nities of usefulness lost. They remember their want of interest in prayer, both public,social, and private. They remember their solemn vows,— the day of their espousals. The aggravations of their sins condemn them. They deplore the present darkness of their minds and their low hopes, and they are in distress. With humility and repentance they give themselves again to Jesus Christ, and in private, sometimes in public also, renew their covenant with God. From this state they come forth to labour, having a fresh conviction of the evil of sin,the sweetness of repentance and forgiveness, and a thorough conviction of their constant dependence upon the grace of God.

2. Christians manifest a spirit of prayer and humble reliance upon the indispensable agency of the Holy Spirit of God. This leads them to be much in prayer in the closet; also to assemble frequently for prayer. It is this that fills the prayer-meeting so full,even at the break of day. The importunity of their pleadings, at such periods, is truly remarkable-pleading for their own cleansing, for the reviving of their brethren, and for the conversion of the impenitent.

3. Christians have deep distress for the unconverted. This is based upon the most common sympathy of our nature. They realize the great and present danger of sinners. Like David, "Rivers of water run down their eyes" and "Horror hath taken hold of them." They resolve, with the prophet, "But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears."

4. Many of the impenitent become thoughtful are convicted, and are converted. They notice this solemnity and feeling on the part of Christians, they are conscious that Christians are particularly praying for them. Their attention is arrested, the truth preached and the conversations of religious friends, now impress their minds, they become troubled and soon seek the direction of the

experienced, and many are truly converted.

5. It is a day of mercy and also a day of vengeance. For whilst some grow better, others grow worse. Whilst the graces of some are developed, others are proven to be hypocrites. It is the time of "good tidings to the meek," the " binding up the broken hearted," "the proclaiming of liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound," "the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God." For "the hand of the Lord shall be known towards his servants, and his indignation towards his enemies!"

6. It is a season of joy and solemnity. Angels rejoice, so do Christians. Yet are they solemn, because many still remain unconverted. The progress of a revival is remarkably characterized by the gladness of heart and the thanksgiving before God for the salvation of sinners, and for the continued solemnity which chastens the joy and which still, in view of the condition of the impenitent, leads to resolute exertions and prayer for their conversion.

7. The doctrines of the gospel are then fully and boldly preached. Among these I notice as prominently enforced at such times.-The total depravity of the human heart. The danger and guilt of the sinner, and that he is without any excuse. The universality of the atonement-thus rendering practicable the salvation of every sinner. The obligation of the sinner to repent immediately, and to believe in Jesus Christ without any delay. The reasonableness of the divine commands, and the ability of the sinner to obey them. The absolute necessity of the agency of the Holy Spirit, arising from the deep, and settled, and cherished love of sin on the part of the sinner, and the efficacy of believing prayer. These doctrines, and those kindred to them, have been eminently blessed in those seasons of refreshing. The manner of preaching is indeed urgent, affectionate, and pungent. Says the Rev,

John Angell James, "It has long appeared to me, that many of the American preachers greatly excel in their close and searching manner of dealing with the conscience: they seem to understand better than perhaps we do in this land how to reason with and to persuade this faculty, and make it more the object of their preaching, 'by manifestation of the truth, to commend themselves to every man's conscience, as in the sight of God' so that, to use the language of Mr. Hall, 'their addresses are so characteristic, that the conscience of the audience feels the hand of the preacher searching it, and every individual knows where to class himself." Says the Rev. Thomas W. Jenkyn in his work "On the Union of the Holy Spirit and the Church," page 198, "The manner of such preaching consists in a plain, simple, forcible, and direct exhibition of the word. The pure and the entire word is exhibited to the mind. The peculiarity of the manner is in its directness to the heart and imperiousness to the conscience. Its language is thou art the man,' and the hearer feels that the minister means him. Its tone is now is the accepted time; and it demands and enforces an immediate surrender. Laodicean preachers compose sermons that, like a prism, make their congregation feel delighted and charmed with the diversified hues and colours of their imagery. Revival ministers make their sermons, like a lens, to concentrate the rays of truth, and exhibit them with an unflinching hand in near connection with the sinner, till they burn and inflame his heart."

THE REST THAT REMAINS TO

THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

BY JOHN HARRIS, D.D. 1. Now need I say, first, that uni versal man sighs and hopes for a rest which he has not the power to create? This is the burden of his time-long history. Looking out on the moral deluge which surged and desolated the antediluvian world, and which

brought on the flood of waters, Lamech called his son Noah-"restcomfort;" for "this same," said he, by prophetic instinct, "shall comfort us concerning our work, and toil of our hands." Floating traditions of paradise led many of the ancients, as they surveyed the unrest and tumult around them, to imagine that somewhere the golden age must be lingering yet. Some of them saw that the strife and collisions of society came from a source deeper than society, from a nature at strife with itself; and that all the turmoil and confusion of the world without was but the externalization of the divided world within. Many a heart came near to the bitter wail, "O wretched man that I am!" and thousands doubtless responded to the cry.

Meantime Judaism was God's own protest against the world's disquiet. It pointed to the source of the evil in man's departure from God: for, having ceased to be at one with Him, was it strange that he should be at variance with himself and his fellow man? The return of every seventh day pointed him back to the dawn of the first Sabbath, when sinless manstanding in the shadow of the tree of life, while all nature lay around him still wet with its first dews-offered up the incense of a grateful heart and it said to him, in effect, Behold in that bright and tranquil scene an image of the rest for which man was made, and which he ever sighs to regain. The return of every Sabbath and of every sabbatic year-in Israel's respite from toil and freedom from care, in the songs to which they moved in troops towards "the mountain of the Lord's house," and in the glad and solemn feasts in which they there united-shadowed forth that Sabbath of the soul in which alone man can rest. The return of every Sabbath pointed him forwards to the times of the Messiah, and was for him the pledge of their arrival. Yes, Judaism was not merely a divine protest against the world's disquiet; it met man's cry for rest by the type and promise of its coming. It was itself a little world of order, harmony,

and rest, inserted by God in the midst of the great world's disquiet and discord; and man's very readiness to take up with the shadow instead of the substance only disclosed his deep sense of want, and his impatience to have it supplied.

2. This rest is provided and secured through Christ. The text has no meaning apart from this fact. In another capacity he had once surveyed the vast and disordered abyss of chaos-had silenced its tumults, and reduced it to order. But when he surveyed the condition of man, he beheld a scene of confusion more appalling than that which chaos presented on the morn of creation. His eye travelled over scenes and wastes of human woe-scenes in which he saw the chains of captivity, the pains of superstition, the struggles of poverty, the disappointments of ambition, the misgivings of the selfrighteous, and the exhausted efforts of the sinner, lashed by the reproaches of an angry conscience, and toiling to escape from a load of guilt. He heard the thickening cries of misery. His ear caught a sigh or a sound of woe from every habitation, every breast, of man-a never-ebbing tide of anguish, strife, and death. He beheld a storm in which every one was seeking for shelter without knowing where to obtain it; and, voluntarily exposing himself to all its horrors, he put on our nature, pressed forth into the midst of it, and exclaimed, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest."

And you know how he provided it; not by mere teaching and promising, but pre-eminently by his being and doing; by realizing type and fulfilling promise. Unlike the world's teachers, he taught that our sorrows are sufficient to move the heart of our father, God; but he proved what he taught, by oming himself to taste, and share, and assuage them. He sought to detach our hearts from the unsatisfying objects of earth; but he did this by presenting us with new objects, vast as our wishes and permanent as our being. He sought to lay our hearts

to rest on the bosom of that fatherly love which never ceased to yearn for the world-wearied prodigal's return; but he did this by opening his own arms, and inviting us to cast ourselves on his beating heart for repose. By his incarnation he showed us that as he, in order to be our Saviour, literally united our human with his divine, so, in order to be saved, we must spiritually unite his divine with our human. By his votuntary subjection and obedience he showed how, through the cultivation of the same meek and lowly spirit, we could strike out at once that whole world of strife, contention, and war with their condition, in which pride and self-will spend their days. By his sacrificial death he both showed us the greatness of the love of God, and invited us to cease from our own works," pointing us to his own completed work in our behalf. By assuring us of the many mansions in his Father's house, and by going away to prepare a place for his people there, he sought to give heaven a preponderating influence over earth-to carry our affections with him to leave us with our face and step in the direction of that "better country." And by drawing aside the veil of his providence, and showing us that every earthly pang of his people vibrates to the throne of God that every present trial is disciplinary for all the future-that our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for us an eternal weight of glory-he taught us to reckon that the sufferings of the present are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed. Brethren, the cross of Christ steadied the universe. He himself is now the centre of gravity for all spiritual forces; and only as they come within his attraction, and settle on him, can they find equilibrium and rest.

III. From all this it will be seen, thirdly, that the rest spoken of is spiritual and divine. It is repeatedly called "God's rest" not merely as provided by him, nor even as shared sympathetically by him,but as consisting of Him. You see this foreshadowed

in Eden-in the ascending scale of the creating process. At each rising step you see a prophecy of something nobler yet to come-till at length there comes forth from under the divine hand, and stands erect, the very image of the Creator. It is not until He has embodied that idea and image of himself that he desists and rests. God could not rest till man came to sabbatize with him; and to man is denied the power of finding rest until he sabbatizes with God. You see it foreshadowed in Canaan. God himself was there an abiding Presence; every object, event,and arrangement, came directly from him, and was to return to him in sacrifice, love, and praise. Fellowship and unity with God were the heart and life of the theocracy. Even then the enlightened worshipper was seen putting by the world as an unsubstantial thing-thrusting aside the material universe as an impediment to his happiness, as a portion he could run through and spend world by world. Even then he was heard saying, "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul." It is the only portion which suits it-spirit for spirit. Man's greatness forbids him to be satisfied with less. Even then, as he saw the open arms of infinite compassion, he exclaimed, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul!" and ran, and fell into the divine embrace. But now the process of man's redemption is completed; and He who could not rest from creation till man was made, nor enjoy the first Sabbath but as man shared in its blessedness, is calling him to participate in more than a paradise regained. By giving himself for man, He has prepared the way for giving himself to man. Divine invitation now takes a richer tone, and promise a wider sweep. Our inheritance in God is enlarged. Vaster views into the divine character and being are thrown open, and we are invited to enter and take possession. Both the Sabbath of Eden and the Rest of Canaan are but types of the rest that remaineth to the people of God-a rest perfected in God.

IV. Then, fourthly, as the Christian rest is spiritual and divine, it may be foretasted and entered on here. "We who have believed do enter into rest." In proportion as we cease from our own works," from our own corroding cares and self-righteous strivings, we enter on the rest of God; rather, in proportion as we accept and enter on the rest of God, we cease from our own selfsufficient works. On the morning of the seventh day the first man found himself the inhabitant of a completed creation, a perfected Eden: God himself was resting and admiring his finished work. How revolting would have been the idea of man's attempting to add something to it-striving to improve it! He had only to survey, to accept, and to enjoy it! Already he rested in it.

As finished and as complete is the work of Christ in the new creation. Atonement has been made; who would think of adding to its value? A love without limit embraces us; who would think of extending its height or its depth-of enlarging the infinite? The means of our salvation are complete. "All things are ready;" it only remains that we accept and partake; and to do this is to begin to enter into rest. To survey this complete work of Christ is to cease from our own work; to believe this gospel of the grace of God, is to find that we have an infinite portion, and an eternal future in which to enjoy it. The obedient Israelites began to take possession of their earthly rest even before they crossed the Jordan. Part of it lay on the wilderness-side. What myriads have antedated heaven while yet on earth! what numbers at this moment are conscious of a peace, clear, silent, waveless, deep as the crystal sea round about the throne of God and of the Lamb! How many at this moment, with the dew of death on their brow, can yet keep that brow calm and serene, because resting in the peace of God!

V. But, fifthly, the perfection of this rest is reserved, and awaits the believer above. This is not the re

sult of an arbitrary arrangement, but of our probationary condition. To live on earth is to be more or less subjected to the perturbations which belong to this earthly sphere; to emerge and ascend into the circle of the heavenly, is to escape from these perturbations and to partake of the stability and repose of its immovable centre-the throne of God. Some, indeed, in thinking of the future, do not rise even to a false view, for they rise not to any conception of that state. Their future is a grave; their horizon bounded by a tomb. They think only of the rest for which nature sighs as an escape from sickness, adversity, and old age. Life is to them a burden, and they long to throw it down. But this is the rest of the brute rather than of the man. This dreary refuge the grave offers to all-to the sinner not less than to the saint whereas of the righteous it is said, "He shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds; each one walking in his uprightness"-the rest of his body in the grave being the intimation and pledge of the nobler rest of his spirit in heaven.

Almost equally do they err who think of the heavenly rest as consisting in the pleasure of doing nothing. The heaven they picture is a Pagan elysium, a state of luxurious indolence. But no animal nature will be there to need such dreamy repose. Even the luxuriance of Paradise was no dispensation from labour, but a call to it; for man had "to till it and to keep it." Creatures can rest only according to their nature. The caged eagle pines to soar and rest on the wing. And the rest of heaven is calm, not as opposed to activity, but to suffering. Of the living creatures before the throne— the many-winged and myriad-eyed symbols of celestial life it is said

They rest not," in the sense of desisting from active service. Our Lord's justification for healing on the Sabbath was, that in this respect the Eternal Father himself keeps no Sabbath: "My Father worketh

hitherto, and I work." A pause in his infinite activity would be the doom and the death of the universe. Even on earth the Christian is discharged from mere worldly care, that he may run in the way of God's commands; and could he complacently think of inactivity in heaven? What, in the midst of a region all spirit and life? What, when just braced, winged, equipped for activity; with no interruption of night, no need of sleep, no dread of lassitude? What, with unknown powers to be yet developed, unmeasured heights of excellence to be scaled, unnumbered fields of glory to be explored, and a sense of infinite obligation impelling to the whole? No; heaven is a state of greater blessedness than earth, partly because of its ampler scope for activity.

Still less is that promised rest the abandonment to sensual enjoyment of the Mahomedan paradise; for "nothing that defileth" can enter the Christian heaven, "neither can corruption inherit incorruption." Nor is that rest the passionless apathy of the Stoic-the extinction of sensibility and emotion; for there, in the presence of infinite excellence unveiled, the soul shall kindle into the seraph, and offer itself up in the flame of adoring love. Nor is that rest the absorption in the Deity of the Hindoo heaven; for, so far from losing his personality or ceasing to be a distinct being, then first will the Christian realize the conscious perfection of his own individuality when he finds himself in full and free communion with the All-perfect himself.

Harmony is rest: and there, in contrast with the discords of sin, are "harpers harping with their harps -the harps of holy loving hearts; and "they sing a new song." Every holy aspiration of the soul on earth, and every hymn in which the Church unites, is but the tuning and preluding for that nobler strain. "All that is within me" will there unite to bless the Lord, without waiting to be called on each separate soul a choir; each loving act a psalm—a living ode; and all hearts and inte