Husbandman, how wide the difference that may be made between some who occupy these pews! One may be taken and another left: Two women shall be grinding at the mill; one shall be taken and the other left: two may occupy the same seat; the one shall be taken, and the other left: two may sleep in the same bed; the one shall be taken, and the other left: and between them there shall be a great and eternal gulf: there shall be no intercourse, no change of condition: no, no-none: after death every thing remains unaltered; it is an unalterable eternity! I am sure there is not a mightier truth in the Bible than this; there is not a mightier truth in the whole circle of the universe than this. O the tremendous thought—an unalterable eternity! How shall I speak of it? How shall I magnify it? How shall I represent it to your mind or my own? I have sometimes thought of the amazing responsibilities of the preacher's office; and they can be appreciated only in view of an unalterable eternity. I have sometimes inquired of myself when called to the chamber of sickness, How shall I address the immortal, dying man, who in a few hours will become an inhabitant of an unalterable eternity? I have sometimes thought of my own hopes in Jesus Christ, and ventured to cherish and rejoice in the confidence of a holier world, and rest with God. But when I have recollected that the decisions of the judgment are unalterable, and that once shut up in hell there shall be no escape-O! I tremble to the very core lest after all I should become a castaway. Tell me, beloved hearers, which of you will go up with Lazarus to Abraham's bosom? Which of you will accept the Lord Jesus, and inhabit that unalterable heaven? Which of you will go down with Dives to the tormenting flame? Which of you will reject this great salvation, and inhabit that unalterable hell? Tell me, O tell me, are the destinies beyond the grave unalterable; and is there one of you that will persevere in sin? Are they unalterable, and is there one of you that will continue impenitent and without Christ, and without God, and without hope? Are they unalterable, and can you any more reject an offered Saviour? O! this is the thought that oppresses my bosom, my dear hearers, when I contemplate another world-that the destinies of immortal beings once fixed cannot be altered; no, never, never, never: it is an eternal heaven; and O! it is an eternal hell! THE GOSPEL HARVEST. REV. B. GODWIN, SURREY CHAPEL, JUNE 17, 1835 *. "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest." THAT part of the evangelical history from which the words of our text are taken informs us, that our Lord Jesus Christ having, in the course of his travels, occasion to pass through Samaria, sat down upon a well, exhausted with fatigue, about the hour of noon: that a woman of Samaria coming about that time to draw water, our Lord Jesus Christ entered into conversation with her; and at once her mind was deeply impressed, first that he was a prophet, and subsequently, it appears, that he was the Messiah. The woman, anxious to impart these tidings to her countrymen, went into the city to call them to come and see this wonderful person. His disciples, in the mean time, had gone away to purchase food, and when they returned, and found that he had been conversing with the woman of Samaria, they were exceedingly surprised: and when he had further entered into conversation with them, they, supposing that some one had brought him meat to eat, received from him the assurance, that "his meat was to do the will of him that sent him, and to finish his work." His disciples entreating him to eat, he said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." In their simplicity they took these words in their literal acceptation; and this led to the answer which we have already stated: "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." (O for more of this spirit to animate the whole of the Christian church! May this be the meat of each of us; such the spirit in which we all act !) Our Lord Jesus Christ proceeds to intimate to them, that the time was now approaching when they would have to enter upon their work in a far more extended and energetic manner, Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest ?"-alluding, according to the opinion of some, to the usual time that elapsed between the seed-time and the harvest; according to others, to the season of the year: "Look around on the fields; you see indications that four months must elapse before the reaper enters into the harvest field. Not so with the work which is before us; I say unto you, the time is now at hand. Consider the prophecies; mark the providence of God; look on the impression already made on the minds of the Samaritans. Compare all these things together, and see that there are sufficient indications that the time is approaching, when we must, in a more energetic and efficient manner, enter upon the great work which is before us." So our Lord Jesus Christ says, on another occasion: "The harvest," said he, alluding to the inga * Anniversary Sermon for the Baptist Missionary Society. thering of souls to him-"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few." There are two important periods in the views which the Scriptures give us of the establishment and extension of the kingdom of Jesus Christ: the one when it was a stone cut out of the mountain without hands; the other when it became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth: the one, when it was announced, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand;" and the other, when it shall be declared, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ." In many circumstances connected with these two remarkable periods, there are many points of similarity. It is, indeed, often difficult to know to which period the words of prophecy refer-whether to the first triumphs of Christianity, or to its final and universal extension. Sometimes, probably, the words may be used in a primary and sometimes in a secondary sense-referring, in the first instance to their partial accomplishment at the first conquests of Christianity; and in the second instance, to their complete fulfilment, when the kingdom of Christ shall become universal. For instance, it was declared by prophecy to the father of the faithful, that in him, "all nations -all families of the earth should be blessed." This received a partial fulfilment when the Saviour came, and the Gospel was first preached to the Gentiles: its complete fulfilment is reserved to the period when "all nations shall serve him." The dying patriarch, with a fine prophetical spirit, declared, that the people should be gathered to the Messiah. And Isaiah, in somewhat similar terms, speaks of the Gentiles flocking to him, over whom he should reign. This was fulfilled partially, when first the standard of the cross was erected; but its complete fulfilment will not take place, till the knowledge of God shall become universal. That memorable prophecy of Joel, respecting the communication of the Divine Spirit, received its accomplishment also, when, at the day of Pentecost, the effusion of the Divine Spirit produced such astonishing effects. And yet it is impossible to read this prophecy in Joel, with all its attendant circumstances, without being fully convinced, that its complete fulfilment is still in reserve. Without indulging in any fanciful analogies, any Christian mind may, we conceive, discern many striking points of similarity between the introduction of the Gospel dispensation, and the introduction of the latter-day glory; so that the very same terms may be applied, in a certain sense, to both. By the first introduction of Christianity, and the publication of the Gospel, one complete series of prophecies was fulfilled, respecting the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By the wise establishment of his kingdom, its more complete and universal extension, another series of prophecies will emerge from their obscurity; and the Revelation of John will become as intelligible to the Church of God, as the fifty-third chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah. The first dispensation, or the first introduction of the Christian economy, was marked by the destruction of a system which had corrupted the revelation of God, made vain the commandments of God through human tradition, and opposed the greatest obstacle to the progress of the Gospel; and the second, and more extended triumphs of Christianity, we are assured, will be marked by the destruction of a system that has equaily corrupted Christianity itself: which power the Lord will destroy with the spirit of his mouth, and with the brightness of his coming. The first period was marked by the shaking of the nations, which, while thus fulfing the ancient predictions, paved the way for the spread of the Gospel. And though in the prophecy, statements which refer to the future are still in a considerable measure obscure, yet we know that great commotions are yet to be expected, before the Gospel shall take its final and universal spread. The first period was marked by the calling of the Gentiles, when the middle wall of partition was broken down, and all declared to be one. The latter dispensation of divine grace, which shall extend further the kingdom of Christ, will be distinguished by the calling of the Jews, when there shall be one fold under one Shepherd. The first period was marked by the missionary spirit: they went forth every where preaching the word: and the latter period is significantly exhibited to us by the symbol of an angel flying through the expanse of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to all people, and tongues, and kindreds. But there is this important difference between the two periods, that the state of glory and of blessedness of the latter period, are to be far more extensive and universal. The wide world is to share its blessings: it is to be perpetuated through a long succession of ages; so that though the ingathering of souls to Christ, at the first conquests of Christianity, may have been called a "harvest" with propriety, with reference to what went before, it is but as the first-fruits compared with what we yet expect. After the first establishment of Christianity, a series of most disastrous circumstances attended it; "and except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we had been as Sodom, and had become like unto Gomorrah." But the latter period is not only to be universal, and not only to embrace the blessings of the former-all nations, and people, and tongues, and kindred; but it is to extend through a long period of successive ages. I venture to think, then, brethren, that the words which I have taken, may not be inapplicable to the present time; that we are arrived, in the lapse of time, at such a period, and at such a position in the circumstances of the church and the world, as justify the application of these words in a very peculiar and emphatic manner to the present time: "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest." May I, then, entreat your patient and candid attention, while I shall endeavour, as briefly as possible, to notice, in the first place, that after all that has yet been done, the great harvest remains to be gathered in. Secondly; that a concurrence of circumstances seems to indicate, that the time of this great harvest is at hand. And, thirdly, that this should be met by corresponding sentiments and conduct on the part of the Church of God. In the first place, then, Christian brethren, THE GREAT HARVEST REMAINS YET TO BE GATHERED IN. From what we are permitted to know of the councils of heaven respecting the redemption of man, we are led to infer, that the plans and purposes of 'Almighty goodness and grace have yet received but a very partial accomplishment; and that the purposes of God embrace the salvation of man to an extent that has never yet been realized, as we conceive; revealed with a clearness which we cannot mistake, with a certainty which we ought not to doubt. We mast not conceive of the plan of redemption as a remedial measure, adopted mere.v after the catastrophe of man's fall and ruin. Before the Eternal Mind all the consequences of man's apostacy stood, with all the ruin in which the human race would be involved: before the creation of the world or man's existence, he saw, and for wise ends permitted, the temporary triumph of evil. But an eternal decree passed, that its power and prevalence should be limited; and the language of this decree, fixing its limits, was, "Hitherto shalt thou go, but no further." God designed, from the dilapidated ruins and shattered fragments of a fallen world, to erect to himself a temple, vast and magnificent in which the glory of God should shine, and the praises of God be sung, the top-stone of which should be brought forth with shouting, crying, Grace, grace, unto it." He therefore laid its foundations wide and deep, and marked out for its dimensions an ample space, proportioned to the glory of the Divine Architect himself. He saw the dismal prospect of the wide-spread desolation, over which the blight of sin had passed, on which the curse of transgression had rested and he determined that the wilderness and the solitary place should be glad; that the desert should rejoice and blossom as the rose; that the renovated creation should be covered with verdure, and that the earth should yield her increase. The Divine plans, so far as they are revealed, assure us, that this should not be the case merely with one single favoured spot, surrounded by a waste-howling wilderness, but that it should extend to all lands; that the light of truth should not merely gild the tops of the highest immense, but it should be revealed, so that all flesh should see it, and the earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God; that the living waters which went forth from himself should unite their streams, till they should at length fall into a vast expanse of ocean, covering the whole earth. The gracious intentions of God, as announced to us by the holy seers of antiquity, present to us a bright and glorious prospect. They looked through all the intervening ages of gloom, and misery, and woe, and saw better and brighter days rising upon the world, when there should be "one Lord in all the earth, and his name one;" when there should be one fold under one Shepherd, and all should acknowledge the Redeemer's sway. In such terms are the intentions of God announced, as lead us to conclude, that as yet they have been but very partially accomplished. Hitherto men have been found walking in the broad road: the course of this world has been from God, and not to God: departure from God has been the rule, return to God has been the exception. Vice and misery have spread like the inundation of a flood; while peace, truth, and righteousness, have been like streamlets, fertilizing some favoured spot of land. We may look around through all the present nations of the world, and read the record of their past history, and see that while nation has been opposing nation, generation after generation have had no hope, and lived without God in the world. And who, upon reviewing either the present state of the world, or the records of past history, can for a moment imagine, that all the vast plans of God respecting the salvation of man have been fulfilled?-who but must conclude, that the harvest still remains to be gathered in? On any great question, Christian brethren, which involves any important interest, it is satisfactory to have evidence of various kinds. When proof of one kind only is possessed, suspicion is apt to intrude into the mind, that we may possibly have made a mistake favourable to our own wishes and inclinations. Will you, therefore, allow me further to state some circumstances, |