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receive and pardon, to justify freely, and to sanctify wholly, all who come unto him in faith.

My Christian friends and brethren, believers in the Lord Jesus, who have already looked by faith on him who hung upon the cross, oh! let your gratitude to him be great and manifest for that wondrous power by which he came and destroyed the works of the devil, and for that wondrous mercy by which he has recovered your souls from the power of sin. How great was the force of that disease, and how certain the death which would have ensued, had not he come to take away your sins by the sacrifice of himself! And how would you still have remained ignorant of your disease, impenitent and unbelieving, like too many around you, had not he sent his Spirit to enlighten, and convince you, and to pour into your hearts the gift of faith! Oh! live by that faith which has been vouchsafed to you. Let that heavenly grace be in daily exercise. It is not enough that you have looked once upon him. Lift up your eyes continually to the same glorious object. Thus he will carry

on the work of healing within you. The spirit of life in Christ Jesus will make you free from the law of sin and death. Sin will be daily diminishing and holiness increasing. You will not only pass from death unto life, but you will go from strength unto strength, and derive from him a larger measure of spiritual health and vigour. Yes, brethren, we grow in grace by constantly "looking unto Jesus." Feed also on the heavenly manna which is provided for you. Despise it not as light bread like these fretful and perverse Israelites. Esteem it above your necessary food. It is that which will nourish the life of God within you, and will maintain and strengthen it till it issues in life eternal.

SERMON VI.

BALAK SENDS FOR BALAAM.

NUMBERS XXII. 6.

Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.

THIS chapter begins a very interesting part of the history contained in the book of Numbers. It introduces us to Balaam, one of the most extraordinary characters in the Old Testament, and affords us an insight into the dispensations of the Lord, as also into the secret workings and motives of the human heart, which may afford us much of useful instruction. This first sermon on the

character of Balaam, and the circumstances connected with his conduct, will be chiefly of a historical kind, but I shall endeavour to mingle such observations on the narrative as may make it useful for our own instruction in righteousness.

The children of Israel, at the time of which we are now to speak, were encamped in the plains of Moab, near the river Jordan, opposite to Jericho, and ready to enter into the promised land. When they thus appeared in his country, Balak, the king of the Moabites, and his people were sore afraid of them. They had seen what the Israelites had done unto the Amorites, and dreaded a similar destruction. Instigated by this fear, Balak did not draw out his forces to fight with Israel, but he had recourse to other arts, and called in as his auxiliary a man whom he supposed to have such intercourse and influence with heaven or hell, as to secure efficacy to any curse which he might The man pronounce against them. Balaam, a well known diviner, who stands out in awful prominence in the word of God

was

as a man of much knowledge but of no grace. Balak sent him this message, "Behold, there is a people come out. from Egypt; behold they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed." Now here is a man of violence and wrong. Why should he desire to smite the Israelites, who had done him no harm? If he thought that Balaam could bless as well as curse whom he pleased, why did he not choose the blessing rather than the curse? Why not desire to be himself protected from the injury which he feared, rather than to have power to injure those who were inoffensive, and, at least as yet, had done him no wrong? Surely if he had been a man of peace, he would have desired nothing more than to be enabled to live peaceably with them, and that they might pass forward from him without strife. But

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