top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands." (Isaiah xlii, 10-12.) For such songs of thanksgiving Isaiah called only in anticipation of a work to be subsequently begun. We see that work begun and actually in progress toward its consummation. Our praises, therefore, should be fervent in proportion to the vantage-ground of observation on which we stand. Let us, then, praise the God of all grace for the success of missionaries of other societies; and let us especially bless him for having in so encouraging a degree owned the labors of missionaries sent out and supported by our own denomination. And in these devout acknowledgments of God's great goodness may one tribe of evangelical men after another, from time to time, be brought to unite, "Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 2. The duty of perseverance in our endeavors to spread the light and grace of the Gospel. Our Master is not failing, nor exhibiting any symptoms of weariness or discouragement. Nor should we give place for a moment to indolence or despair. Much remains to be done. Let us follow him who goes forth conquering and to conquer. His perseverance is stated in the text as a principal cause of his ultimate success; and we also should be steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in prayers, in contributions, and in every other species of pious exertion, that so our past labor may not be in vain in the Lord. "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." The very dignity of our employment, under Christ, the Father's elect servant, should be an inducement to go on in our work with unconquerable alacrity and zeal. We are, in such labors, identified with Christ himself. What greater honor or privilege can we desire? Let none presume to think that any office connected with the work of Christ and the salvation of men is too mean, or complain that it is too laborious. How can we better live, or more gloriously die, than in aiding a cause in which our Saviour lived and died, and for which he rose again, and lives to die no more? Does not gratitude, too, require us to do all we can for the full accomplishment of that work of the Messiah among men from which we ourselves have derived such unspeakable benefits? When the Father's fellow has deigned to become a servant for our sake and benefit, can we hesitate in love to serve him, and one another, and our generation? The service we have received demands a return of such service as we may be able to render, both to God and to our perishing fellow-creatures. 3. The necessity of a personal submission to Jesus Christ. He is God's servant, chosen, qualified, and consecrated to the task of saving us. Why, then, do any of us neglect or disregard him? Why do we treat with indifference his revelation of God's will, or resist the influences of his Holy Spirit, which would convert and sanctify us? Have we no need of God's servant as our Saviour? Nay, have we no special obligations to him as our Lord? Have we no work for him to do, no guilt to be pardoned, no corruptions to be subdued, no souls to be saved? If the Father himself delights in the Mediator, why should we treat him with contempt? Why should we reject a Saviour whom God has accepted? Let none of us be guilty of such folly and presumption. Let us put our souls by faith into the Mediator's hands. Without such a personal submission to him, our speculative knowledge of the Gospel will only aggravate our guilt and ruin. How pathetically does our Lord complain, in the close of this chapter, of the disobedience of his professing people, who had known his judgments, and been favored with a direct revelation of his will! After exhorting, in verse 18, the blind and deaf Gentiles to look to the Saviour, and to listen to the calls of his mercy, he, by a striking and sudden transition, apostrophizes the Jews, and exclaims, "Who is blind, but my " professed "servant? or deaf, as those to whom I have sent my messenger," as some read it, or, according to our version, "my messenger whom I sent," to enlighten, by my truth committed to his care, the surrounding heathen? As if he had said, Why speak only of the blind and deaf Gentiles? Are there not blind and deaf Jews too? The judgments brought on unbelieving Jews are described in verses 24, 25: "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart." Would we escape similar calamities, then let us know the day of our visitation; and, while we send the light of life to the heathen, let us walk as children of the light ourselves. May God grant us this grace! 1 III. OUR SAVIOUR MADE PERFECT THROUGH PREACHED AT CARVER-STREET CHAPEL, SHEFFIELD, AUGUST 2, 1835, BEFORE THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CONFERENCE. FOR IT BECAME HIM, FOR WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, AND BY WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, IN BRINGING MANY SONS UNTO GLORY, TO MAKE THE CAPTAIN OF THEIR SALVATION PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS.-Hebrews ii, 10. How brief and yet how comprehensive, how simple and yet how sublime, is the view here given of the Divine Majesty! For him are all things, and by him are all things. This account of the great object of our worship infinitely exceeds the pompous and wordy descriptions of metaphysical speculators, whose investigations on this most important point have in general only served to darken counsel by words without knowledge, and to show that none can by unassisted reason find out God. God can only be seen in his own light; can be known only by his own revelation of himself in his works and in his word, and by his Holy Spirit. "By him are all things." The works of creation, in all their variety of beauty and of grandeur, are by him. He is the original and source of being, the fountain of all existence, the one great architeet of this vast universe. For "he that built all things is God." The works of providence are all his. He is, as the ancients were wont to say, but in a much better and higher sense than they ever conceived, "the soul of the world," the infinite Spirit who, though unseen, pervades the whole of what is called nature, and by the perpetual exertion of whose invisible energies this immense machine continues to perform its appointed functions. He upholdeth all things by the word of his power. Such are the unlimited extent and operation of his providence, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without him; yea, the very hairs of our head are all numbered. No event, however apparently contingent, however seemingly dependent only on the volition and conduct of mankind, can ever occur, without either his direct interference, or agency, or, at least, the deliberate permission of his omnipotence. And, finally, all the work of redemption is his, from first to last. It is by him, as to its contrivance; for nothing less than infinite wisdom and love could have designed the amazing plan. It is by him as to its execution in the fullness of time; for God was manifest in the flesh "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." It is by him, as to its application to the hearts of individuals; for no man can call him Lord, or experience the blessings of pardon and holiness which he died to purchase, but by the Holy Ghost. And, lastly, it is by him in its consummation and completion; for it is the same almighty goodness, which at first begins the great work, that must carry it on in us unto the end, and that must hereafter gather together in one heavenly society all the children of God who now are scattered abroad. Thus "salvation is of the Lord." And as by him are all things, so our text teaches us that all things are likewise for him. "The Lord," says Solomon, “hath made all things for himself." "Of him, and through him, and to him," says St. Paul, "are all things." These passages assert that God is not only the first but the ultimate cause, not only the author but the end of all things. As everything which is good is originally from him, so everything truly good will tend toward him, and terminate in him, that God may be all in all. The manifestation of his essential excellence is the one grand motive, into which all other reasons of his actions may be finally resolved. Nor would any other end be worthy of his infinite majesty. This was the ultimate design of his works of creation. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work." Of all the productions of his hand it is asserted, that "for his pleasure they are and were created." This should |