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am sure I cannot keep this one. No sooner does that secret get into the soul of a man than it wants to burn its way out. You recollect John Bunyan says he wanted to tell the very crows on the ploughed land about it. And I think it will be the same with you. you have got the secret in your heart, you will want to tell it to your fellow-workmen. Perhaps you are employed behind the counter, then surely you will want to be telling it in the evening, after the shop is shut, to some that are in the common room with you. If you are a husband, you will never be content till you have told it to your wife and family; and if you are a mother, I am sure you will be eager to make it known to your children. It is a great and holy fire, that will burn and not smoulder. There was a spark once that got into the stubble, and the Angel of Discretion was there, and he said, "Spark, lie still, lie still, lie still; if you begin to consume, the next, and then the next, will get alight, and perhaps the whole threshing-floor will be in a blaze, and then the homestead, and then the village." But preach as he might, the fire would burn, and the Angel of Discretion had well-nigh burned his wings before he had turned to flee. And so there be some in our churches who are very angels of prudence. "Young men," say they, "don't speak too soon; don't attempt to do it till you are duly qualified." My dear sirs, if God has communicated to any man the secret of salvation by grace he cannot help telling it; and if the Lord has touched a man's tongue with a live coal, he will burn as well as the coal. If the new life has been given to him, it must find its way out, and be the means of conveying that life to others. What a mass of men

there are constantly attending this tabernacle! I suppose two-thirds of this general congregation consist of men. What a noble staff of men we have, then, who, if converted themselves, might be apostles of Christ to the church and to the world! Sirs, do you know Christ, and have you held your tongues? Take care that before the great tribunal you are not charged with the ruin of your fellow men! You young men of ability, trained in our grammar-schools, and educated in our colleges, it is too often a lamentable fact that if you join the church you feel as if you had only to give it your name, but not your abilities. If a man joins a rifle corps, he attends drill, and throws himself into it, and endeavours to promote the interests of the corps; but if he joins a church, it is as much as you can do to get him to drill once a-year, and he seems to have nothing to do except to "stand at ease." Oh, sirs, when you join the church I hope you give us yourselves. If you do not, I pray you withhold your names. Up! up! in the name of God, up and at the evils of the times! Up, and tell to starving London what the lepers told to starving Samaria-that there is bread to be had. Do you say, "I am a sinner myself"? Your leprous lips will not spoil the message if you have but tasted and handled this truth. Do you say, "I am unworthy"? Ah! but he who took away your unworthiness took away the disability which that unworthiness involved. You are not worthy to be called God's son by nature, but by grace you may be worthy to be his ambassador. My poor friend over there, you often weep because you cannot do more for Christ. Take courage; do all you can. If you cannot speak to

thousands, be content to speak to one; and if you cannot bring hundreds to Christ, be satisfied if now and then you can lead a mourner to him. My dear hearers (and especially you, the members of this church), if you have obtained mercy, I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, by the compassionate heart of your dying Redeemer, by that hope which you have that he will shortly come, be ye instant in season and out of season; preach the truth and teach it, knowing that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Oh, that at the day of Christ many sheaves may be brought into the eternal garner through your being stirred up to labour by the ministry in this house of prayer.

To thee, unpardoned soul, I have spoken at length, and God knows how truly from my heart. This last word in thine ear ere thou passest those curtains to go down yonder steps-it may be that there is a solemn spot in this house of prayer to-night. I am told that just under the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral there is the mark of a workman's hammer, and it is said that years ago one who was engaged in the roof fell down and there met his death. It is the place where a soul departed, where a man died. I do not know where it is, but it may be that there is a solemn spot here tonight where a soul will be lost for ever. May be the moment has come when the wax upon that soul's deathwarrant shall grow cold, when it shall say in its heart, "I will have none of these things," and when God shall say, "Thou shalt have none of them; I will let thee alone; thy conscience shall never be troubled again; thou shalt go through life in peace, thou shalt go to thy death with carelessness; only in hell shalt thou ever

open thine eyes." God grant that it be not so, but I feel as if it would be so with some of you, unless sovereign and irresistible grace should decide otherwise, and then, to-night, there will be a spot in this house of prayer where a soul will be born to God. What man is he that just now gives his heart to Christ? Are there none of you? Must I go back to my Master with no joyful tidings? Is there no heart here that says:

"I'll go to Jesus, though my sins

Have like a mountain rose;

I know his courts, I'll enter in
Whatever may oppose?"

Are there none?

Great God, looking down from heaven! Are all hearts hard? Are there none that will come? Perhaps it is so, for we are feeble. Oh, Spirit of God, come down now; now, in this solemn moment, now, break the heart with thy hammer; now cut and wound by thy sword; now heal and bind up with thy holy ointments, now, at this solemn moment. I say no more, but may it be so, and with him I Amen.

leave it.

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"Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if thero be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."Lamentations i. 12.

As

HIS was the lamentation of Jeremiah. he saw the desolation of the beloved city, as he marked the cruelties inflicted by the invaders upon Jewish youth, and children, and maidens, and as he foresaw the long years of bitterness reserved for the captives in Babylon, he felt as if he were a peer in the realm of misery-indeed peerless. He stands foremost, a very emperor of grief, a king of sighs and tears. "Behold and see," saith he, "if there were ever sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me."

But may there not have been griefs as great as those of Jeremiah? Is the language that flows from his lips strictly accurate? Like most of the periods which flow from abundant grief, is there not some exaggeration here? If we take the words out of the mouth of Jeremiah, and put them into the mouth of Jesus; if we suppose them to be spoken by him as, hanging on

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