SERMON XI.

PREACHED AT THE COMMEMORATION AT BUCKHOLD,

SEPTEMBER 6, 1841.

PSALM C. 1.

O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands; serve the Lord with gladness, and come before His presence with a song.

It is possible that some of us may have begun to think "Why should we go on keeping this day? or indeed why did we ever do it? We might have known that it would not be such a new and interesting thing to us by this time, as it was at first, when this building had but just been raised, and some of us had scarce seen it before; now it is such a common thing that we do it just as we should do any thing else." Thus, however, it is with most things; they are more interesting to us when they are new. And perhaps some of us set about celebrating this anniversary at first with more thought about its being a new and interesting thing than we should have had if our thoughts had been

deeper. But we do not do it as a new thing, we do not do it as an interesting thing, but rather as a solemn thanksgiving due to God, and a solemn memorial profitable to ourselves.

Our life must, upon the whole, be chiefly taken up with things that are common and old to us. But things that are really good are not the worse for being old. We do not get tired of our friends, but rather love them the more the longer we live with them. And so it is with things that are not of this world. If we live amongst them as we ought to do, we come to love them more and more, the more familiar they are to us.

It is possible, indeed, for a man so to bear himself towards those whom God has placed nearest to him as to become weary of them, and to make them weary of him, or so as to grow careless of them and make them careless of him. But such is not the case when a man behaves as he ought to do in the common concerns of life. Rather though he should have nothing else to make him have any regard for one who lives near him, often meets him, sometimes works with him; this alone would be enough to make him care for such an one, and be glad to meet him, and wish to be of service to him. He may not be aware of it until something

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happens to make him think of it, but so it is, he comes to love his neighbour by long acquaintance and frequent meeting.

So it is in our converse with God, if we bear ourselves in it as we ought to do; if we think at all Whom we meet when we are gathered together in the name of Christ, and if we really mean what we say to Him. But, indeed, if we really attend to our prayers, and think of God and of Christ in them, we must gain more than a mere acquaintance with His house and His service. It will not be to us merely as a neighbourhood that is about us, but as a home that is nearest to us of all things, and that we could not forsake without becoming, as it were, other men. When we are bidden call God our Father, it is meant that we should really regard Him so, and live with Him as with a kind parent, meeting often in His presence, speaking to Him of our wants, and hearing His commands, feeding on His bounty, and thanking Him continually, growing up under His care to greater spiritual strength, and to a more active love towards Himself. And as our common attendance at His worship is like the daily meeting of a family with its head, so a festival in the Church is like a weddingday or birth-day in a family. The keeping

of such a day with joy revives and strengthens their affection towards each other, and keeps up the remembrance of many things which it is good for them to think of. It gathers up for them, as it were, the days that are past, and keeps them in perpetual possession of time that is gone by. It prevents them from being so taken up with the present time as to lose the benefit of the past, and checks them if they have begun to be forgetful and neglectful of their duties to one another.

It is not necessary that we should always take exactly the same view of such an occasion. Our thoughts of it will vary according to the state of our minds from time to time, and may one day be cheerful and another day sad, or mingled with sadness. The very words of our service are such as may suit very different states of thought and of feeling, and every one may find his own in them. But much more may every one find his own want supplied, his own case suited, in Him to Whom we come. The great blessing both of our ordinary worship, and of these particular occasions of it, is our being admitted to go before Him. That we go before Him, is reason enough why we should rejoice, and sing songs of thanks

giving. Accordingly the Psalm from which our text is taken is appointed for frequent use, being suitable to any occasion of our coming before God to offer our prayers and thanksgivings. Yet there is something in it particularly fitted to this occasion, which we may now dwell upon for a time, and so perhaps learn to see more than we have done in this Psalm whenever we use it, and habitually to value more our privilege of meeting in the house of God.

It is remarkable then that this Psalm was written when the true religion was confined to one nation, and the house and altar of God to one spot. And yet it calls upon all lands to be joyful in the Lord, and to serve Him with gladness. In this, no doubt, it is prophetic, and was meant to point at the times of the Gospel, when we, the Gentiles, should rejoice with God's people. A thousand years before the time, the Prophet raised his voice to call the nations to their God, and all that time one plan was carried on, one great work never lingered in God's hand, the preparing mankind for that glorious time.

And now that we enjoy the liberty of worshipping God in our own land, and the knowledge how to worship Him aright, we do well to remember that there was a time