pardon and acceptance, and pray for the bestowment of grace sufficient for you, be grateful that you were not cut off in the very act of sinning, and that you did not die in your sins, and that space for repentance is still afforded you. In every thing let thanksgiving mingle with the making known of your requests to God.

But are there those among you who know nothing of prayer as a solace and a refuge amidst their difficulties and anxieties? Alas! theirs is truly a pitiable position. The afflictions of a righteous man, it is true, may be many, and his sorrows may be multiplied: but amidst them all he is privileged to take refuge in prayer; and in pouring out his complaints at a throne of grace, he can give thanks even for what he is called to bear, seeing he can discover in the trial the hand of a gracious God, and feels himself sustained and encouraged by the power and the grace of Him who doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. But, ah! how different is the case with those who have not been taught to go to God with their petitions, and who are strangers to that filial confidence with which they, in whose breasts the principle of a true faith dwells, draw near unto God! Whatever comfort such may take to themselves amidst the evils of their lot, they are strangers to that consolation-the strongest and the most sustaining which they can now experience-even that which arises from a sense of the Divine favour, and from the possession of that hope which maketh not ashamed. Be concerned, then, that you may attain this knowledge, and that you may be found crying unto God for pardon and for peace, with the earnestness and the importunateness of those who have been made to feel their need and to see their danger as sinners, and to understand that, unless God in mercy stretch out his hand to save them, they must perish in their sins. And oh! forget not that if you are not effectually moved to the doing of this in this the day of your merciful visitation,-if you seek not the Lord now while he may be found, and if you call not upon him while he is near and beseeching you by all his mercies to turn unto him, and to accept of his freely offered salvation-not only may he refuse to hear in the day of your calamity, and to answer in that hour when your fear cometh, but your cry for help and deliverance may then die upon your lips, your heart may become as a stone within you, and the remembrance of your prayerless life will serve to deepen your despair, and to embitter the cup of sorrow which is given you to drink.

SERMON XIV.

DUTY OF PRAYER FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM."

BY THE REV. THOMAS BROWN, D.D.

FREE ST JOHN'S CHURCH, GLASGOW, LATE MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

(Preached at the opening of the General Assembly, 16th May 1844.)

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem."-PSALM Cxxii. 6.

JERUSALEM, as all know, was the capital of Judea, and the seat of God's solemnities. For it Jehovah had a particular respect: it was consecrated to his service; his name was hallowed there-his worship was maintained there-and its inhabitants were God's peculiar heritage. As the chosen city of the Most High, the city of their fathers, the Jews had, in every age, a particular veneration and attachment to it. But great though that city once was, and mighty though the Jews, as a people, once were, both the one and the other exist now only in melancholy ruins. Jerusalem's lofty towers have been levelled with the ground, and its walls trodden under foot of the Gentiles. From being a city compact and built together, defended by walls and battlements, the glory of the whole earth, it exists now only as a monument of Divine vengeance. Zion is a wilderness-Jerusalem a heap of ruins. And where are its inhabitants, these favourites of Heaven, these chosen people of God? They are scattered over the face of the whole globe, as the very outcasts of Heaven, the contempt and reproach of all men.

But do these words, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," convey no lesson of instruction to us, now that the city to which they originally referred exists but by name-now that the people who prayed for Jerusalem's defence, and Zion's prosperity, are scattered abroad as a byeword in every land? Do they convey no meaning to us- -do they inculcate no duty upon us? Yes, for though God hath cast off his people for a time, and poured out upon them the vials of his indignation, yet he wills us to remember this his covenant people, to pray for their restoration, and that the veil may be taken from their hearts; and though, because of Israel's hardness of heart and profligacy of manners, God has levelled the palaces and towers of Jerusalem with the ground, and scatNo. 14.-SER. 14.

tered and peeled its inhabitants, yet he has still a Zion, a Jerusalem on the earth-he has still a Church and people in the world as dear to his heart as ever were the Church and people of Israel-a Church and people whom Christ has purchased with his own blood-whom he has rescued from the galling fetters of idolatry-with whom he has established his covenant-to whom he has made himself known as their covenant God. Such a Church and people are to be found in every clime. To a single tribe and nation he confines not his favour-to the land of Palestine, and the descendants of Abraham, he limits not his regards; but whereever he sounds his name, whithersoever he sends his gospel, wheresoever he calls sinners and makes them willing, there he has a spiritual Zion, of which he says, "this is my rest, here do I delight to dwell."

We in this land form a part of the Church of the living God. Through the tender mercy of our God, the day spring from on high hath visited us-the oracles of truth have been committed to us-the kingdom of God has come to us-and the gospel of salvation has been published among us; and, contrasting our privileges, both sacred and civil, with those of any nation under Heaven, and by which, in divine sovereignty, we are distinguished, may we not legitimately be called a people near unto Him-the people of God? May not ours be termed the Zion-the Jerusalem of the living God-the place of God's solemnities the city of the great King? The rebellion, the defections that prevailed among the people of God of old, was no warrant for restraining this prayer, but, on the contrary, an argument for urging it with importunity; and our departure from God, as a nation, a people, a Church, and in all the sections of which that Church is composed, is no reason why we should not, but a strong motive for us to, cry mightily unto the Lord for Jerusalem's peace, for Zion's prosperity. Regarding it, then, as an imperative duty on the part of every Church, and every individual in the Church, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, let us turn our attention for a little to the words of the text, and endeavour to improve them by

First, Pointing out the duty, or wherein consists the duty, of praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and by adverting,

Secondly, To the encouragement that is here presented, "They shall prosper that love thee."

Peace has a variety of significations in Scripture, which we shall not here particularly enquire into. But we may say, that it denotes harmony, prosperity, comfort, and happiness-the absence of all evil, and the enjoyment of all good. And as Jerusalem was not meant to designate exclusively the city known by that name, but the whole Jewish

state and polity, civil and ecclesiastical-did we listen to the admonition, and perform the duty inculcated to its full extent, we should not merely, in our intercessions, bear on our hearts before God the Church's prosperity, but the nation's weal. But as a nation can only advance in glory and prosperity, and hope to perpetuate these, just in as far as, and no farther than, it does, as a nation, seek the advancement of the Divine glory, and the promoting of the interests of pure and undefiled religion, (as that is the most absurd and mistaken policy in any man, or any body of men, that would lead them to separate religion and righteousness from a kingdom's temporal interests and welfare), we shall, I conceive, be consulting the nation's best interests, its safety, its stability, and peace, when we pray for the prosperity of Zion, when we pray for the peace of our spiritual Jerusalem. Being of this mind, I shall be justified in waving the remarks that might be made in reference to the peace and prosperity of the nation in a temporal point of view, and address myself specially to our spiritual circumstances, while I speak more in accordance with the position which I now hold, and the congregation which I have the honour to address. I conceive, therefore, that I shall not depart far from the import of the words of our text, or from the Psalmist's meaning, when he says, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," if I urge prayer for the enlargement of the Church of Christ-for the revival of the power and spirit of religion in our own land-if we pray for the healing of divisions, and a speedy union among professing Christians, harmony among ourselves; and if we pray that ourselves and others may finally be brought to the enjoyment of the peace of the New Jerusalem, the Jerusalem above.

1. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem, implies praying for the enlargement of the Church of Christ. The spiritual Jerusalem is the Church of Christ, and the seeking her prosperity is the duty of all the subjects of the King of Zion. God has always had a visible Church from the dawn of creation, a generation that called upon the name of the Lord; but the daughter of Zion has often been left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. The kingdom of Satan has, alas, prospered in every age, while the Lord's people has appeared in the world like a small remnant. The inclosure of God's ancient people, when most extensive, was but like a little fold; the Christian Church for many years was of limited extent, and its adherents few in comparison. So much at variance is vital Christianity with the passions and prejudices of sinful men, with the craft and policy of worldly men, although it is designed and fitted to bless and exalt mankind universally, that the flock of Christ has been a little flock in past ages; and that it has been preserved amidst all the opposition, and rage,

and persecution of its enemies, appears little less than a standing miracle. Even to this day, after a lapse of centuries, the flock of Christ is still a little flock. In surveying the globe, we find it is but a small proportion of our race that bear the Christian name. The proportion that baptized Christians bear to Jews, Mahometans, and Pagans, scattered over this wide globe, is, according to computation, but as one-fifth; and of those Christians that belong to what is called the Churches of the Reformation, it is computed that they bear but the proportion of a third part to the Christian community: and then, oh! what a deduction must we make still, when we speak of the true Christian Church, of those who are the heart of the kingdom, in whose hearts the Redeemer holds undivided sway. There is, therefore, a powerful call on all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, to strive and pray for the triumphs of the cross, for the extension of Christ's cause. My friends, the great Head of the Church has committed, in some measure, into the hands of his believing people, the interests of his kingdom-the diffusion of his religion. He does not look for success in their public exertions exclusively; for how shall they conquer the pride of human wisdom-how shall they pull down the temples of idolatry-how shall they burst asunder the shackles of superstition-how shall they overthrow the lengthened and long-maintained reign of ignorance, error, prejudice, corruption, and vice! That is impossible. But he calls upon them to be fellow-workers with Him in the glorious cause; to go forth in his name, and, relying on his strength, and animated with the spirit of faith and prayer, and girded with the armour of righteousness, he summons them to the conflict-he calls on them to fight the battles of the Lord. And oh! were their zeal, and their faith, and their love, proportioned to the magnitude of the work, and the goodness of the cause, and the encouragements they possess, under the banners of the Captain of Salvation, they should go forth conquering and to conquer— one should chase a thousand, and two should put ten thousand to flight. In the early ages of Christianity, the activity, the devotedness, and the prayerfulness of Christians, were essential to the evangelizing of the world, as needful in the Divine economy as the miracles that accompanied the preaching of the Apostles; and shall these be less necessary now that these supernatural gifts are withdrawn and have ceased-shall their duty be still imperative, and yet their faith fail, their zeal flag, their efforts become feeble, and their supplications faint-shall they relax, shall they intermit, now that Peter ceases to strengthen the brethren and to feed the flock, now that James and John are withdrawn from the field of labour and conflict, now that Paul and Barnabas have ceased to struggle and strive for the cause of Zion's King? Surely not. But it