is the one great, glorious, incomparable service of the Son of God, which renders our faint, feeble, blemished, defective service, in any degree acceptable to the purity of the Infinite Mind. Under the old covenant, it was works without Christ according to the new covenant, it is Christ alone; Christ without works. By Christ without works are we free from sin, and justified in the sight of God. And yet though there be no works of merit for purchasing salvation, there is a service of God: "Servants unto God."

This name and title has been worn by the most distinguished men that ever lived. "Moses, the servant of God:" they sang "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb." "Hast thou considered my servant Job?" "Oh Lord," says David, “I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid; thou hast loosened from bonds;" the very similitude of the text; free from sin, and become God's servant. "Paul a servant;" "James a servant." These triumphed in nothing so much as that they had an opportunity of sustaining office for God, and doing duties for God, and rendering service in their free state to God. His service is perfect freedom.

How is it brought about? It is just in this way; in a very simple manner that we first of all receive the truth; the blessings of the Gospel, freeing us from sin, are brought by faith and knowledge into our nature. The natural effect of this is, confidence towards God-delight in him, love towards him. We cease to be afraid; our terror vanishes; the spirit of bondage gives way; and the spirit of adoption comes in its stead. This new view of God, in the light and grace of his Gospel, induces consecration. We are willing, we rejoice in being given up to the service of this God and our Saviour, revealed to us in the Gospel. In the beautiful language of Scripture we no longer yield our members "instruments of unrighteousness unto sin;" we no longer do anything in opposition to God, his will, his counsel, his interests we become identified, one with him; his principles, his doctrines, and his cause. We yield ourselves unto God as those that are alive from faith, and our members as the instruments of righteousness unto God. We become separated from, free, detached from the world; not touching any mean and unclean thing: and rejoicing in this name which we bear, and the service to which we are hastening. We become "the servants of God."

The inquiry, of course, terminates in this, What will the Master have us to do? " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" And the word contains the perfect record, the entire, simple, but ample communication of God's mind and will in every particular. And, being his servants, the inquiry is from his word; "What is my condition? What is my capacity? What is my object? What is my state in the world, or in the Church? I am God's servant in all these various points and particulars, to do his will." But we must be "free from sin" before we can become "the servants of God." The Apostle has put it stronger in this passage: "None of us liveth unto himself, and none of us dieth unto himself; whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether living or dying therefore, we are the Lord's :"-the servants of God.

It is required in a servant that there be integrity; that there be faithfulness; that there be diligence; that there be affection. One would not wish to be served by hirelings; by persons who desire nothing in the world but what they

can gain by us. As men we would be served for love; we would be served as being delighted in. And exactly so is it with God: all his true-hearted servants are faithful, and diligent, and affectionate, and would not, for all that the creation could bestow, be separated from him, or from his house, or from his family, or from the duties which belong to them: "We become servants of God."

Let me only add here, that if it be your aim and purpose in the enjoyment of Gospel blessings and Gospel privileges, and as “free from sin," to be "the servants of God," to be disentangled and disengaged from whatever is vile, and to be employing the abilities of your mind, and the powers and faculties of your body, only in what is true, and good, and holy, and wise, and lovely, and just, that you must do this in a perpetual struggle and conflict, the old principles will rise up and rebel: and though in heaven we shall be holy spontaneously, and without exertion, on earth we must contest every inch of the ground; and not until we receive the crown of life shall we cast away the scabbard. It is well to be God's servants; he has the clearest, strongest, and most incontestible right to us; and you do well to serve him: you can justify yourselves to the world, and to the devil, and to evil men, and to every accuser now; and God will justify you in your service in the last great day. We are "servants to God."

Thirdly, OUR FRUIT IS UNTO HOLINESS. There is a fruit unto sin; and the Apostle asks emphatically, "What fruit have ye, then, in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?" There are the vines of Sodom; there are the grapes of Gomorrah: there is wine which is said to be poison, and the venom of asps. The meaning, doubtless, of the figure is, that there is a deep and terrible malignity in sin, and in sinful man. That is the fruit. The fruit is here said to be unto holiness; beautiful fruit; fruit as John the Baptist expressed it," meet for repentance.” "The fruit of the Spirit," it is said by our Apostle in the Epistle to the Galatians, is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, fidelity, meekness, temperance:" these are the fruits unto holiness. "Holy fruits:" that is, fruits that are vital, fresh, blooming, luscious, beautiful to look upon fruit unto holiness.

I am persuaded that there never has been any fruit unto holiness separate from the principles of the Gospel. Without faith in Christ, and the freedom from sin, which it secures, there is no holy fruit; and the whole pagan world is a barren wilderness. There is no holy fruit anywhere without the circle of Christ's real Church: there may be morals, which are dry, and barren, and sapless; which have no light, nor life, nor godliness in them; which have nothing of the bloom and the beauty of the skies upon them. There is no holiness but as it arises out of faith in Christ, and love toward the Lord Jesus. And I may add, that the beautiful fruits of holiness, spontaneous and blessed, grow out of Gospel principles: these are the proper means of receiving the Gospel and the fruit shall follow.

It should be remarked, however, that in order to fruitfulness, there must be cultivation; we see in the world thorns and briers will grow fast enough of. themselves: not so the corn and wheat, the wine and the oil. So it is in the case before us there must be a diligence, and a circumspection, and a care, that we shew forth in our tempers and practice the various points of that.

blessed light and beauty which is called in the text, holiness: "The fruit is unto holiness." I perfectly agree in the words of the great Hooker: "All the fruit we bring forth is so imperfect, so shrivelled, so defective, that we bring not God into our debt; we cannot insert him in our books, as if he were our debtor; as if he did owe us anything: on the contrary, we must appeal to his mercy, that he would pardon our sins, and pity our infirmity." Yet, notwithstanding this, we are rising up, and endeavouring, as grace is given, to bring forth fruit unto God; having our fruit unto holiness; knowing that as we do so, we glorify our Father in heaven.

I will only add, that if the Spirit be holy, and if there be the disposition and the desire to do the will of God: if we are aspiring after it, and mourn in every act and instance of our non-conformity to it, we are on the high road to his kingdom, where our holiness shall be as complete as we desire it to be. A man in this state of mind, is absolutely incapacitated for ruin; he cannot perish; he shall not go down to hell. What could he do there? He is ripening for heaven, and he shall come to be a partaker of the holiness of God; holy as God is holy; unchangeably, uninterruptedly, and for ever.

And THE END IS EVERLASTING LIFE. And I remark here that the end is everything. If it were so that the course of religion in this world were a course of sorrow, and sin, and trouble, and shame, and distress—if there were darkness and agony at every step-if the end were everlasting life, though the road were a road of darkness for a thousand years, it were worth the while to walk it. But it is not: the way is peace, the path is light, the progress is joy; the more religion, the more felicity: and then the end is everlasting life. And if it were so that the way of ungodliness were a way of mirth and triumph, of victory and joy, of prowess and of glory, of pomp and of honour, at every step, and through the most lengthened progress, the end would be eternal ruination. He must be a fool, to an extent which I have no language to express, who would walk it. It is not so: "there is no peace saith my God to the wicked:" it is a way of thorns and briers, of restlessness and dissatisfaction. Choose ye your own paths. May you be servants unto God, "having your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

The more I see of this life, the more I am persuaded, and the more I feel that it is a poor, sickly, smitten, sleepless, infirm, helpless, worthless, impoverished, dissatisfied life; irrespective of God and godliness, it is not worth having. And I am increasingly persuaded that the life to come is unbounded, and perpetual, and everlasting activity, conscious purity, splendid glory, and rest in His beatific vision. Oh, to come to the light which is everlasting! How that Scripture flashed on me in the reading of it this morning, as it never had before-" He that is dead is free from sin." Oh, to sin no more! May you and I come to the sweetness of that consummation. Those of you who have, abide in your joy; maintain your privilege. And are there none who are saying with King Agrippa, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian ;" all that I have to say is, "I would that every one of you were not only almost, but altogether such as I am, except the infirmities which still belong to me." "Let us arise and shine; for our light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us."

254

COMMUNION WITH GOD.

REV. G. CLAYTON.

YORK STREET CHAPEL, WALWORTH, DECEMBER 18, 1825,

"Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not." LAMENTATIONS, iii. 57.

How much do they lose who are strangers to habitual communion with God: and of this description what multitudes are there in this world, who, although they are preserved by God's providence, and supplied out of God's bounty, yet it is to be feared, there are thousands and tens of thousands who live without any direct and practical reference to that Being in whose hands their breath is, and whose are all their ways. They rise in the morning, they rush into the multiplied affairs of the present life; they visit, they recreate, they retire to rest in the evening, without having made any appeal of the mind to God, any more than if he had no existence, and they had no dependance on him. Now what shall cure this ungodliness, this mournful alienation of heart from God, on whom we hang, and at whose bar we must appear? Nothing but the blood of reconciliation; the grace of renovation: we are to be brought near to God by the death of his Son, and must be born again of his Holy Spirit, in order that we may become a kind of first-fruits to God. Then an intercourse will commnence, and it will be steadily maintained; a converse with heaven, elevating, ennobling, and consoling. We shall see God in all events; we shall hear his voice in all circumstances; we shall see God in all things, and all things in God.

And it must appear evident, that this devout habitual converse with the Most High, in all circumstances and events, must tend to give a higher zest to our enjoyments, whatever they may be; and, at the same time, to take off the corrosion and the edge of those anxieties and trials, with which we may be exercised. So that every way, a life of spiritual communion with heaven, has the decided advantage over all other species of life.

When Jeremiah was cast into the low dungeon, it pleased God to visit him there; so that he recorded, "Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not." When Daniel was consigned to the lion's den, Jehovah sent his angel and stopped the lion's mouth. And when the three pious children were condemned to the furnace; there was seen a companion walking with them like the Son of God; and the consequence was, not a hair of their head was singed, nor their garments impaired, neither the smell of fire upon them. And the same providential interpositions which were vouchsafed to God's people in old time, are afforded at the present moment: for no Scrip

ture is of private interpretation; the things which were written aforetime, were written for our use. And I trust there are those here, and not a few, who can say, "Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not." It is by a life of communion with God that we ensure the most gratifying recollections of the past, and the most pleasing prospects for the time

to come.

In contemplating these words, let us consider, first, the condescending visitation of God's presence and grace which the text records; secondly, the principal season at which this approach of God to the mind took place: "In the day that I called upon thee;" and, thirdly, the reviving and animating effects of this upon the mind.

There is a sense in which God is near to every one of us, as he is our Creator and Preserver, in whom we live and move, and have our being. "That thou, O Lord, art near, thy wondrous works declare.” He is not far from every one of us; he compasses our path, our lying down and our rising up, and is acquainted with all our ways. But from this simple consideration alone, nothing consolatory can arise to the afflicted mind: for, if God be an enemy, as he is to every sinner, then the consciousness of his presence, his nearness and inspection, will rather infuse dread than inspire hope; and we shall be ready to say, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" God is angry with the wicked every day; and therefore, out of the general and essential presence of God with all his creatures, no direct and specific consolation can arise to the afflicted. What are we then to understand by this expression?

First, it supposes that all obstacles to his approach were removed. The way of God's approach to sinners is barred by the claims of justice, the requirements of God's law, and the demands of his purity; and till the mediation of Christ be understood, and the way be opened by him who is "the way, the truth, and the life," there can be no drawing near of God to us, and no drawing near of us to God. The language of the text supposes that all these obstacles have been removed, and that the way was opened to a delightful intercourse.

Secondly, It asserts an actual intercourse with God. "Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not." That is, by the manifestation of his presence. "If any man love me, I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. There is such a thing as the presence of God manifested to them that believe. For if human minds can communicate their thoughts and sensations, whether pleasurable or painful to each other, it seems rational to think that the Deity can communicate of his presence to the souls of his people. What else are we to understand by his "dwelling in their heart," "working and dwelling in them," unless it imply the manifestation of the Divine presence?

Thirdly, It asserts that the tokens of his love were enjoyed; and nearness and familiarity of friendly communication. It implies also the influences and consolations of the Holy Spirit: for it is by his Spirit that God is pleased to maintain converse with his people. The Spirit of God dispensed is the fruit and consequence of the Saviour's intercession, and ensured to believers as their happy portion in every age. The Redeemer said to his disciples, "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you."