the case with the Holy Ghost; we can hear men who preach about the Father and the Son, but never preach the Holy Ghost. I remember when in Warwickshire, it pleased the Lord to remove the minister, he was succeeded by a young man from a certain academy. An elderly female could not hear him; he was once in her company, and in questioning her, she asked him, how many persons there were in the Godhead? he answered, three; she replied, there were in her late minister's time; but any one hearing him, would be led to the conclusion that one was dead, as he only mentioned two. There was a great deal of truth in what she said, and it may be said, this is the case of nine-tenths in our day, who usurp to themselves the name of gospel ministers. It is the work of the Holy Ghost to manifest himself in the heart of a sinner, which proves the Holy Ghost is a person in the Godhead; and that he does these great and glorious things to the people of God. By his power and operation it is, that sinners who are naturally dead in trespasses and sins, and are in a state of moral darkness, are spiritually enlightened, convinced and led to the Lord Jesus Christ, to see the efficacy of his blood, and the perfection of his righteousness. It is by the power of the Holy Ghost, that Christ crucified is revealed in the sinner's conscience; his mind is led into the spiritual truths of God; he is manifestly and fully sealed up to the day of everlasting redemption. When the poor sinner is led to read of these things, and secretly to contemplate on them from time to time, he says, I hope God the Holy Ghost hath done these things for me, I hope he will cary it on, and perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Thus you observe, my fellow travellers, the eternal Jehovah is revealed in a Trinity of Persons, as made assuredly the God of hope, that he is the very

author of this grace. Therefore, secondly, he is called the God of hope, because he is the author of that hope which every saint possesses. It is evident, my friends, naturally considered, we are without hope, and there is not an individual man to be found under heaven, that possesses a spiritual hope. We read of a false hope, which is as the crackling of thorns under a pot. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says, "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Remember, they were not in a worse condition, than any natural man in the present day. You observe, hope must have a commencement, and an author, that is the Lord himself. And we will bring forth Paul and Péter, to bear their testimony to the truth of this. Paul says, "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace." As God gives a good hope through grace to his people, he must be the author of that hope to them. Let us hear what Peter says. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abun dant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And he tells you in the next verse, “To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." You observe, then, he is called the God of hope, because he is the author of hope, the first cause of real hope; no man can possess real hope, unless He produces it in his soul, by the power of his grace. Thirdly, he is the God of hope, because he is the foundation of hope. Do you know what is said in the Psalm read this morning? "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is

mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption." If you talk about hoping and expecting a thing, you must hope for it on some ground or other. Therefore observe, whatever the Lord's people hope for, an expectation of it is founded in the God of hope. Hence it is that the Lord Jesus Christ is most gloriously set forth in the Old and New Testament Scriptures, as the end of his people's hope. Hence said the prophet Isaiah, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste." He is the foundation, the best and only foundation; the apostle in writing to the Corinthians declares, there is no foundation will do, but Christ and him crucified. "For other foun

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dation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Other foundation can no man lay, but the blood, the person, the righteousness, the life, the death, sacrifice for sin,

and intercession of Jesus Christ; none other will do for a poor sinner. There is no other hope for any sinner for eternity; he is the God of hope, the object of hope, the best of any thing that a sinner has any scriptural warrant to hope for in this life, and that which is to come. Now the question is, how far have I right to hope for this? You observe, I have a right to hope for any thing that I feel my need of, or what he has promised in the scripture; more than this I have not any right whatever to expect. Now is there any thing in the God of hope that a sinner feels his need of? Yes, there is. Do you sensibly feel your need of life? then Christ is the resurrection and the life. Do you feel your need of pardon? it is in Christ to be obtained, "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Do you feel your need of righteousness to justify you, so that you may appear before God unblameable? this you find in

Christ: " Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength." Do you feel your need of salvation? here it is in Christ: "But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end." Do you feel your need of wisdom? where is it to be found but in Christ: "In him dwelleth all the treasures of wisdom, and knowledge, and riches; with him are durable riches and righteousness." Poor sensible sinners, one great end that God had in view in giving grace to the apostle, was that he might go forth and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Has Satan made the people captives? where is deliverance to be had but in Christ: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

There is no one thing that God gives a sensible sinner his need of, for life, death, or to all eternity, but is to be found in Christ. Mark this, it is not only to be found there, but is to be received from him without money and without price. Therefore observe, as such suitable blessings are in Christ, they are so perfectly free as to be obtained without money and without price. He is the object of hope. This affords matter of encouragement for a believer to expect it. If the Holy Ghost has given a poor sensible sinner to feel his need of these blessings, he will encourage him to hope for them. He is the encourager of hope. Real hope meets with many things to discourage it from time to time, both from within and from without. If the Lord is withholding the expected and promised mercy longer than the soul thought, then the devil comes in with his discouragements; he meets with discouragements both from sinners and saints. But still the Lord the Holy Ghost is the God of hope,

because he is the encourager of his people's hope, and many sweet things does he afford from time to time as the encourager of his people. When David went forth against Goliah, he was encouraged to this act by what God had done for him by delivering him from the bear and the lion. When, he says, there came a bear and a lion, and took a lamb out of the flock, and he went after them, and rescued the lamb out of their paws, probably the remembrance of this encouraged David to go forth, and that he should conquer Goliah. It was not a false hope, it was real, and was afforded by the God of heaven in time of need. He was encouraged to expect certain deliverance when Saul threatened to cut off his life, for in Psalm xlii. he cries out, "O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar." What did this do? It encouraged his hope in God: though thus being cast down, he was in daily expectation of again praising him: he says, 66 Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God." So it is, that a believer in the present day, when he is brought to remember all the way the Lord has led him, what he has done for him, the different mercies vouchsafed to him, it encourages him to hope that from his present trouble he shall be delivered. He trusts and argues that as he has delivered, so he will also yet deliver. He is led to reflect how he has been in trouble, and the Lord has delivered him out of it, and given him strength according to his day. All these things, when brought with a degree of power and unction of the Holy One, encourage the poor sinner to hope that the Lord will again appear. Something of this was done when David encouraged himself to hope in the Lord his God that he

would again deliver him. Observe then he is the God of hope to his dear children, and as such he is addressed by the apostle. "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing."

Secondly. The next thing is, "All joy and peace." You will observe, my friends, the people of God are the subjects of many sorrows; they are represented in the word of God as a sorrowful, mourning people. It is not only the weak in faith, but some whom the Lord has highly favoured. "The sorrows of my heart are enlarged, oh, bring tbou me out of my distresses." You find when Christ delivered his sermon on the Mount of Olives, he says, "Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted." There are many

causes of spiritual sorrow: a believer has to mourn over his hard heart, of the Lord withdrawing his gracious presence, through temptations from without and within, from the allurements of the world, his own unthankfulness, much wandering from God both in word and deed, that a necessity is laid upon him to adopt the language of the great apostle of the Gentiles, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death." Then while there is cause for a believer to mourn, there is also cause to rejoice; while there is a fountain whence sorrows flow, there is a fountain whence streams of joy flow from time to time.

when you go forth into the world employed in your lawful calling, the God of hope fills you with that joy, that sensible feeling of the Lord being with you to do you good. There is also the joy that springs from repentance. You know the Psalmist David was suffered to fall, and fall foully, and that too after he had known the blessedness of the Lord for himself; but when he was brought to repentance, he was led to supplicate for this mercy, the comfort of which he had lost: he says, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;" though he had not lost the salvation, he had lost the comfort of it, therefore he says, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation," give me a blessed manifestation of thy love and mercy to my soul.

joice, when they divide the spoil." Just for a moment look at your own experience, you have felt your need of the blessing, you have poured out your soul for that blessing, many things have been connected therewith, that have cost you much sorrow; you have sowed the seed with much sorrow of heart, many spiritual prayers have been sowed. By and by, the Lord has heard, and answered, putting you in possession thereof, you have received it, and felt thankful to him; your soul has been filled with joy and rejoicing ; your soul has been, while the seed was sowing, filled with many fears, but the harvest has been with joy and rejoicing.

"Now the God of

ays Paul," The God of hope fill you with all joy," give you a rich endowment of this blessing, with which that salvation is replete, so that you may rejoice as a sinner filled with the blessings of godly fear through sovereign grace, and so praise the Lord because his mercy endureth

for ever.

There is alse the joy of harvest. In the experience of all the people of God, there is both seed time and harvest; seed time is attended with much sorrow and many tears; whereas the harvest time is attended with rejoicing, "He that goeth forth weeping bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Seed time is a time of fervent, spiritual prayer. Harvest time is the time when God manifestly and graciously hears the prayers of his groaning people. The seed of prayer is offered with much sorrow of heart, and when these prayers are manifestly heard and answered, that sorrow is succeeded by joy and rejoicing, hence says the prophet Isaiah, They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men re

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After the

angel appeared to the virgin Mary,

mother of our gracious Lord; Mary and told her, she was to be the went to the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and said, "For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." The unborn John heard the salutation of Mary, as well as the mother, and he had an interest in what was announced, as well as Elizabeth, hence what John heard, caused him to leap in his mother's womb for joy. When poor sensible sinners hear of Jesus, knowing his great love for mankind, his coming into the world to ransom them from everlasting destruction; when they hear what Christ is to them, (poor sensible sinners) their all in all, as being the very thing they stand in need of; they hear what Jesus is doing to others, hear of the Lord Jesus manifesting himself to any fearful, trembling, desponding soul in the gates of Zion, hear the wonders sovereign love has down for them, in plucking