we have no sympathy with those who make this outcry a shelter for political animosity. But still we hate Popery; and we would set ourselves with all fixedness of opposition to do what we can for its overthrow: just for this cause, that we believe in all sincerity, that it is the precursor of infidelity; that its tendency is to eat out the core of all belief; that wherever it spreads, whether in Italy, Spain, or Ireland, its consequences have been the same, to make those among whom it had obtained dominion to be altogether infidels. And we believe the extension of Popery will be just preparing the way for the last antichristian principle, namely, infidelity.

There shall be these signs in the world. And will the world be observant of them? We little expect it: we believe that, in spite of all these warnings and these plain footmarks of the coming time, that the world will be found locked in the lap of insensibility and slumber. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man: there will be the like of warning then. When Noah begun to build the ark it was a warning to the people who beheld him every plank of the vessel which he laid, preached a homily to those who heard him; and all his workmen where his hearers. But they were insensible as the wood which they shaped and the iron which they handled. We do not question that it was just with them as with our own people: they were insensible, they were regardless. The man of philosophy would take a great deal of pains to demonstrate, how it was utterly impossible that a deluge should take place; and they would plainly insist on principles, which, however, were not sufficiently established, that the windows of heaven could not be opened, nor the foundations of the great deep broken up; that they were safe enough, and that in spite of all the preparations around them, they were in perfect security. And the man of wit would doubtless find a very pertinent subject in all the efforts that were made by the patriarch, in all his pains-taking and laborious preaching to them. And the poets of that time, perhaps, like the little poets of our own day, might help themselves out with infidelity, when they found that their imaginations flagged. But in spite of all this-in spite of their philosophy, their wit, and their poetry-the flood came and overwhelmed them all. Even so shall the coming of the Son of man be. In spite of the innumerable warnings; in spite of all the messages which God is sending concerning his design; in spite of the volume which he opens for our consideration; men will be heedless, and the destruction of that time shall find many of them sleeping. Infidelity, doubtless, will be at work even to the end; and using, perhaps, the very same arguments which it applied in the apostles' days. And the scoffers will draw an argument from the sameness of nature's operations, and the unchangeable aspect of all earthly things; and they will say "Where is the sign of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were, from the beginning of the creation." They will be in their places of business; the markets and exchanges will be crowded; men's minds will be engrossed and occupied with carnal and secular objects: pleasure will sometimes dislodge business; the bride will be brought home to her husband's house; parents will have their hearts gladdened with the sight of the new-born heir; and families and intimates will be gathered together in their days of jollity and merriment. But in the midst of all this shall burst the trump of the archangel, and the crash of the world; and men, in the midst of their engrossing cares, shall be surprised, in the pursuit of all their business-like

occupations, and all those trifles which they call fashion, and make the business of their lives.

Churlish as some of the professors of the Gospel are towards the brethren of Christ, they will be surprised by the coming of Him who hath called them brethren; and their reproach will be, that they looked with a disdainful eye upon those whom they called in mockery their brothers and their sisters and Christ will overwhelm them with reproaches, in the midst of their vain and empty professions. And this shall be their condemnation, that Jesus poured out his life's blood for them, and that they gave nothing to the starving families of those who were partners and co-heirs with them; that, though Christ had given them the robe of his own righteousness to enwrap their souls, and had builded for them glorious palaces in heaven, they provided no raiment nor shelter for the children of sorrow, whose houses were unroofed, and on whom the winter's storm was spending all its violence. But Jesus has come, and surprised the false professor, and those who have no mercy on themselves nor others, and who have buried the treasure of eternal hope beneath the vileness of this earth's corruption.

Beloved, we entreat you, for your own sake, and for God's sake, that you lay this matter to heart. In what posture would you be found? Would you be wakeful and watchful, or slumbering and unwary? We do not doubt what your answer would be. O, we say to you then, feed your lamps with the oil of grace; keep your loins girded; be ever on your watch-tower, looking abroad for the sign of the coming of the Lord. Whether it shall be sooner or whether it shall be later, you cannot tell. This we are sure of: it will be soon in relation to the past, and it will be soon in relation to the eternity that is before us. He may come to us when we are young or when we are old. We may be called away years before the leaf is withered, or we may stay on earth till every bough is leafless, and there is only left the solitary scathed trunk. We may have slept in our graves for centuries before Jesus comes; or it may be that his footsteps are at the threshold of our world, and that he will soon knock at the graves, and call out the inhabitants, and cause that the bone and the sinew and the flesh should be again instinct with life, and that man in his complex nature should come forth to meet him. Many of you must have felt that this world cannot suffice you. The immortal mind is now pent up and caged in a perishing body. This cannot be its home; this cannot be its last destiny. All the while we are here, we are in the precincts of corruption. All our life-time we are spending in the antechamber of death: all the objects around us are eloquent of decay; and preach sermons to us, our funeral sermons, perpetually. Wearied and worn out, as some of us are, with jaded faculties and exhausted hopes, having our path paved with sorrow, we would not that this should be the last of our history. But in the midst of all our darkness, in the midst of all our clinging cares and sorrows, the day-light of truth breaks in on our souls, and we have glimpses of a brighter and a better world. O that is the world where Jesus dwells! May God give us that our hope may be more fixed on it, that our eye may never turn aside from it! And then we are willing that Christ should come in our life-time; we are willing to go down to our quiet graves and stay his coming: for we know that whensoever his advent shall be, we, being his people, having his love in our hearts, shall lift up our eyes, because our redemption draweth nigh.

CHRIST THE HEALER OF DISEASES.

REV. M. O'SULLIVAN, A.M.

ST. LUKE'S CHURCH, CHELSEA, JULY 26, 1835.

"And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them."-MATTHEW, iv. 24.

It is well worthy of reflection that our Lord Jesus Christ, whose coming into the world and whose departure from it, were calculated so eminently to set forth the insignificance of every thing earthly, did, nevertheless, apply himself to alleviate the evils incident to man here, with as tender and as vigilant an anxiety, and as prompt a readiness to relieve, as could be entertained by one who counted this life and its concerns objects of great and intrinsic importance. Christ came into this world, not with a view of making men happy here, nor with a promise that worldly good should be the inheritance of his followers, on the contrary, he directs that they be ready to renounce all they hold dear: he warns them that if they would be faithful followers of him, they must be prepared for such renunciation. He teaches them that no happiness is to be coveted except that which springs up within the heart that is no longer conformed to this world; except that which is vouchsafed as the consolation of those who do sincerely mourn. And yet, while he taught his disciples these great and searching truths, he went about doing good; doing that which even the natural man would call good; doing good of that kind which the superficial could not but be altogether ready to acknowledge as being conducive to the great objects which men should have at heart.

There is something exceedingly interesting in this thought: that our blessed Lord, whose coming here, and whose going hence, were calculated to set forth this truth in its insignificancy, did, nevertheless, consult even for the happiness of human beings here. He comes into a world which is in undisguised enmity towards him, and yet, every step he takes, his words and works breathe out, not alone holiness, but also mercy and love. He comes into a world where every ill that visits itself upon man, is no more than a natural consequence of man's transgression; where it might be said the unhappiness that man is born to is the shadow of that sin by which man offended against God. And in this world the Lord Jesus Christ is to be seen at the bed-side of the sinner, who has brought his infirmity upon himself, not to aggravate the sins of the man,

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not to sink that sinner beyond all comparison into despair; but for the purpose of interposing between the consequences of sin and the victim they would destroy, and giving him courage, and hope, and confidence, to soften the scenes of his affliction and his contrition.

This was not the species of miracle which the hard-hearted would have expected from our Lord. The Pharisees would dictate to him the manner in which he should overcome their incredulity. If he would show signs in the heavens-if he would lift himself above the great ones of the earth-if he would come down from the cross, and leave the redemption of mankind unaccomplished-they would account him worthy of their homage, because they would esteem him formed after the fashion of their own hearts. But because his miracles were mercies-because his precepts were gracious words—because he would not indulge them in the performance of miracles which a hard heart, a cold imagination, an ungodly nature was most desirous to see for its own Indulgence; because his signs were wrought upon the earth-not exhibited upon the remote expanse of heaven, and had for its object, not so much to - amaze man's mind as to convert his heart; they would not acknowledge him the God of glory and the God of love; and they uttered blasphemous expressions against him because he came to save sinners.

A day will come when that species of miracle which the contemners of our Lord's simplicity desired shall be wrought before all assembled existences. At that time, when he cometh in his glory, when he shall have put on his robe of splendour, when all the heavens and the earth shall flee away because of him; when the throne is set which, when the wicked have once stood before, shall never appear again; in that day there shall be signs and wonders of all the majesty and might that the imaginations of these men's hearts vainly strived to aspire to: then when Christ sitteth to reject for ever those who have rejected him and his law while life was granted to them-to welcome into his Father's kingdom those who took up their cross and followed him in his humility here upon the earth. But such signs and wonders would not have been suited to that time when Christ came to save the world. Then it was not his object to collect around him the proud and the hard-hearted: then were his miracles to be those of which rather the faith of man should discern the excellence than the senses of man rejoice in: then, instead of setting forth his glory as the carnal heart of man may delight to see glory set forth, it was the object of our Lord to perform such actions amongst them with whom he sojourned to leave such a history recorded for those who will read that history now-that the thought of the benign and blessed Jesus might become associated with every thing that was dear, as well as every thing that was sorrowful to man, ennobling him in all that was joyful, and diffusing over his affliction a serene and a purifying consolation.

See the Lord Jesus Christ surrounded, as his Gospel sets him forth, with those whom he has delivered from their infirmities. You see him as he pursues his track of mercy upon earth; and you find it constantly, that the Lord is to be recognized, not in the glory that surrounded him, but in the virtue that goes out of him. It is not that he assumes to himself what the eye of man would delight to dwell on as great and magnificent; but that he makes every heart to desire to feel the benefit of his presence, and to be made sensible of his mercies: and instead of taking his place upon the throne to which the

people would elevate him, he took it most especially at the bed of sickness, in the chamber of sorrow; and diffused there the balm of his consoling presence.

In every instance where our Lord is set forth, he is presented to us as a God of mercy; and you find that whilst his mercy is over all from the beginning of his course, yet more especially does he shed its consolations on those whom sickness has overtaken. Therefore the healing of diseases, which is set forth as one of our Lord's characteristics, is so marked out, because it was to be descriptive of the religion he taught, and directive of the precepts he gave: and, therefore, it is incumbent upon all who love him and his religion, and who do honour to his name, to act in the spirit of which he has left them the example, and to be instrumental in healing diseases, and in making men feel the excellence of the Christian dispensation in this especial character.

The example in the Gospel of our Lord's promptitude to heal diseases, causes us to remember, if at any time we lose the sense of such remembrance, that it is not in a season of sickness reconciliation is best effected between man and God. We all know the value of sickness in taming down the proud spirit, and in giving a direction to human thought: but all who know what sickness is, know likewise that it is after restoration to health that the thoughts and the instructions with which the hours of illness are enriched yield their full benefit; and those who have not the experience by which they could gather this truth for themselves, may, from the constant practice of our Lord, ascertain that it is true. If sickness were the time when it was most fitting that man should commune with his own heart, and be edified, and turn towards God, could it have been the essential characteristic of our Lord's mission that he healed all diseases? If man during the hours of sickness was, of necessity, becoming more acquainted with his own weakness, with his own frailty, and, at the same time, becoming more constantly turning towards the source of good, towards the cure of spiritual infirmity; is it not to be supposed that the miracles by which our Lord authenticated his mission would have been of a different character, and that, instead of giving the proofs he did in the healing of diseases suddenly by a word, by a touch, by the shadow of his presence, by contact with the hem of his garments, is it not natural to suppose that he would have given time for men to recover from their illness, that he would have delivered them gradually from disease, that he would have left them to the solitary companionship of sickness, by which they would be instructed in things pertaining to their peace, and brought unto God? But since the Lord Jesus has directed the mercy and the miracle towards one great object, and since that object is principally the cure of diseases, it does appear that he conveys a solemn lesson that it is not in the hour of sickness we should seek to make our peace with God; that he gives that lesson to all who are now in strength that they may understand it. For what is the Lord Jesus? What is his name? Why is it he is called Jesus? Not that he would save men from sickness, from temporal affliction: it is because he saveth from sin. And since that is his name, and since he avowed the manifestation of that name by, in the same moment, pardoning sin and healing infirmity; and since he left it as the marked peculiarity of his mercy that it was extended to those who were sick; he does give us the lesson (God grant that all may take it!) that it is in the hour of health that we should seek to obtain God's pardon, and not postpone it till that melancholy period out of