When men rebel against a good and lawful government, such as this country has enjoyed, it is very hateful to God. Still more odious is it, if they rebel against infinitely the best of all governments, that of God himself. O fellow sinner, your only safety is in instant submission. What can you promise yourself by resisting the Spirit of God? You are surrounded completely on every side. You are hemmed in above and below. There is no help that can relieve you from this close siege. You are defenceless. You can not escape. Surrender at God's summons. Cast down the weapons of your rebellion. Do not repel the sword of the Spirit. Bare your bosom to its stroke. It wounds to heal, and kills to make alive. Happy are they who feel its power. God would not call upon you to submit, if he purposed to crush you. He could do that without your yielding. He has no wish to drag you in chains at his chariot-wheels, like an angry captive, raging with impotent malice against him and his bonds. No; rather would he smite from your limbs the fetters of sin which so long have cramped and galled them. Let him free you from your bondage with his delivering sword. O God, strike home! home to the hilt! 5. The impenitent must again meet the sword of the Spirit in the day of doom. It will be the sword of justice at the judgment of the great day. "He that rejecteth me," says Christ, "and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken shall judge him at the last day." Then will its slighted warnings come up in remembrance against you. Its testimony will convict you of having despised its reproofs; and your awful doom is already pronounced in its threatenings. Woe, woe, for the sinner lost in resisting the truth! He must meet it again in another encounter. Alas for him, when he shall confront his Judge, armed with this terrible weapon, to "cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Ah! is there no shield? Yes, one; and only one. See it on the Saviour's arm! Let him hold it over thy head. Then the uplifted sword will lose its terrors. Thou mayest cry aloud with confidence: "Behold, O God, our shield; and look upon the face of thine ANOINTED!" before the gale, sails are rent, one of the masts is gone by the board, ruin steers the ill-fated ship; she strikes upon a reef, the billows roll over her, the crew are washed overboard. Night thickens around with his stormy horrors; manfully the drowning wretches buffet the waves; the lightning flings its lurid glare around, and shows them their awful condition; again it lightens, and they descry a rock, lifting its head above the billows, and promising a place of safety. Hope revives-they swim for the rock, soon 'they make it." See! they have got upon it. Now they are safe. The vessel, sailing joyfully and securely before the gale began, may represent the safe and happy condition of our first parents before they were assailed by the storms of temptation; the drowning mariners denote the deplorable state of mankind since the fall, who are sinking amidst the waves of guilt and woe; the tempest overhead denotes the storm that howls over the head of every sinner, in consequence of the violation of Jehovah's law. Sinai thunders forth its curses, and flashes its lightnings around the sinner's path, in order to show him his weakness, his guilt, and his danger. As the lightning points the drowning sailor to the rock, so the law directs or opens the way to Christ, that the sinner might be justified by faith in the atonement. The rock, rising in the troubled ocean, affording a shelter from the shipwreck, represents Christ, the Rock of Ages, who has borne all the fury of the storm for man, and who, by his cross, giveth life and light to a dying world. The penitent sinner, feeling himself sinking in the mighty waters, and tremblingly alive to the dangers of the tempest above and to the more fearful dangers of the rolling waves beneath, escapes to the Rock, embrace the cross, and is safe, i. e., he believes in the Lord Jesus, and is saved. Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly, While the tempest still is high. For the Prayer Meeting The Great Teacher. "NEVER man spake like this man." And so you would have said if you had heard him preach. Never mortal had such doctrines to deliver, and never mortal taught in so solemn and impressive, yet so tender and affectionate a manner. The philosophers of antiquitythey only skimmed the surface of things; they talked about the loveliness of virtue and the odiousness of vice; they speculated about the immortality of the soul and the life beyond the grave, and professed to look forward with mingled hope and fear to an hereafter, concerning which none could speak with satisfaction or with certainty. And as for the Scribes and Pharisees, who sat in Moses' seat, they only sophisticated and polluted the purity of his morality by their adding to the cumbrous mass of rites and ceremonies, by which his dispensation was distinguished, innumerable traditions and enactments of their own. But this man-he went at once to the here and ask you to pray for them. They belong to another regiment. "I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed the presence of Jesus in the regiment. I have been in all the battles. He was ever near. Men have fallen dead on my right hand, and on my left hand; but I was never afraid. I was ready. Jesus might call me from the battle-field, and I was ready. The battle-field would be the gate of heaven to me." No report can do any justice to the tender, touching words of the young German soldier. The meeting broke down in a flood of tears. He said he should go again, and stay as long as his adopted country was in peril, and he desired the continued prayers of the meeting in his behalf. A clergyman said he was in this meeting a few weeks ago, and asked the meeting to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon his people. Very soon after his return home he began to see signs of the presence of that mysterious power that alarms and convinces sinners of their guilt and danger, and now about fifty have been hopefully converted. Another individual said he had asked for prayer for a prayer-meeting established in a dark place-a mere missionary effort· and God had poured down his spirit, and fifty to sixty had been converted, and a little church had been organized. All had been in answer to prayer. A short time since, a vessel was sailing calmly and securely over the soft blue wave. The voice of song arose, and mingled its melodies with the light air around. Home, sweet home, was the theme which gladdened every heart. But ah! thou Rev. Dr. Asa Smith, who guided treacherous sea! Thou deceitful the meeting, said that in his church wind! How changed the scene! a revival had prevailed since Febru- The voice of song is departed, joy ary, and about sixty or more, of all and gladness are no more. Instead A little of the music of soft symphonies, are ages, had been converted. girl of twelve years came to be exa- heard the clamors of despair, the mined for admission to the church. thunder's mighty roar-old ocean's The case was very satisfactory, and harsh sounds, and the howling of the elder said, "Maggy, what does the storm. The ship is driven fiercely before the gale, sails are rent, one of the masts is gone by the board, ruin steers the ill-fated ship; she strikes upɔn a reef, the billows roll over her, the crew are washed overboard. Night thickens around with his stormy horrors; manfully the drowning wretches buffet the waves; the lightning flings its lurid glare around, and shows them their awful condition; again it lightens, and they descry a rock, lifting its head above the billows, and promising a place of safety. Hope revives-they swim for the rock, soon they make it.” See! they have got upon it. Now they are safe. dangers of the tempest abore and to Let me to thy bosom fly, For the Prayer Meeting The Great Teacher. The vessel, sailing joyfully and securely before the gale began, may represent the safe and happy condition of our first parents before they "NEVER man spake like this man." were assailed by the storms of temp- And so you would have said if you tation; the drowning mariners de- had heard him preach. Never mornote the deplorable state of mankind tal had such doctrines to deliver, and since the fall, who are sinking amidst never mortal taught in so sclema the waves of guilt and woe; the tem- and impressive, yet so tender and pest overhead denotes the storm that affectionate a manner. howls over the head of every sinner, The philosophers of antiquityin consequence of the violation of they only skimmed the surface of Jehovah's law. Sinai thunders forth things; they talked about the loveits curses, and flashes its lightnings liness of virtue and the lionsness around the sinner's path, in order to of vice; they speculated about the show him his weakness, his guilt, and immortality of the soul and the life his danger. As the lightning points beyond the grave, and profes the drowning sailor to the rock, so to look forward with mingid hope the law directs or opens the way to and fear to an hereafter, concerning Christ, that the sinner might be jus- which none could speakon sais tified by faith in the atonement. faction or with certainty. And as The rock, rising in the troubled for the Scribes and Pharisses, who ocean, affording a shelter from the sat in Moses' seat. they only sophis shipwreck, represents Christ, the ticated and polluted the purity of Rock of Ages, who has borne all the his morality by their aiding fury of the storm for man, and who, cumbrous mass of ribs and cerem by his cross, giveth life and light to a nies, by which his pensation dying world. The penitent sinner, distinguished, in male traditions feeling himself sinking in the mighty and enactments of their own waters, and tremblingly alive to the this man-he west at once to the |