ready at times to conclude that these prayers, if not immediately answered in their full compass and extent, are forgotten. But, be assured, you are mistaken in that conclusion. Your prayers are gone up for a memorial before God. He has carefully attended to them all, and will not forget to answer them in that time, in that way, which will be most for his glory and your good. Set it down as a maxim, that praying breath is never spent in vain. Not a single petition offered in humility and faith, according to God's revealed will, and presented in the name of the great Mediator, ever was or ever can be lost. This is a most delightful and encouraging consideration; especially if applied to the counteraction of those uneasy apprehensions as to our future lot and circumstances which we are too prone to indulge. We have to pass through a world of change and uncertainty. We know not what troubles, unthought of, may befall us in the course of our journey to the tomb. But this ignorance of our future lot should not distress us. We have made provision, as it were, beforehand, for the worst that can happen. Giving up ourselves to the Lord, we have offered up many a prayer that grace may be afforded according to our day; and not one of these petitions is forgotten. They are all duly filed and registered, ready to be brought forward and answered when the season of trial shall arrive. We may apply the same consideration as an antidote to our natural dread of dying. Many sincere Christians, though not afraid of what shall be after death, feel considerable apprehension as to the act of dying. They shrink from the prospect of dissolving agonies and parting pangs; they cannot think, without feelings that sometimes approach to painful dread, of the conclusive struggles of expiring nature, or of the dark, damp grave, the mattock, and the shroud. But let me ask you, my brethren, have you not solemnly and repeatedly committed the keeping of your bodies and souls into the hands of Christ? Have you not, times without number, unbosomed your feelings and fears on this subject before the throne? Yes! "Cast me not off," you have cried, "in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth." "My flesh and my heart fail

eth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever."

"My God, my Saviour, and my Friend,
Do not forsake me in my end."

"Let me die the death," as I humbly endeavor, by thy grace, to live the life, "of the righteous; and let my last end be like his." Many of these prayers are on record before God. They are entered in the book of his remembrance, and shall surely be answered to your soul's comfort when your appointed time shall come. As bread cast on the waters, they shall be found, though after many days.

(5.) Finally, God will not forget to confer upon you, if faithful unto death, the reward of glory. He will not forget your services in his righteous cause, nor pass unnoticed your active zeal in doing his will, and your patient resignation in suffering it. Two or three passages of Scripture will at once explain and confirm this position. "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." (Hebrews vi, 10.) "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." (Matthew x, 42.) "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Galatians vi, 7, 8.) To the man who diligently improves his talents the Lord will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." (Matthew xxv, 23.) Suffering Christians are directed to 'rejoice, and be exceeding glad;" and are assured that “ "great is their reward in heaven." (Matthew v, 12.) And, finally, we learn that works of faith and benevolence which the saints themselves shall have forgotten will be remembered and acknowledged by the righteous Judge. (Matthew xxv, 34-40.) "O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of

me." They who do God's work, though they cannot deserve, shall infallibly receive, God's wages; wages, not of debt, but of grace. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

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XXVI.

THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL.

PREACHED AT WALTHAM-STREET CHAPEL, HULL, AND ELSEWHERE, ON BEHALF OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS TO THE HEATHEN.

AND IN THIS MOUNTAIN SHALL THE LORD OF HOSTS MAKE UNTO ALL PEOPLE A FEAST OF FAT THINGS, A FEAST OF WINES ON THE LEES, OF FAT THINGS FULL OF MARROW, OF WINES ON THE LEES WELL REFINED. AND HE WILL DESTROY IN THIS MOUNTAIN THE FACE OF THE COVERING CAST OVER ALL PEOPLE, AND THE VAIL THAT IS SPREAD OVER ALL NATIONS. HE WILL SWALLOW UP DEATH IN VICTORY; AND THE LORD GOD WILL WIPE AWAY TEARS FROM OFF ALL FACES;

AND THE REBUKE OF HIS PEOPLE SHALL HE TAKE AWAY FROM OFF ALL THE

EARTH: FOR THE LORD HATH SPOKEN IT.-Isaiah xxv, 6-8.

THIS text may have referred, primarily, to the deliverance of the prophet's countrymen from Sennacherib's invasion, or to the blessings connected with their restoration from the Babylonish captivity, or to the prosperity which they enjoyed during the triumphs of the Maccabees. But in these events it had, at most, a very partial fulfillment. Like many other passages of this sublime book, it relates principally to the evangelical dispensation. It began to receive its proper accomplishment when that dispensation was fully opened at the day of Pentecost, so that the law of Messiah went forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Wherever the Gospel comes in its truth and power we may boldly say, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." In that increasing diffusion of our holy religion which it is our felicity to witness, it is daily obtaining its progressive verification. In those final and universal triumphs of Christianity which by our missionary institutions we are desirous to accelerate, there shall be a still more glorious performance of the things which are here told us from the Lord. And when the mystery of God shall be finished,

and the mediatorial work and conquests of the Redeemer completed; when death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire, and the warfare of the Church on earth shall be succeeded by the everlasting rest and blessedness of the heavenly state, then the text shall be perfectly accomplished. Then-as St. Paul, who quotes a part of this passage in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, has expressly affirmed-shall be brought to pass, in all their glorious plenitude of meaning, the sayings that are here written.

It were superfluous, I am persuaded, to enter into any more elaborate proof of the suitableness of the text to the purpose of the present solemnities. What the spirit of prophecy has here recorded is the testimony of Jesus and of his salvation; the subject presented to our view being THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL OF THE SON OF GOD. Those blessings are described in their general nature, in their unrivaled excellence, and in their universal extent. Each of these particulars it shall be my endeavor to illustrate. May God grant us his all-sufficient help!

I. The blessings of the Gospel are here described in their general nature, as including instruction for the ignorant, consolation for the sorrowful, and life for the dead.

The Gospel is the appointed means of conveying instruction to the ignorant; for, by its instrumentality, we are told that God" will destroy the face of the covering" (that is, the covering of the face) "cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations." It makes provision not only for their illumination and consequent holiness, but for their happiness too; for it comes to "wipe away tears from off all faces," and to diffuse universal peace and blessedness. And it completes its glorious triumphs over the apostasy and degradation of our race, by holding out to the hopes, and ultimately accomplishing in the experience, 'of all who embrace it a conquest over death itself and the fruition of life everlasting; for by the same means God "will swallow up death in victory."

In order to have just views either of the nature, the necessity, or the value of the blessings thus provided, we must turn