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fied with nothing less than God, and believed He was his portion for ever.

Again he who waits upon God, is careful not to indulge himself in any thing, contrary to the command of his heavenly Father. He knows nothing he can do can purchase his favour; but mark, "ye are justified"—for what end? The Apostle tells us, speaking of Christ, Titus ii. 14. " who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." The believer says, What shall I do for the Lord? Read how David waited, in Psalm cxxiii. 2. "Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us; and yet neither he nor those who of old waited for the Lord, thought to recommend themselves by their waiting, but they simply trusted to mercy. Consider the character of a servant. Servants look for work and wages. Look to the conduct of the believing servant, does he work only for his wages? Oh, no; he delights to serve his believing master. By faith, we know what it is to cherish a disposition to love and serve Jesus, and have a continual sense that we perpetually stand in need of his mercy. Consider

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the church of God, and connect this with the promise, Isaiah xxx. 18. "And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him." God is waiting to be gracious; he has promised to be gracious, and he will be so; why does he wait? it may be said; because he has his own appointed time. Jesus says, "Mine hour is not yet come." There are two

things we should remember-one is, that we shall eventually be convinced, his time is the best to display his own glory; and the other, that his time is best to enhance our sense of the blessing.

Again: it is a proof that the blessing is mine, if I am waiting; and when I consider who God is, and what the blessings are which he hath promised, and that there is an eternity to enjoy them, I feel the age of Methuselah would be a very little time to wait even in the midst of night. All the objects of nature around us convey instruction upon this subject-the merchant waits until his merchandize shall bring him returns; the husbandman waits till the seed he has sown produces the expected harvest, and the period while the corn is ripening he endures with patience: so we, waiting

upon God in the midst of all minor blessings, look forward to the possession of the first of all blessings, that the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob shall be our God, who shall take us by the hand, and lead us in safety to the heavenly Zion, which is above.

Morning, December 17, 1820.

SERMON XVI.

THE POWER OF GOD IN CREATION AND

REDEMPTION.

With God, all things are possible.-MARK X. 27.

If we contrast the latter part of this verse with the former, we shall find this important truth, that nothing is possible with man, whilst all things are possible with God. If this truth, in all its richness, could take full possession of our hearts, it would procure us a little heaven even here. Unbelief takes a much firmer hold of our hearts than we are aware of. The Saviour spake the words of the text upon a particular occasion: there came to him a young man, who addressed him, saying, "Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God." Christ made this reply evidently to teach the young man his divinity, not questioning but that the young man's

answer should be, because thou art God, therefore, I call thee "good ;" and he proceeded to say, "thou knowest the commandments,-do not commit adultery,-do not kill,-do not steal,-do not bear false witness,--defraud not, -honor thy father and mother," verse 19. "And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth, verse 20. He evidently was a young man of amiable dispositions, and we are told, verse 21, "then Jesus beholding him loved him; " so it is right we should love amiable qualities in our fellow-creatures; but we should not love those qualities as we love the image of God in their hearts. Christ makes this distinction and seemed to say, amiable and lovely as he was, yet he wanted the principal thing,-he wanted the love of God in his heart, "one thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsover thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven

the cross, and follow me.

and come, take

And he was sad

for he

up at that saying, and went away grieved had great possessions." And thus our Saviour proved to the young man himself, and has left it a record to posterity also, that by the young man's own feelings, at that moment, he wanted the principle of love to God: in the midst of all his amiableness, and loveliness of natural

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