reveal their wretchedness. Their hollow eyes and pale wo-worn cheeks, tell the tale of their soul's horror, their hearts know their own bitterness, and are rent by despair. By the horror of such a state, we are taught the wretchedness of man, widowed of his innocence, and rifled of his happiness. He may not indeed be fully sensible of his condition :-the stupifying opiates of sin may have deadened his alarm. But,

sure 'tis a piteous sight, to see

So many maniacs dancing in their chains;
With eyes of horror execrate their chains,

Then shake them in despair, and dance again!"

Again, we have heard of the shocking deeds performed in the field of battle; and how, through the petulance of kings, whole mountains of the dead have been heaped around the hostile camp, whose limbs have been torn by devouring dogs and hungry vultures; while the more ill-fated captives, cursed with protracted life, with their eyes put out, (for such was the ancient custom in war) are enclosed in the pestilential vaults of dreary dungeons, where, loaded and bruised with fetters, they linger out the remainder of their wretched existence. This gloomy picture is but a faint representation of the abject condition of the unrenewed sinner; who, taken captive by the devil at his will, is bound fast in fetters of sin and unbelief, and blind to all the beauties of religion.

Think not, dear brethren, that the picture is too gloomy. Man, apart from divine grace, is but a dunghill blanched with snow. He feels a raging

in a

thirst which he can never quench; he is shut up pit where there is no water. Pointed by the augur in his breast to the all-encircling course of a never ending eternity, he has no confidence in the mercy of his God. Through life he is torn with legion-lusts ; and when he dies unchanged, he feels in his bosom all the pressure of gloomy grief, and the flames of

hell burn in his heart.

II. But Hark! brethren, Hark! "There is a voice of sovereign grace." Jesus Christ comes forth in all the love and power of God. Hear his gracious words: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me; he hath chosen me as a fit victim on which to lay the iniquities of man; he hath anointed me, or set me apart, for this important commission, even to preach to the poor.

We do not confine the meaning of the word, poor, to those merely who are destitute of the good things of this life; though even in that sense, it would peculiarly apply; for the poor, literally, have the Gospel preached to them; and many who were cut off from happiness in other sources, have found peace in God. The poor here, as in Revelation iii. 17. may mean those who think they are rich, and know not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. It may also apply to one who is duly sensible of his spiritual poverty, as in Matthew v. 3. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

O tell me,

if

you can, how the gracious commission of Christ disburdens the meek and contrite heart of

its load when the world is "winked into its own insignificancy,” and the soul, thirsty for immortal consolation in God, hears Christ say,-I give myself to thee as thy all-sufficient Saviour! Is thy heart broken under a sense of thy former sinfulness? Take courage, I am sent to bind up the broken heart. I do not despise the day of small things-I will not break the bruised reed, neither will I quench the smoking flax. To this man will I look, even to him who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Art thou thirsty? Come to me, and drink, without and without price. Art thou blind? Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see. Hast thou been led captive by the devil, and art thou bruised with the chain of sin? I am come to set at liberty them that are bruised. I will give thee a new heart, and place thee on even ground, and enable thee to contend successfully against thy mortal foe.

money,

To those who feel their spiritual poverty-whose hearts are broken through a sense of their sins,who see themselves tied and bound with the chains of many evil habits,—who sit in the darkness of guilt and misery, without a friendly hand to lead them into the way they should go; to those the Gospel of the grace of Christ is a pleasing sound, because a present and full salvation is proclaimed by it, and the present is said to be the acceptable year of the Lord. Here is plainly an allusion to the year of Jubilee, when all, both debtor and servant, among the Jews, were set free. The Gospel dispensation is the day of Jubilee to all who hear it. It is one grand, copious, and interesting display of the infinite love of God.

It is all encouragement; breathes nothing but love and mercy; is not one exclusive system; embraces the whole human family; has Jesus, the sinner's friend, for its mediator; is ratified by his blood; and is suited, gloriously suited, to all the wants and wishes of all the posterity of Adam. The kingdom of heaven is now open, and all who will may enter

in.

With what dispositions do we hear these gracious assurances? When Christ uttered them, it is said that the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him, and they were astonished at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Let us be thankful for the Gospel, and obey it; or it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for us.

To God the only wise, the author of the Gospel,. and of eternal life, be all honour, and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

SERMON II.

They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Psalm lxxiii. 5.

THERE is nothing to which men are more averse than trouble and calamity; and yet there are very few so fortunate as to be exempt from them. By prudent forethought, some troubles which we endure, might be avoided; and others, by sound philosophy, might be mitigated; but so many are our real and artificial wants; so many are the avenues through which pain and affliction may pass to annoy us, that we scarcely need expect to shun disappointment and anguish while in this habitation of sorrow.

In addition to those afflictions which result from our connexion with this world, there are others which grow more immediately out of our relation to the next: these jar the tenderest strings of the soul, and wring the bitterest anguish from the mind. Conscience, that secret monitor, which God has implanted in our breast, suffers not, while it remains unseared,. any real peace to the violator of God's law: "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities; but a wounded spirit who can bear?”

Now that which most effectually guards the mind against this disquieting bane of human felicity, is what every votary of happiness should seek to obtain: and the friends of religion contend, both from Scripture.