again call them brethren. Thus it is that beings of high rank, in the order of intelligent creation, rejoice over sinners' repent ance. the information, we can enter into no ex- the prospect now set before them of having planation. Upon this, as upon many other the children of disobedience and the heirs points, we must be satisfied with ascertain- of wrath sanctified and glorified, and made ing the ultimate fact, though we cannot companions and associates with themselves understand nor reason respecting the imme-in the heavenly state, so that they may diate means. This one thing simply, we are informed, that they do know, and that when they know it they rejoice. And it is to us, though of them we know so little, a pleasing testimony of benevolent interest, of In the second place, we may consider affectionate regard, and of exalted and en- the intensity, the universality of the feeldearing sympathy. It introduces us already ing that is produced. It might be true to to the hopes above. It makes us, even now, say of the angels in heaven, that they in some measure acquainted with the angels rejoice, though the joy was but slight or that are before the throne. They can enter transient, although it pervaded only a part into our feelings, and we may in some mea- of the heavenly host. The idea, however, sure enter into theirs. And when the veil conveyed to us here is the idea, not of a of sense shall be withdrawn, it may, for slight or of a transient, but of a deep and aught we know, be one of the first disco- of a permanent impression, and it is the veries in the celestial state to be introduced idea, moreover, not of joy only among a few, to, and to be made acquainted with, that angel, but of joy among all, of but one feeling or with those angels, who have more especially and one expression of feeling, through received commission respecting ourselves, all the innumerable company of angels. who have encamped about us, who have Heaven in its every-day or ordinary course, if been ministering spirits to us as the heirs of I may be allowed so to speak, is the place immortality, who have had continual charge of joy, and, therefore, when any event is over us, who, when we were but little ones, spoken of here as producing joy, the very but babes in Christ, saw the Father's face in mention of it supposes joy to an extraorheaven, and have been watching over us dinary extent-something beyond the or continually, really though unseen, and are dinary measure of joy, something fit for our guardians till we sit down with them in being marked as a change, and a change our Father's house and are admitted into from happiness to still greater happiness the presence of God, their Lord and ours; among the abodes of the blessed. Men and we know surely enough of the charac- smile or weep for trifles, they are deeply ter of angels, and of the scheme of redemp- affected with matters of no great moment, tion, to find reason upon reason why at such and there is often a universal sensation either an event they should rejoice. God display- of joy or of grief, when there is no great ed some of his glory in the wonders of reason either for the one or for the other, creation, but he displayed the same glory but mistaken these angels cannot be in the and glories of another character, and all theme which they choose for transport. combined, in higher measure, in the scheme Their own clear understandings, their own of redemption. And if it was their exercise pure wills, and their own elevated affections, to behold nature in all its primeval purity, raise them far above other unseasonable and to celebrate God's praise as its Crea- and unstable joys. They are, moreover, tor, much more may we see how they will continually in the presence of God, who rejoice in God when they behold the un- directs all their feelings, and who guides folding and application of that scheme them still by the intimations of his own according to which mercy and justice, right-will, and by the revelations of his own glory. eousness and peace, have been united, according to which grace is reigning through righteousness, and God just even in justifying the ungodly who believe in Christ. These angels have no pleasure in our fall, and the way of our restoration must awaken every benevolent sympathy within them; so that their rejoicing is both for the glory of God and the happiness of men, for communion restored between God and them, and between themselves and men, and for And, therefore, whether we consider what they in themselves would do, or what God in his providence would allow them to doeither in the one case or in the other, we may well argue an intensity of feeling when angels, always happy, are said to rejoice, when not a few but all are spoken of as joining in the triumph, and when that triumph is, moreover, mentioned as taking place in the presence of God-a season of hosannah, a day of jubilee, a loud hallelujah unto God. animating all the saints, pervading the innumerable company of angels, gladdening Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, approved of by God the judge of all, and all centring in this-the Redeemer seeing of the travail of his soul and satisfied. Thus the angels administered to Jesus when he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, when he was in an agony, and the sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground; and were it no other scene in heaven than Jesus seeing of the fruit of his travail and satisfied, we can easily suppose how all is true that is here expressed, how much more is true that cannot be expressed, and that cannot be conceived, but is known in heaven. Joy there is there over one sinner that repenteth. Again we may think, in the third place, of the season at which such joy is stated as commencing, not when the sinner enters heaven, not when his repentance issues in eternal life-the joy will then follow of course-but when his title to heaven has been received, when his meetness for it is but beginning, and when he is still to make progress in the way to Zion with his face thitherward when he is to wage war with Satan, and with the world, and with the flesh, and when there is a long course lying before him, a race which he has to run, a warfare to which he has to expose himself, and a fight which he has to endure, and painful exercise through which he has to pass, before he is made perfect through suffering. It is a pleasing proof of the promptitude with which the intelligence is conveyed to heaven, that it is so soon known. It is a pleasing proof also of the character of the joy produced, that even though it be but beginning as to its ultimate issue, yet there is an immediate feeling of joy respecting it. But especially this joy is presented to us in an interesting light, when we behold these blessed spirits looking down with interest upon what is just taking place, when the penitent is shedding tears, when he is making his confessions, when he is feeling most his unworthiness, when he can do nothing more than cry out "Lord be merciful to me, a sinner!" Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Speak Lord, for I thy servant hear." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." "O Lord! if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." To them it is a pleasing thought that another engrafting is taking place to the living tree, that another stone is preparing To for the heavenly building, that another member is adding to the body that constitutes the fulness of Him who filleth all in all, and that another heir is born in the redeemed family. For, dead though he be to the world, yet in Christ he can anticipate the time when his infant powers shall reach their manhood, when receiving the sincere milk of the word he shall grow thereby, when he shall be fit for strong meat, when he shall be strong through the word of God abiding in him, when in old age he shall bring forth fruit, when he shall be beautiful as the lily, and strong as the cedars of Lebanon, and when, no longer a hoping penitent, he shall be a sanctified and glorified saint, and be for ever associated with saints and angels, hearkening unto God's voice and doing whatsoever he commands. us there seems a long, a dark, and doubtful interval between, long days, and nights, and years, in the world of tribulation—but to angels, who do not unite time as we do, and over whose blessed abodes a thousand years pass away even as a single day, the transition seems but short between the trials of the sinner and the triumphs of the saint. And though many a dark frowning providence is now lowering on the penitent who is sowing in tears, yet they know who is behind the cloud, who smiles for ever over those who are the objects of his care and the subjects of his love. They know how behind the frowning providence he hides a smiling face, and that they will ere long reap in joy. Though they have sympathy with the saint when he bows his head, and can think of his gray hairs going down with sorrow to the grave, they have such experience of the providence of God, as to know before the saints know, that their tears will finally be wiped away, and that the same heart that seemed at one time ready to burst with grief, will at another time also be ready to burst with joy, even as Jacob's did when, not thinking to see Joseph himself, he exclaimed, "Lo! I have seen even Joseph's seed, his sons, and his sons' sons." Such bliss attends those who wait for the salvation of God. Angels so long observing providence, are not cast down, nor are their prospects clouded as ours, when God is pleased to make us go forth and sow in tears under the promise that we shall reap in joy. They see how the Lord Jesus Christ has done how he has guarded over his own-how he is the companion, and the comforter, and the friend of all his people. They know that we are the objects of his heavenly care-they know that we are under His protection, who feeds his flock like a shepherd, who gathers the lambs with his arm, and carries them in his bosom, who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. They know that we who are believers are for ever rising up beneath this great Redeemer's hand to be the heirs of many promises, that we are coming out from great tribulation to a great inheritance, that we are tried in the furnace, heated seven times, in order that Christ's own image may be formed in us, and that the trial of our faith is therefore exceeding precious. joy. On the contrary, however few may be the conversions that are taking place, or however obscure, unknown, or unimportant may be the individual converted, though there be included in his conversion no more than his own soul's salvation, though he be removed from the world and leave no other proof behind him than such a proof as the penitent malefactor on the cross may be supposed to have left; though we think simply on what one immortal soul necessarily receives, we think of something that outweighs in value all the happiness merely temporal of all the myriads that have ever inhabited the world, even down to the present moment. All the joys of all that have I have only to state, in the last place, dwelt upon the earth, and who are now laid that each case of conversion is supposed in the dust, have passed away as if they had here to be of sufficient magnitude to produce never been; but the soul of righteous Abel this joy. There is joy in the presence of has been always in heaven, and always dethe angels of God over one sinner that re-lighting-ever since our Lord died upon penteth. Numbers are not necessary in order to convey to us the idea of value or importance. There are many subjects in regard to which number, and number chiefly, constitutes the claim to consideration, and here the number does not decrease, but on the contrary, augments the interest, and yet still though there be but one, yet each one is of sufficient value. No doubt there was great joy on the day of Pentecost; and when thousands were converted, no doubt there was great joy afterwards, when 5,000 were added to the Church; no doubt there was great joy again, when a multitude of the priests and of the people believed; but still each individual as marked in Heaven's book, may be considered as a fit occasion for praising God, and as serving to minister to the delights of angels. Or we shall even take it in another light-You may suppose that one soul converted may, in special circumstances, or at particular seasons, or because of the individual character, be of great importance, even as the conversion of Paul included within itself the conversion of thousands-even as Paul was a chosen vessel, and took many from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. And we can almost conceive in heaven a kind of joy like to the day of Pentecost itself, when the news reached heaven that souls were approaching, and approaching from the earth to the Father, and that the Church was multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. But neither is a case of this kind put down as the only case fitted to excite the cross. The single penitent malefactor has received within his own individual existence happiness more real, and happiness more lasting, than the happiness merely temporal of all the millions that have been upon our globe during the continuance of the Christian era. And when days, and nights, and years, shall have passed away, with the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, when the pleasures of sin shall all have departed, the joys of the penitent shall still remain, and the triumphs of angels over them shall still be considered as affording them suitable joy, even though connected with the history of but one immortal soul brought out of a state of sin and misery into a state of salvation through the Redeemer. The soul dies not with the body-it dies not though it be unclothed-it passes into another world and still exists. Before it all is eternity and immutability. It fears or it hopes, it grieves or it rejoices, it loves or it hates, it swells with ceaseless transport, or it shrinks with ceaseless horror at the constant opening of eternity. Soon my body shall have the clods of the valley to cover it, and my memory shall perish from the earth; but shall memory itself die-shall the soul that now lives, and moves, and sees, and hears, and speaks within me die? No. When the years which I have lived have passed away like the years before the flood, my soul will still be in the eternal world. And, oh! how solemn the question, shall it have gone up to heaven, or shall it have gone down to hell? Shall it be trembling with devils, 1 or shall it be rejoicing with saints and angels? Shall it be weeping and wailing, or shall it be holy, singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the Lamb? Shall it be filthy still, or shall it be holy still? Damnation-men speak the word. Do they know the meaning of it? Could you breathe it to your fiercest enemy? Oh! how could you endure the everlasting burning! Were it uttered as with a voice from heaven, there were for you no remaining hope. Would it not be an awful voice to any one individual here? Wonder not, then, if angels rejoice, if they are as gods, having no pleasure in our death, but willing rather that we would turn from our wickedness and live. And let me now say with regard to any, if any such there be, still far from God, that if it were given to that one even now to repent and to live, rest assured that angels, even as they have rejoiced before, will be at no loss to rejoice again-that they will utter still their notes of triumph if over you the Spirit shall pause, making you to surrender to Jesus, and to exclaim, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What shall I do to be saved, and suggesting to you the answer, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and inherit eternal life." be as wool." God has given his providence to warn, and he has given his word to direct and encourage us. God is now, in his providence, speaking to us by awful judgments in the midst of us, by disease in different forms carrying us away, so that many die as it were in a moment suddenly. Now as the tree falls so it must lie. As death finds us, so will death also fix us. There are no pardons offered, there are no pardons sealed in the grave. The way to heaven is open from earth, but it is not open from hell. The offers of mercy are free, and full, and unrestricted here, and we say, therefore, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abun dantly pardon." What is a man that is not a penitent? What does our Lord say he is like? He is like a piece of lost silver to its owner, like a lost sheep, like a prodigal son-and we are all in Heaven's sight as prodigal children, till we become penitent children, till we arise and come to our Father, till we say, Father we have sinned, and are no more worthy to be called thy children. We have departed from the chief end of our being. We are not glorifying God, and not enjoying him, while we reWe have considered then, in the first main impenitent; and the lamp of life is place, the event of the text. We have only allowed to burn to give us time and considered, secondly, the joy produced by space for repentance. To-day, therefore, it. Let me press both these upon your at- if we will hear God's voice, it becomes us tention, and let me warn you against treat- not to harden our hearts against him. ing with indifference a subject which angels Wherefore, I pray you to search the Scrip view with interest, not as it were for their tures, that you may understand the privi own sakes, but for yours. Angels knowlege, that you may know the duty, and that our danger-they see the awful misery that sin produces they know the dreadful state of the impenitent in hell, and because they have no pleasure in our death, they desire to see us seeking and loving God. Therefore I pray you to give heed to Jesus. He came into the world to seek and to save the lost. He loved us, and gave himself for us, and he now says, "Come now and let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall you may desire after the graces of true penitents. And I pray God that your sins may be pardoned, that your souls may be sanctified, that you may be enabled to delight in the Lord God after the inward man, and that loosing one kind of pleasure, the pleasure of sin, you may find another and a greater, the love of his Son, and the righteousness and the gladness that will ever arise in the upright in heart. May the Lord bless his word, and to his name be the praise. Amen. THE LOVE OF CHRIST TO YOUNG CHILDREN; THE ANNUAL SERMON PREACHED ON THE EVENING OF SUNDAY, 16TH JUNE, IN BEHALF OF THE CHILDREN ATTENDING THE SABBATH SCHOOLS OF THE PARISH OF ST. ENOCH'S, By the Rev. JAMES HENDERSON, Minister of St. Enoch's Church, Glasgow. "I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me."-PROV. viii. 17. place, about what he promises to those that seek him. As many of you as have attended to these words, must at once perceive that they are words of kindness and encourage- Attend, then, while I try to explain to ment. The person who utters them assures you shortly, what Christ says here concernus, that if we love him, our love shall not being those that love him, I love them that thrown away on one who does not requite it; and he promises, that though we should not have sought him until now, if now we will seek him, our search after him shall not be lost labour. Who then is it that gives us this kind assurance, and this encouraging promise? Is it a man like ourselves? If so, it is possible he might deceive or disappoint us; for painful as the thought is, it is very common for men to profess and promise fair, and yet prove false; to pretend to love which they do not feel; and to make promises which often prove unfaithful, and which often, through weakness, they are not able to fulfil. But it is not a man like ourselves who addresses us in the words of the text. It is the same, who in the New Testament is called the Word of God; and who in this part of the Old Testament styles himself the Wisdom of God. And you all know who the Word and the Wisdom of God means. You all know him by the other and familiar name of Jesus Christ. There is not one of you so young as not to be able to know that he is the True and Faithful Witness who cannot lie, who never professes aught that he does not feel, who never fails to accomplish every word that he has promised, and who is, therefore, worthy, my young friends, of all trust and confidence, when he here says, "I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me." This language, my young friends, he addresses more particularly to you; and I desire very earnestly to have your attention while I try to discourse to you for a little, in the first place about what Christ says of them that love him, and in the second love me." I hope that some of you know in part at least, how sweet and precious the love of Christ is. Sweet is the love of friends and companions-sweet is the love of brothers and of sisters-sweet is the love of a father and of a mother; but sweeter and more precious, by far, than all, is the love of Jesus Christ. He is as a father to protect you, and as a mother to comfort and cherish you. Yea, he styles himself a friend who sticketh closer than a brother, and has said, that though a father and a mother may forsake their offspring, he will never forsake those on whom he hath set his mind. In short, there is no love like the love of Christ. It is strong love, stronger even than death, for in love he died. It is tender love, for it is touched with the feeling of your infirmities, and by all the afflic tions of his people he is afflicted. It is faithful and generous love; for he does not promise more than he will perform; and his promise is to load us plenteously with his benefits, and to do exceedingly abundant above what we can either ask or think. And it is lasting love; having loved his own he loves them even to the end. He gives unto them eternal life. Neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, shall ever separate us from his love. Now surely love like this it is most desirable that we should all enjoy, and yet all men do not enjoy it. Perhaps some of you, my young friends, have reason to fear that you do not enjoy it. In one sense, indeed, or after one manner, Christ hath loved us all. He loves us with a love of good will, and tenderest compassion, which willeth not that any should perish, but is willing that |