munications on the subject and the Lord's supper, except when they have a names of subscribers. visit from a baptist pastor. The present number of members is about eighteen. In common with the other baptists in Caithness, they long exceedingly for two or three baptist preachers to be stationed in the county; a wish which we ardently hope they will soon have gratified, so that this ancient candlestick may not be removed out of its place, but that primitive Christianity Of the Keiss church, it may suffice at present to state, that after Sir William left, John Budge continued to lead the devotions, till his death in 1803, after which, Donald Inrig, who was immersed by Mr. Edward Mackay of Thurso, about 1805, became the leader, till his death in 1831, after which Alexander Bain, who still continues. In 1844 they built for themselves a chapel, which holds may yet spread and flourish there. about a hundred. But we regret to state | Amen. that the church does not observe the Edinburgh. INVITATION TO THE PROMISED LAND: A SERMON DELIVERED AT SALTERS' HALL CHAPEL, BY THE LATE REV. ANDREW FULLER. "And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel. And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to my own land, and to my kindred. And he said, Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes. And it shall be, thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee."-NUMBERS X. 29–32. WHEN Moses was driven from Egypt, you will recollect that he took up his residence in Midian. He there formed a connexion with the family of Jethro, a connexion which appears to have had some circumstances attending it which were pleasant. Jethro had descended from Abraham, and he and his family seem to have retained a regard to the true God, the God of Abraham. We have in the 18th chapter of Exodus a very pleasing account of this father-inlaw paying a visit to Moses on his coming out of Egypt, and of the counsel he gave to him, in which he spoke like a wise and a good man. Hobab, who is here mentioned, seems to have been the son of Jethro, or Raguel, as he is here called. He came to visit his brother-inlaw in the wilderness. At length he proposed to return to his own country and kindred. Moses felt reluctant that he should leave, and in the words I have read, he urged his accompanying him and the children of Israel to the promised land. Let us offer a few remarks on this little interesting history. 66 Remark first, the kindness of Moses' invitation. We are journeying to a land promised to us by One who has all things at his disposal, and who will surely give it ; come with us, and we will do thee good." It was very kindit was very brotherly; and when, especially, he considered the great good which was before him, it expressed the overflow of his concern for this relative, longing to bring him to a participation in the blessings of the people of God. Remark with what arguments he enforces the invitation, "We are journey ing unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you;" and again, "The Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." He did not suggest anything short of the divine authority. It might not have been in the power of Moses to do him good; he could not have engaged for anything unless he had been able to back it by the promise of God; but having that promise, he could say to all who were willing to cast in their lot with him and the people of God, "Come with us, and we will do thee good." But, notice in the next place, the answer of Hobab. "He said, I will not go." This was very rash. We should have thought he might have taken time to consider the matter, but he says at once, "I will not go;" and what is his reason? He says, "I will depart to my own land, and to my kindred." His country and his kindred seem to have weighed more with him than the God of Israel. How unlike was this to the conduct of Ruth, the Moabitish damsel. Her mother-in-law said to her, "Go back, my daughter, to thy country and thy kindred;" but she had no relish for their company after what she had known of the God of Israel, and she said, "Entreat me not to cease from following after thee: whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Had but Hobab possessed her spirit, how different would have been his answer. But this is not the only instance in which God has been refused, in which Jesus Christ has been neglected out of regard to worldly attachments. Ah no! age after age this has been realized in many sad in stances. But Moses will not take this denial, peremptory as it is. "And he said, leave me not, I pray thee." We must not take one denial. If the servants of God in the course of their ministry, were to take one denial, they might soon leave off preaching. Oh no, they must repeat the invitation; line upon line, precept upon precept, after their people have said no, by their conduct perhaps a thousand times; as long as they live the ministers of God must still say, "Oh leave us not I beseech thee." And so parents, and relatives, and friends must still entreat those who are not walking in the way to Zion-the good old way-to set their faces Zionward. Oh, how many invitations have we ourselves rejected, and how grateful ought we to be, if God has not given us up to hardness of heart, but has drawn us to himself. Let the kindness and patience of God with us furnish us with a rule in our dealings with others. Moses presses the point by presenting two motives: one to his generosity, and another to his interest. He tells him that he may be useful to himself and the people; "Thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes.” As if he had said, If you have no regard to yourself have a regard to me and to my people; and what an honour was here presented to him, that of having an opportunity of serving a great nation the nation of whom the Lord had spoken good. But he does not leave it there, he repeats in still stronger terms what he had before said, “It shall be that if thou go with us, that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee." Thou shalt fare as we fare, and who would wish to fare better than the Israel of God? Here the matter is left. We are not told what reply Hobab made. If he still persisted in rejecting the gracious invitation, in setting at naught God's people, and fellowship with them; if he still persisted, and like Esau, for a morsel of meat, sold his birthright, he would bring upon himself bitter reflections in a future day. One is willing to hope that he changed his mind, and was at last persuaded to go, for we are told in the book of Judges of the family of the Kenites, who descended from Hobab, being among the Israelites. There is reason, therefore, to hope that these repeated invitations had at last their effect, and this should encourage us never to despair. way; "Come with us, and we will surely do thee good." In prosecuting this subject a little more particularly, I would first attempt to hold up to you a few of those things which are promised to Israel, and to partake of which you are invited. Secondly. Point out wherein consists your acceptance of the invitation. Lastly, I would urge home the invitation, and desire to know what answer you have to make. In the first place, what are those good things which God has promised to Israel. You know that they are not There is something in this history applicable to the circumstances of some in every congregation, especially the younger part of it. Who can forbear addressing this invitation to them, of a worldly nature. There is not now "Will you go with us?" True it is, we a land flowing with milk and honey. are not going to such a country as There is nothing tending to gratify Moses and the people of Israel were your natural desire; peradventure, if going to, but we are going to a better there were, some who are now unwilling country—a heavenly country, and like would be induced to go. But we set Moses, we do not want to possess it before you a better country, even a alone; like him we long to gather, as in heavenly. The things which you are the arms of our affections, all of you, invited to partake of, are incorruptible, and we say to you, "Go with us, and it eternal, and never fade away. The shall come to pass that what goodness Canaan of the Israelites might be dethe Lord shall do unto us, the same will scribed. You recollect they sent meswe do unto thee," and we may add, that sengers to spy out the land, and they like Moses, we have the authority of returned and made their report, but God himself to invite you to a partici- "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, pation of the blessings which we trust neither have entered into the heart we are about to enjoy. As the Israelites of man, the things which God hath prepassed along they were authorized to in-pared for those who love him." The joys vite those of the surrounding nations; and all who were willing to turn from their idols and to cast in their lot with them, participated in the privileges of Israel, and we have the same authority to invite all around to come with us. The Spirit of God says, come; the church of God in every age says, come; "and let him that heareth say, come; and let him that is athirst, come, and take of the water of life freely." Some of your best friends, it may be, have passed on and taken possession of the heavenly country. You see, perhaps, many of your kindred with their faces Zionward. We are many of us, I trust, going that VOL. X.-FOURTH SERIES. reserved in heaven at God's right hand for those who forsake all for Christ, are such that one hour's possession of them will infinitely more than counterbalance all the tribulations they may have been called upon to endure. When once your feet stand on Mount Zion, you will never regret for a moment all the toil you will have sustained in the present state. The loss of worldly substance, the loss of liberty, the loss of life itself is not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed hereafter, and of which they shall partake. Everything here had a beginning, and must have an end; but that to which 3 H we are going shall have no end. The things you possess here are marred with sin; every joy is succeeded perhaps by a sorrow; but there there shall be nothing to alloy, nothing to embitter the bliss of heaven; it is such as neither tongue can describe nor thought conceive. Sometimes it is represented as "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Were we driven from our habitations we should know the value of this, and there is a time coming when you must be driven from earth, and launch into an unknown state. How delightful is it under such circumstances to know with the apostle, "that if the earthly house of our tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." But you will ask, Is nothing to be possessed on this side the grave? Are all the good things which the Lord has promised to Israel, to be waited for? Oh no, godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come. If you cast in your lot with us, and leave all to follow Christ, you shall have that which God's people have, and that is no small portion even in the present life. You shall have the blessing of God with all you possess, you shall have the forgiveness of your sins, you shall have the Saviour for your portion, you shall have "that peace which passeth all understanding ;" and these are no small matters. Those who possess them would not part with them for all which this world has to bestow. None ever set them at naught but those that never knew them: the ignorant only are those that despise them, and well did our blessed Lord say to the woman of Samaria, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Those who have drunk the most deeply of these refreshing, invigorating, life giving streams, are the loudest in proclaiming their virtues. "The joy of the Lord" is the strength of his servants, and those who are marching to Zion of sing with a cheerful heart the songs Zion. "Poor, weak, and worthless though I am, Secondly, Let us inquire what an acceptance of the invitations of the gospel includes. On the part of Hobab undoubtedly it must have included three things. Had he gone with Moses, he must have parted with the idol gods of the people among whom he dwelt; he must have taken the people of God to be his companions; and he must have consecrated his heart to the service of God. Now these three things are included in an acceptance of the invita tions of the gospel. If you take the God of Israel to be your God, in the first place, you Hobab must relinquish every idol. must leave every idol behind him. God cannot admit any rival; he requires the supreme place in the heart. It is not enough that we call him our God, but we must receive him as such, and submit ourselves to him as his people. Recollect what Jacob said when at Bethel: "He dreamed a dream, and he vowed a vow, and said, If the Lord will give me food to eat, and raiment to put on, and be with me in the way I go, and bring me to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God." Jacob's meaning was this; that he would devote himself wholly to God, that no idol should have any place in his house or his heart, but that God alone should be his God. The idols of the present day in our country are not of brass and of wood. Gross idolatry has been driven out of our land; but the idols to which we are exposed, are the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; and they must be relinquished before we can become the people of God, as completely as the heathen were called upon to relinquish their gods. Anything which interferes with our supreme love to God, which takes that place in our hearts which is due to him alone, must be expelled, and its place given to God. The acceptance of the gospel includes also that you take the people of God to be your companions. Hobab must have done this-we hope he did it. What are your companions? Are they such as prompt you to the downward road that leadeth to destruction, or such as draw you towards heaven? You must resign all those companions who would prove injurious to your soul; you must resign them by preference for the people of God. You cannot live without society, the mind of man cannot be happy alone; but God has mercifully placed you in circumstances in which you may find many companions travelling the heavenly road. Can you from your heart say, These shall be my people, and their God shall be my God: let me have my lot among those who fear the Lord? Further, it includes a consecration, a dedication of your soul to be the Lord's. Oh, my dear young friends, how deeply does it interest the hearts of your parents, your friends, your minister, to see you early consecrate yourselves to Him. It was one of the requisitions under the Jewish law, that the firstfruits might be rendered to God. We long for the first-fruits of our families; the first-fruits of your powers, your zeal, your strength; and the question may now be considered as proposed to every one of you,—Are you willing now from this time to consecrate yourselves to the Lord, and to be wholly his? As Moses did to Hobab, we address motives to your generosity, as well as to your interest. We desire to see you honoured as the servants of God, active, and useful, and happy in the promotion of the Redeemer's cause in the midst of a dying world. Let us proceed in the next place to inquire, what answer is to be given? This question will receive a variety of answers. It is probable your language will be different. Let us instance a few, and let me request you, as we go along, to judge whether that which is suggested is your answer. In the first place, there are present perhaps, some who will answer in the language of Hobab, "I will not go." It is very melancholy to think how many there are in whose hearts that is the answer suggested. How many say with Ephraim, "I have loved idols, and after them will I go." There are, alas! amongst us those who neither have any religion, nor make a pretence to any, but who say in answer to every entreaty, "I will not go." Is this the answer of any one of you? If it be, and if you continue in that state of mind, there is a time approaching when you must go, when you must leave this world, your country, your kindred, and all you now possess. Where will you go when God riseth up to judgment, when death comes and alarms you, and summons you, when it shall be announced, "The Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him?" You must go. Then the question will not be asked, "Wilt thou go with us?" There will be no choice left you; you must go into the eternal world, and if your heart be averse to God you will then reap the bitter consequences of your present refusal. You may then perhaps knock at the door of mercy, but it will have been shut, and it will be shut, for ever. But there is probably another description of hearers. Some who hang in suspense, who say, "I desire to goI wish I could go :" but what-ah, there is some attachment in the way--what is it? Is it your country, your kindred, |