tired-out mercy had at length been feeling, of interest, and of affection, laid aside for the weapons of his ter- between a pastor and his flock, of rible justice. The thunder-clap then more than usual strength, and my shall be heard indeed,-for it shall tear heart must indeed have been seared asunder the bowels of the earth, and and hardened, did I not experience lay prostrate the palaces of kings-it it and acknowledge it now, in parting shall burst open the tombs and it | with you. I cannot be insensible to shall awake the dead! At the trumpet | much kindness you have shewn me→ sound there shall be a gathering together from every quarter of the falling world: myriads long forgotten, and ages yet unborn, shall be hurried forward into the Almighty's presence. And, then, when the awful assembling has been made, and silence-deep, solemn silence, shall precede the business of that dread assize, think, O think, my beloved, of the agony of those who have refused to take the Saviour for their advocate-who have thought to redeem their souls by their own deeds, instead of throwing themselves, guilty, ruined sinners, before that cross where his body was offered and his blood poured out. Think of the misery of those on whom He will not even look, and who may not so much as touch the hem of his garment as he passes by. Think of these things, beloved brethren, and ask your own hearts, whether it is nothing to neglect and despise the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ; whether it is nothing to throw away the blessings of eternal life, exchanging them for the pangs of an everlasting hell! And now, brethren, I am reminded that in having brought you to the last scene in the history of this perishable world, that I have also come to the close of my ministrations in this Temple. Believe me, my beloved friends, I cannot speak to you, probably for the last time, I cannot address to you the last words which it may be permitted me to address to you on earth, without experiencing that heaviness of sorrow which would be naturally consequent on such an occurrence. There is a connection of much affectionate regard-I cannot be otherwise than gratified at the willingness with which some of you have been led to receive my message. I cannot view our separation with cold or careless feelings: and from my heart, brethren, I will address to you a few parting words, which I pray GOD may be blessed to your souls. It is an awful thought, that though we may never meet again on earth, a day to which I have been alluding will come, when we must meet once more -a day when the cry shall go forth that the bridegroom is approaching. We must meet when every grave shall be loosed-the jaws of every tomb be rent-the marble magnificence of every sepulchre shall be torn and defaced, and "the boast of heraldry and pomp of power," be levelled with the dust: when the earth and the sea shall restore the dead they had swallowed; and when all tribes, and nations, and languages, and all human creatures shall stand in one huge concourse before the Judge upon the throne-the tribunal ready and the book opened. This, brethren, is the day to which GOD calls your attention, and for which we beseech you, from time to time, in his Son's name, to prepare, and yet too many of you go on, day by day, and Sabbath by Sabbath, unthankful for his mercies, and unmindful of his threats. We follow the steps of those who go before us-tread in their beaten path, and seldom trouble ourselves to pause and examine whether we are progressing in the right way, or whether we are preparing in readi ness to make up the items of our account in the end. But that account must be made up, brethren, and we may meet no more till it is called for. Let us, then, pause for awhile, under this sacred roof, where we have been permitted to meet often, and let us thank him we are here-let us remember our privileges, and examine ourselves that we may improve them. We have been permitted to enjoy many seasons of Christian worshipto come together within these walls, around and without which are recorded the memorials of the departed dead; and we have mingled our praises and prayers, which we trust have gone up to the mercy-seat. We have been permitted to hear and to preach God's holy Word: if that Word has been scattered on good ground, it will bring forth abundant fruit; if otherwise, it will perish, because it lacketh the means of nourishment. If, when bowed down by affliction and distress, you have come hither, to him who refreshes the weary and heavy laden, and have had your burden lightened and your cloud removed; if you have found yourselves growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, you have abundant cause of thankfulness: if some doubts have been removed, and bright and spiritual knowledge more amply imparted, it has been God's work, and to him be given the praise. But let us not forget to examine ourselves whether it has been so. Alas! on my own part, brethren, I feel a heavy burden of responsibility, nor do I know that I may say with the Apostle, that I am free from your blood. Weakly and unworthily have I declared to you the truths of the ever blessed Gospel, though I have prayed and sought to teach you nothing but Christ crucified, and to bring you to him only as the hiding place from the wind and the covert from the tempest. Has there been any improvement since we have been associated together in this holy service? Have we been living more to the glory of GOD, and of Him who redeemed us? Have we been separating ourselves from the society of the carnal-minded and the vicious, and living apart with those who seek Christ? Oh! it is easy, brethren, to come here with the bended knee and the serving lip-it is easy to come to God's house and call ourselves Christians. But have we not been bringing our faith and practice to a higher standard. Are we in spiritual matters no nearer GOD, at this moment, than the day on which we first became connected by the bond which unites the shepherd and his flock? Do we know more of Him and His will, and are we more earnest and devoted in our obedience to it?—are we living more by faith in the Son of GOD, and becoming more zealous in promoting his cause? No!-then these things shall rise up against us at the dread tribunal; and the Gospel has been to us the "savour of death unto death, and not of life unto life." If we have not been gaining ground, we must have been losing ground, and are now farther off from GOD than since we first came together. Believe me, my beloved brethren, the Gospel never can leave us as it found us: we must be the better for it or we must be the worse. Every sermon preached every prayer offered-every chapter of the Bible read, are means of grace, which, if they have not been improved, are gone up against us to swell the list of our numberless offences and our despised mercies. These are questions, brethren, which I beg and implore you to put daily to your hearts, that you may ascertain how far you have been going backward in the great work of salvation, or how far forward. leges, that can save us in that day: we In looking around me, I am blessed | torment! It is not the formal attendin the belief that I leave among you, ance on the means of grace-the outsome who are treasuring up the pre-ward participation in Gospel privicious truths of the Gospel of Salvation -some who are living a life of faith, making their light shine before men, and looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus. It need not that I declare to you whether such form the majority of those over whom my heavenly Master had called me to keep my shepherd-watch, or whether they be comparatively few, compared with those who are living a life of forgetfulness and sin: their names are all written in the Lamb's book of life, or in the register of wrath! Let us pray then, brethren, that the power of GOD may be with us, to build us up on our most holy faith, keeping us in the love of God. Prayer in the Holy Ghost is the channel through which covenant mercy flows. Let us pray, then, without ceasing, both for ourselves and others: though time and place may part us, let us meet often at the throne of grace, remembering one another, in the church, at the altar, and when we go to the secret closet to commune with the Redeemer alone. Let us pray that we may have our conversation in Heaven-that whatever we may do, may be done to the glory of GoD— that we may grow in grace and all knowledge, holiness and love-that we may be engrafted on the true vine, and bear much fruit unto the But alas! I must also grieve, that there are many among you who take little pains or care to improve the means of grace so liberally and mercifully administered to you-many who have sat under the sound of the Gospel, Sabbath after Sabbath, and year following year, till hoary age has succeeded the elasticity of youth,who have never yet been the free and acknowledged disciples of the Lord Jesus-who have never truly seen in Him, their only, their all-important Saviour; who, with the form of god-Lord--that we may serve him in liness, have been contented to lack its power; having the lamps of profession in their hands, but no oil of grace in the vessel of their hearts. Such persons, my beloved brethren, may have a high character in the world, and be looked upon by their fellow-creatures as children of the bright promise; but where shall they stand at the judgment day? Shall they not be among the goats-among those who will call upon the hills, to hide them from an offended GOD? Every secret sin shall, in that day, be detected and revealed-lips. But ere I pronounce it for no veil shall shade the wicked from the penetrating eye of GOD, and no hand shall be raised to molest the destroyer as he hurries the unredeemed to the lake of ever-burning things temporal, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life; and in the mansions of the blessed may we meet, serving him there with unwearied worship, without spot or blemish or any such thing,-ministering with holy angels, day and night, in His Temple. And now, beloved brethren, the fleeting moments compel me to say the saddest word we can ever utterfarewell! I dare not dwell upon itit would linger too long upon my the last time, let me briefly leave a I thers and fathers in our Israel, pray | youth, and not to delay it till the evil constantly that you may be led more days come, when you can find no and more, to see the awful respon-pleasure in them. Let not the silver sibility of the talent committed to your cord be loosed, nor the golden bowl parental keeping. Remember that it broken, ere your spirit has been fitted has been said by the wise man, that to be rendered to the GOD who gave a child trained up in the way he it, so soon as your dust may return should go, will not depart from that to the earth from which it sprang. way. Remember that your children Give the best of your days to Him have souls to be saved or to be lost, who is giving all His days and nights as well as bodies to be cared for or to you and may He guard, sanctify neglected. A day is coming when and keep you, in your infancy, your you will have to stand side by side manhood, and even to your hoar with them at the tribunal of GOD-hairs may He carry you! may you not then be charged with leading them, either by precept or example, into the broad way of destruction-may they not have to say, should they be cast from the presence of GOD, that they have to thank their father or their mother for their eternal damnation! And you, my dear young friends, for whom many an anxious tear has fallen, and many a swelling bosom grieved-let me once more, ere I leave you to another's ministry, call upon you to remember your Creator in the days of your And now, beloved friends, as the last tribute of my affection, I commend you to God and to His holy Word, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. May He, the GoD of peace, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; and may we all meet together, accepted and redeemed by Him, at the last great day!—Amen. A Sermon, DELIVERED BY THE REV. W. B. LEACH, AT ROBERT STREET CHAPEL, GROSVERNOR SQUARE, ON SUNDAY MORNING, 1 Pet. i. 3, 4.-" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you." I HAVE long and often admired the | in his way to the kingdom of Heaven contents of this and of the ensuing through this vale of tears. The auchapter. They exhibit a rich fund thor of this epistle, as the title imof evangelical sentiment and spiri- ports, was the Apostle Peter, who was tual consolation, and are well calcu- one of the first Disciples of our Lord, lated to cheer the Christian traveller and was distinguished among his brethren, by an ardent, zealous, and impetuous mind. And the persons to whom it was addressed were converted Jews, and probably believing Gentiles, who were scattered abroad by the iron rod of persecution through various provinces of the Lesser Asia. But though denominated, "Strangers" in those places in which they sought an asylum, Peter congratulates them as "the elect and sanctified of GOD," to whom he presents the affectionate salutation of "grace and peace." Viewed in this light, it is evident that whatever they were to the world which despised and rejected them, they were neither strangers, to Christ, to themselves, nor to the consolations of the Gospel. This is the solace of the true believer. Wherever he goes, wherever he dwells, though the world knows him not, "he is not alone, for the Father is with him." love, and mercy-with the infinite merits of the Saviour and the extensive provisions of the Gospelwith His unlimited power to turn the hearts of mankind like the rivers of water whithersoever he pleases-and with the general character of his kind dispensations in providence and in religion, there is every encouragement to believe that the election of Grace, far from being so limited as some contracted minds would insinuate, is wide and munificent. And when, in addition to the height, and depth, the length and breadth of its benevolent range, you distinctly mark the purifying and practical objects which it determines to secure, you will see that so far from leading to illiberality, and rigidity of opinion on one hand, or to laxity and licentiousness of manners on the other, it is intended, by its Divine Author, to produce just the opposite result. For example: As it selects its objects without their merit or desert, instead of fostering their pride, self-conceit and dogmatism, (defects which are too often betrayed by those who abuse the doctrine,) it should make them humble, meek and modest. As it springs from love on the part of its beneficent Author, instead of promoting illiberality, and selfishness, censoriousness, and indolence, it should cherish the graces of affection, gene In touching upon the doctrine of Election, at which we have glanced, from the tenour of the context, I am quite aware of the diversity of opinion to which that profound topic has given rise. But though denied by some, and misunderstood or abused by others, yet, when surveyed in the benevolence of its source, and in its practical tendency and influence, so far from presenting a lowering and forbidding aspect, and investing the Almighty with the character of an│rosity, and benignity. And as every arbitrary and despotic ruler, it exhibits an act of sovereign love and mercy to the fallen and helpless children of men, but for which none would have been saved. That the doctrine appears somewhat mysterious when placed in association with some other articles of divine revelation, we readily admit. It is one of the secret things which belong to the Lord our GOD," but which is to be judged of by its effects. Still, when we view it in connection with His infinite goodness, exhibition of it is connected with sanctification and Christian obedience, far from becoming licentious Antinomians, we ought to adorn it by every holy temper, habit, and act. This is the design of the doctrine of Election; and wherever it is not thus exemplified, you may safely conclude that the person espousing it, assumes it only as a stolen garment, to which he is not at all intitled, to conceal a defective character, or an erroneous creed, as the GoD of infinité |