moment, to all the miseries of perdition-of remorse and despair? Shall I lead you to the verge of time, and invite you to look into eternity? Or shall I conduct you back to the contemplation of the wondrous love of God to mankind in the gift of a Saviour, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life?' Yes, my friend, I will lead you again to the cross of Christ. There, while you witness his agonies, while you see the blood flowing warm from his mangled body, and remember that it was for souls like yours that he died, I will entreat you to have compassion on your own soul, and no longer mock a Saviour's sufferings, nor trample on his blood, by neglecting repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.'

A

SERMON

DELIVERED AT SOUTH-READING,

NOVEMBER 27, 1828,

ON THE DAY OF

ANNUAL THANKSGIVING.

BY GUSTAVUS F. DAVIS, A. M.

PASTOR OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH IN SAID TOWN.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

Boston:

PRINTED BY LINCOLN & EDMANDS, NO. 59 WASHINGTON-ST.

ADVERTISEMENT.

ALTHOUGH the following discourse was prepared without the design of publication, yet it is, with a few verbal alterations, cheerfully submitted to public inspection, in compliance with the earnest wishes of those who have conferred many obligations on

JAN. 1829.

THE AUTHOR.

SERMON.

JOHN xviii. 36.

MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD.

THE kingdom of the Messiah was intended to be "diverse from all other kingdoms." Daniel says, (ii. 44.) "The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." In this passage of ancient prophecy concerning the kingdom of Christ, four things are worthy of notice. The God of heaven shall, in the highest sense, establish it—it shall not be left to other people, as the Babylonian was to the Medes and Persians, the Medo-Persian to the Greeks, the Grecian to the Romans, and the Roman to its barbarous invaders-it shall consume or subdue these kingdoms -and it shall endure forever.

Respecting this kingdom, however, the Jews, to whom all the predictions of the Messiah and his reign were first given, entertained very erroneous expectations. They looked for a temporal prince, wearing an imperial crown, clad in robes of state, and swaying a