and true holiness:" and look to it, that, in these and all other respects, ye walk worthy of Him who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.]

2. How we may ensure to ourselves all its glorious effects

[The Gentiles, in the latter days, may well be proposed as a pattern for us in the present day. Let an entire conformity of heart and life to God's revealed will be the one object of our pursuit. Seek knowledge, not for its own sake, but for its influence upon the soul: and seek grace, not for the aggrandizement of yourselves, but that God may be glorified in the whole of your conversation. If you come up to the House of God with such dispositions as these, you will find that there is a power in the word to enlighten and sanctify the soul; and, in proportion as you cultivate these dispositions, you will "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

It will also have a good effect to animate and encourage one another. This will characterize the Christians in the latter day: and the influence of social piety will be found most beneficial to your souls. Be careful, however, when exhorting others to come up to the House of the Lord, never to omit, in spirit at least, if not in word, "I will go also."]

3. What glorious times are hastening upon us

[We do hope that the times here spoken of are not far distant. Multitudes of us who are here present can remember when the Church was by no means what it now is: even twenty years have made an immense difference; so great, comparatively, has been the out-pouring of God's Spirit, beyond what it has been for centuries before. And we account it no small privilege to live in a day when some of the greatest Potentates upon earth are uniting, with their subjects of every denomination and description, to disseminate throughout the world the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. By this we may form some little judgment what to expect in that day, when, in every nation under heaven, kings shall be the nursing-fathers, and queens the nursing-mothers, of the Church. O blessed times! May God accelerate them! and may we all exert ourselves, as his instruments, to accomplish his will, and to hasten forward these glorious events! If it be thought that these prospects are too good to be ever realized; let any one only compare Britain as it now is, with what it was before the banners of the Cross were erected on our shores; and then he will see no reason to despair of those nations that are yet "sitting in darkness and

f Zech. viii. 20, 21,

the shadow of death." But were the change far more beyond the reach of human probability than it is, there would be no resason to doubt of its ultimate accomplishment, since Omnipotence is pledged to effect it: It shall take place, "for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."]

MCCVII.

THE WORLD'S AND THE CHRISTIAN'S GOD CONTRASTED.

Micah iv. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

IT has been objected to Christianity, that it creates divisions in families, and in the world at large. But how should it not produce these effects, when the whole world is immersed in idolatry; and the direct end of Christianity is, to "turn men from idols, to serve the living God?" See the prophet's account of" the last days:" "It shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people, even all nations, shall flow unto it." What can this import? What, but a general conversion to Christ; and, as far as that change shall extend, the determination here formed; "Every one will walk in the name of his God: and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever?"

Let us notice here,

I. The practice of the world

Every unregenerate man is an idolater

[Idolatry may be found no less amongst the professed servants of Jehovah, than amongst the worshippers of stocks and stones. Idolatry, in fact, is "the loving and serving of the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore"." Now it is a fact, that every man, in his unregenerate state, is under the dominion of some lust, which leads him captive. All are not governed by the same lust: the desires and appetites of men differ amongst different persons, and in the same person at different periods of his life. In youth, we b Rom. i. 25.

a ver. 1, 2.

are chiefly impelled by a love of pleasure and sensual indulgence. In middle age, we aspire after honour and advancement in the world for ourselves and our children. In more advanced life, the love of money not unfrequently gains an ascendant over us; and, at all events, a love of ease and quiet. Now, wherever these, or any other dispositions, operate upon us more powerfully than the love of God, they become, in fact, our god. As the sensual man is said to "make a god of his belly;" and the covetous man to make an idol of his gold; so the votaries of any created being or enjoyment are, in reality, despisers of the one true God, and worshippers of idols.]

Whatever be the supreme object of a man's affections, "in the name of that he walks"

[The young men are never weary in the pursuit of pleasure. Behold the gay, the dissipated, the voluptuous! From the nature of things, they cannot always be in a direct pursuit of their object: but it is never out of their minds, at least never so far removed, but they can revert to it with delight, and renew, in contemplation, the feelings which have already been indulged even to satiety. Of this the records of the whole world will testify: and he can know little of himself, who needs be told that it has been his own experience. The Apostles themselves confess this to have been once their own course; nor has there been an exception to it, in the state of unconverted man, from the fall of Adam to the present moment.] In direct opposition to this is,

II. The determination of the true Christian—

He also has his God

[Yes, the Lord Jehovah is his God; and him alone is he disposed to serve. The Christian sees that Jehovah alone has any claim upon him. As his Creator, his Governor, his Redeemer, and his Judge, Jehovah demands of him all the affections of his soul, and all the services of his life and he not only accedes to this demand, but accounts it his highest honour, and his truest happiness, to fulfil the duties imposed upon him.]

And in the name of this God he walks

[This God he confesses before men; and for him determines to brave all the contempt and hatred of an ungodly world. He sees that the servants of Satan will cast every obstacle in his way: but he resolves, by the grace of God, to go forward, and to serve his God even unto death. Look at d Col. iii. 5. Eph. ii. 3. Tit. iii. 3.

c Phil. iii. 19.

e

the saints of God in every age: they all united in devotion to one God, even to Him who made them, and to Him who redeemed them by his own most precious blood. The voice of every one of them was, in fact, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none on earth that I desire besides Thee." And in the name of this God they walk; proceeding continually from grace to grace, from strength to strength, from glory to glory.]

And now, Brethren,

1. Choose ye whom ye will serve

"Ye cannot serve God and mammon." "To whichever of the two ye cleave, ye must, of necessity, renounce and despise the others." And can ye doubt whose ye shall be, and whom ye shall serve? What can the vanities of the world do for you? On the other hand, what cannot, or will not, the Lord Jesus do for you?---Take him then as your God, and serve him faithfully with your whole hearts ---]

2. Be not out-done by the votaries of this world[Are they constant? Be ye also firm, uniform, unreserved. Let there not be a worldling in the universe so faithful to his god, as you to yours. Let the Apostle's counsel be the entire rule of life: your 66 As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."

f Ps. lxxiii. 25.

g Matt. vi. 24.

h Josh. xxiv. 15.

i Col. ii. 6, 7.

MCCVIII.

THE MESSIAH TO BE BORN AT BETHLEHEM.

Micah v. 2. Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me, that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

IN estimating the degree of credit due to prophecy, we naturally ask, Of what kind the prophecies were? Were they numerous? Were the persons who delivered them unconnected with each other? Were the things which were foretold unlikely of themselves to be accomplished? or were they such as might easily, by the united efforts of interested persons, be

brought to pass? If they were such only as might be the subjects of reasonable conjecture, or such as might by a confederacy of persons be easily devised and easily fulfilled, they would have but little weight; but if they were inconceivably varied, and absolutely incapable of being either feigned by impostors or fulfilled by friends, they will then carry proportionable evidence along with them. Such then were the prophecies relating to our blessed Lord: they were such as no deceivers could invent, and such as no confederacy whatever could cause to be fulfilled. Many of the most important of them were fulfilled by persons who sought to disprove the pretensions of Jesus to the Messiahship, and who unwittingly established what they laboured to overthrow. Others were accomplished through the instrumentality of persons who could have no conception whatever of the ultimate consequences which their actions would produce. Of this kind was the prediction before us; it declared that the Messiah should be born at Bethlehem; not at the Bethlehem in the land of Zabulon, but at that which was in the land of Judah. This, as will be seen presently, was so generally known, that the parents of our Lord might have known it, if they had been at all anxious to make the inquiry. But so little did they advert to it, that they never thought of going up to Bethlehem, till they were compelled to it by a decree of Augustus Cæsar. They were living at Nazareth, and would, if no such unforeseen edict had been issued, have continued there till the birth of Jesus. But the Scripture could not be broken; and God was at no loss to provide means for its accomplishment. He wrought therefore on the ambition of the Roman emperor, and prompted him to exercise his authority over the Jewish people, and to order that all of them should go and be enrolled in the different cities to which they belonged. This constrained Joseph (who was of the house and lineage of David) to go up to his own city, Bethlehem, to be enrolled there and during his stay there (some unforeseen occurrences probably having necessitated