we are therefore exhorted to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. And "if ye being evil know how to give good things unto your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" "Ask, therefore, and receive, that your joy may be full."

Thirdly, Prayer and supplication for these refreshing communications must be followed by an avoidance of those inconsistencies and declensions in our Christian character as religious communities or as individuals, which are likely to "grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption." Nothing has a greater tendency to induce the Spirit of the Lord to withhold his gracious influences than a state of religious decay, indicated by lukewarmness, neglect of the life and power of personal godliness, conformity to the world, or by any direct violation of the practical requirements of Christ's holy Gospel. Such palpable inconsistencies, which bring religion into contempt, or which injure the tone of experimental piety, even if there be no visible slur upon our public character, the Holy Ghost will not connive at. And if we thus offend our heavenly Benefactor, we shall soon have to cry, "The Comforter which should relieve my soul is far from me." Let us then earnestly seek, highly prize, and devoutly improve, the refreshing seasons of which we have spoken, that it may be well with us, and that our profiting may appear unto all men.

We may also learn from the subject of how much importance the refreshing religion of Christ is to us in the present world. What is the character of the world? A waste howling wilderness, a thorny maze, an enemy's country, a vale of tears. What is our condition in this desert land? Let Job answer: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of sorrows." Or as good old Jacob said, "Few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage." But O what solace does the Gospel of the Redeemer afford. Hear the testimony of David: "In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock." Hear the testimony of Paul: "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed." Or, as our Lord said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye shall have peace." That peace is imparted by times of refreshing from his holy presence. We enter our closet, we pour out the desires and sorrows of our hearts at the mercy-seat. There we are refreshed. We read the word of God, we bring our feelings into contact with those inspired pages. There we are refreshed. We enter the sanctuary, we go to the wells of salvation. There we are refreshed. We look at the dispensations of Providence with the eye of faith, and in humble dependence upon the teaching of the Holy Ghost, and there we are refreshed. Thus the Christian stands where the worldling sinks, or the mere professor deserts the post of duty. "These endure but for a season, and in the time of temptation fall away."

Finally, If such be the importance and advantages of these refreshing showers of divine grace, how great must be YOUR destitution who have not the Spirit of Christ, and consequently are none of his? You, my dear brethren, are like wells without water, trees without verdure, clouds without rain, scattered by the tempest. You have to suffer without divine support; to carry your burden in your own strength: and, what is worse still, your souls are in imminent

danger of being lost, lost for ever. Your sins, which are many, are not par. doned: your hearts are not renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost; you aro living only for the world; and at length you and your portion must sink to rise no more. O then think what you lose by neglecting the great salvation, and what you incur by your indifference to the imperious claims of the Gospel of Christ. And if your destitution is such in the present life, what will be your state in that great day when Christ shall come to judge the world in righteousness" in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not his holy Gospel, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." Flee, then, from the wrath to come. Escape for your life. Look not behind you. Flee to the mountain, to the cross of Christ, lest you perish in the way, when the wrath of the Lord, like a sweeping pestilence shall terribly desolate the earth.

THE JOY OF ANGELS IN THE CONVERSION OF SINNERS.

REV. R. NEWTON,

GREAT QUEEN STREET CHAPEL, SEPTEMBER 20, 1835.

"Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."-LUKE, xv. 10.

It has sometimes been questioned, and in some instances the question has been urged with feelings of very peculiar interest, whether the inhabitants of the invisible world are ever visitants of our earth, and whether they have any acquaintance with the affairs of men. By some we know it has been assumed and taken for granted, that no such intercourse and acquaintance can possibly exist: and in certain circles, we are aware, it has been deemed an indication of a superior intellect, and of a mind elevated above the influence of low and vulgar prejudices, to treat the subject with contempt and ridicule, as a childish imagination, or as a superstitious dream. One thing, however, is certain-ridicule never can be the test of truth. Hazardous, indeed, is the perseverance of him, who persists in pronouncing that to be impossible which the Word of God declares to be fact.

To the holy Scriptures, those lively, those infallible oracles-infallible because divinely inspired-we must, of course, be indebted for what we have of certainty on a subject of this nature: and from the discoveries of this volume it is most clear that angels, both bad and good, have an intimate acquaintance with the moral history of man. Bad angels, as our foes, are diligently seeking our destruction: good angels, as our friends, take a lively interest in our salvation. The latter remark seems to be implied in the passage I have read to you. How can angels rejoice in the event of the repentance of the sinner, unless they are acquainted with such repentance? How can angels rejoice when such an event takes place, unless that event be agreeable to their wishes and inclinations? A man cannot, and an angel cannot, rejoice in that which opposes his inclinations and his wishes: but angels do rejoice "over one sinner that repenteth."

Thus it would seem that angels are acquainted with what happens on earth, and angels are glad when the sinner is converted; such conversion giving a new impulse to their joy: so that our happiness heightens theirs. I know it may be urged, that the angels may receive information of such an event as this from Him who sees all things and knows all things. That they may receive such information by immediate revelation from that God, whose they are and whom they adore, is readily admitted: but it is abundantly obvious fron what this sacred volume asserts, that they have the opportunity of ac

quiring the knowledge of such a fact by their own actual observation. I ask you, Were not good angels familar with the first created beings in Paradise? I ask you, Did not angels continually minister to men under the patriarchal and the Mosaic dispensations? I ask you, Is not the history of the Jewish people for centuries, a history also of the ministration of angels? I ask you, Were not the angels especially employed at the delivery of the law; and is it not for that reason called, "the word spoken by angels?" I ask again, Did not the Psalmist declare, and here stands the record, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them?" And I inquire again, Are not we who are under this last, and best, and crowning dispensation of the truth and grace of God—are not we come, by the Gospel, by the Christian institution, more intimately and specially come, to " an innumerable company of angels?" And was not the incarnate God "seen of angels," as well as "preached unto the Gentiles?" And were not the first apostles of our Lord, in their labours and their toils, in their sufferings and in their triumphs, made "a spectacle to angels," as well as to men? I ask, finally, "Are not they all"-not a few of them; not some particular orders of them merely, but all of them, hierarchies and powers, cherubim and seraphim, Michael and Gabriel, all included-" Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Do you wonder, then, that our poet of Paradise, who was certainly indebted to the Sacred Volume for many hints and suggestions in his admirable poem-do you wonder that he asserts, that

"Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth

Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep." Whenever a sinner repents and is truly converted, that is a fresh accession to the joy of angels.

There are especially three events on record as occasions of angelic joy. The first was, when God created this solar system; when "He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast ;" and when this earth especially sprang into existence, in all its pristine beauty and glory, as the then future residence of man. On that occasion all these "morning stars" sung together and all "the first-born sons of God" shouted for joy.

The second event recorded in this book as the occasion of angelic joy, was the incarnation of the world's Redeemer. He had long been promised; he had long been expected. Angels had looked into these things; angels had been diligent students in the prophetic Scriptures; and they had been diligent observers of the sacred hieroglyphics under the Mosaic dispensation: and when all these things ripened into the actual event, and the Christ of God was born, one of these pure and lofty intelligences received a commission to announce the event to the honest shepherds; and he did this as "good tidings of great joy," not only to heaven, but " to all people ;" and having done this he was suddenly joined by a multitude of the heavenly host; and they praised God, and rejoiced with exceeding joy, and made the concave of the skies vocal with their expressions of joy; and they said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

The third occasion of angelic joy as left on record here, is that which my text describes, when the end, even in an individual instance, for which the great Redeemer came to the world is being realized the end for which he

stooped to our world; the end for which he lived in our world; the end for which he bled on the cross; the end for which he maketh intercession on the right hand of the Majesty on High. When a sinner repenteth, when a sinner is converted, and when a sinner is saved, then these angels that rejoiced at the creation of our world, that rejoiced at the incarnation of the world's Redeemer, rejoice again: and "I say unto you," says the great Teacher, "whatever men may say "—and he knows what is in angels as well as what is in men, and what takes place in heaven as well as what takes place on earth"I say," says the great Teacher, "there is joy:" Yes, there is! "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

The occasion of the text was the following. Many of the publicans and sinners-those who are deemed the worst, and the most abandoned and profligate of characters-drew near to listen to the gracious words that proceeded out of the mouth of the condescending and divine Teacher, who spake as never man spake. At this the scribes and pharisees, full of self-importance and self-sufficiency, murmured, filled with all envy and jealousy; and they said, "This man—this man who professes to be our Redeemer and King—this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." Christ never received sinners to connive at their sin: he only associated with sinners as a physician associates with the diseased, in order to restore them to health and soundness: the Saviour, in the context, is recorded to have associated with these sinners in order to encourage their repentance. The Lord, to rebuke those self-righteous pharisees, and to shew them that the feelings of envy and jealousy which they were fostering in their bosoms were just the reverse of these which good angels indulged, and that therefore their feelings must be wrong-for the feelings of angels are right, and the affections of good angels never take a wrong turntherefore said he, "I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

Mark we, then, the event here described, and the joy, the angelic joy, which this occasions.

What have we then in THE EVENT? A very serious event, a very interesting event, a very momentous event-the." repentance" of the sinner; the conversion of the sinner; for the word here obviously is to be understood in a comprehensive sense, as importing a real change, a spiritual, gracious, saving change. And especially for the sense of the term must be fixed by its context-such is the interpretation of the term which the context requires. Read more particularly the parable of the Prodigal Son, and you will be convinced of this. Would that this event were more frequent! O that it may occur, and in more instances than one or two, in this place this night!

"One sinner." And who is the sinner? What is sin? "Sin is the transgression of the law." The sinner, then, is the transgressor. And far, alas, we nee not travel in order to find the sinner: from without these walls we need go in order to find sinners. Ah, my fellow-creatures, we are all fellow sinners! For whatever diversity, circumstantial diversity, may mark the human being, as he is found existing under different colours and different climes and atmospheres, and as giving expression to his thoughts and feelings in different languages, there is, amidst all this circumstantial diversity, one point of resemblance, to which there is no exception whatever; in which there