every one either receiving or rejecting these offers. How dreadful is this place! The Lord is in this place and we have known it not. To the eye of man we seem but a congregation of men and women, of old and young, of richer and poorer, gathered together in the way to which men have become so accustomed-hastening to depart as if we had left but a common thing;-but God seeth not as man seeth. God sees here immortal souls-never-dying creatures-sunk in sin, and hanging on the sides of the pit ;-God reaches into the depth below and measures that awful word, "perish in their sins;"-God sets forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, and publishes anew the word, "Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world"-and God sees every soul in the act of receiving, or in the act of rejecting Christ:-God sees Christ either received, or Christ-His Christ -rejected in every seat, by every one! Yea, each one shall go out of these doors, either with the joy of Christ and his salvation received, or with the sin of Christ refused and rejected, cleaving to his soul. But, ah! what an infinite difference betwixt these two! What a difference now! What a difference at death! What a difference to all eternity! Refuse Christ, then, you may-many, many doubtless will-but know that God is infinitely clear of the blood of your soul. Refuse Christ you may, but know that his Word will cling to you; "I called but you refused; I stretched out my hands, but ye would have none of my reproof." How often "I would, but ye would not." Refuse Christ you may, but be prepared to meet the deed-the deed of this hour-at the judgment-seat. What reason can there be for receiving him after, which is not equally powerful now? What reason is there to think that you shall ever after be moved, if you can resist him now? What cause have you to fear lest the Spirit who "taketh of the things of Christ and showeth them," being now resisted and quenched, will stop striving with you? and what reason, therefore, to fear that the awful God-defying record of hardness and refusal now entered in the register above, will be the record read in "that day," and read as the just ground of your eternal and unchangeable doom? Haste, then-escape,-grasp the hand of Christ yet outstretched to save. Venture not to live another hour a rebel in the face of revealed mercy. And rest not until the voice of Christ to the sons of men be answered by you in the first breathings of the Spirit of adoption, "I will arise and return to my Father.”—Amen.

SERMON XXII.

BELIEVING PRAYER HEARD AND ANSWERED.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM WILSON, CARMYLIE.

"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you."-JOHN xv. 7.

HERE is a most precious and cheering promise, and no less sure than it is precious; for He who uttered it hath all power given to Him in heaven and upon the earth, and is able without fail to accomplish whatsoever he hath purposed. He who uttered it is the faithful and true witness, in so much that heaven and earth shall pass away, but one jot or tittle of his word shall not fall to the ground till all be fulfilled. He who uttered it is the same who hath proved his good will to men by evidence the most incontestible-who hath already given unto them a gift so infinitely great, that the bestowal of whatsoever else can enter into the heart of man to conceive would be but small in comparison--who hath not withheld himself, and, consequently, will not withhold his infinite fulness. "Ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you." Here is a promise ineluding all that the heart can desire, a pledge from Him who cannot lie that every wish shall be gratified for the asking. Here is no room for ungratified desire-for the restless craving that cannot be satisfied. Let there be but the forthputting of the request, and this shall be followed up by the forthputting of the Almighty arm to gratify it. The limitation is put, not on the Divine, but on the human will. If a man will, it shall be done. God's will is commensurate, in its outgoings of fulfilment towards man, with that man's will; so that what he asks and desires shall be done, and what he asks not and desires not shall remain unaccomplished.

But here another truth is suggested, which it is most important to consider. When we look to the nature of man, as delineated in the Bible, it becomes perfectly certain that he would never, of his own unaided, undirected will, desire any thing at all from God. And so, in point of fact, this promise, large and liberal as it is, is reduced to a nonentity; and that, not from any defect in the power and the willingness of God to accomplish, but solely on account of a total want of inclination on the

part of man to desire and to ask. He is alienated in all his affections from God, and is not able to come nigh, but must be brought nigh. His will is not to receive aught from God, but to remain widely separate from him, and to achieve his desires by his own energy. It is God who worketh in us to will. And observe, I pray you, how it is that, contemplating the depravity of man apart from the agency of the spirit, the promise of the text is reduced to nothing; contemplating it in connection with this doctrine, the promise receives an infinite enlargement. For really, supposing man was not so depraved as all are by nature-that he were capable of some outgoings of desire to God-that his unaided will should teach his lips the language of prayer-how very small a thing this promise would amount to after all! Some half formed wish might find its appropriate utterance, and then the accomplishment might come from God. But what a mass of ignorance would the will have to contend against what contradictions would there be between the desire of yesterday and that of to-day. The state of man thus situated would be that of constant change without progress, of instant gratification of desire without happiness.

On the other hand, look to the truth in this aspect. Consider men as altogether without a will to seek help from God; and along with this, consider that it is God who worketh in us to will; and then these two most blessed truths come together into view, filling the heart with gratitude, and peace, and joy. In the first place comes the sweet assurance, that the way in which God guides the will, and gives form, and substance, and strength to its desires, is just in the direction of his own infinitely wise and gracious purposes; and consequently, in the very expression of a will so divinely moved and directed, there is the faith that whatsoever we ask shall be done unto us. There can be no contrariety between a will thus guided and the will of Him who directs it; and we have, moreover, the confidence that, in the utterance of such divine wishes, we are becoming co-workers with God, putting forth the energies He gives us in the direction of his own secret purposes, and moving Him to perform what He most of all delights to do. But in the second place, and more especially, this other truth comes into view, that while the promise of the text is limited by man's will, the fact that God worketh in him to will seems to remove the limitation altogether, and to make the promise one of infinite reach and compass. The amount of our enjoyments—the reception of blessings from God-is thus not made dependent on our limited, indeterminate, feeble conceptions and inclinations. God, indeed, promises to gratify and fulfil the very utmost reach of our desires. But it is not difficult, for example, to fill up the narrow round of an infant's pleasures. Its desires are limited within a very narrow circle, and it No. 22.-SER. 22.

knows nothing, and has no will concerning the far ampler field of enjoy. ment, which lies beyond the range of its knowledge, and consequently of its desires. So would it be with man. In relation to God, his desires are inconceivably more limited than those of infancy. He speaks as a child, he understands as a child, he thinks as a child. God enlarges his will and converts him into a man, and he puts away childish things. Herein is displayed the infinite largeness of the liberality of God. He not only fills the vessel up to the full measure of its capacity, but he continually enlarges it, that he may continually engage himself in supplying it. He not only satisfies the hungry soul, but he stimulates the appetite for more. He not only grants whatsoever we will, but He enlarges the heart, so that we may come to him with enlarged desires. As a stream of water from a living spring wears its channel deeper and broader the longer it flows, so the more liberally God does unto us what we will, of so much the larger favours does he make us capable. But His is a fountain ever full and exhaustless, knowing no season of drought and barrenness, and, however broad and deep the channel may be, it is kept.ever full of that fertilizing water which flows forth from the throne of God. But will observe that the promise has other limitations besides that already noticed. It is not said, as addressed to all men, Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. The statement is bounded by an if. If ye abide in Christ, and if his words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Let us now attend, therefore, to the conditions of the promise.

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And here I remark, first of all, and as introductory to what is to follow, that before any man. can expect the fulfilment of the promise, in his own experience, he must have some interest in Christ, and have formed some bond of connection with Him. Man, as a condemned sinner, can obtain nothing from God on his own account. He lies under the curse of a broken law; exposed to everlasting perdition. God can be to him only a consuming fire. There is an impassible barrier between such a man and God. There can be no communication between the holy and the unclean. The prayers of the wicked are an abomination in the sight of God. He is surrounded with such an atmosphere of holiness, that the breathings of an impure spirit cannot reach him. There is only one channel of communication between the sinner and God, and that is Christ. When God looks upon us, he can see nothing to approve. In his sight we are altogether as an unclean thing; even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Our holiest services are polluted in his sight. But there is a Day's Man between us who is able to lay his hand upon both. Our prayers cannot come up before God with acceptance, but the angel of the everlasting covenant stands before the throne, with his golden vial, and

as He, the everlasting intercessor, pours from it the prayers of the saints, he perfumes them with the sacred incense of his own holiness, and they come up as a sweet savour before the Father. Thus it is that our prayers are all offered up for Christ's sake, and it were well that we fully understood and deeply felt what is implied in the use of these most significant words. There is reason to fear that many a prayer wafted heavenward remains unanswered, because the grand condition of all acceptable prayer is not fully felt as it ought to be! Men pray as if they had a right to ask, and a title to expect, favours from God, on their own independent footing. There is much trusting to his goodness and forbearance, and mercy, forgetful all the while, that God can only hear through the intercessor before the throne, and can only manifest his goodness through the one mediator, the man Christ Jesus. When we ask of God, for Christ's sake, the bestowment of any blessing, it were well that the truth were blazoned before the eye of our inner consciousness, that we cannot be accepted save in the beloved; that if God looks directly at us, we are condemned; that he can only be well pleased when he looks on us in the face of his anointed-when he beholds in the lamb that had been slain justice fully satisfied, and in the lamb now alive and living for ever more, the evidence of his own sealed and irrefragable covenant. When we ask anything for Christ's sake, we acknowledge that we are not worthy in ourselves to receive it--when we plead the name of Jesus, we acknowledge our own guilt, and proclaim him the sole ground of our hope -when we point to him, we entreat God not to look upon us-we renounce our own righteousness-we confess our own shame--we plead for a standing in Jesus-we claim an interest in his work-we profess to stand in his righteousness-to hope for mercy through his peace-speaking blood. The general outline, then, of the truth contained in the text is, in words, acknowledged by every professing Christian. Every man that has prayed to God for Christ's sake, has in words made the acknowledgment, 'that in order to obtain what he desires, it is absolutely necessary he should have some interest in Christ, some bond of connection with him. This connection is formed and sustained by faith. It is formed by the very fact of leaning upon Christ-depending on his work for acceptance with God, and for the reception of every blessing we expect to obtain at his hands.

But, to be more particular, I remark, in the second place, that there is a difference more easily understood, perhaps, than stated, between being thus united to Christ in faith, and abiding in him continually. It is true that he who has been really joined to Christ has been united to him by a tie which nothing in time or eternity can wrench asunder; but, at the same time, it is possible that there may be an interruption for a time