have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight;" here is the language of confession, under a feeling of deep and heart-felt repentance for sin; and this in intimate connection with the language of prayer, “Make me as one of thy hired servants.' Can any individual who is brought to a sense of the distance he has wandered from his heavenly Father's house, from the way of peace and safety, can there be such an one who can settle down at ease, under a conviction that there is no drawing of desire; no wish to return, no qualification for prayer? The first feeling of our condition is an endeavour to arise and seek the presence of our heavenly Father. And as we have here the example of the return of the prodigal, how striking is the example of the Father's love; he saw him a great way off, and ran out and met him, and embraced him in the arms of everlasting love.

And is there a soul that feels a desire to return, under all the sense of its own unworthiness, that does not feel the meetings and the embraces of the Father's love? No, my friends, God is rich in goodness; it is of his goodness that the mind is awakened to its own condition, and therefore in that awakening there is the drawing of the divine influence to return; yes, it is he that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Let then the mind, however destitute and poor, let it struggle on, though halt, and maimed, and deeply diseased, let it struggle on to the heavenly Father's house; then it will receive the embraces of his love; the tattered garments will be removed, and a clothing afforded in which he may enter into communion with those who have experienced the like precious favor.

How striking too is the example of the penitent thief; he felt in the very hour of death when no

opportunity was afforded for him to be engaged in works of righteousness, he felt his condemnation, a deep and awful sense of his transgression,and it would seem that this conviction was very suddenly brought to his mind; but under the feeling of the conviction that he was about to suffer death in that dreadful form, what was his only refuge? Faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Here was his refuge,-here his ransom for the remission of sins,-here his only ground of hope for entrance into a state of blessedness and peace; and, in the feeling of that faith, how striking was his language; how forcible his prayer, "Lord when thou comest into thy kingdom remember me. And it was the exercise of faith under, no doubt, the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit that brought him to use this language, and under this his experience, how sweet was the answer of the Saviour," I say unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

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O here is encouragement, my dear friends, for those who feel a deep conviction of sin, those who feel their utter helplessness in extricating themselves from condemnation, to look unto Jesus Christ, in the exercise of prayer. "Lord remember me." Yes, my friends, the engagement of prayer is a precious privilege, and those that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength; those that thus acceptably wait upon him; "Though the youths should faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint:" here is the christian course, my dear young friends, in which I earnestly desire that you may effectually engage.

I earnestly crave that you

may enter fully and unreservedly into that high and holy way, cast up for the ransomed and the redeemed of the Lord to walk in; that you may be prepared, by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, for those various services to which you will be called in the church of Christ, that discharging your duties here, running the race set before you, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith, you may be prepared to receive a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give in that day to all who love his appearing.

"Let your conversation," my dear young friends. "be in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." Having in view the blessed and glorious recompense of reward,-may you persevere in the christian course, be willing to endure hardness, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and thus be prepared to receive the crown, and the everlasting rejoicing.

F

SERMON IV.

June 24th 1834.

I AM abundantly confirmed in the belief which I have entertained from my youth up to this present time, that there can be no true gospel minister without a call by the Head,-the great Head of the church to that office,-without a gift from Him who overcame, and led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some, apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists-and some, pastors and teachers; and as these gifts are especially bestowed in his own wisdom, and are distributed to every one severally as he willeth,— so it is important for all who enter into these humbling and awful engagements, to know their gifts, and as every one hath received his gifts, so to minister the same; and as this is humbly and reverently sought after, I believe that there will be a renewed anointing for every time of service, that all that minister, may do it as of the ability which God giveth to him, that God in all things may be glorified, and be deeply humbled in a renewed sense of the excellence and power, not not of ourselves but of him. And in coming to this heartfelt experience, we must, I believe, be brought into renewed baptism; those who feel themselves to be ambassadors for Christ, must be brought into renewed feelings of their own weakness, their own liability to err, that they are not sufficient of themselves to think any thing as of

themselves, but that their sufficiency is of God, who maketh all that truly are so, able ministers of the New Testament; but the feeling of their faintness, and weakness, and poverty, and insufficiency cannot be conceived, I apprehend, by those who have not experienced it-and in the leading, and guiding, and teaching of the Holy Spirit, and the renewed blessed baptism for this important service, it is often, I believe, in the way of great weakness-and the feelings of the individual, even under the descending of the heavenly anointing, still feel weakness.

How was it that the great apostle of the Gentiles assumed the task of his apostolic labours? In weakness, in fear, and in much trembling; he felt no doubt the fear of withholding, and he felt the fear of moving, without a sufficient direction, and guidance, and influence; he was brought to a practical experience of the necessity there was of an humble dependance, and of guarding against self confidence; for in this there is a great liability to be deceived, for he who is described as being transformed into an angel of light, had indeed a transforming power, and in the visions of light, which were opened to the view of one of the most eminent servants of Jesus Christ, when he was enabled to see that the transformer was able to cause fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men.

May we not easily conceive, my friends, that where there is not an entire reduction of self, and of selfconfidence, as our own corrupt nature and carnal mind afford the very soil and aliment in which the deceiver and transformer operates, that unless there is reduction of this, there is a great liability indeed for the transforming,-for some some operation to be produced in the human mind that may