even to hoary hairs, stand on your watch, with the utmost caution, that you may not dishonour God, in your last moments; but may bear testimony to the riches of his grace, the blessedness of his service, and the holiness of his salvation, until Christ shall bear you witness upon a dying bed of spiritual peace; and ultimately before assembled worlds, in the great day of his appearing. Take example, not only from the failure of Lot, of giving Satan any advantage over you, and of causing the enemies of God to blaspheme, through your sin; but also from the example of Abraham, the friend of God Himself. He dwelt in Gerar, and there, even (as we may believe), while he must have known that Sarah was about to bear the child of promise, sinned with Abimelech by distrust of God, after the similitude of his former transgression with Pharaoh in Egypt. I do not place it again before you; for it has been already noticed, and brought, as I would willingly believe, to be seen in the light of Scriptural truth. God's word and promises are pillars of immoveable faithfulness; rest upon them in every difficulty, and they cannot fail you. The cowardly dependence which so many place on their own miserable policies and expe

diencies, equally dishonours God, and injures themselves. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not to thine own understanding: in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."

Prov. iii. 5, 6.

SERMON XXV.

THE BIRTH OF ISAAC.

GENESIS XXI. 1, 3.

AND THE LORD VISITED SARAH, AS HE HAD SAID, AND THE LORD DID UNTO SARAH AS HE HAD SPOKEN. FOR SARAH CONCEIVED, AND BARE ABRAHAM A SON IN HIS OLD AGE, AT THE SET TIME OF WHICH GOD HAD SPOKEN TO HIM. AND ABRAHAM CALLED THE NAME OF HIS SON THAT WAS BORN UNTO HIM, WHOM SARAH BARE TO HIM, ISAAC.

WHEN Our Redeemer stood before the grave of Lazarus, about to call his friend from the dead, and bade some of the bystanders roll away the stone, Martha said unto Him concerning her departed brother, "Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he has been dead four days." Jesus rebuked the rising infidelity of her heart, and cried, "Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?" And And immediately her

John xi. 39, 40.

brother was bidden to come forth from his grave, and live. The time during which the unsearchable wisdom of God may see fit to exercise the faith of his believing servants, upon any especial point of his promise, and their desire, may appear to be long, as it will be trying, but the end will be a full accomplishment. "The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." The patient expectation of a Christian never yet failed of its gracious reward, in all the good things which the Lord his God spake concerning him. It was thus with Abraham. He had need of patience; that after he had done the will of God, he might receive the promise : and now the Most High amply, and effectually redeemed the word of unchangeable truth to his servant and friend. The history therefore

attests

THE HAPPY ISSUE OF ABRAHAM'S FAITH. Throughout the whole process of divine dealing towards him, it was equally his duty and privilege, like his favoured descendants on the

1 Hab. ii. 3.

banks of the Red Sea to stand still and see the salvation of God. Every thing was calculated to impress upon his heart that lesson of impotence on the part of man, and Omnipotence on the part of God, which at once attests an absolute need of divine assistance, and an unfailing refuge in the assurance, "Not by might, nor by power; but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."

(1) The mercy promised, was such as Abraham never could have expected to realize.

When the word of the Lord came unto him in a vision, saying, "Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward," he said, "Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, seeing go childless." And when after the birth of

I Ishmael, a son by Sarah was promised to him, some distrust seemed to have mingled itself with the power of a high and holy faith in his mind, at the improbable greatness of the promise, and he said unto God, "O that Ishmael might live before Thee!" as though he would have been contented with less than Jehovah undertook to grant; and remain satisfied with a prospect that the world's Deliverer and his

1 Zech. iv. 6. 2 Gen. xv. 1, 2.

3 Gen. xvii. 18.