cried he unto the Lord; "I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. When my soul fainted within me I remem. bered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple." Thus did Peter: when ready to sink, he cried, saying, "Lord save, or I perish!" and though with a weak and trembling faith he seized the gracious hand that was stretched forth for his help, he found it an arm all-sufficient. Thus, on the cross, did your blessed Saviour stay himself upon his God, and plead his relation to him: " My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" And thus, oh poor dejected child of God! thou art authorized, encouraged, invited, commanded, to do still though thou walkest in darkness and hast no light, yet trust in the name of the Lord, and stay thy. self upon thy God.

I shall suggest three grounds of encouragemeut to the distressed saints of God, and then close with a word to persons of an opposite character.

And, First, I would exhort the dejected saint to look back on the past and take encouragement. Notwithstanding all your guilt and weakness, you have hitherto been upheld ;-hitherto your need has been supplied; you are still in the land of the living and of hope; and be assured that he who bore with all your sins and rebellions against him when you were unconcerned and hardened in them, will not arouse the fierceness of his

wrath against you, now that you fall at his foot. stool in humble penitence. If the Lord had meant to have destroyed you, he would not have shewed you such things as these: he who has ma nifested so much goodness to you already, will not now let you sink; it were inconsistent with his character to suppose it: stay, then, on the name of the Lord.

Secondly, Cheer up, and hope that though darkness may endure long, it will not always endure. "The night cometh, and also the morning... The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." For a long time after the day has actually dawned, the clouds and shadows still remain to such a degree that the light is scarcely perceptible; and, even at noon, clouds and mists may so far prevail as to make it appear like the twilight of evening. Yet, when this is spiritually the case, the promise is often fulfilled, that at evening time it shall be light; and " unto you that fear his name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing under his wings;" for "light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart."

Finally, Recollect that there is a glorious day coming, when all your present darkness shall be done away. There is a state, of which it is said, "there is no night there;" and it is a state to which all who fear God, and walk before him, though they walk in darkness, are assuredly des

tined. There they shall need no more the light of a candle or of the moon, for the Lord shall be their everlasting light, and their God their glory; and the days of their mourning shall be ended.

**

But this subject which speaks so much consolation to the dejected saint, speaks conviction also to the hardened presuming sinner. Observe the verse following the text; what an awful description and doom does it give of a worldly man!" Behold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in

sorrow."

Sinners refresh and please themselves with a conceit of their own merit and sufficiency, as their ground of hope, confidence, and consolation ; and as they trust in their own righteousness and not in that of Christ, so they place their happiness in their worldly possessions and enjoyments, and not in the favour of God. Creature comforts are but as sparks, short-lived, and soon gone; yet the children of this world warm themselves by them while they last, and walk with pleasure and pride in the light of them. But those who make the world their comfort, and their own righteousness their confidence, will certainly meet with a fatal disappointment, which will be bitterness in the end. A godly man's way may be melancholy, but his end shall be peace and everlasting light. A wicked man's

344 Consolations under Spiritual Darkness.

way may be jovial and pleasant, but his end, and his endless abode, will be utter darkness.

May divine grace sanctify these remarks. May we each be brought to the fear, and love, and obedience of God; and whether by darkness or light, by a smoother or a rougher path, may we be led by a right way to a city of everlasting habitation!

SERMON XXIV.

THE HAPPY EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL.

ACTS viii. 8.

And there was great joy in that city.

THE early history of the Christian church strikingly illustrates Sampson's riddle, "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness ;" and proves that the people imagined a vain thing when " they took counsel against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Come, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sat in the heavens laughed them to scorn; the Lord had them in derision;" having set his king upon his holy hill of Zion, his kingdom is maintained in spite of all the opposition of earth and hell. The persecutions that were designed to extirpate the church, have, by the over-ruling providence of God, been made occasions of its enlargement. The rage of persecution had vented itself on the