, a voice from heaven declared,

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matt. iii. 17. xvii. 5). In his love toward us, he would bear the curse of sin; and the Father laid on him the iniquity of us all! It pleased the Lord to bruise him: it pleased the Father himself to bruise even his Only-begotten Son; to put him to grief, to mingle the cup, and make his soul an offering for sin (Is, liii. 6, 10), and he drank it (Matt. xxvi. 39, 42), and endured the cross, despising the shame, for the joy that was set before him by the Father (Heb. xiii. 2); to save our souls from death and hell; to rescue us from the dominion of Satan, from pollution, from corroding guilt, from the base slavery of the world and our own lusts; to justify us freely, and adopt us in himself; to renew in us the Divine Image, and make us heirs of heaven: and, in due time, to have all the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession (Ps. ii. 8).

Who is a God like unto our God? Can we, as we thus catch some faint glimpse of the character of our God and of his Christ, can we fail to anticipate, in a measure, the Song of Moses and of the LambGreat and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints! Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord! and glorify thy Name; for Thou art holy! (Rev. xv. 3, 4).

And is it then indeed the fact, that every Member of this great Congregation has thus learned Christ, and been made alive unto God through the word of his grace? Have we all seen and felt our deserved ruin, in the general guilt and condemnation of the world, which brought down Christ from above; and been turned to God, in contrition and

shame, on the hope of the Gospel? Have we been made, sensibly to ourselves and others, new creatures in Christ Jesus? In our daily prayers, do we worship the Lord, consciously, in spirit and in truth? (v. 24). Have we so worshipped Him in the prayers which we have now offered? Brethren! an Eye, not to be deceived, passes this instant through this whole assembly, and distinguishes the real character of each individual. Unhappy is he, whatever may be his outward condition, in whom that Eye discerns none of these things!-in whom it discerns rather a mind yet unenlightened in the Gospel, a heart yet unrenewed! Search, Brethren! Examine and prove your own selves. Beware of a mistake in so great a concern! If a DOUBT remain in respect of your real state as a Christian, suspect, as well you may, that there is GUILT under that doubt that unrepented sin yet lurks in your bosom-that even enmity against God is yet to be found there! Lay to heart what you have now heard of the gracious character of our God; and call upon him, while he may be found!

If happily, on the other hand, the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God, lift up your hearts in renewed thanksgivings and praise; and consider more particularly,

II. The IMPROVEMENT to be made of our Text, in our great Missionary Undertakings. And,

1. We may infer from the whole, THE WARRANT

AND EXCELLENCE OF THE MISSIONARY WORK.

We have, indeed, our warrant for this great undertaking, in the terms of every revelation of the Cove

nant of Grace from the beginning, and in all the promises of God which respect the conversion of the world. We have our warrant in the express command of our great Redeemer-a command to which, blessed be God, Christians are beginning to yield, every where, that obedience which has been criminally withheld. And can we contemplate the surprising grace, the will and the work of our God and his Christ, in our Redemption, and not recur to our own duty with increasing confidence and joy? What object and what toil can we conceive more conformable to the Divine Will? The Missionary Work is indeed that excellent work, by which, above all other, we emulate the example of our Blessed Lord, and fulfil his joy-that excellent work, which Angels, we may well suppose, both further and contemplate with delight, as unfolding before them the manifold wisdom of God; and which the Father himself beholds from heaven, and is well pleased.

2. We observe then, secondly, the ENCOURAGE

MENT WHICH THE TEXT MAY SUGGEST, AS TO THE ACTUAL SUBJECTS OF OUR MISSIONARY CARE, AND THE MEANS OF THEIR CONVERSION.

The Text is, indeed, happily calculated to correct erroneous ideas of Missionary Undertakings, and the discouragements consequent upon them. If we have rightly apprehended the mind of Christ on the occasion to which the Text refers, then the dishonour done to the Divine Name among the Heathen, and their own wretchedness, are the considerations which should especially interest us in their behalf. And, in regard to their conversion, however other