the sympathy of friends; I have the promises | ing. He called, and you came-not in the of Scripture; I have the presence of Him contemptible nature of a worm-but "a little who said, Fear not."-We glorify God in our lower than the angels." What wonders are afflictions, when we verbally and practically acknowledge

His power. This regards our support and deliverance, and is to keep us from all hasty and dismal conclusions. For by nothing do, we dishonour God more than by our despondency. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? However dark the scene may be, he can turn the shadow of death into the morning. If when he comes to save us, he finds no way of escape, he can easily make one. Read the history of Joseph, and of David. Observe the relief of Elijah in famine; and the deliverance of Daniel in the lions' den-and learn to trust in your almighty and wonder-working Friend. You say perhaps many of these things were supernatural.-They were. And that we are not to expect a repetition of miracles. It is acknowledged. But he who performed these wonders is still alive, and the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. He is as near to you as he was to his people of old; and you are as dear to him as they were. But, alas! we are not "strong in faith, giving glory to God." Israel "limited the Holy One of Israel," and so do we; and like them we do it after the wonders he has shown us. We forget "the years of the right hand of the Most High," and every fresh difficulty chills our hope, and forces our confidence to a stand. But this is wrong. We ought to be peculiarly concerned to "glorify God in the fires."—

III. We proceed to examine THE REASONS. There are three. The first is derived from opportunity-the second from obligationthe third from hope.

First. You ought to glorify God in the fires, because you have the finest opportunity. The scene naturally awakens attention, and fixes observation upon you. Nothing preaches like a fact. Nothing is so impressive as the graces of a Christian in trouble. Infidels have been convinced, the wicked have been reclaimed, the weak have been strengthened, the timid encouraged by what they have seen and heard in the hour of affliction. How much, therefore, should you prize such a useful providence, and how anxious should you be to improve such an opportunity, to illustrate your principles, to exemplify the advantages of religion, to recommend the master you serve! Let it not be a price in the hand of fools. It will be painful to look back upon such a season neglected. It will be dreadful to review such a season perverted. Yet this is often done by improper behaviour, by ungracious tempers, by passionate words.

Secondly. The obligations you are under to the blessed God, should induce you to glorify him in the fires. Once you had no be

there in thy body! Yet this is the baser part. You have conscience, reason, immortality. He has taught you more than the beasts of the earth, and made you wiser than the fowls of the air. There is a spirit in you, and the "inspiration of the Almighty giveth it understanding." And is all this to enable you to labour for shining dust with the covetous? To run after air with the ambitious? To dive into mud and mire with the sensual and vicious? Should you not "worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord your Maker?" By whom have you been upheld from the womb? At whose table have you been daily fed? From whose wardrobe have you been clothed? There is not a comfort in life but gives God a title to thy praise. But he has greater, dearer claims. Go to the manger, the garden, the cross. See him not sparing his own Son, but delivering him up for us all. See him exalting this Sufferer "to be a Prince and a Saviour; to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins." What has he done for thee in the application of this free and full redemption? Has he opened thine eyes, and turned thy feet into the path of peace.-What has he done for thee since thou hast known him? He has ever left thee? Has he ever turned away thy prayer from him, or his mercy from thee? And is it for you to be wrapped up in selfishness? How unworthy a creature; but how much more unworthy a Christian! When a man is writing a book, says an old divine, he ought often to look back to the title, and see whether he is conforming to it, or deviating from it; and so he tells us we should often turn back and inquire the end of our creation and our redemption, in order that we may regulate ourselves by it. We oughtwe ought-to "reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Thirdly. Hope should influence you. Such a disposition to glorify God in the fires is productive of your own advantage. God is a good master. Though we owe him all the obedience we render, and it is impossible for any of our works to be meritorious, yet his grace has made them rewardable-and "verily there is a reward for the righteous." We cannot be losers by any thing we do for him. You may often study the wishes, and promote the interests of men, and meet with no suitable return. But he renders love for love, service for service, in a proportion infinitely increased. "Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."

One of these two things is certain, as the consequence of sanctifying the Lord in your afflictions.

First: the removal of them. For when | rouse, how they extend, how they enlarge, the end is answered, the dispensation will how they refine our views and our senticease. As soon as we are silent, and submit, ments! They lead us backward; and we the rod drops out of our heavenly Father's hand, and he cries, "Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord."

Or, Secondly: Indemnification for them; so that the continuance shall subserve our welfare more than the withdrawment. And this can easily be done by the internal supports of grace, and the future recompenses of glory.

Such are the arguments to enforce this duty. But I hear you say—

"Lord, can a feeble, helpless worm
Perform a task so hard?

Thy grace must all the work perform,
And give the free reward."

It must. And there are two things I wish
you to learn with regard to this grace.

The one is, the necessity, the absolute necessity of it. Without this you can do nothing, suffer nothing as you ought.

The other is, the sufficiency of it for every purpose in the divine life. It is shameful to hear Christians talking as if their duties were impracticable, or their crosses intolerable. It is disgraceful to hear them excusing their improper carriage in affliction on the ground of weakness; O! who could help it; it was so trying! What do you mean by weakness? Your own strength separate from the succours of the Gospel? Of this you cannot have too deep a sense. But are you not a Christian? Are you not in union with one who says, "My grace is sufficient for thee?" Are you ever required to "be strong" in yourselves? No-but "in the grace there is in Christ Jesus." And "in him all fulness dwells." View, therefore, your difficulties in connexion with your supplies. View his commands in connexion with his promises, and courageously face all-saying with Paul; "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.'

behold the fair frame of nature springing out of chaos. They draw us forward; and we see the heavens passing away with a great noise, the elements melting with fervent heat, the earth also, and all the works that are therein burnt up. They tell us to look inward; and under this burden of flesh, this perishing clay, we discern a spirit in man, immaterial, immortal, and able to subsist independent of the body. They call us to look upward; and drawing back the vail, they show us an order of beings, far above human, and with which Christians have the honour to be already connected. It is the testimony of the Apostle in the words before us. "Ye are come to an innumerable company of angels."

We are come to them five ways. We are come to them as FRIENDS-as ATTENDANTSas WITNESSES-as PATTERNS as AssOCIATES.-As friends, from whom we were separated by the Fall-as attendants, whose care is to follow us through life—as witnesses, whose observation we are to reverence as patterns, whose example we are to imitateas associates, with whom we are to blend our future being, and from whom we shall derive no inconsiderable portion of our happiness.

I. WE ARE TO THEM AS FRIENDS, from whom we have been separated by the Fall.

Men and angels, in their original creation, formed but one family; and though they differed in nature and in residence, they had one father, and there would have been a free and pleasing intercourse between them. But sin destroyed the harmony of the world. Sin disunited heaven and earth. Sin separated not only between God and men, but between angels and men. When man revolted from his lawful Sovereign, they remained in their allegiance: and as sin rendered God our enemy, so it rendered angels our enemies too. Accordingly we read of their being the executioners of the Divine vengeance. As soon as Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, an angel rushed to the gate with a flaming sword, to keep the way to the tree of life. An angel of the Lord smote all the first-born in Egypt. An angel of the Lord, to punish David for numbering the people, goes from Dan to Beer-sheba, and seven hundred thousand victims seal his angry commission. An angel of the Lord in one night enters the camp of Sennacherib, and destroys one hundred and eighty-five thousand men. An angel of the Lord smote Herod, that he died. We pretend not to understand the prophecies in the book of the Revelation, but it is cerangels are to pour out the vials of the wrath tain, that when the nations are angry, the of Almighty God upon the earth. And perHow numerous, how various are our obli-haps, says a judicious expositor, if an inspired gations to the Scriptures of truth! How they history of our own eventful times were writ

DISCOURSE LXIX.

THE CONNEXION BETWEEN CHRIS-
TIANS AND ANGELS.

We are come to an innumerable company of
Angels.-Heb. xii. 22.

ten, the defeat of many a haughty worm | of her who bare him; and how long is it bewould be traced up to such an awful agency. fore he can estimate his obligations to a -Hence, when they have appeared to man, mother's vigilance! She can afterwards inthey have been objects of terror. form him how she denied, and exposed herself for his sake; how she watched over him by day and by night; fled with him to a purer air, or snatched him from a burning couch: but he was not sensible of it at the time. And should he happen to be blind, how much would be done for him all through life, which, though he would enjoy in the effects, he could never see. If we had organs of perception adapted to the spiritual world, what striking scenes should we constantly witness! But our incapacity does not render them less true. The king of Syria had sent an army to Dothan to secure Elisha. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and had gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. He therefore cried out, “Alas, my master, what shall we do?" He saw the danger; this was material. But Elisha knew the defence was as real as it was invisible. 'Fear not," says he, "for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." Where? says the servant. "And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, open, I pray thee, his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

But in consequence of the mediation of our Lord and Saviour, the breach is healed. We are reconciled not only to God, but to the angels. It is the meaning of the Apostle, when he says, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him." So that the angels now view us again with delight. They call themselves our fellow-servants, our fellow-worshippers, our brethren. Men and angels form again one family: they remained in their original state; we are restored to it; and such is the disposition of those celestial beings, that they do not repine, like the elder brother, at the return of the prodigal, but rejoice to welcome the younger branches of the family home; "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

II. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS ATTENDANTS, whose care is to follow us through life. The alarm that some religious people have taken at this doctrine, as if it interfered with the glory of God in their preservation, is absurd. God is the author of all good. He is the guide, the guard, the strength, the consolation of his people: but does this imply that he does not employ means in doing them good? And may we not in this case argue from analogy? He "spreads a table before us in the wilderness," but not immediately. He commands his sun to shine, and his rain to descend; yea, he requires our own exertions to prepare the supplies of nature for our use. He employs us to aid each other. We are at once the subjects and the instruments of his goodness; he gives, and we diffuse. Have you never been in sickness; never laid on a bed of languishing? And has no friend by sympathy, by kindness, by attention, reminded you of the promise"I will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: I will make all his bed in his sickness?" Thus too he makes use of ministers to "turn us from darkness to light;" to be "helpers of joy; to comfort us concering our faith." Why then should it be deemed a thing absurd, or incredible, that God should employ the ministrations of angels for the welfare of his people?

Neither is it an argument against this doctrine, that the proofs of it fall under the observation of our senses. We walk by faith, and not by sight. How many things do we admit as real, that are not visible! How little is the babe aware of the fond attentions

Thus the believer is safe in the midst of danger, "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." And though he may be despised, and overlooked by his fellowmen because he is poor and needy, yet has he more glorious attendance than any wordly monarch. God's noblest creatures are his children's servants. "Such honour have all the saints."

The Scripture is express upon this subject. An angel fed Elijah under the juniper tree. An angel brought to Daniel an explanation of prophecy. An angel of the Lord released Peter from prison; and comforted Paul in the storm. Angels carried the soul of Lazarus into Abraham's bosom. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"

III. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS WITNESSES, whose observation we are to reverence.

It would be well for us to remember that we are always in sight. The eyes of our fellow-creatures are often upon us; and if

they were always upon us, they would restrain us from a thousand sins. But invisible beings always behold us. No consideration indeed is like the omniscience of God; "Thou God seest me!" We should, therefore, "set the Lord always before us." But motives do not always impress according to their real importance. We are like children, upon whom various motives operate, according to their age and disposition: the thought, therefore, that we are come to an innumerable company of angels, may strike us even more than a sublimer consideration. Now this is the fact.

men.

would none of our counsel, they despised all our reproof."

I see children brought forward as witnesses against their parents. Oh! how dreadful to hear them say, "You taught us to swear, but not to pray. You led us into the dissipations of the world, but you never fixed in our minds the principles of the Gospel. In your lives we saw nothing but instances of levity, inconsistency, irreligion. Unnatural monsters, to bring us into existence, and leave us exposed to eternal ruin!"-Thus children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

We are a spectacle to angels as well as to But angels will be some of the principal The Apostle enforces a proper beha-witnesses, in that great and terrible day of the viour in religious assemblies, "because of the Lord. They have inspected you perfectly. angels." And charges Timothy not only They can distinguish between the circum"before God, but his elect angels." stances which confound us. There are cases in which two guilty individuals are impli cated. They accuse each other; and no human being was privy to their wickedness. But angels saw Abel and Cain when they were alone together in the field. They can decide in an intrigue, who was the seducer, and who the seduced. What a world of private wickedness will they develope!

The angels are our observers, and what they witness they will be called upon hereafter to report. For the proceedings of the great day will be judicial; we must "give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good, or whether they be evil;" and we read that the books will be opened, and witnesses called to depose. You despise my teaching, said our Saviour to the Jews, but you shall hear of it again. "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here." And thus will it be with others.

IV. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS PATTERNS, whose example we are to imitate. To these models our Saviour himself leads us in the form of devotion he gave to his disciples: in which he teaches us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." And even now, this prayer is accomplished. Between believers and angels there is a resem blance, though not an equality. Wherein does it appear?

out intermission; and impartial, without choice. The reason is, they love God, and it is his will alone they regard; whether, therefore, he calls them to come, or orders them to go; whether he requires them to ascend, or descend; they are equally satisfied, as they have equally an opportunity of showing their submission to him. And whatever low idea you may form of a Christian, such is, and such must be, his leading desire; and his prevailing endeavour.

It appears in the nature of their obedience. We are told that the angels, however great, I see hearers brought forward as evidence find it their privilege to serve. Though they against their ministers-" You never warned "excel in strength, they do his commandus to flee from the wrath to come. You ments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." never convinced us of the depravity of our And their obedience is ready, without delay; nature, and our need of the washing of re-cheerful, without reluctance; constant, withgeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' You made lies our refuge, and lulled us to sleep on the brink of ruin. Cursed watchman, you gave us no warning till it was too late. Cursed physician, you withheld the only remedy; you administered poison!" I see ministers brought forward as evidence against their hearers. "Lord, I addressed them from sabbath to sabbath, with affection and fidelity. I thundered the terrors of the Law, and whispered the promises of the Gospel. I am clear from their blood. I warned and I wooed them, but they would not hear." I see parents brought forward as witnesses against children. Ah, cruel, but necessary task! 66 Lord, we established thy worship in our family. We led them early to know the Scriptures. We often prayed for them, and with them. We bedewed them with our tears. We set forth the blessedness of thy ways, and rendered religion lovely. But they

It appears in their union. These beings have various degrees among them. We read of "angels and archangels; of thrones and dominions; principalities and powers. Yet these produce no contempt, no envy, no eager ness to dictate, no backwardness to co-operate. They perfectly harmonize. They have but one spirit, one wish. The Scripture represents them as uniting their voices, and answering to each other in their sacred songs.