from the sun-rain does not come more abundantly from the store-houses of the clouds, than divine influences are imparted to bring you back to the Son of God. None of you shall cry, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not," and not experience that you have an omnipotent Saviour. Therefore, come back, all of you. Let your families be the better for your piety. Come down amongst them in the morning, and walk with them during the day, with your face shining with heavenly communion; and let them see that your walk with God is constant and delightful, shedding its influence on all around you. I fear that many of us are very forgetful that the Christian life is a life of warfare; and that, if ever we maintain much communion with God, it must be by industry, by perseverance, by diligent attention to divine things. I know the grace of God is free, and I know that his love is sovereign; and I glory in the delightful truth: but I know, at the same time, that we are called to fight. We have to fight with indolence and sloth. Instead of being up in the morning, and diligently reading our Bibles, how many hours are squandered in injurious sleep. Let me press upon you to steal an hour from your beds, before your business carries you into yonder bustling city. If you can, steal a few moments in the day; let your conversation be in heaven, and let your thoughts be God-ward, all the day long, and you shall find it brings the happiest possible results, and spiritual prosperity shall be your favoured portion.

In conclusion, I would remind you that if the consequences of following Christ afar off be so dreadful, what must be the consequences of not following him at all. My hearer, dost thou not follow the Son of God? What! an enemy to love personified? an enemy to the Friend of sinners? Is it possible a human being in this assembly can be of this description? Why, Satan never has, and never can, commit so awful a sin: a Saviour never was provided for hiin; he never was an unbeliever in the Son of God; he never rejected the cup of salvation, for the cup of salvation was never offered him. Oh, what a sin is yours! Why, if a beautiful individual in whom all accomplishments dwelt, could not attract your attention, nor excite your admiration, every one would think you had no feeling, no taste. And is the Son of God brighter than ten thousand worlds-is he who made the heavens with his own hands, worthy of no love? Oh, I beg of you, if you have any soul to be saved-and you have one, and a precious and immortal one it is-let me beg you as you value that soul, that you begin to-night to walk in the way of life. I charge you not to spend another day away from the Son of God. Go, and cry to him, "I have been following one person, and I have been following another; but, alas, they are vain persons." How often are parents anxious to see their children who are just commencing their studies, following this bright individual, or that bright individual. One is in the army, and the instructions are, Follow Wellington: another is in the law, and the instructions are, Follow Brougham: another is in the profession of medicine, and the instructions are, Follow the man whose talents and abilities will raise you to honour in the world. But oh, how few charges are there to follow Christ! And yet, be assured of this, if ever you would follow one in whom happiness dwells, it is Christ; and he wil repay your love, and make you happy here and through all eternity. If you will make the experiment, and try how happy the Son of God can make you, you will not be long miserable. God grant you grace to make the effort to-night; and then you will prove it is not a vain thing to draw nigh to God.

ADVANTAGES OF EARLY PIETY.

REV. J. H. EVANS,

JOHN STREET CHAPEL, DOUGHTY STREET, JANUARY 5, 1834.

"Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound."-PSALM lxxxix. 15.

THE immediate object that is laid, I trust, upon many of our hearts this morning is more particularly an address to the younger part of my congregation. I know we are reproved, and rightly so, that in our addresses to our people we too frequently overlook the younger part of our hearers, who sometimes may come, week after week and month after month, and hear nothing that especially concerns them; nothing, at least, that is immediately directed and addressed to them. I am far from thinking that a sermon of the present kind is any sort of substitute for such omission; but yet it lays it more upon one's conscience, and a sense of the omission seems to render it a more imperative duty; and not merely so, but it forms a most delightful obligation not to overlook those to whom a word spoken is oftentimes found, after many days, a word in season, applied to the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, never more to be entirely forgotten by them.

But although the immediate and more especial object of this sermon will be in reference to them, yet will it not be exclusively so; for, surely, it bears upon us as parents as well as upon them as children. Nay, if I mistake not, the master of a servant is but an inferior parent to that servant; and, therefore, it bears upon all, not merely those that have children, but those that have, as dependants on them, the younger part of the rising generation. It bears, too, upon those who were themselves called in early life: neither must those be overlooked, who are partakers of this high and holy calling, though called it may be in middle life, and at the eleventh hour: so that all shall have cause to say this day, as many whose hearts the Lord shall touch, "It is good for me to hear this word that cometh out from the mouth of my God."

The words of the text have an especial reference to the jubilee trumpet, which we read of in Leviticus, xxv. 8, 9, "And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land." When that trumpet sounded, the prisoner was brought out from the prison-house, the debtor had his debt cancelled for ever, and he who had sold his land from poverty had his land restored unto him. It was a day of jubilee, it was a day of trumpet, it was a day of joy, it was a day of gladness, throughout the land of Israel. But on that subject, this morning, it would be impossible for me to

enter at length; therefore I shall, first of all, give a brief outline of the text itself, and in the following order. First of all, consider the joyful sound, or rather that which is the substance of that blessed liberty which the Gospel trumpet sets forth. Observe, secondly, what it is to know that joyful sound. Thirdly, the blessedness of the people that know it; and, I would add, the especial blessedness of those who know it in their early life.

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With regard to our first point-THE JOYFUL SOUND—it is the very character of our Gospel; it is the very meaning of the word Gospel. No wonder, therefore, the trumpet of the jubilee proclaimed a joyful message; because the very name Gospel," that is, the unfolding of the believer's jubilee, is "glad tidings." If you turn to Luke, ii. 8, you perceive that, in the first proclamation, this was the very way in which it was introduced upon earth: "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." The very term Gospel signifies glad tidings. The first preachers of that Gospel are described as ambassadors of peace-2 Corinthians, v. 19, 20, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ"-in the place of Christ— as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." The first proclaimers of this blessed Gospel had the name of ambassadors of peace, they came as substitutes for Christ; they came from the God of peace; they came and proclaimed peace by his peace-speaking blood: and the ministry that was committed unto them was a ministry of reconciliation. So we find in the Acts of the Apostles, that they went every where preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, and peace by him; and into whatever house they entered, they first of all said, "Peace be to this house." If we look at the message that they delivered, it still bears the blessed aspect of peace, glad tidings of great joy; unfolding this as the great truth of the Gospel, that by the precious blood-shedding of the Son of God, God has opened a way for poor, wretched, undone sinners to approach him: so that, by that peace-speaking blood, the vilest sinners, led to believe in Jesus, shall have a free and a broad welcome, no one sending them away. Consequently, we find, from Acts, x. 34, that this was the apostolic mode of preaching: "Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." It is no more now the family of Israel only; it is no more the Jews as a nation only but now the middle wall of partition is broken down for ever; now we go out into the world and proclaim salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ; for "God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, (he is Lord of all,) that word, I say, ye know.” “To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sin." So in Acts, xiii. 32: “And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is

preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." Here we find how the Apostles preached; and I believe, if we preached more as the Apostles preached, and preached to our churches more as the Apostles wrote, we should see greater ingatherings of God's people. They set forth the Gospel as a message of joy; they placed no bar between the sinner and God, This was a message of glad tidings, and it was so to every one made conscious by the Holy Ghost of his real want of it. A full Christ for an empty sinner; a great salvation for a great sinner; a glorious atonement to a poor needy soul, made to feel his own want of it by the power of the Holy Ghost: this is glad tidings of great joy. And no small part of it is this, that the way in which it is conveyed to the soul is simply in the way of believing: "Whosoever believeth;" all that believe are "justified from all things." And why is so great a stress laid on it? Because the Holy Ghost would teach us this truth-the poor burdened conscience is ever ready to write hard and bitter things against itself: "Is there hope for such an one as I am? Is there a welcome to such a poor wretched being as I am? What I, in my feebleness, in my nothingness, my poverty, my worthlessness? "Yes," answers the word of Him that cannot lie, "all that believe:" "To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." These messengers of peace, these proclaimers of reconciliation, these unfolders of Christ through the peace of the Gospel, placed no bar between the burdened conscience and the cross of Christ. They did not mark out a certain line of experience, unless you go through which you never can approach the Living God: they placed no hindrance And while it is an undeniable truth, that no man can ever know the value of Christ but as he sees his own worthlessness, and no man will ever come to Christ that does not come to Christ as a poor sinner, having no hope in himself—yet we never find in the apostolical preaching, in the way they set forth the gospel of peace, that they ever placed a certain degree of conviction as a bar between that poor soul and the cross of Christ. There was a free unfolding of a free Gospel; there was a free setting forth of the gospel of salvation to the very uttermost, of the blood that cleansed from all sin, of redemption through his precious blood, and that to the chiefest of sinners: and this forms the very glory of the Gospel. It is sweet and pleasant to see how the faithful and blessed Spirit brings back the child of God to that first truth; and how he feeds him with no other food than that to the last; how he still keeps him hungering after the blood, and righteousness, and finished work of the Son of God: and however he may desire, and if he be a child of God he will desire and have longing desires after conformity to the blessed will and image of his God; yet how, after all this, has he said his flesh is meat, and his blood is drink indeed.

Observe, secondly, here is a description of KNOWING THIS JOYFUL SOUND: "Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound." It is not said "who hear the joyful sound;" but it is "who know the joyful sound." Many there are that hear it, know it not; and many know it in head-knowledge who never know it by the power and teaching of the Holy Ghost. They can think of it, and write of it, and argue about it, and dispute about it, and yet never have known it. This has always been one of the most painful things exhibited amongst those that profess Jesus, and will ever be, so long as the church remains in its militant

state upon earth. It was that which made the Apostle weep, as he wrote his letter; for he tells us, There are many of whom I tell you, even weeping, that they are not of the cross of Christ:" yet they were those who professed to know him, professed to love him, but in their hearts they denied him.

But this implies far more than head-knowledge; it is that knowledge that is real. The difference between true wisdom and empty knowledge is this; in wisdom there is a practical and a real acquaintance with the thing itself. In that sense in which I only know honey by tasting it, I only know bread by eating it, I only know water by drinking it, I only know what rest is by experiencing it, I only know what deliverance from pain is by being delivered from pain. Now, just such knowledge is that knowledge that is here spoken of, with this difference only-this refers to things spiritual, and that to things natural. But there is in the people who are blessed a real knowledge of this joyful sound.

If you ask in what it especially consists, we reply, in the experience thereof. "He that eateth me, he shall live by me:" "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious:" "He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." In that beautiful description of the church of God coming up out of the wilderness, we consider it was something more than notion when she "leaned upon her beloved." Feeling, as she felt, her own weakness; conscious, as she was conscious, of her own nothingness; aware, as she was aware, of the straitness of the strait way; experiencing, as she did, the power of indwelling corruption; finding the power of Satan to be no small power; finding the roughness of the path to be no contemptible roughness-she "leaned upon her beloved." And this is the knowledge that is here spoken of; it is a knowledge that embraces experience. And let not the weakest of God's children that hears me be discouraged; for the moment there is real life in the soul, and the moment there is the least discovery of Christ to the conscience, there is an experience of what Christ is which all the powers of nature can never teach. From the first to the last, there is a reality of knowledge; there is a reality of spiritual perception in that soul that is the subject of real grace, which puts it as far as the east is from the west from the highest attainment of unregenerate nature. Oh, yes, he has an inward experience of sin's sinfulness; he has an inward experience of his own nothingness; and so he has an inward experience of the preciousness and value of the joyful sound: there is a reality in it, because there is a real experience of it.

It is that knowledge that involves in it approbation. The word "know" frequently has this signification in God's sacred word. I might quote many instances; but the first Psalm is quite to the point, which speaks of the Lord knowing the path of his people. In one sense, the Lord knows the path of his people no more than he knows the path of the ungodly; for he knows every thought of every soul; and there is not one ungodly soul, not one careless sinner here, not one lover of the world, not one lover of pleasure, not one dead in sin, whose path God does not know from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. But when I read, that "the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous," I understand it to mean that he approveth of it. It is a knowledge of love, it is a knowledge of approbation; it is a knowledge in which he delights. This is the knowledge here spoken of. God's people are brought to approve of the way of acceptance in the Beloved. If any of you have tasted that the Lord is gracious; if any of you have been called of God in time, because loved