must be shorn of their beams, and fall from their spheres, like angels lost.

But why, Christian brethren, have I called to your minds these passages of Scripture? of Scripture? What is this to edifying? What has this to do with the better building of you up as Christian men?—I will tell you. It was never intended that the ordinances of heaven should escape our notice; in them, as in every thing else, the Lord will be magnified. And behold, on this day, as at this time, the sun and the moon are obedient unto His will, (which so many around us are not,) and the sun suffers Eclipse, and is turned into darkness.

And can a Christian know of this, and not consider it? Can he forget what once happened in the land of Judæa? How that wicked men,-wicked as those who do not fear God now,-crucified the Lord of Life, and nailed Him to a tree? Can this be forgotten, and how the Lord (whether by Eclipse', or other supernatural means,) commanded

The Hebrew names are Ash, Casil, and Cimah. See Margin. Patrick's simple comment is, "All the constellations of heaven obey Him in their several seasons; both those which we see, and those in the other hemisphere."

'This Sermon was delivered in the afternoon and at the usual time,-no intimation to the contrary having been received from the Ordinary.

2 In any way, the darkness was supernatural. It could not be a natural Eclipse, because, (it being the time of the Passover,) we know it was then full moon, and a total Eclipse of the sun only happens at the change of the moon. The words ὅλην τὴν γῆν (in

darkness to cover the face of that land, and it was dark as the hypocrite's, or the blasphemer's, or the drunkard's soul? "And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst 1."

My brethren, you cannot have forgotten this; ye that do not forget the "assembling of yourselves together" here, in the Lord's house, "as the manner of some is," must thankfully remember that when the Saviour of the world said, "IT IS FINISHED, and when the sun was darkened, that then "He died for our sins." From that time to this, heaven was, as it were, opened afresh to fallen man; and those that sat in darkness saw a great light. then, if man will be saved, he must walk in the light, or great indeed will be his darkness! For "this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil3."

But

And is it not so now, "Does not every one that doeth evil, hate the light, neither come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved?" Just so,-just as "he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought

Matt. Taoay Tv yйv, xxvii. 45.) probably refer only to Palestine. Some even restrict the words to "that division of Palestine in which Jerusalem stood." See Bloomfield's Recensio Synoptica,

&c. in loc.

'Luke xxiii. 44, 45.

2

Heb. x. 25.

3 John iii. 19.

in God'," so do the wicked, the disobedient, and the reprobate, sculk in houses of sin and darkness, and surfeiting and drunkenness, rather than go their ways into the Lord's "gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise."

But if this be so, if there continue to be a "great forsaking" in the midst of all lands, "where shall the ungodly and the sinner be found," in that great day of eclipse, when the Lord shall "shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke?" What shall be their end, when the sun shall be turned, (for ever, and not as now for a time only,) "into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come!" My Christian brethren, it will be a fearful time, and they only who now, in this the time of their mortal lives, call upon the Lord, can die in hope. But whosoevor does so, "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Ere then the number of his elect be accomplished, let you and I, and all of us, so number our days as to apply our hearts seriously "to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live here, which may in the end bring us to life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour 2." And at the same time, let us heartily pray,

1 John iii. 20, 21.

2 See, Burial Service.

that it may please Almighty God, for his dear Son's sake, "to turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, from the power of Satan to the power of God."

Now, the occasion of the sun's Eclipse on this Sabbath, by God's blessing, will very well lead us to such a contemplation, as may profit us "in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment." You are probably aware, that the time of an Eclipse has, amongst all unconverted nations at least, been a

1

The extract following is from Stewart's Journal of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands.

"Considerable numbers had gathered together round our fence, and we heard nothing but mahina mai, mai, nui, the moon is sick, very sick ;—mahina pupuha no! an evil moon, evil indeed! ua pau sa mahina i he akua, the gods are eating up the moon,uttered in tones of deep anxiety and distress. All agreed in con

The king

sidering it an omen of great calamity to the nation. had died at sea, or would soon die; or the prince, princess, or one of the queens, or some member of the royal family, would soon die; for the moon had formerly appeared just so, before the death of several great chiefs!" p. 253.

See also Lander's Discovery of the Termination of the Niger. Vol. ii. p. 181. Family Library, No. 29. These fears have been naturally dwelt upon by ancient and modern poets. Hence Waller : :

"So, though the sun victorious be,
And from a dark eclipse set free;
The influence, which we fondly fear,
Afflicts our thoughts the following year."

time of fear and dismay. An extreme "horror of great darkness'," has ever fallen upon them. Into the origin of this fear and dismay it does not concern us to enquire. What I would call your attention to now, in connection with the Eclipse, is this, "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment";" and the reason why the judgment may be well connected with the sun's being darkened, as now, is, because Holy Scripture teaches us to look for dread and fearful signs on the approach of that time; for signs dread and fearful,aye a thousand times more dread and fearful than those which preceded the dissolution of the Jewish polity, and the destruction of Jerusalem.

Wherefore, let him that readeth, understand, and lay to heart the lesson to be drawn from the words which follow :

66

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, SHALL THE SUN BE DARKENED, and the moon shall

Milton again (copying Virgil Georg. i. 464.) finely says:

"As when the sun new risen

Looks through the horizontal misty air,

Shorn of his beams, and from behind the moon

In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds

On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs."

Par. Lost, i. v. 594.

To the above references to Stewart and Lander, may be added

Southey's History of Brazil, vol. i. p. 354.