the servant of the Lord than ever he was of the devil. Oh! dear Christians, would that I could see more of this among you, a devoting of yourselves unto the Lord; "for thou art my servant; thou art my servant." 2d, Because formed by God: "I made thee, and formed thee from the womb."-Isa. xliv., 2. The whole work of grace is the Lord's doing, and wondrous in our eyes. Paul says: "It pleased the Lord, who separated me from my mother's womb, to reveal his Son in me;" and God to Jeremiah: "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee." God marks his own from their mother's womb. When infants, God treasures up every prayer for them. Every mother's tears he puts into his bottle, her sighs into his book. In boyhood, he preserves their souls from death, gives them times of awakening, fixes words in their me mory: "I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." When his time comes, he guides them to some fitting ministry; or, by some sore trial, awakens, leads to Christ, draws, wins, comforts, builds the soul. He is a faithful Creator. "Sing, O heavens! for the Lord hath done it." That soul becomes a servant indeed.

Some of you know that God has formed you. You can trace his hand, guiding you ever since you were born, girding you when you did not know him, in the mother that wrestled for you, in dear ones that prayed for you, now in their lonely grave, in the ministers that you have been brought to, in the texts they have been guided to. O be the Lord's servant! let him bore thine ear. Bear in your body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

III. Souls in Christ shall not be forgotten of God: "Thou shalt not be forgotten of me." The children of God often think their God has forgotten them. Often, when they fall into sin and darkness, they feel cut off from God, as if his mercies were clean gone for ever. But learn here that God never forgets the soul that is

in Christ Jesus.

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1. So it was with Moses in the land of Midian. For forty years he thought God had forgotten his people. He wandered about as a shepherd in the wilderness for forty years, sad and desolate. But had God really forgotten his people? No; he appeared in a flaming fire in a bush, and said: "I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them; for I know their sorrows.' God knows thy sorrows, O soul in Christ. 2. So it was with David, in Ps. lxxvii., xiii., and xxxi. 3. So it was with Hezekiah, when God told him he must die. Hezekiah wept sore: "Like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me." Isa. xxxviii., 14. Did God forget him? No; God said this word to him: "I have heard thy praver, I have seen thy

tears; I will add unto thy days fifteen years." God never forgets the soul in Christ. 4. So shall it be with God's ancient people: "Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Isa. xlix. 14, 15. 5. So it is in the words of the text: "Thou shalt not be forgotten of me." The world may forget thee, thy friends, thy father, thy mother, may forsake thee; yet "thou shalt not be forgotten of

me."

A word to souls in Christ.-The Lord cannot forget you. If you stood before God in your own righteousness, then I see how you might be separated from his love and care; for your frames. vary, your goodness is like the morning cloud and early dew. But you stand before him in Christ: and Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. You shall be held in everlasting remembrance. The world may forget you, your friends may for get you, for this is a forgetting world, you may not have a tombstone over your grave; but God will not forget you, Christ will put your name beside that of his faithful martyr, Antipas. In life, in death, in eternity, thou "shall not be forgotten of me."

me?"

IV. A redeemed soul should return unto God: "Return unto me." The sin and misery of every natural soul is in going away from God. Adam hid himself from the presence of God. So Isaiah complains; "They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger: they are gone away backward." And God says: "What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number." But when a soul has come to Christ, there is no more reason why he should return unto God. "Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee." Through Jesus, we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." "I am the way; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

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Dear brethren in Christ, let me entreat you to return unto the Father.

1. Come into the arms of his love.-When God has redeemed a soul, he wants to have him in his arms, he wants to fall upon his neck and kiss him. See how he tries to win the soul! tells all that he has done for him, all that he will do; and adds: "Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." Oh! why are ye fearful, ye of little faith? Why do you hang back, and will not venture near to God? Why do you not run to him? Some say: I am afraid of past sins. Oh! but hear his word: "I have blotted out. Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee." Some I am afraid he cannot wish such a sinful, weak thing as I beside him. Oh! foolish, and slow of heart to believe his own word. Does he

say:

not speak plain enough and kind enough? "Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee."

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2. Come into communion with him; daily walk with him. Enoch walked with God. Once Adam walked with God in paradise, as easily, Herbert says, as you may walk from one room to another." He talked with him concerning his judgments. Oh! come unto thy God, redeemed, forgiven soul. Acquaint thyself with God, and be at peace. Come to him; do not rest short of him. You think it a great thing to know a lively Christian; oh! how infinitely better to know God. It is your infinite blessedness. You will get more knowledge in one hour with God, than in all your life spent with man. You will get more holiness from immediate conversing with God, than from all other means of grace put together. Indeed, the means are empty vanity, unless you come to God in them. "Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee."

3. To the backslider.-Guilty soul, you have been within the veil; you know the peace that Jesus gives; you know the joy of the smile of God. But you have left all this, and gone away backward. Guilty soul, you have done worse than the world. Worldly men never served Christ as you have done. They have spit on him, and buffeted him, and crucified him; but you have wounded him in the house of his friends: "It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it; but thou, my friend and mine acquaintance." Guilty soul, what says God unto thee? "Depart thou cursed?" No: "Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." "Return, O backsliding daughter; for I am married unto you." Return, sinner, thy God calleth thee; the God that chose thee, the Saviour that died for thee, the Comforter that renewed thee. "Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." St. Peter's, July 8, 1838.

SERMON XXXV.

I WILL POUR WATER.

"For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses."-Isa. xliv., 3, 4.

THESE words describe a time of refreshing. There are no words in the whole Bible that have been oftener in my heart, and oftener on my tongue than these, since I began my ministry among you. And yet, although God has never, from the very first day left us

without some tokens of his presence, yet he has never fulfilled this promise; and I have taken it up to-day, in order that we may consider it more fully, and plead it more anxiously with God. For, as Rutherford said, "My record is on high, that your heaven would be like two heavens to me; and the salvation of you all, like two salvations to me."

I. Who is the author in a work of grace? It is God: “I will pour."

1. It is God who begins a work of anxiety in dead souls. So it is in Zech. xii.: "I will pour out the Spirit of grace and sup plications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn." And so the promise is in John xvi.: "When he is come, he will convince the world of sin; because they believe not on me." And so is the passage of Ezek. xxxvii.: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." If any of you have been awakened, and made to beat upon the breast, it is God, and God alone that hath done it. If ever we are to see a time of wide-spread concern among your families, children asking their parents, parents asking their children, people asking their ministers, "What must I do to be saved?" if ever we are to see such a time as Mr. Edwards speaks of, when there was scarcely a single person in the whole town left unconcerned about the great things of the eternal world, God must pour out the Spirit: "I will pour."

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2. It is God who carries on the work, leading awakened persons to Christ. "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh," "and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered." Joel ii., 28, 32. And again, in John: "He shall convince the world of righteousness." If ever we are to see souls flying like a cloud, and like doves, to Jesus Christ, if ever we are to see multitudes of you fleeing to that city of refuge, if ever we are to see parents rejoicing over their children as new-born, husbands rejoicing over their wives, and wives over their husbands, God must pour out the Spirit. He is the author and finisher of a work of grace: "I will pour."

3. It is God who enlarges his people. You remember, in Zech. iv., how the olive trees supplied the golden candlesticks with oil-they emptied the golden oil out of themselves. If there is little oil, the lamps burn dim; if much oil, the lamps begin to blaze. Ah! if ever we are to see you who are children of God greatly enlarged, your hearts filled with joy, your lips filled with praises; if ever we are to see you growing like willows beside the water-courses, filled with all the fullness of God-God must pour down his Spirit. He must fulfil his word; for he is the Alpha and Omega-the author and finisher of a work of grace: "I will pour."

First Lesson.-Learn to look beyond ministers for a work of

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grace. God has given much honor to his ministers; but not the pouring out of the Spirit. He keeps that in his own hand: "I will pour." "It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Alas! we would have little hope, if it depended upon ministers; for where are our men of might now? God is as able to do it for to-day as he was at the day of Pentecost; but men are taken up with ministers, and not with God. As long as you look to ministers, God cannot pour; for you would say it came from man. Ah! cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. One would think we would be humbled in the dust by this time. In how many parishes of Scotland has God raised up faithful men, who cease not day and night to warn every one with tears! and yet still the heavens are like brass, and the earth like iron. Why? Why? Just because your eye is on man, and not on God. Oh! look off man to him, and he will pour; and his shall be all the glory.

Second Lesson.-Learn good hope of revival in our day. Third Lesson.-Learn that we should pray for it. We are often for preaching to awaken others; but we should be more upon praying for it. Prayer is more powerful than preaching. It is prayer that gives preaching all its power. I observe that some Christians are very ready to censure ministers, and to complain of their preaching-of their coldness-their unfaithfulness. God forbid that I should ever defend unfaithful preaching, or coldness, or deadness, in the ambassador of Christ! May my right hand sooner forget its cunning! But I do say, where lies the blame of unfaithfulness ?-where, but in the want of faithful praying? Why, the very hands of Moses would have fallen down, had they not been held up by his faithful people. Come, then, ye wrestlers with God--ye that climb Jacob's ladderye that wrestle Jacob's wrestling-strive you with God, that he fulfil his word: "I will pour."

may

II. God begins with thirsty souls: "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty."

1. Awakened persons.-There are often souls that have been a long time under the awakening hand of God. God has led them into trouble, but not into peace. He has taken them down into the wilderness, and there they wander about in search of refreshing waters; but they find none. They wander from mountain to hill seeking rest, and finding none; they go from well to well, seeking a drop of water to cool their tongue; they go from minister to minister, from sacrament to sacrament, opening their mouth, and panting earnestly; yet they find no peace. These are thirsty souls. Now, it is a sweet thought that God begins with such: "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty."

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The whole

Bible shows that God has a peculiar tenderness for such as are thirsty. Christ, who is the express image of God, had a peculiar