our own. That is he incorporation I want. Not a mere nominal thing, but the so completely throwing ourselves into His service, as to make the dear child of God feel my interest to be his, and his to be mine. To be knit together in "the assembly of the upright." I cannot but thank God (as we promised to commence our anniversary today) that we have so much to praise Him for in the thirty years of which this is the last Sabbath, when we look back on what He has done for us-how He has preserved us, and lengthened out the life of His poor worm, and not suffered him to deviate from His truth by a single sentence. "I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation."

We ought also to be very thankful that our peace and tranquillity have been preserved all these years, which may be attributed, under God, to our Scriptural discipline, which avoids equally the tyranny of the national system and the anarchy of the republican church-meeting system, so that by our adhering to New Testament rules brotherly love has continued to this day, and I trust it will continue, as long as a Church of Christ shall continue to assemble within these walls. Praise Him, beloved, for the grace which has preserved our harmony thus far, and seek new supplies of grace to enable you to enter more fervently into the special injunction of our glorious Lord, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you." We have borne the scorn of the world and the malice of formal professors many years, and they have done us no hurt, only let us continue and extend the privilege of Christian union in spiritual fellowship, and thereby glorify our covenant God, and begin our heaven upon earth.

I feel that I have not power to stand much longer, and therefore will draw to a close with one more remark. The melody of heaven is anticipated. Talk they of melody on earth? I do not know where to find it. Talk they of melody that shall charm the carnal ear? They are welcome to it; I would not give a straw for it. But when I talk of melody, I can place myself side by side with John, who heard the voice as of many waters-harpers harping with their harps-the voice of myriads round the throne, shouting with one consent, "Hallelujah to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever." Why, if John had listened till this time, he would not have heard a single Arminian note; he would not have heard it said, "Part of this honour belongs to me, for I earned it-my repentance merited it-my believing obtained it!" The anthem that I expect to join in is, "Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name be the praise, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake."

And if with one celestial glance my soul

Could travel through the glorious realms above,

And fix on Abr'ham, Isaac, Jacob, there,

The patriarchs, and kings who lov'd the Lord,
The prophets who have testified of Christ,

Apostles, rapt in glory near the throne;

The saints brought nigh by precious blood Divine,
The burthen of their ceaseless song would be,

"All glory, honour, power, and praise

To God and to the Lamb."

Tired? No! their energy is renewed with every sound. Their shouts wax louder and louder; they vie with each other, and often as they speak of the name of Jesus, their chorus is that of my text, "Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord."

There stands the throng of ransom'd sinners, wash'd
In blood Divine; the blackest stains remov'd,

A pure white robe, a palm of victory

Bestow'd; one ceaseless throb of love Divine

Thrills through each breast. Louder and louder still,

Yea, louder still, the Hallelujabs rise;

The cov'nant Triune God accepts the praise,

While countless ages roll along. Angels

In outer circle, catch the joyful sound, and echo back the song.

Oh! when shall that glad day of bliss arrive,
When I shall quit this howling wilderness,
And raise my shout the loudest of them all,

. He loved me, and gave Himself for me f"

THE 197TH SONG IN

MR. IRONS' NEW VERSION OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
PRAISE the Lord, ye saints, uniting,
My whole heart shall join your choir;
All the upright are inviting,

Jesus' glories to admire;

Let His people

In most grateful songs aspire.

Search out all His works with pleasure,
And His righteousness proclaim ;

Draw supplies from cov'nant treasure,
Plead and sing in Jesus' name;

Jesus' glory

Is unchangeably the same.

Works of honour, great and glorious,

To Jehovah we ascribe;

He has made His word victorious
Over men of ev'ry tribe;

And His chosen

Love and gratitude imbibe.
Mindful of His cov'nant ever,

He supplies His people's need;
Cov'nant union none can sever,
Verity and judgment lead
Jesus' footsteps;

This is certainty indeed.

Done in truth and in uprightness,

All Jehovah's works stand fast;

In His Church He shines with brightness,

Oft repeating mercies past;

Loving-kindness

Shall for ever with Him last.

I would on His truth be feeding,

Then my soul must thrive and grow;

In His will I would be reading,

Then shall I His secret know;

Cov'nant blessings

Freely to His people flow.

Delivered in Grove Chapel, Camberwell, Tuesday Morning, July 17, 1849 BY THE REV. JOSEPH IRONS.

THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY.

"O Jehovah, Thou art my God: I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name: for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."-Isaiah xxv. 1.

THIS exulting declaration is in perfect accordance with the subject we were dwelling upon last Lord's day, and mine eye and my heart were fixed upon this text of Scripture, to make it a personal claim; and having exhorted you to praise the Lord, and vowed to join with you, "I will praise Him with my whole heart" (as on Lord's day morning), "in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation." My mind has been fixed with earnest concern, and fervent desire, upon preaching the thirtieth anniversary sermon-most probably the last to myself personally. How far my hearers will put their claim in with me, is only for my God to determine; but the language I have just read is to me a whole Bible-a whole gospel-a whole half century's experience -a whole eternity's exultation. Though at ten o'clock this morning I did not think it would be possible for me to enter the pulpit, I begin to think and to feel that I shall be able to exalt Him. I will exalt Him, for He is my God; I will exalt Him, and He knows that the only thing I wish to stay an hour more upon earth for is to exalt Him. "O Jehovah, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee;" and the soul that can say this without wavering, and get rid of the abominable Arminian "hope," and "trust," and "probability," and "peradventure," that have distressed thousands of souls, and robbed them of their comfort (I cannot find a word of them in the Bible), and come at once to the point, "O Jehovah, Thou art my God"-silence him from praising and exalting Him, if you can. If he were not to praise and Published in Weekly Nos., 1d., and Monthly Parts, 5d. и

VOL. II.

exalt Him, why the very stones in the streets would cry out against him. The soul cannot but praise and exalt Him, when once this interesting relationship is made known. The great bulk of the Divinity of the present day is just this:-they will come to no point; they will say something, and say nothing; they will write something, and write nothing; and you may read something, and read nothing, till your eyes are dimmed and worn out, and you get no profit therefrom. Where do you find it ever coming to this point, "O Jehovah” (though it reads "Lord" in our translation, it is "Jehovah" in the original)—"O Jehovah, Thou art my God?" And do look at it as an appeal. It is not one worm speaking to another; as if I were to say to you, "I believe that Jehovah is my God." Now that is very well, and we will talk of Him after that manner as well as we can; but to talk to God Himself about it, that is the blessedness; to appeal to Him, "O Jehovah, Thou art my God!" Well, then, what is the business of life? What should be the employment of ministers? What is set before them to do? "I will exalt Thee." What have they to talk about? The wonderful things He has done. He has "done wonderful things." And what is the grand first cause of it all? "Thy counsels of old." Oh, beloved, when we get up into eternal councils, how paltry and contemptible is this world, and all that it contains! "Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."

Now could I have my own wish, and strength for it, I should like to preach three hours from this text; but perhaps a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, may be the extent of my strength. That, however, I must leave with my Master. We will begin at once, without further exordium, to say a few words about the affinity that is claimed-"O Jehovah, Thou art my God." I could not live, I could not sleep in my bed, without this. Then, in the second place, mark the wonders acknowledged "Thou hast done wonderful things." Then, thirdly, the eternal first cause avowed-" Thy counsels of old." Some people tell us we have nothing to do with decrees and councils. Well, if they have something to do with us, we cannot help ourselves. I do not think I should have had anything to do with them, if they had not had soinething to do with me, and taken fast hold of me; but then I could not help myself. A great many robed idiots, that pass for gospel ministers in our day, will tell us wonderful things about the councils of men, the councils of the church, and the councils of cardinals, and the councils of popes, and the councils that have decreed all manner of lies, and folly, and heresy-a great curse to the world and the Church, all of them; but they will not have anything to do with God's councils. Now I will take opposite ground. You know I have been among you for thirty years upon the opposition bench, and I now mean to maintain my position to my latest breath-God helping me. I reject all their councils, and despise them; believing they were called by Satanic influence, and the devil himself was their chairman; and therefore I do not wonder at all the mischief which has followed from them. I come to the councils of God-" Thy counsels of old." Let men talk about antiquity, about their belonging to the oldest church, and all the rest of the ridiculous nonsense that they put forth. "Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."

I.-Now according to this order, let me invite your attention, first of all, to the affinity that is claimed; and do pray for me, that I may

have strength enough to go on with it. Surely, I thought, from the time I rose from my bed to ten o'clock, it would be impossible for me to get into the pulpit. However, I do not wish to say any more about that, only to beg an interest in your prayers. What an overwhelming idea is that of poor worms of earth standing in imperishable affinity with Jehovah!“ O Jehovah, Thou art my God." Were it not recorded in the word-were it not written upon our hearts-were it not too plain to be disputed, one might conceive it to be an impossibility that the glorious Triune, self-existent Jehovah should stand in affinity—in imperishable affinity with poor worms of earth! Now many of you are aware that this has been our theme for thirty years, and God has put a signal honour upon it. We must wind it up to-day as well as we can. This affinity was predestined, predetermined by God the Father; it is exhibited in the most conspicuous manner in the person of God the Son; it is revealed, beyond the possibility of doubt, to the heart of God's elect by God the Holy Ghost. Run over these three things under this first head of our discourse, and however little I can say upon them, treasure them up, and go and amplify them in your closets; Pray over them. That God the Father should have chosen, loved, appointed, determined, settled from everlasting, that you and I should be His children-that God the Son should have undertaken, before all worlds, that those children whom the Father had so adopted should never perish, whatever sin might bring into the world-that God the Holy Ghost should set it down and record it, so that it should be lodged in the archives of heaven, never, never to be blotted out, nor be plundered-"wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth!" It is ignorance of this fundamental principle that gives rise to all the abominable heresies and trimming practices of the present day. You must bear with me if I am somewhat severe here. I made up my mind this morning, if I could get into the pulpit, if it should be the last anniversary sermon that I should preach, I would keep back nothing. The cause, my brethren in the ministry-go and sound it from all your pulpits-the cause, the chief cause of all leanness, barrenness, the want of conversions, and the dry round of formality that is going on, instead of vital godliness, in the congregations throughout this realm, is to be traced to this one awful failure-a denial, or a neglect, of the eternal affinity existing between God and His Church. If this grand principle were understood and received, we should never hear another word about universal redemption-we should never hear another word about abominable proud free-will-we should never hear another word about contingencies and uncertainties. The eternal affinity existing between God and His Church. Oh, the vast importance of being well cemented to this foundation, and fixed upon it! Jehovah Father, in the distinction of His personality, adopting all His family-all its members loved, adopted, recorded, everlastingly secured in predestinating enactments before all time--not viewed in the common mass of mankind, but viewed especially as His own family: so that the affinity between Father and Son, between Parent and Child, so settled in the eternal mind, can by no possibility be interrupted or destroyed. We know that the enjoyment of it is often interrupted. "Sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men;" and thereby the enjoyment of it, and even the knowledge of it, was utterly interrupted: but the record itself, the predestinating enactment itself, could never be touched. Will you allow me here to give a familiar