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may be, will be the last and most energetic demand on the witness. The Church must oppose itself to this new and desperate infidelity. She must protest for the Advent of the Lord against the denial and reviling of a profligate generation. And when the Church shall have done this, witnessed that Christ is about to re-appear, and invoke a scoffing world to prepare for his approach, then, it may be, will her perfect ripeness be reached, and then, in accordance with the parable, the fruit being brought forth, Christ shall "immediately put in the sickle," gather in the corn, and house his elect, ere vengeance be let loose on the impenitent and unbelieving.

But we will not pursue this inquiry further. For an instant we would recur to that application of the parable which has to do with yourselves as the field, and with a minister as the husbandman. We have spoken of the utter weakness of the spiritual labourer, a weakness so great, that, though he may rise night and day, and spare no pains, and decline no toil, he cannot ensure one shred of produce; but, after planting and watering with all the carefulness of one, who knows himself admitted to an office of awful responsibleness, must leave altogether with God the giving an increase. It would accord better with the feelings and the wishes of nature, if the sower might do more than thus ply assiduously at the business of husbandry; or if, at the least, he might have an assurance that some portion of the seed which he scatters shall "take root downwards, and bear fruit upwards." But, whilst even this is denied him, and he may perhaps toil on, year after year, without sensible evidence of a blessing on his labours, he has the consolation of remembering that, when

the grain is sown, he has done his part, and that, whatever the barrenness, it shall be no witness against him at the great day of account.

How striking are the words in the prophecies of Ezekiel, "Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul." When shall we make you feel that there are, in strict truth, but two parties in religion, God and the soul? What saith Solomon? "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it." Too often if a man be spoken to of his eternal interests, if he be entreated to attend to them, and not to put from him the gracious offers of the Gospel, he will receive his adviser as though he were asking some personal favour, and as though an obligation would be conferred by his acting on the suggestion. But remember, we beseech of you, that if the minister be faithful, he is in a great degree independ ent. Let him sow the seed, and whether there come up the tares or the wheat; whether the field be wholly sterile or richly productive; he has done that which it was his duty to do. And though, if he "turn many to righteousness," those many shall make up his diadem, yet if it be no fault of his that he hath turned none, who will think that he must be without a crown through Eternity? The working out salvation is a business which every man must carry on on his own account-remember ye that. I cannot conduct it for you: you cannot conduct it for me. The prayers and tears of parents may do much, the warnings and entreaties of friends may do much, towards bringing the sinner to a pause: but parents cannot save the soul for

you, friends cannot save the soul for you: it lies between you and God; every man shall bear his own burden." May the Holy Spirit make you feel this, and drive you to the tillage of your own hearts, to the ploughing now, that you may reap hereafter!

LECTURE XVII.

Che Great Multitude.

REV. vii. 9.

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and people, and kindred, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands."

TAKING this vision in the order in which it occurs amongst the visions vouchsafed to St. John in his exile, it probably delineates the happy estate of those who had adhered to Christ during the fierce persecutions which preceded the establishment of Christianity by Constantine. There can be no doubt that the book of Revelation is, in the main, a continuous prophecy, its several parts belonging to several seasons which follow successively in the history of the Church. But without disputing that, in its primary import, our text may relate to events which have long ago occurred, it were not easy to doubt, that in its larger and more comprehensive bearings, it may be taken as descriptive of the heavenly state, that condition of repose and triumph which shall be ours, even ours, if we be faithful unto death. Admitting that the great multitude, on which the Evangelist was permitted to gaze, " clothed with white

robes, and palms in their hands," must be regarded as the company of those, who, during the early days of Christianity, witnessed manfully for the truth, they must still, both in number and condition, be emblematic of the Church in its final glory and exaltation; and we may, therefore, safely dismiss all reference to the first fulfilment of the prophecy, and consider heaven as the scene on which the Evangelist gazed, and "just men made perfect" as constituting the great multitude drawn together from all parts of the earth.

It is, therefore, on such notices of the heavenly state as the words before us may furnish, that we design to discourse on the present occasion. We would refresh you and animate you, wearied as you may be by the conflicts and struggles of earth, with glimpses of things within the veil. We do not indeed mean to address ourselves to the imagination if we did, there are more dazzling passages in the book of Revelation, and we might strive to set before you the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city, with its gates of pearl, and its streets of gold. But we think to find notices in the words of our text, which, if not so resplendent with the gorgeous things of the future, shall yet go closer home to the heart, and minister more comfort to those who find themselves strangers and pilgrims below. We will not anticipate what we may have to advance. We shall only hope that we may meet with what will cheer and sustain us amid "the changes and chances of this mortal life," what will keep alive in us a sense of the exceeding greatness of "the recompense of the reward," of the desirableness of the inheritance reserved for us above, as in dependence on the teachings of the Holy Spirit,

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