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and wise counsel, addressed these important words to you, my brethren; and because God hath addressed these words to you, prepare to meet thy God, my brethren.

Turn away therefore every one of you from your evil doings, and do that which is lawful and right stand in awe and sin not, commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth. Halt no longer any of you between two opinions; if the Lord be God follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. No man can serve two masters. God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Be not deceived: to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. Beware of covetousness. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! The love of money is the root of all evil. Cursed is the man who buildeth his house with the wages of unrighteousness. A false balance, and an unjust weight are both abominations in the sight of our God. Wash you therefore, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow. Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy

upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Our God is a God in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them: and he hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, him who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

When the Israelites would turn to the Lord their God, they were obliged to come with a burnt offering and a peace offering, looking through those types to the long promised sacrifice for sin. But we are privileged to look directly unto the lamb of God, not through the types of the blood of bulls and goats, but at once to rest for pardon upon the blood of Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of his grace. Let us joy-* fully avail ourselves of this privilege, so shall our iniquity not be our ruin; but though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

When the Israelites would seek for sanctifying grace; they were obliged to come to the

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various washings of the ceremonial law, looking through them to the promised laver of spiritual regeneration. But we are privileged to look directly to the Holy Ghost, not through the types of legal purifications, but at once to seek the comforter, the Lord and giver of a new and holy life. Let us joyfully avail ourselves of this privilege also, encouraged by the gracious words of Jesus, ask and ye shall receive: so shall we not be left to struggle in our own strength against the manifold temptations arising from the world, the flesh and the devil, and be continually defeated; but strengthened with might by the Spirit of God in the inner man, we shall be more than conquerors in all temptations. Enjoying his presence, and partaking of his fulness, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; restored from the captivity of sin, and established in the fertile land of gospel blessedness; we shall realize the spiritual application of that precious promise wherewith Amos concludes his prophesies, and which shall yet have a literal and glorious fulfilment for Israel: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed, (lively images of abounding plenty: seed-time and harvest, spring and vintage pressing close one upon another,) and the mountains shall drop

sweet wine, and the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God."

SERMON XIII.

ON THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.

2 COR. iv. 13.

"We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak."

THE passage of scripture here quoted by the Apostle is written in the hundred and sixteenth psalm, where David, in the midst of dangers and difficulties, and in the conflict of a painfully varied experience, expresses his strong confidence in God. "I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living, I believed and therefore have I spoken." Under the influence of the spirit of faith David enjoyed that confidence, and we, saith the Apostle, in all our difficulties and dangers and persecutions and temptations, we having the same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, "knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you."

In all ages of the world, from the days of

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