ing, that you may be among those who win it, and feel that your prayers are not yet answered, be assured that it is, that you "ask amiss"-they have been too cold, too seldom, too formal, not offered from love to God-not made the governing principle of your life. Go on, thou prayerful man, and God will hear thee, at his appointed time;-faint not, weary not, and you shall yet become an added evidence to the declared truth, that to them, who seek to live under the influence and direction of the Spirit, God giveth not that "Spirit by measure." But if you are living in a state of slavery to sin-in forgetfulness of GOD, prayerless and impenitent-puffed up with your own righteousness, filled with no fear of God, no love of the Redeemer, O, how often, how long will you require to be warned to depart from your evil ways and fly from the impending wrath of God's uplifted band? The storm of his Almighty vengeance may be nearer than you imagine it may, this very moment, be gathering over your heads, and ready to burst with its long pent-up fury! Brethren, brethren, think more of these things; let the miseries of a ruined soul in eternal hell, and the blessedness of a redeemed and pardoned sinner, in the everlasting mansions of light, be more frequently in your thoughts and in your prayers. Do not cast away this great salvation for the short enjoyment of the miserable pleasures of sin-do not barter your immortal souls for the sake of indulging the poor dust on which the worms shall presently feed! And now, in conclusion, let me ask you: How do you purpose to celebrate the approaching "feast of the Lord?" As the rebellious Jews, who kept it only for its festivities, and not because it was of GOD? Will you frequent the house of gambling and debanchery-the scenes of unhallowed gaiety, the drunken revel, and the midnight brawl? Is that the way you intend to usher in the dawning of the Eastern Star, which rose that its beams might shine upon your darkened souls, and teach you to hate these sinful indulgences? Thus was it that the Jews kept their festivals; and "therefore," saith the Lord, "hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it." But you say, "Is not this a season of rejoicing?" Truly, brethren, it is— a season of the purest and the holiest joy-such as the slave should feel, who, long shut up in the dark dungeons of despair and hopeless misery, is suddenly brought forth, into the light of the sun-to the joys of his ransomed, his dearly-purchased liberty! Let such be our rejoicing; for Christ has come to give us freedom from the deep prison house of sin. But oh! it were better that we had no joy, not even one spark to cheer the cold and comfortless hearth, not one morsel of bread to satisfy the cravings of long-endured hunger, not one drop of water to quench the most fiery thirst, nor the scantiest garments to cover our benumbed and denuded limbs, than not to have respect to the cause of our joy! Riot and excess, and a profane lifting up of the voice in unhallowed song-the cards and the dice, and the neglected sanctuary, were, indeed, a fearful substitute for the garments and the boughs cast upon the Saviour's path, and the Hosannah-shout, that should hail his glorious coming. I say not these things, brethren, to stint you of your mirth; no, rejoice and be glad, for you have cause for joy. But let it be such a rejoicing, such a gladness, as may draw down smiles and blessings from Him whose coming you commemorate. These will neither | laughter shall be turned to weeping, and your joy to heaviness." Finally; if the cause of your joy be not that Christ, your Saviour hath come into the world to save you from your sins, it were madness for you to rejoice: and if the demonstration of your joy be not consistent with such an event, you had far better defer your rejoicing, and "go out and weep bitterly," and seek at the foot of the cross that light from Heaven, which shall teach you the value and importance of a Saviour; and how to rejoice in His coming. One thing remember: that if Christ be not your Saviour, then is He your judge: the judge at whose insulted tribunal you may this very night be called upon to appear! May the Lord lay this fearful truth to your hearts, to my heart, and to the hearts of this sinful world! Let your joy be in Him and with Him, at this time and ever-remembering that such "joy, no man taketh from you:" a joy, not of an hour of feasting-a day of mirth and keep you from seeking him in his sanctuary, nor deter you from participating in his precious body and blood-the sacrifice and out-pouring of which, was the end for which he came: and believe me, you can have no reason for joy, no benefit, from his birth, if you refrain from coming to the altar at which we confess ourselves believers in the atoning merits of his death. If, in your projected festivity and rejoicing, holiday-making and amusement, there be any thing which shall keep you from the Lord's sanctuary and his table, O, pause, before you resolve to indulge it; for you will only, thereby, add to the long catalogue of your still unpardoned sins, and the judgments registered against them. If there be guilt in your enjoyments, it is not absence from the church and the communion, that can make them pure; and if they keep you away from either, there will be guilt, and very deep guilt, in them. In a word: if there be that in your festivities which un-intemperance, or a week of forgetfits you for the house of prayer, or for the commemoration of Christ's death, at his altar, your Christmas (think of the word!) will, assuredly, be as unhallowed as the festivals of the senseless and rebellious Jews; and GOD "will turn your feast into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and will make it, as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day:” and “ your fulness of God in giddy pleasure and vanity,-but the joy of a life, and after that, of a bright eternity of blessedness, in those regions of everlasting day, where the festivities of time and sense shall be forgotten; where the fruit of the vine of this world shall be exchanged for that which Christ has promised to drink, now, with us, in his Father's kingdom! A Sermon, DELIVERED BY THE REV. S. ROBINS, AT THE FEMALE ORPHAN ASYLUM, LAMBETH, ON SUNDAY MORNING, Acts, xvii. 11.—“ These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so." Ox the morning of the last sabbath, | of an inspired Apostle; how much I spoke, as you will remember, gene- more is there need that the same touchrally on the subject of searching the stone should be applied to the docscriptures as the revelation of our trines which are taught by men who Father's will, and the record of our can establish no such pretension to Christian hopes; and urged upon your unerring accuracy of judgment as beconsideration two points connected longed to those who were under the with the duty directly suggested by special and miraculous direction of the text, the manner of its perform- the Spirit. In making this applicaance, and the benefits which must re- tion of the duty of searching the Scripsult from it. I now proceed to the tures, you will see that it naturally Second head of our subject, and I opens before us two main points of would speak to you upon The special inquiry. application of that duty in bringing the doctrines which are promulgated to the measure and standard of unerring truth. We have in the case of the Bereans an illustrious example bequeathed to us. Though the Apostle came to them in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power-though he was a man gigantic in intellect and mighty in argument, and one who had the confirmation of his words in the miraculous signs by which they were attended, yet they did not even receive what he taught until they had gone to the fountain of unerring truth, and had brought to the test of inspired authority, every word which he delivered for their acceptance, and until they had applied the standard of revelation, as the measure of the doctrines which he brought before them. Now if the Bereans, whose praise it is that they were a noble, that is a frank, candid, ingenious people, thus acted in regard to the teaching FIRST. The dangers which result from neglecting to refer doctrines to a scriptural standard. SECONDLY. The weight which is due to human teaching. Now as to the First head to which I would especially direct your notice. It is a subject which the circumstances of the days in which our lot is cast render of the very last importance. They whose minds fasten with interest on the investigation of spiritual topics, and the number of these is by no means small, are almost inundated with a flood of new opinions; and since these opinions are often plausibly stated, or enforced with the weight of apparently conclusive argument, or recommended by engaging and persuasive eloquence, it needs that we should secure ourselves within a stronger bulwark than our own judgment, which is so easily perverted and misled, and take up an impregnable position, behind the rampart of God's word. Without this security, we shall be in continual danger of receiving as scriptural, many opinions to which Scripture lends no countenance. The danger is the greater, that the error, though its result may be fatal to our best hopes, consists not so much in contradiction as in overstatement of the truth. For instance, a minister might speak much of the duties which it is incumbent on the Christian to perform; he might speak much of the holiness of God's character, which requires corresponding holiness in those that seek and serve him. So far he declares important and undoubted truth. But he might go beyond the limit of Scripture statement, and invest works with an importance which by no means belongs to them, representing them as stepping stones to the divine favour; the ladder by which the fallen sinner might scale the walls of heaven. It is true that in reply, while we admitted the legitimate importance of works, and the necessity of human effort, we might declare them to be the stream, not the fountain; the superstructure, not the foundation; the fruit, not the tree. But this would probably be rejected as mere assertion. We go to the Bible, and thence derive confirmation of this view which must be irresistible to all by whom its conclusive authority is admitted. We find the Apostle writing to the Romans, Being justified by faith, we have peace with GOD, through our Lord Jesus Christ." To the Galatians, " a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." To the Philippians expressing his desire that he might "be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness which was of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of GOD by faith." And it is the declaration of Him whose words carry the highest possible weight, "He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned." But, on the other hand, a person in his pulpit ministrations, and in his private teaching, might admit, in all its fullness and force, the precious doctrine of justification by faith alone; but while speaking of mercy as flowing only in this channel, and hope raised only on this foundation, he also might be guilty of over-statement, leading to no less hazardous results; and as the one gave a place to Christian duties, higher than they could claim, so the other, having admitted that works could neither force nor purchase an entrance for us into God's kingdom, might be disposed to deny that the law is a rule of life to the believer; and thus, while we fly from the snare of the Arminian, we are in danger of falling into the net of the Antinomian. In opposition to the view of such an one, we might urge much from the consideration of the character of God; a Being of perfect and unsullied purity, in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and who must require holiness of life and heart in those whom He receives as His own people; but this, as a mere human argument, might be resisted until we fetch in its confirmation from the Word of revealed truth. We there read the exhortation "to follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." We turn to the epistle of an inspired writer, one who speaks fully and faithfully of the believer's covenant privileges, and we find him, after dwelling on the exceeding great and precious promises given to the children of God, charging his people to "give all diligence to add to their faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." Thus, while we brought Scripture proof to the Arminian, that works could not, by their own merit, advance us a single hair breadth towards receiving back the forfeited favour of GOD, we might also prove to the Antinomian, that without a consistent holiness of life and conversation, there could be no evidence that we were living by faith on the Son of GOD, or that a work of grace was even begun within us. "He was holy, harmless, undefiled, But if there be hazard, on the one Or, to suggest a third instance of the danger which might result from not consulting Scripture, and not referring doctrines to this standard. We might suppose you brought within the sphere of one who should devote the energies of a powerful mind to the maintenance and spread of the heresy which imputes sin to the human nature of Christ. It were very possible, that if he set himself to the accomplishment of this purpose, he might involve you in a web of meta-whelming proof in every page of our physical entanglement, from which it would be difficult for you to escape. And while you rejected the conclusion, as a blasphemous imputation on your Saviour's character, which would go far to rob you of the hopes built on Him as their foundation, you might find it hard to expose the sophistry of the argument from which that conclusion was deduced. But when you arm yourself with the declarations of the Bible, you are placed beyond the reach of fallacy; you become far more than an over-match for the subtlety which would force upon you an opinion from which your mind revolts. You find the nature and character of the Saviour declared in terms so plain, that he who runs may read. own personal history, and in the observation of the daily working of the corrupt heart, that we cannot altogether deny it. But we are infinitely far from receiving the undeniable truth, that man is altogether dead in trespasses and sins; that his whole will is perverted; and that his affections have departed from GOD, and have been entirely rendered up to the service of God's enemy. No man has ever admitted, and no man ever will admit, this statement, in its length and breadth, until it has been shown to him by the Spirit of GOD shining into his dark heart, and reflecting from the volume of the written word. Then, indeed, it comes with power which is not to be resisted; it fastens upon the |