they shall be saved because they have got a head-knowledge of Christ. They read of Christ in the Bible, they hear of Christ in the house of God, and they think that is to be a Christian. Alas! my friends, what good would you get from an apple-tree, if I were only to describe it to you; tell you how beautiful it was, how heavily laden with delicious apples? Or, if I were only to show you a picture of the tree, or if I were to show you the tree itself at a distance, what the better would you be? You would not get the good of its shade or its pleasant fruit. Just so, dear brethren, what good will you get from Christ, if you only hear of him in books and sermons, or if you see him pictured forth in the sacrament, or if you were to see him with your bodily eye? What good would all this do, if you do not sit down under his shadow? O my friends, there must be a personal sitting down under the shadow of Christ, if you would be saved. Christ is the bush that has been burned yet not consumed. Oh! it is a safe place for a hell-deserving sinner to rest. Some may be hearing me who can say, shadow." And yet you have forsaken him. after your lovers, and away from Christ? hedge up your way with thorns. Return, There is no other refuge for your soul. Come and sit down again under the shadow of the Saviour.

"I sat down under his

Ah! have you gone Well, then, may God return, O Shulamite!

Ans. (2.) Because he sat down with great delight.

1st. Some people think there is no joy in religion, it is a gloomy thing. When a young person becomes a Christian, they would say, Alas! he must bid farewell to pleasure, farewell to the joys of youth, farewell to a merry heart. He must exchange these pleasures for reading of the Bible and dry sermon-books, for a life of gravity and preciseness. This is what the world says. What does the Bible sav? "I sat down under his shadow with great delight." Ah! let God be true, and every man a liar. Yet no one can believe this except those who have tried it. Ah! be not deceived, my young friends; the world has many sensual and many sinful delights; the delights of eating and drinking, and wearing gay clothes; the delights of revelry and the dance. No man of wisdom will deny that these things are delightful to the natural heart; but oh! they perish in the using, and they end in an eternal hell. But to sit down under the shadow of Christ, wearied with God's burning anger, wearied with seeking after vain saviours, at last to find rest under the shadow of Christ, ah! this is great delight. Lord, evermore may I sit under this shadow! Lord, evermore may I be filled with this joy!

2d. Some people are afraid of anything like joy in religion. They have none themselves, and they do not love to see it in others. Their religion is something like the stars, very high, and very clear, but very cold. When they see tears of anxiety, or tears of joy, they cry out, Enthusiasm, enthusiasm! Well, then,

to the Law and to the Testimony. "I sat down under his shadow with great delight." Is this enthusiasm? O Lord, evermore give us this enthusiasm! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing! If it be really in sitting under the shadow of Christ, let there be no bounds to your joy. O if God would but open your eyes, and give you simple, child-like faith, to look to Jesus, to sit under his shadow, then would songs of joy rise from all our dwellings. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice!

3d. Because the fruit of Christ is sweet to the taste. All true believers not only sit under the shadow, but partake of his pleasant fruits; just as when you sit under an apple-tree, the fruit hangs above you and around you, and invites you to put out the hand and taste; so, when you come to submit to the righteousness of God, bow your head, and sit down under Christ's shadow, all other things are added unto you. First, Temporal mercies are sweet to the taste. None but those of you who are Christians know this, when you sit under the shadow of Christ's temporal mercies, because covenant mercies. "Bread shall be given you; your water shall be sure." These are sweet apples from the tree Christ. O Christian, tell me, is not bread sweeter when eaten thus? Is not water richer than wine? and Daniel's pulse better than the dainties of the King's table? Second, Afflictions are sweet to the taste. Every good apple has some sourness in it. So it is with the apples of the tree Christ. He gives afflictions as well as mercies. He sets the teeth on edge; but even these are blessings in disguise-they are covenant gifts. Oh! affliction is a dismal thing when you are not under his shadow. But are you Christians? look on your sorrows as apples from that blessed tree. If you knew how wholesome they are, you would not wish to want them. Several of you know it is no contradiction to say, these apples, though sour, are sweet to my taste. Third, The gifts of the Spirit are sweet to the taste. Ah! here is the best fruit that grows on the tree: here are the ripest apples from the topmost branch. You who are Christians know how often your soul is fainting. Well, here is nourishment to your fainting soul. Everything you need is in Christ. "My grace is sufficient for thee." Dear Christian, sit much under that tree-feed much upon that fruit. "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love." Fourth, Promises of glory. Some of the apples have a taste of heaven in them. Feed upon these, dear Christians. Some of Christ's apples give you a relish for the fruit of Canaan-for the clusters of Eshcol. Lord, evermore give me these apples; for oh! they are sweet to my taste.

St. Peter's, 1837.

SERMON IV.

"A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter; should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree."-Ezek. xxi., 9, 10.

FROM the second verse of this chapter, we learn that this prophecy was directed against Jerusalem; "Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel."

We have already told you that Ezekiel, while yet a youth, was carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar, and placed, with a number of his countrymen, by the river of Chebar. It was there that he delivered his prophecies during a space of twenty-two years. The prophecy I have read was delivered in the seventh year of his captivity, and just three years before Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple burnt. From verse 2, we learn that these words were directed against Jerusalem, for though God had taken Ezekiel away to minister to the captives by the river of Chebar, yet he made him send many a message of warning and of mercy to his beloved Jerusalem. "Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel."

God had already fulfilled many of the words of his prophets against Jerusalem. He had fulfilled the word of Jeremiah against one of their kings (Jehoiakim). "He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the walls of Jerusalem." He had fulfilled the word of the same prophet in carrying another king (Jehoiakin) to Babylon with all the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord. But still, neither prophecies nor judgments would awaken Jerusalem; so that we are told (2 Chron. xxxvi., 12) that Zedekiah the next king, "did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord." V. 14. Moreover, all the chief of the priests and the people transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy."

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It was in a time of great hardness and impenitence in Jerusalem that the prophecy before me was delivered, and just three years before the wrath of God was poured on them to the uttermost. (1). All was mirth and sensuality in Jerusalem. (2). The

false prophets prophesied peace, and the people loved to have it so. (3.) There was no noise but that of revelry within the devoted city. But in the midst of that din and revelry, the lone prophet by the river of Chebar heard the muttering of the distant thunder. The faithful servant of God saw God arming himself as a mighty man for the war, and the glittering sword of vengeance in his hand, and he calls aloud to his countrymen, all at case, with awakening thunders, "A sword, a sword is sharpened and also furbished; it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter; should we then make mirth ?"

My friends, those of you who are unconverted are in the very same situation as Jerusalem was. In the years that are now fled, like the mists of the morning, how many messages have you had from God? How many times has he sent his messengers to you, rising up early and sending them? His Bible has been in your houses, a silent, but more mighty pleader for God; his providence has been in your families, in sickness and death, in plenty or poverty, all, all beseeching you to flee from the wrath to come; all, all beseeching you to cleave to the Lord Jesus, the only, the all-sufficient Saviour. All these messages have come to you, and you are yet unconverted, still dead, dry bones, without Christ and without God in the world; and you are saying, Soul, take thine ease, eat and drink, and be merry. But do, my friends, hearken. once more, for God does not wish any to perish. I have a word from God unto thee, " A sword, a sword is sharpened and also furbished; it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter; should we then make mirth?"

Doctrine. It is very unreasonable in unconverted persons to make mirth.

The

1. It is unreasonable, because they are under condemnation.The sword is sharpened and also furbished. It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter. Should we then make mirth? There is a common idea that men are under probation, as Adam was, and that Christless persons will not be condemned till the judgment; but this is not the case. Bible says, "He that believeth not is condemned already." "He that hath not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." "Cursed is every one (not shall be) who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." Christless souls are at present in the horrible pit, every mouth is stopped, and they are guilty before God. They are in prison, ready to be brought out to execution. Therefore, when God sends us to preach to Christless persons he calls it "preaching to the spirits in prison,"* that is, who are under condemnation. The

⚫ I believe he afterwards understood 1 Peter iii., 19, to mean "the spirits who are now in prison."

sword is not only unsheathed, it is sharpened and furbished. It is held over their heads.

Should they then make mirth? It is unreasonable in a condemned malefactor to make mirth. Would it not greatly shock every feeling mind to see a company of men condemned to die, meeting and making merry, talking lightly and jestingly, as if the sword was not over them? Yet this is the case of those of you who are unconverted and yet live lives of mirth. You have been tried in the balance and found wanting. You have been condemned by the righteous judge. Your sentence is past. You are now in prison, neither can you break out of this prison; the sword is whetted and drawn over you. And oh! is it not most unreasonable to make mirth? Is it not most unreasonable to be happy and contented with yourself and merry with your friends? Is it not madness to sing the song of the drunkard ? Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die."

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2. Because God's instruments of destruction are all ready.— Not only are Christless persons condemned already, but the instruments of their destruction are prepared and quite ready. The sword of vengeance is sharpened and also furbished. When swords are kept in the armory, they are kept blunt, that the rust may not hurt their edge; but when work is to be done, and they are taken out for the slaughter, then they are furbished and sharpened-made sharp and glittering. So it is with the sword of the executioner; when not in use, it is kept blunt; but when work is to be done, it is sharpened and made ready. It is sharpened and furbished just before the blow is struck, that it may cut clean. So is it with God's sword of vengeance. It is not sheathed and blunt, it is sharpened and furbished, it is quite ready to do its work, it is quite ready for a sore slaughter. The discase by which every unconverted man is to die is quite ready, it is perhaps in his veins at this very moment. The accident by which he is to drop into eternity is quite ready, all the parts and means of it are arranged. The arrow that is to strike him is on the string, perhaps it has left the string, and is even now flying towards him.

The place in hell is quite ready for every unconverted soul. When Judas died, the Scriptures say, "he went to his own place." It was his own place before he went there, being quite prepared and ready for him. As when a man retires at night to his sleeping room, it is said he is gone to his own room, so a place in hell is quite ready for every Christless person. It is his own place. When the rich man died and was buried, he was immediately in his own place. He found everything ready. He lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torments. So hell is quite ready for every Christless person. It was prepared, long ago, for the devil and his angels. The fires are all quite ready, and fully lighted and burning.

Ah! should Christless souls then make mirth? A malefactor