"as thy days, so shall thy strength be." The Christian, when in health, fears that he should not bear sickness as he ought; in sickness he fears, that, if restored to health, he should not keep his vows and resolutions; when not exposed to much temptation, he fears that he should fall if he were; when apparently tasked to the utmost, he fears that exemption would only generate sloth. But let him be of good cheer our text is a voice from the unknown futurity, and should inspire him with confidence. Sickness may be at hand, but so also is the strength for sickness; and thou shalt be enabled to take thy sickness patiently. You may be just recovering from sickness; and life-for it is often harder to face life than death; he who felt nerved to die, may be afraid to live-life may be coming back upon you with its long array of difficulties and toils and dangers; but be of good cheer, the Author of life is the Author of grace; He who renews the one will impart the other, that your days may be spent in his service. And sorrows may be multiplied; yes, I cannot look on this congregation, composed of young and old, of parents and children, of husbands and wives, of brothers and sisters, without feeling that much bitterness is in store. I can see far enough into the future, to discern many funeral processions winding from your doors: I miss well-known faces from the weekly assembly, and the mournful habits of other parts of the family explain but too sadly the absence. But be of good cheer: the widow shall not be desolate, the fatherless shall not be deserted;

when the grave opens, there shall be the opening of fresh springs of comfort; when the clouds gather, there shall be the falling of fresh dews of grace; for heaven and earth may pass away, but no jot, and no tittle, of the promise can fail. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

And if you ask proof that we are not too bold in our prophecy, we might appeal, as we have already appealed, to the registered experience whether of the living or the dead. This experience will go yet further, and bear us out in predicting peace in death, as well as support through life. I have to pass through the trial from which nature recoils: the earthly house must be taken down, and the soul struggle away from the body, and appear at the tribunal of my Judge. How shall I feel at such a moment as this? Indeed I dare not conjecture. The living know not, cannot know, what it is to die: we must undergo, before we can imagine, the act of dissolution: life is an enigma in its close, as in its commencement; we cannot remember what it was to enter, we cannot anticipate what it will be to quit, this lower world. Yet if there be strength and collectedness, in that fearful extremity, to meditate of God, "my meditation of Him shall be sweet." shall remember that God hath promised to "swallow up death in victory;" and that what He hath promised, He will surely perform. May I not therefore be glad in the Lord? The things that are temporal are fading from the view; but the things that are eternal already crowd upon the vision. The minis

I

tering spirits wait to conduct me; the heavenly minstrelsy sends me notes of gracious invitation; one more thought of God as my Father and Friend, one more prayer to "the Resurrection and the Life," and I am in the presence of Him who has never failed in accomplishing his word to his people. Bear witness, yes, we must appeal to the inhabitants of heavenly places, to glorified spirits who have fought the last fight, and now "rest from their labours." We will ask them how they prevailed in the combat with death; how, weak and worn as they were, they held fast their confidence in the hour of dissolution, and achieved a victory, and soared to happiness? Listen for their answer: the ear of faith may catch it, though it be not audible by the organ of sense. We were weak in ourselves; we entered the dark valley, to all appearance unprepared for wrestling with the terrors with which it seemed thronged. But wonderfully did God fulfil his promises. He was with us; and he ministered whatever was necessary to the sustaining our faith, and securing our safety. And now, be ye animated by our experience. If ye would win our crown, and share our gladness, persevere in simple reliance upon Him who is alone "able to keep you from falling ;" and ye also shall find that there is no season too full of dreariness and difficulty for the accomplishment of the words, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

SERMON X.

PLEADING BEFORE THE MOUNTAINS.

MICAH Vi. 2, 3.

"Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my people, what

have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me."

AMONGST all the pathetic expostulations and remonstrances which occur in the writings of the prophets, none ever seems to us so touching as this, which is found in the first chapter of the book of Isaiah"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." You will at once understand, that, in our estimation, the pathos is derived from the reference made to irrational creatures, to the ox, and the ass, which have not been endowed, as man hath been, with the high faculty of reason. It is an extraordinary proof of human perverseness and in

gratitude, that there should not be as much of attachment, and of acknowledgement of ownership, manifested by men towards God, as by the beasts of the field towards those who show them kindness, or supply them with food. And we feel that no accumulation of severe epithets, no laboured upbraidings, no variety of reproaches, could have set in so affecting a light the treatment which the Creator receives from his creatures, as the simple contrast thus drawn between man and the brute.

But whenever Scripture-and the cases are not rare strives to move us by allusions to the inferior creation, there is a force in the passages which should secure them our special attention. When Jeremiah uses language very similar to that which we have just quoted from Isaiah-" Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord"-he delivers a sterner rebuke than if he had dealt out a series of vehement invectives. To what end hath man been gifted with superior faculties, made capable of observing the dealings of his Maker, and receiving the communications of his will, if the birds of the air, guided only by instinct, are to excel him in noting" the signs of the times," and in moving and acting as those signs may prescribe? And could any severer censure be delivered, when he gives no heed to intimations and warnings from God, than is passed on him by the