THE NATIONAL PREACHER. CONTENTS OF VOL. XVI. SERMON. CCCXV.-Hearers of the Gospel in a Solemn Situation-By Rev. PAGE. CCCXVI.-Prayer for Zion-By Rev. William R. De Witt. Right Rev. Chas. P. McIlvaine, D.D. CCCXVIII.-The Suddenness of Christ's Coming-By Rev. James G. Hamner. CCCXIX-CCCXX.-Filial Duty. (Two Sermons)-By Rev. J. B. Waterbury, D.D. A Short Sermon. 1 11 25 40 49, 50 CCCXXI.-Spiritual Prosperity in a Congregation-By Rev. Joel Hawes, D.D. CCCXXII.-Reciprocal Duties of Pastor and People-By Rev. J. S. C. Abbott. CCCXXIII.-Christian Union of the Heart and Treasure-By Rev. Nehe miah Adams. CCCXXIV.-Revivals of Religion—By Rev. Asa D. Smith. I am not mad. Ministers of the Gospel at the Last Day. CCCXXV.-The Cross-By Rev. Richard Fuller. CCCXXVI.-The Evils and Remedy of Covetousness-By Rev. Prof. Geo. Shepard. CCCXXVII.-Conversion-By Rev. Enoch Pond, D.D. 159 169 CCCXXVIII. The Living Redeemer-By Rev. George W. Bethune. John Marsh. 193 CCCXXXII.-The Guidance needed by Youth-By Rev. Royal Robbins. 206 CCCXXXIII.-The Day Approaching-By Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D. 217 CCCXXXIV.-The Gift of the Holy Spirit to Christians, a Preparation for the Conversion of Sinners-By Rev. Simeon North, LL. D. 229 The Worth and Care of the Soul. CCCXXXV.-The Love of Christ the Motive of Missionary Effort-By Rev. William R. De Witt. CCCXXXVI.-The Religious Instruction of the Young-By Rev. Thomas CCCXXXVII.—The Time of the End is Uncertain-By Rev. Oliver E. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin."-JOHN XV. 22. WHEN the venerable Simeon clasped the infant Savior in his arms, he said to Mary, his mother," Bebold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against." In prophetic vision, he looked through the long vista of distant years, saw that to multitudes, in every age, Christ would be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; that the preaching of his gospel would try the hearts and form the characters of men, and whilst it would be to some the means of raising them to mansions in the skies, it would be to others the means of sinking them low in the world of despair. The Jews, to whom the words of the text were first addressed, were a people highly favored of God. Blessings innumerable had been lavished upon them. To them were committed the oracles of God. To them pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. A long succession of prophets had been raised up to declare to them the messages of heaven, and point them in the way of obedience and eternal life. Jehovah, himself dwelt in the midst of them, as their glory and defence, and shed over their Goshen a heavenly light; whilst all the world around was sunk in the deepest darkness of heathenism. These high and distinguished advantages they had often and greatly abused, and by their abuse of them had incurred great guilt. Yet our Savior declares in the text, that they had not had sin; that is, their sin had been small, comparatively nothing, if he had not come and spoken to them. Their former privileges, great as they were, dwindled into nothing in comparison with those which they enjoyed in the miracles, the instructions, and perfect example of the great Teacher. Their former light was darkness compared with the light that shone upon them from the Sun of Righteousness, and consequently their sin, in the abuse of former mercies, was nothing in comparison with that of which they were guilty in making light of Christ and rejecting the claims of his gospel. This was a sin of such deep and peculiar enormity, that Christ, overlooking, as it were, their former sins, fixes upon this as the only one which they had ever committed. "If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin." They had heard Christ preach the gospel, but did not embrace it; and this greatly enhanced their guilt, and rendered their condition far more alarming than it would otherwise have been. And this is true of all who hear the gospel without cordially embracing it. The sentiment, then, suggested by the text, and which I desire at this time to impress upon your minds, is this: When sinners hear the gospel they are in a solemn and critical situation. We might give an impressive illustration of this subject by considering the nature of the truths which the gospel contains. They are truths which respect the Almighty God, and the eternal destinies of men. They cannot be rightly contemplated, even by beings not immediately concerned in them, without feelings of the deepest and most solemn interest. Were we mere spectators of the scenes which the gospel unfolds, it would indicate a very bad state of mind, not to be impressed and moved by them. But we are not mere spectators; we are actors, and most deeply interested in the great things revealed in the gospel. The eternal destiny of our souls is at stake. The gospel does not allow us to contemplate its truths without being affected by them. It comes to us from heaven. It comes clothed with heaven's power, to form us vessels of mercy, fitted unto glory; or vessels of wrath, fitted unto destruction. It does not make known to us the character of a God with whom we have nothing to do; it brings us into the presence of that infinite Being whose government is universal; whose eye is over us in all our ways, and who will treat us in another world according to the character we sustain in this. It does not hold up to our view the spectacle of a lost world as a mere matter of curiosity; it assures us that we belong to the number of the lost, and with them are going to the bar of final judgment. It does not reveal a Savior, on whose person and character we may coldly speculate; it suspends our immortal happiness on a cordial reception of that Savior. It does not simply remove the curtain from the eternal world, and disclose to our view a heaven and a hell, as places of mere fiction; it assures us that we are |