alted." These are indeed blessed characters who really have felt they are no more worthy of heaven than the damned in hell, and as deserving hell as those actually there. These have been constrained for the sake of Christ to cry to God for pardoning love and mercy. These have a hope raised in their souls that God will grant to them that which their souls are going out after, that for which their affections are longing, that for which they are seeking. These are some of the sweet influences of the Pleiades.

Seek him who maketh the seven stars," who maketh spring. When this spring breaks, there is a rising of godly fear, a spirit of contrition ascending, the going up of a spirit of supplication to God. Prayer is set forth as incense, and the lifting up of the hands as the evening sacrifice. There is a looking towards his holy temple, a hanging alone on Jesus, his finished work, with frequent and ardent longings to know Jesus for one's self, having this feeling, that all the world, the riches of the world, the longest life in worldly enjoyments, will not satisfy the craving desires of the soul. When this is the case it is spiritual summer.

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We have often seen, naturally, after a few fine days, looking like the coming of spring, that many days or even weeks after, it appears as though we had gone back into the winter; nature seems reviving, the buds seem breaking forth, then again nature appears to be going back into the depth of winter, then again she seems at a complete stand still. Now how much this is the case with a living soul. After some severe seasons God raises him up to a hope in his mercy, and he feels the enjoyment of Jesus' love, with a certain testimony that the Lord is his portion, and that he is saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Then again he fears that those meltings are only natural, these longings, these waitings are only natural

feeling. He is full of fears that his hope has not a good foundation, and many suspicions that it is only a delusion. His religion, he is afraid, is dying away, going out, and that he is going back, and getting into some horrid gulf.

Before he was raised to this hope in the mercy of God, before he felt any thing of this sweet influence of the Pleiades, he seemed to he in an unsettled state; but notwithstanding all that opposes that which the sinner has once felt, nothing shall dissolve the ray of the Lord; wher ever he has granted one dissolving ray, melted the heart down, made the sinner feel that he could justify God in his eternal damnation, made him run after Jesus, long after Jesus, long after his atoning blood, after the enjoyment of pardoning love, after imputed righteousness: such a loathing of self, and such frequent longing after and hope in Jesus; the Lord will never suffer such a one to be at a complete stand still, he that hath begun it will carry it on, and perform it to the day of the Lord Jesus; summer shall come, the time shall come when this sinner shall break forth, through the beams of the sun of righteousness with healing in his wings, shining into his soul; the sinner shall break from all his clouds, break forth from all his fetters, all his bonds, see the day when he shall exultingly say without any fear of contradiction, The Lord is my helper, the Lord is my God; a sentence perhaps he has been waiting twenty or thirty years to say, the Lord is my God; but the time shall come, that he shall feel the Lord hath chosen him in his Son, before the foundation of the world; that God have given him to Jesus, Jesus hath made complete atonement, the utmost farthing paid of all that immense score, brought in an everlasting righteousness, and that he shall be his in the day when he maketh up his jewels; if you are resting entirely content without being brought to experience,

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this movement of soul, this cleansing of your conscience, this testimony of the Lord,of your adoption, I have every reason to believe you are dead in tres passes and sins. Where there is real life and love in the soul there will be a springing up, an aspiring after, a longing after this; just as where there is life in the tree, there will be in every beam of the sun, in every warm ray of the sun, a drawing up of the sap. Now the nature of the sap is to rise and break forth into buds, blossoms, and fruit; so in a living soul there is at times a struggling to break forth into the language of assurance, the language of a pardoned sinner, the language of an adopted son of God, the language of an heir of eternal glory, I do not at all want that religion, that leaves a person quite content with mere doctrine, with the mere form of prayer, mere form of devotion, mere external profesion, a reliance attending ordinances, saying he keeps the precepts and so on, that will not do without it leads him to feel, he must perish unless his conscience is cleansed from guilt, that he must perish unless the Lord bears witness to his spirit he is a child of God, saying to his soul, I am thy salvation, that he must perish if he is never brought to this. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The sinner will be brought to experience, this blessed enlargement of soul, this summer, and enter into the language of David; "I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice, and my supplication, because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live, the sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow, then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul, gracious is the Lord and righteous; yea our God is merciful, the Lord preserveth the simple, I was brought low and he helped me, return unto thy rest, O

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my soul: for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." Now ask your conscience if you ever uttered such language as this; could you ever say, I love the Lord because, though once a bond sinner, he has set my soul free ; your conscience, many of you say, never had such an experience; are you content without it, are you satisfied without it, if you are, the mark of death, the stamp of a mere profession, the stamp of one in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of inipuity is upon you; if you are discontent without this, your soul breathing after it, saying, This is what my heart pants for, my spirit longs for, this is what you are wrestling and crying to the Lord for, that he would give you the experience of it, this is what you are seeking after even while in your daily occupation, this will make you live happy and die in peace this is what your soul is longing and panting after, the Lord will surely satisfy such a longing soul, will bless such a seeking soul, will hear your prayer; because there is hope in Israel coucerning this thing as long as you are discontent without his love and mercy, continually breathing after it, is a sure feature of a vessel of mercy, contentedness without it, is a sure sign of your being in a mere profession : "seek him that maketh the seven stars," at this time of the year, or a little earlier, every things looks gay, pleasant, fruitful and rich upon the face of the earth. A person who had never seen any thing of this, who had been shut up in a town all his life, take him out, and let him view all nature pleasant and fruitful, and then tell him, while admiring and astonished at the whole earth teeming with rich abundance, only say a single word about what will take place in two or three months, that the leaves would fall off, the flowers fade, that there would be short days, long nights, cold winds, storms, clouds and frosts; were he not told this, he would have no sort of suspicion that such things would

ever take place, he would not suppose there could be such a change. So it is spiritually. I remember in my own case, my heart rejoiced before the Lord, I was like David, leaping before the Lord with all my strength, that the Lord had loved me and chosen me in Christ, blessing and praising his holy name for having mercy upon me. I now felt sure that heaven was mine, and no thought ever passed within me of a time coming when all this liveliness would seem to decay; no such thought as that a wretched hardness would gather over me, or that clouds, darkness, deadness, uncleanness, and all manner of evils would creep forth; that these fruits of the Spirit, now flourishing in me, would appear languishing and drooping; that I should be like Israel, who said, "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts." Seek him who maketh the seven stars and Orion." We read in Job not only of the sweet influence of the Pleiades, but the "bands of Orion." Orion appears about our November; clouds and frosts come on when he makes his appearance. So Orion spiritually represents that cold winter which frequently follows this blessed summer experience of God's people, -though many of them are taken home to glory without living to experience about what I am now speaking, a winter coming on. Winter sometimes comes on so imperceptibly, and in such a gradual manner, that we get down from the heat of summer to the depth of winter without scarcely per ceiving the change, yet comparing the warmth of summer with the cold of winter we see a great contrast. I believe we might generally say in our experience, when cold winter comes on, that we see a gradual decrease of our joys; hard thoughts, filthiness, unbelief and all manner of evils ap pear, all manner of abominations do creep forth in our hearts: so gradually the graces of the Spirit seem withering and decreasing; the sap of divine

life, like the sap in the branch of the tree, which is the life of the branch, seems to be gathering down into the trunk, thence into the root, the tree presents the very image of death.

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Seek him who maketh the seven stars and Orion," But i believe the Lord's people being in this winter, the pain it produces exceeds all they ever passed through. I do not know any thing I dread so much, as to be without the presence of God sensibly enjoyed. There is abundant cause to be mourning before God, because we cannot sorrow after a godly sort, do not feel aright. How earnestly do we come with weeping and supplication, taking with us words, say. ing, "Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great; receive me graciously, and love me freely so will I render the calves of ray lips." We cannot, I believe, tell any thing about this winter, until we come to the end of it. We cannot feel aright, we are so frozen up, so hard, so destitute of life, love and fruitfulness. We find when this is the case, there is abundant cause for grief; we cannot feel a heart to pray for any thing, we cannot feel a heart to be grateful to the Lord for any one thing. This shadow of death is often experienced by God's dear children. I speak from my own experience. I remember after the enjoyment of the Lord's favour, for some months I had been in the enjoyment of this summer influence,-I sunk into a hard, dark sort of state. I wanted a right feeling of my wretchedness; I wanted a right feeling of my darkness; all about me seemed destitute. The fear of death had fallen upon me; I was brought to a state truly of the shadow of death indeed. He brought me into severe trials. I was tried presently with the hidings of God's face, with temptations; tried with the most painful doubts that all was wrong, the most painful doubts that what I had experienced was not the work of the Spirit; tried with the

workings of self pity, the workings of enmity against God; such bondage, it looked like the bondage of the law; such horrid misery, such sinkings, that really sometimes there seemed but a step between me and eternal death. Sometimes I thought I should really die under the load. The shadow of death," I seemed to be truly in the shadow of death: all my religion looked like death; my state looked like the very image of death. You know what the church complains of when she said, "Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth." What more can be the image of death, than seeing bones scattered round the grave's mouth, be in that state like those who have been long dead : Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy band." I dared not utter the language of the fullest assurance, or say that one feeling I ever had was a spiritual feeling. I felt all manner of things: one that my religion was all delusion; despair seemed to be making head against me; the devil tempting me, I was fearful he would hurry me into some dreadful sin, and sink me for ever. This was the state of my feelings, this is truly the shadow of death, every foundation seems destroyed, every hold giving way, every hope completely lost, all giving way, and sinking into utter despair. As Mr. Hart says,

member I sunk down before him with a degree of simple contrition and godly sorrow, my heart drawn out with affectionate, fervent longings, that he would manifest himself to me as the God of providence, that he would appear for me and bless me. These sweet words of grace came with power: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." The shadow of death was in one moment turned into the morning, every fear gone, every cloud passed away; all my dread of the Lord had vanished, all that shyness of drawing near to his throne had disappeared. With a sweet familiarity I could draw near to a holy God; my guilt was purged away through the blood of the Lamb; 1 saw I was justified in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus: I could again say with a good conscience, "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.'

"He turneth the shadow of death into the morning." Oh, what a change morning makes. Just imagine a nervous person shut up in a house alone; every noise he heard, he would think somebody was breaking into the house, and would feel just on the point of being murdered; he would feel most certain every thing was upset and out of place. But when the morning light appeared, when the day broke in upon him, he would see not a chair or any thing bad been disturbed, every thing was in its place and completely safe. Just so in the experience of the saints: the poor soul feels every thing swept away, all appears overturned, only a step between him and utter despair; but when the morning comes, to his astonished soul, he sees every thing just where it was. Just so it is with

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Sure I am none can understand any thing of these things, but those who have experienced it. To be in one moment feeling sure, after all his confidence, after all his experience, that he should perish and be damned; the next moment feel the joys of heaven brought in the place of hell, peace brought in the place of confusion, pardon brought in the room of guilt, the soul saying, O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, he also is become my salvation." The next thing, 66 And maketh the day dark with night." Here night comes again in the experience of many of God's people. Night comes again after the shadow of death. We read, "The sun knoweth his going down. Thou makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth." Striking difference between day and night! In a spiritual sense, it is blessed day, when the Holy Spirit is breathing his soft breezes of heavenly consolation into the heart; when the Sun of Righteousness is arisen with healing in his beams; when the sinner sees his name in the Lamb's book of life, sees his sins were laid on the Saviour, that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him, that he is enabled to approach unto God with holy confidence. This is day; in the day he sees all this. He feels his iniquity

subsides; his soul is spiritually fruitful, love enjoyed, humbly going forth to God. When night comes on, he will not see one of these things; he will not be able in the depths of night, in the darkest part of night, to see his name in the Lamb's book of life; but he may have an assurance without spiritual enjoyments, without a spiritual manifestation, an assurance arising out of past enjoyment. I do not believe in all the darkness, though in his experience the child of God may be as dark as midnight, he dare say God has not loved him, that he is not a child of God, that the Lord will not revive them again, that he will not again recognize them as his people, that they are not his people. But there are many dark nights in which doubt assails the child of God; that added to all the rest is most painful. most painful. Many persons speak about doubts and fears, who do not know what doubts and fears are. After feeling the Lord one's portion, saying, Behold, God is my salvation;" after the soul, anticipating to be with Christ, be like him, and see him as he is after all this, to have suggested to one's mind, that it is all a cheat, all delusion, that we may be eternally lost after all we have enjoyed; work. ing in us all manner of dreadful feelings, endeavouring to prove all Satan has suggested to thee is true, that we are all flesh, no spirit. no religion in us, all unbelief, no faith; that there is no real warfare in us, nothing but the world, not the work of the Spirit; this is painful indeed, so painful that it has made me literally shake and tremble before God; sometimes it has made me feel quite in a perspiration; after all that asurance I have had, to be deceived; after all, to be found on the left hand; aher all, not the root of the matter in me.

"He maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out on the face of the earth." I do not know any one thing such a trial to a child