Oh, my brethren, there is a strong propensity in the human heart to buffoonery and caricature! It is wonderful even how a wise man can be tickled by such a sight, if he will be foolish enough to stand to see it. But that the Son of GOD-that the Spirit of GOD-that the word of God-that the church of God, should be made the actual subject matter of buffoonery in a nominally Christian city, does prove, that there is something in us ripe for destruction. no matter what doctrines they hold. | gious pestilence through the city and It is the throwing overboard all the the country! peculiarities of Christianity, and allowing all men, whatever they may call themselves, to associate on one common platform, as Christ's brethren. It is sinking the peculiarities of God's truth. It is shutting the door of the temple, in which temple the glorious truth is written, that all men shall honour the Son, even as they honour the Father-that if any man have not the Son he hath not life-that if any man hath not the Son of GOD the wrath of GOD abideth on him still that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins-and that except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of GOD. It is shutting up the temple, I say, in which all these glorious truths are written, and turning to the sun, where nothing is written that man can read-where we can only know that God is-but do not what he is, or what he will do with us. The Bible tells us what he is, and they will not have it, because they hate the truth-because they love wickedness. Is not this true in the land? Are not the manifestations of infidelity in the land, and in this city most fearful? Are there not lectures frequently delivered on infidelity avowedly—and are they not numerously attended in this very city? And because the language of the lectures cannot reach the minds of some of the more uneducated, the disciples of the devil have got up exhibitions of infidelity—they have got up scenic exhibitions, in which the Saviour is exhibited—in which the devil is exhibited-in which the descent of the Holy Ghost is caricatured. They have got up a scenic exhibition, in which a bishop is brought on the stage, represented by a buffoon, to be refuted by a deist. These things they have got exhibiting to the people, spreading their conta Oh, my beloved brethren, what shall the end be? These things are going on-these things are known; and when they are spoken of, the actors in all these iniquities put the branch to their nose, they despise the warnings, they despise the bigotry and the intolerance, and the narrow mindedness, and the spiritual pride, and the fanaticism, and the self-conceit of any man that will dare to give such a warning as this. I am well aware of it. I am well aware that, at the moment, the charges against me of bigotry, and intolerance, and madness, and selfconceit, and spiritual pride, are in the hearts of any such men who may be present in this congregation, unless, indeed, the Spirit of God be in their hearts, ready to subdue that iniquity. Well, what shall the end be? Surely, it is wise to take warning by historysurely, it is wise to take warning by what has gone before. When GOD was provoked in the days of Noahwhen judgment was threatened-when long suffering patience was exercised— and when a separation was made-what was the end? The Deluge was the end. But these our infidels are willingly ignorant concerning the history of the old world-willingly, I say, because they are acting every day upon evidence less conclusive than that which they have for the Deluge. They are acting on hearsay events in other hemispheres, on which they cannot have the evidence which they may have of the Deluge; yes, they are willingly ignorant that GOD interferes with this world. When GoD was provoked in the days of Lot-when judgment was threatened-when long suffering patience was exercised-and when a separation was made-what was the end? Fire and brimstone fell from heaven on the cities of the plain, and consumed them. When Gon was provoked in the days of Zedekiah, when judgment was threatened-when long suffering patience was exercisedand when a separation was made-what was the end? The sword of the Chaldeans laid prostrate the city of Jerusalem. When GOD was provoked in the days immediately following our Saviour's life-when judgment was threatened—when long suffering patience was exercised-and when a separation was made-what was the end? The destruction of the city by famine, by pestilence, by the sword on the people, and by the dispersion and ruin of those who remained alive. And now, when, after a long interval-after a very great increase of privilege-after a great increase of light-after a great variety of opportunities given to men to see more of what God is, and to judge by the history of the world, and to take warning by past experiencenow, when God is provoked-when judgment is threatened when long suffering patience is exercised and when a separation shall be made-what shall the end be? The Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with flaming fire, to take vengeance upon them that know not GoD, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. All that believe not on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be destroyed with everlasting destruction, and banished for ever from the brightness of his presence and the glory of his power, thus shall the end be. (2 Thess. i. 7-9.) This is not believed, my brethren ; the history of the world is not attended to. Men, with all their wisdom, are keeping the world in its infancy, because they will not learn by the history of its infancy, now it is grown old, to be wiser, than when it was young. But if men will not learn by what happened when the world was young, they are fools, though they call themselves wise. The men who throw history overboard, continue in the world's infancy instead of gaining wisdom as it grows older. Now, the history of the world tells us, that such must be the end, when such are the provoking events preceding the end. Should the history of one nation give a warning to another? Should the circumstances of the king and people of France give a warning to the king and people of England under similar circumstances? Or should the history of the king and people of England, in the sixteenth century, give a warning to the king and people of England in the nineteenth century? If this be admitted in these cases, where all the parties on both sides are different, with how much more force does it apply to what may be termed the theological history of all nations, wherein one of the parties continues the same? The King of kings and nations is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and the principles of his righteous government are like himself, unchangeable. Oh, brethren, take warning by the history of the world! Now, what shall we say to these things? Some men say, when we speak of the judgments to come, why threaten us now?-the nation was always wicked-there was always infidelity. I have heard this argument urged, again and again, in answer to the warning voice of the faithful wit ness of GOD. There was always infidelity-there was always wickedness. We deny not that there was always wickedness; we know it, too well we know it; but is that a reason why punishment should not come upon us at last? No; rather the reverse, rather a reason why, when it does come, it should be aggravated more. What did our Saviour say unto the Jews? "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents,' ye generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation." The vengeance for the blood of Abel which was executed on his brother Cain, did not exhaust the judgments of God for that murder. They who followed after and showed by their spirit that they would have taken part with Cain, inherit a participation in the anger of God for his brother's murder; and, therefore, the blood of Abel was to come on them, and also the blood of all the righteous men slain in other days. Through the tender mercy of GoD he has spared us. He has not brought down judgments upon us for any of the great wickednesses committed in the land. He has only warned us with a gentle hand, and He has not yet poured out any of his desolations on us. We are taught in wisdom, in our beautiful liturgy, to continue praying against God's judgments-but the prayer has become almost a dead letter on our lips—against plague, pestilence, and famine, and against war; because all these things have been kept so long from the land there is no real feeling of apprehension that they should come. But, my brethren, at the last, when it does come, by a parity of reasoning, all the righteous blood which has been shed since the first Christian martyrs slain by pagan Rome, all the barbarities of the middle ages, and all the savage atrocities of the Reformation, all shall be visited on the last generation of Christendom. By being of the same spirit as those that committed all-by inheriting the spirit of their fathers-by sanctioning the deeds of their fathers they shall all fall under the judgment-the accumulated and concentrated judgments of God; all, all shall fall on that last generation. And who shall tell when that last generation shall be? It may be ours, or it may be that we are heaping up treasures of judgment for our grand-children, but it must come -behold it is near-the end shall come. And what shall be done in the meantime? Shall there be nothing said about these things? Shall no attempts be made at reformation? Shall not a word be spoken about it? What shall we say? My brethren, you are here assembled to night in support of a combination of men who are determined to speak about these matters. THE REFORMATION SOCIETY supplies the rallying point. They are men who call things by their proper names, who are not willing to avoid the persecution, and the ridicule, and the scoffing of the world, by a trimming or compromising vocabulary, but they speak plain, they say with David, "I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war." Then why speak at all? Is not peace a Christian virtue? Is not charity all Christianity? No. In so saying men say a lie. Is not charity the prime of Christian virtues? Charity is, in the real meaning of it, but not in their | which this truth of God has brought meaning of it. When they say that on your minds this night—I call on charity is the chief of Christian vir- you by all the value you have for etertues, they say true in words, but their nity-by all the anxiety you have about meaning is a lie; because they do not your own souls, and the souls of your mean by charity what the Bible means fellow-creatures-by all the certainty by charity, and, therefore, we cannot that you have, that, except in the blood speak peace, peace, when there is no of Jesus Christ, there is no salvation peace when there is no righteous for any man-I call on you by all these, peace when there is no real charity and other things more mighty if I when there is no divine love. Peace, could speak them, that you will make at the expense of truth, is denounced some effort, some Christian aggression in the word of God. We may say to upon the ungodliness of the country, them what Jehu, the son of Nimshi, the ungodliness of society in Chrissaid: "What peace, so long as the tendom, that you will make some efwhoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and fort for GoD, that you will not be her witchcrafts are so many?" Jere- ashamed for Jesus Christ. And if miah was so overwhelmed that he de- there be an opportunity brought to termined to keep his peace. "Then I your doors for making an effort-if said, I will not make mention of him, there be a society of men banded tonor speak any more in his name. But gether, in the face of a gain-saying his word was in mine heart as a burn- nation, and running the risk of perseing fire shut up in my bones, and I cution, even unto stoning and pelting was weary of forbearing, and I could at the various anniversary meetings of not stay." the society-if there be such a society of men for the putting of stagnant pools in motion, and for stirring up the dormant Protestanism that is going to sleep in the land-if there be such a society of men, I ask whether it is not right, whether it is not fitting, that some of the large excesses of indulgence and luxury to which some, perhaps, many of you, are habitually yielding yourselves, should be given up, in order that the substance so wasted, may be thrown into this treasury, that we may help these men against gainsayers, and enable them to travel from town to town, and to hire rooms, and to print papers, and to distribute books, in order that these great truths may have circulation through the land, that these protests against Popery, against infidelity, against unrighteousness, against all the wickedness that is standing rampant in the nation, may be repeated, may sound from pulpit after pulpit, from room after room, from barn after barn, And is it not right to speak? Here is a statement which is the truth of GOD, and there is a man who professes himself a brother, and if I make this statement I shall offend my brother. What shall I do? The Lord says, love your brother. And shall I keep back this statement rather than offend my brother? What shall I do? Suppose, I say, I will be a very peaceful, quiet man rather than offend that brother, and thereupon suppress the offensive statement; well, next day, I meet another brother, and there is another statement, and I must suppress that also, for fear of offending him. And in the course of a month or two I cannot open my Bible at all. If I must keep peace with every one, I must put my Bible in the fire. My brethren, we must speak out. This is the business-this is the province this is the operation of the REFORMATION SOCIETY; and I call on you, by all the power of the conviction and from street after street, throughout | But faithful exposure is not the order of the length and breadth of England, the day. One man after another Scotland, and Ireland; so that the shrinks from it, and according to our word of God may have free course and proverb, what is every man's business be glorified, and the people marked becomes no man's business, and what with the mark of God's mercy, before all agree should be exposed, remains the destroying slaughter weapon comes without exposure. GOD of all grace forth on the land. and mercy help me to perform my own duty. I hold it a duty, and I thank God for the opportunity of per Oh, my brethren, join yourselves heart and hand-join yourselves with might-join yourselves with prayer-forming that duty as a minister of the join yourselves with money, according as the Lord prospers you, to help forward this great work of reformation before the Lord comes in his glory. This is the work you are called on to support to-night-this is the nature, I say this is the position-this is the operation of the REFORMATION SoCIETY. And now, you are invited cordially to join in this work-you are invited liberally to support it—you are invited to pray for it-you are invited to pray for the men who are engaged in it -and you are invited to give GOD thanks for so much as has been already done by it. I And now I leave the cause thus. pray God that I may not have omitted any thing that I should have said, and that I have not said any thing that I should have omitted. If I have said any thing more than the truth of GOD calls for if I have said any thing to offend any man, I pray GoD that he will not lay it to my charge. He knows that my desire and my intention this night are honest-he knows that my heart is set upon telling the truth in love to my brethren—in love to my king-in love to my superiors-in love to my country, and that I would, in order to do them good, most gladly submit to be misrepresented, as possibly I shall be. My duty, my office, my high calling is to tell the truth concerning them in love. Oh, if I had an opportunity of speaking these things in their own ears, I need not stand here to speak them! church, righteously established on Scriptural grounds in this land-fostered by king after king-fostered as it ought to be by the Father of his people, who should thus take charge of the Christian instruction of his national family-I think it the duty of the minister of such a church, to stand forth, and tell the truth, concerning the king and his family, concerning the nobles and the bishops, concerning the pastors and the people, to tell the truth on all occasions, in the name of GoD and of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And I pray the Holy Ghost to bless it to your souls; and to convince you that there is such a thing as faithful witnessing for GOD, and that the truth of God is worth all, and every thing; that we should be willing to live with it, and die with it, and not live without it. Now, my beloved brethren, stifle not your own convictions. Do not lightly throw off the impressions that may have made on you. Do not return lightly to the giddy scenes and worldly dissipations of this night. Wait, and let a peaceful and prayerful conviction settle on your souls. Oh, keep silence among one another, whisper not, and chat not the moment the minister ceases, dissipating the impression and getting back into the frivolities of society; but concentrate your feelings-retire within-continue in prayer-bring down a blessing from GoD upon the land this night. May GoD, who careth for us, who can controul the infidel, who can |