And ever sunk among the utter dark. A groan return'd; the righteous heard the groan- They felt damnation sure, and heard hell close, A groan return'd; the righteous heard the groan,— All pain, all anguish, all despair, which all And issued in one groan of boundless woe!" Pollok's Course of Time. 68 THE BARREN FIG-TREE. Cut it down: why cumbereth it the ground?Luke xiii. 7. Look, my brethren, at the allegory in the text, and as ye are aware that our Lord was describing the character and state before God of certain human beings, consider where the likeness holds, and where the application is due. We cannot suppose the teeming population of those African, Asiatic, and other countries are intended, where Jehovah has not sent his word, and ministers, and means of grace, for it would be confounding all distinction of words to denote the wild common of nature on which they are left to rise, and grow, and fade, by a term which signifies an enclosed and cultivated tract. But to pass over other favoured spots, regarding the privileges of Britain, and to leave her other cities, fixing our eye on London, on this neighbourhood, on this assembly, and beholding the number of Bibles and Prayer-books, and songs of Zion in your hands, and the place in which ye are sitting, we are fully justified in calling upon our congregation to search for the resemblance among themselves. What! does individual doubt? Has he not unlocked to you he stores of sacred knowledge? Has he not put any into your possession the inspired volume, not in fragments, as to the patriarchs, but complete in the finished revelation of himself and will? Has he not developed your future destinies, your physical and moral condition? Has he not discovered to you his real character, and in a way the most easy to understand, so far as required for our guidance, and yet the most astonishing to contemplate? God in the person of Jesus Christ! What is it? Deity stooping from the third heaven to unfold his glories for the benefit of a sinful worm: the medium, the death of his Son. It is power illimitable; it is holiness burning up with instant flames impurity; it is justice inexorably inflicting horrors upon guilt; it is wisdom triumphing over difficulties, and perfecting a design considered by all created intelligences too great and impossible, and delivering with the full approbation of truth a wretched race into the saving arms of mercy, who speeds to her ocean in which she dips the globe, then lifts it high, and rolls it round its long lost centre, joying ineffably in the deed, by which God is justified, and man finds grace. This is laid often to you-urged upon you constantly, emphatically, by argument, by appeal, by intreaty, by command, and with how poor abilities of the preacher is of secondary consideration, since we direct you to a Divine Teacher, who in the plenitude of those attributes which appear in the plan of redemption, with the same sublimity and compassion, wisdom and success, reveals even to babes, who ask him, the Saviour's love, and the wonders and import of his cross. O those illustrious heathen sages! who retired from the pursuits of earth to search after God, if haply they might find him, how would they have kindled at such discoveries ! "Pure Plato! How had thy chaste spirit hail'd Sublime enthusiast! Thou had'st blest a scheme Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Prophets, longed to see the day of the Messiah, and only beheld his morning star; whilst we ages behind them in all that is strong in faith, and godlike in conduct, and rapturous in devotion; whilst we, far lowest of their sons, walk in his meridian blaze. Inquire, we beseech you, inquire not respecting others, but each in his own breast, which of you is the barren fig-tree? Let this question pass round with the same solicitude as that which was manifested at the table of our Lord respecting the betrayer, since the recognition will be scarcely less melancholy, "Is it I ?" Lo! the master of the vineyard comes seeking fruit, and he who winks at the times of ignorance in which he has suffered many nations still to remain, will regard you on whom he has poured advantages so unmerited and extraordinary, with severest scrutiny; he will try with fire. He asks not what profession you have made, or whether ye have assented to his doctrines, or defended them at the social board, or otherwise; for he will say to some, who in the general judgment cry, "Lord! have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils," depart from me, I never knew you and that cannot be fruitful which does not exempt from wrath. Nay, if bear speculative knowledge is all you have to exhibit, instead of Christianity, we know not whether you would not be safer in wholly refusing the Gospel, and ranging in the list of modern deism. The sin of denying the truth altogether is not so aggravated as acknowledging all, and yet living in the evil courses of the world. He asks not so much whether you frequent his house and join the ordinances of his people, and their outward devotions, for whilst these are the sure accompaniments of it they are not religion's self. Christianity, if its outward rites were of such importance, would have had been splendid as the Jewish ritual; but it has laid aside these, requiring that its glorious author should be worshipped in spirit and in truth. He asks not whether you are honest in your dealings with your fellow men, or refrain from open lewdness or other fragrant vice, for the plants on the open heath often produce this scanty fruit, and in this respect what praise have ye when many who |