eousness without works; his blood and righteousness are ready for poor broken-hearted sinners. They are the very souls that answer Him; He is the very Saviour that answers them. Once a brokenhearted woman, who had spent her all upon physicians, and was nothing better, but rather worse, came behind Jesus, and touched the hein of his garment. Did He show himself the Saviour of the broken-hearted? Yes; He said, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole."

Jesus came “ to proclaim liberty to the captives." All natural men are slaves. Some are bound, and know it not, like the slave in the West Indies, who could not comprehend what liberty meant. They are corded by their sins, yet say, I am free. Some are bound and know it. They are awakened to feel the galling chains of lust; they feel their feet sinking in miry clay. Some of you know what it is to sin and weep, and sin and weep again. “ The way of transgressors is hard.” Jesus came to be a Saviour to such. Ile t'ame not only to be our righteousness, but to be a fountain of life. “In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.” Once there was a man possessed by a legion of devils, exceeding fierce, who wore no clothes, and dwelt among the tombs. But Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to go out of him, and " he sat down at the feet oi Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.”

One great object of our ministry among you has been to bring good tidings to distressed consciences. Blessed be God, there have always been some distressed consciences among you from the first day until now. In almost all our parishes, in these remarkable times, there are many souls under conviction of sin. There are always some who feel uneasy under the word—who feel that their heart is not right with God, that they are slaves of sin, and who go on from day to day carrying a heavy burden. I have always tried to speak to such souls. I have shown you plainly that you are not safe because you are anxious; that you need to be in Christ Jesus; that these convictions may die away. I have tried to let down the gospel cord within your reach. I have showed you that Christ offers himself in a peculiar manner to such as you. • The whole have no need of a physician, but they who are sick.” How often Brainerd records it in his journal, that a heavy laden soul was brought to true and solid comfort in Christ this day! Why have I so seldom to record the same thing of weary souls among you? For years I have gone among you preaching the only foundation of a sinner's peace. Yet how few have had a lively and soul-refreshing view of Christ! How few can say, - What things were gain to me, these I count loss for Christi* Ah! my friends, the fault lies with you or with me, for God has no pleasure in a burdened soul. “Oh that ye had hearkened to my commandments, for then had your peace been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea!”

(2.) A faithful pastor comforts mourners in Zion.— This was another great object of Christ's ministry—“to comfort all that mourn,” etc. There are many things to bring a cloud over the hrow of a Christian. There are outward troubles. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Persecutions will come : "a man's foes shall be they of his own household.” Temptations will come; they are common to man. Sloth and want of watchfulness often bring into darkness.--Song v. 2-8. The body of sin often makes us cry, “Oh wretched man!” But the Lord Jesus has the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season to them that are weary. The religion of Jesus is eminently the religion of joy. He does not love to see his church sitting in ashes, mourning, and heavy with sorrow. He loves to see her putting on his beautiful righteousness, filled with the Holy Spirit of joy, and covered with the garment of praise, waving like green trees of righteousness to his glory.

Once “ Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus; but when he saw the wind boisterous, he began to sink, and cried, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?” Christ has an almighty arm for sinking disciples to cling to. Once two disciples were walking towards a village north of Jerusalem. They talked earnestly together to beguile the way, and they were sad. A stranger drew near, and went with them; and as he went He expounded to them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Jesus. In breaking of bread He was revealed to them, and left them exclaiming, “ Did not our hearts burn within us?” So Jesus reveals himself to his own to this day, and makes the sad bosom burn with holy joy.

This has been one of the chief objects of my ministry among you. That scripture has been for some time deeply engraved upon my memory and heart, “He gave some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” Eph. iv. 11, 12; and, accordingly, it has been my endeavour to lead mourners in Zion to a meeting with Christ, who alone can restore comfort to them. What has been our success? I fear there are not many of you as happy as you might be. Are not most, like Peter, sinking; or sad, like the two going to Emmaus? Are not most in all our parishes rather seeking than finding rest? How little is there among you of the “beauty—the oil of joy, and the garment of praise !" How few can truly sing the 103d Psalm ; how few feel their sins removed, as far as east is from the west ; how few keep themselves in the love of God; how few have Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith ; how few are filled with all the fulness of God, and rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory!

How often Brainerd mentions in his journal : “Numbers wept affectionately, and to appearance unfeignedly, so that the Spirit of God seemed to be moving on the face of the assembly ;” and again, “They seemed willing to have their ears bored to the door-posts of God's house, and to be his servants for ever !” How little is there of this divine presence and holy inapression in our assemblies! How many a meeting for prayer has lost the fervency which once it had! Ah! surely the fault lies with you or with me. Immanuel is still in the midst of us. He is still “ full of grace and truth ;" He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” Oh that the little flock in this place were covered with his beanty, filled with his holy joy, and clothed with his garment of praise !

(3.) A faithful watchman preaches a free Saviour to all the world.This was the great object of Christ's ministry——" To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” “Unto you, O men, I call,” was the very motto of his life. On the year of jubilee the silver trumpet was made to sound throughout the whole land. Every man might return to his possession ; every slave might go free. Christ felt that the trumpet of the true jubilee was committed to Him; and therefore his feet were beautiful upon the mountains, and He went about continually publishing glad tidings of peace. Once He stood among a crowd of unbelieving Jews. His word was, “ Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast out;" and again, to a similar crowd He said, “I am the door ; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” When He died upon the cross, the priests scoffed at Him, the people wagged their heads at Him, the soldiers cast lots for his garment; but “the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom,”-this signifying that the way into the holiest was now made manifest, that any sinner might enter in and be saved. When He arose from the dead, there were but five hundred brethren who believed on his name: the whole world was lying in the wicked one; every creature under the frown of an angry God. “Go ye,” said He, « into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." When Laodicea became a dead and lukewarm church, fit only to be spued out of Christ's mouth, you would have expected a message of judgment. No, He sends one oi free, boundless, glorious grace. “If any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him.”

This has been the great object of our ministry. In all our parishes, at the present day, the great mass of the people are living without Christ, and without God, and without hope in the world. The most, even of church-going people, it is to be feared, are “dead in trespasses and sins.” Ever since coming among you, our great object has been to awaken such. We have proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God. We have told you that Christ is freely offered to you in your present condition, whatever that may be; that though you have lived in sin, and are now living in sin, and God is angry with you every day, still Christ is free to you every day. We have told you that though you do not care for your soul, still Christ cares for it; though you are lost, still Christ is seeking the lost; though you are loving your simplicity, delighting in scorning, and hating knowledge, still Christ is crying after you; that before you repent, and before you believe, Christ is freely offered unto you: “All day long have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

What has been our success? Blessed be God, there are some of you who have fled for refuge to the hope set before you; but the most sleep on. Six acceptable years have passed over you. A year of gospel preaching is an acceptable year; a year of revival, when many have been pressing into the kingdom of God, is still more an acceptable year: both these have passed over you. The door has stood open all this time, and any sinner among you might have entered in. Bibles, ministers, providence, the Spirit striving -all have been pressing you to enter in. But you are still without Christless, unpardoned, unborn again, unsaved. What can you look for but “the day of vengeance ?” A year of mercy is past, a day of vengeance is coming. God pleads long, but judgment will be the work of a day. How many among you will never see such another season of grace as that which lately passed over yon! You will probably never again have such an opportunity to be saved. “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and you are not saved.” Many of you will one day wish you had never heard of the acceptable year; many of you will wish that you had never heard the preached gospel,--that you had perished before the glo. rious work of God began. “Oh that ye were wise, that ye understood this: that ye would consider your latter end."

ST PETAR'S, DUNDEE, Nov. 27, 1842.

REASONS WHY CHILDREN SHOULD FLY TO

CHRIST WITHOUT DELAY. “O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all ou

days.”—Pg. xc. 14. The late Countess of Huntingdon was not only rich in this world, but rich in faith, and an heir of the kingdom. When she was about nine years of age she saw the dead body of a little child of her own age carried to the grave. She followed the funeral; and it was there that the Holy Spirit first opened her heart to convince her that she needed a Saviour. My dear little children, when you look upon the year that has come to an end, may the Holy Spirit bring you to the same conviction; may the still small voice say in your heart, Flee now from the wrath to come. Fly to the Lord Jesus without delay. “Escape for thy life : look not behind thee.”

I. Because life is very short.-—“ The days of our years are threescore years and ten ; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Even those who live longest, when they come to die, look back on their life as upon a dream. It is “like a sleep.” The hours pass rapidly away during sleep ; and when you awake, you hardly know that any time is passed. Such is life. It is like "a tale that is told.” When you are listening to an entertaining tale, it fills up the time, and makes the hours steal swiftly by. Even so “we spend our years as a tele that is told."

You have seen a ship upon the river, when the sailors were all on board, the anchor heaved, and the sails spread to the wind, how it glided swiftly past, bounding over the billows; so is it with your days: “They are passed away as the swift ships.” Or perhaps you have seen an eagle, when from its nest in the top of the rocks it darts down with quivering wing to seize upon some smaller bird, how swiftly it flies; so is it with your life: It flies “ as the eagle hasteth to the prey.” You have noticed the mist on the brow of the mountain early in the morning, and you have seen, when the sun rose with his warm, cheering beams, how soon the mist melted away. And “what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

Some of you may have seen how short life is in those around you. “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?” How many friends have you lying in the