most necessary to be given. Some may think, that, because they are at peace, because their conscience does not prick or pain them, therefore all must be well with them. My brethren, it is not every sort of peace that is to be desired, but only that true peace, which is the effect of righteousness. There is a false peace, a peace arising out of recklessness and carelessness and the never thinking about God. Let me warn you against this false peace. Would you say, a man was at peace, who was dropping into a deadly slumber? Would you say that Sampson was at peace, when he lay sleeping in the lap of Delilah? Such, so dangerous, so deadly is, the peace shall I call it? or rather, the false security of the self-righteous and the wicked.

Rouse yourselves then, I beseech you, from such fatal slumbers, if any of you have hitherto been sinking beneath them. Awake! the flames of the fiery lake are flashing in your eyes, and you see them not, but are sliding sleep-bound toward them. Awake! behold, the face of the Lord does not shine, but frown upon you. Any fear, any woe, any sting of conscience will be a blessing to you, which can but save you from the wrath of a disregarded and offended God. As the old year has fallen into its grave, and the new year has just opened its eyes to the light of this morning's sun, so

let the days of your ungodliness have come to an end, and let this be the first day of a new year of godly fear and hope. This is my prayer for you: this is my new year's blessing. I cannot wish you peace yet, your false dead peace must be broken up, the crust of hard ice which covers your hearts must be broken up, before you can enjoy anything like true living peace, before the waters can flow gently and calmly, basking in the sunshine of heaven.

My brethren, you can now understand a little better how precious was the blessing which the priest of God among the Jews called down upon the people of God. Let me repeat the words again, as I do from my heart: my brethren, the Lord bless you this year, and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace, now and evermore.

SERMON II.

GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE.

2 PETER i. 2.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.

Of the twenty-one epistles handed down to us in the New Testament, nineteen-all but two-open with a prayer for the spiritual well-being of the persons to whom they are addressed. Before the apostles enter on their task of exhortation and instruction, they begin by wishing their brethren in Christ the choicest spiritual blessings; and in sixteen of the epistles these blessings are grace and peace. Grace and peace then must be something very precious, seeing that they were the thoughts thus uppermost in the minds of the apostles, the very first thoughts to strike them when they sat down to write, and among the first words to drop from their pen. And precious, most

precious blessings indeed they are, my brethren. For what do they amount to? what is the meaning of these two holy and most apostolical words? To begin with the first: grace means favour. To shew grace is to shew favour. To be in a person's good graces is to be in favour with him. An act of grace is an act of favour, of that favour which arises from mercy and love, and which gives or forgives a man more than in justice he has any right to look for. Thus we read that "Joseph found grace (that is, found favour) in the sight of Potiphar." But in the New Testament grace is hardly ever used except in speaking of God and the things of God: and it either means the favour and mercy and love of God, or some gift bestowed. on man by that favour and mercy and love; above all, that greatest and most precious of all gifts, the gift of his only begotten Son, the forgiveness of our sins purchased for us by his blood, and the promise of eternal life, if we will turn to him, and believe in him, and obey him. This too is more especially called the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, with an express petition for which, you know, the minister winds up the service. In the text we may perhaps give the word a somewhat wider sense, and take it to stand generally for God's love and favour toward all the true followers of Christ.

Further, as grace in the text is the grace and favour of God, so peace in the text is that inward spiritual peace, which springs out of God's grace and favour, and which is the greatest of all the blessings it is possible for man to enjoy. Not that peace of other kinds is to be slighted. Peace from foreign enemies, peace from strife and broils in our own land, peace and harmony among neighbours, peace and love in a family,-all these things are blessings to be thankful for when we have them, and to be prayed for when we have them not. Again, peace in the Church would be another great blessing: and this too is to be prayed for, that it may please God to heal those divisions and quarrels among Christians, sect against sect, and party against party, which give rise to so much scandal, and are such a handle to the profane. "We see (say they) that even those who take the most thought about religion, cannot be of one mind in it: why then should we set foot in a road where there is so much jangling and jostling?" Thus talk, and thus think the profane. And doubtless, could peace and unity be restored to the Church of Christ, were the day to come when" Ephraim shall no more envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim," (Isaiah xi. 13), could the world see the great and glorious sight of Christians holding the same faith, agreeing in the same