scious reliance upon the Lord Jesus. You are competent to judge, whether, sinful as you are, and unworthy as you are, you look to Jesus for all your hope of salvation; and all who do, I invite to sit with us and partake of these emblems of mercy and love.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

We thank thee, our Father, for the day in which we were taught to know thee. We thank thee for those continuous disclosures which have been made from time to time, for the Word, and for that providence and that inward experience wrought by the Holy Spirit, through which the heart itself becomes luminous, and thy providences are interpreted. For in thee we live and move and have our being. And when we are not conscious of thee, we have no life; we are orphans; we wander, and are aliens for the commonwealth of Israel. But what time thou dost bring us back to the consciousness of thy life, of thy love, of all the blessed things which thou hast prepared for us, we live indeed. No longer in disturbance of our lower passions, no longer in the midst of dins, and jars, and conflicts with outward things and circumstances, we are brought into the sanctuary of peace. Our inward thoughts are enlightened by thy Spirit. We are lifted above ourselves, and we are what we are in God. We are made pure by thought of purity for us. Thou dost clothe us as we shall be, even now as we are. Thou dost look at us and see what that to which we are coming by thy grace will do as in thy sight now. As we look upon our children, and imagine that to which they are coming, but with an erring gaze, and with many mistakes, and yet with much comfort, and are patient with their weakness till they shall reach their strength, and with their faults till they shall have learned their virtues better, so more gloriously, in a greater amplitude of love, with infinite pity and infinite tenderness, and forbearance, and gentleness, thou dost look, not at what we are so much, as to that to which we shall come through our faults, through our frequent downfalls and sins, through our weakness. All the glory of our future estate is before thee. For, is not our name in thy book? Is not our place waiting for us? Are there not for us palms? Are we not yet, as spirits of just men made perfect, to stand in thy presence above? Are we not to hold on a course of joy forevermore? And is it not all open before thee? Naked and open are we before Him with whom we have to do. And thou dost look royally upon us, and wait till we emerge, till we grow, and outgrow our manifold imperfections and sins. And from day to day, with infinite tenderness thou dost forgive the sins of the day. From day to day with sorrow thou dost help us to sorrow, and with cleansing repentance thou dost teach us to forsake our sins. And thou art still working in us. Thou art healing us. And when thou hast healed us, we become more and more precious to thee. For we know, in our lesser sphere, that those for whom we do the most become most to us. We see how parents cling to the most needy of their children, to succor them, and to bring them through their infirmities, and love them with a strength that is in proportion to the strength which they have given them. And in that we desire to interpret thee, and to rejoice in the experience which thus is a symbol of God's government to us. And oh! if thou dost love us in proportion to our faults, how deep is thy sympathy! and how strong is thy yearning! Thou that wilt not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax till thou dost bring forth judgment unto victory; how great is the sum of thy mercy toward us for whom thou hast done so much, who still need so much, and

who will to the very end of life need so much. For there is not a day before us that is not to have its dark shadows. We have not yet learned to carry our pride in consonance with love. We have not yet learned to carry about the truth in its purity. We have not yet learned to overcome vanity, and an undue love of praise from men rather than from God. We have not

yet learned how to counterbalance our senses by our spiritual life. We forget thee; we forget heaven; we forget our errands upon earth; we forget our better selves; we are often baptized in darkness, and seldom in hope, and light, and joy. All that is in us yet nascent. All that thou art doing for us, thou art doing for those who are yet to be. In life we are as children in the womb, and are to be born only when death comes and opens to let us forth into the clearness and blessedness of our life in heaven. Thou art carrying us. We are born, and we are to be born, of thee. And we rejoice in this fullness; in the disclosure of thy nursing love, of thy patient waiting; of thy all-formative mercy. We rejoice that we are what we are, not by grace in ourselves, and not by our own power, which is but little, and unexercised, and unwise, and unskilled, but by the mighty power of God. And our hope is not that we shall overcome our adversaries, but that we shall have the generous love and companionship of Christ Jesus, who will not suffer any to perish, but will bear the lambs in his arms; who will go out after the sheep that wander from the path in the wilderness, and bring them back with infinite tenderness and gentleness, and rejoice over one that wanders more than over all the flock that has kept its estate. How wonderful is the insight which we get of thy mercy! How wonderful is the realm and glory of God's heart, where no contending, no rage and no pas sion are; where medicating mercy is; where is upbuilding love; where intinite patience and gentleness are; where the growths of all creation, coming up through labor pain, and groaning and travailing until now, are nourished and supervised until thou shalt bring forth judgment unto victory.

Lord, our God! thou art such an one as we need a refuge, a defense out of ourselves, and out of our fears, which are of the Devil. We flee away to thee, and come into the fulness of trust, and into the obedience of trust. We desire not to offend thee again by untruthfulness, having offended thee by sin; but may we know thy loving and tender mercy, and thy forgiving love and gentleness; may we know how to draw thee as thou art drawing us.

And now we beseech of thee, O Lord our God, that thou wilt help every one that is seeking to live higher and better than he has lived. Help those to reform who only mean reformation; and yet do better for them than they ask or think. Help those who are coming out of evil courses into newness of life. Though they be babes in Christ, and wander often, and cry, still bear hem with patience and with care, until they are able to be men in Christ Jesus.

Be with all who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and long for higher attainments in the divine life. We pray that they may have that perfect peace which passeth all understanding.

And now, as we are walking in the infirmities and sins of this life, so may we walk in the common hope and certainty that, after life has dealt with us, and disciplined us, and purified us, we shall meet together nobler in companionship, better for love, purer and truer, better worthy of each other. And then we shall wonder that we found it so hard to bear with each other on earth. Then we shall wonder that we did so little good, that we had so much of reproach, and that we were so little helpful to each other. Then, in the glory of that ecstatic vision, how will they stand royal to our eye who are so full of faults, and against whom we gnash with accusation and criticism. And grant that the coming hope, the coming joy, the certainty of redemption, the beauty of the love that is to be in heaven, may shine back through faith upon us, and that we may see these things even

now though but in shadow, and toward those that are in delusion and folly, be more gentle, more patient, more helpful.

Bless all the households that belong to this congregation. Bless parents and children. We pray that the young may grow up able to discern and to eschew what is evil, and to embrace that which is high-minded and noble, and good.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt bless all the labor of the Sabbathschools and Bible-classes all that are teaching, and all that are taught. Remember, we beseech thee, those who go forth, from day to day, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, to find the wanderers, and who in the streets and in prisons, and everywhere, seek to make known Jesus Christ. And we pray that their labor may not be in vain.

And we pray that thou wilt grant thy blessing upon all the churches of this city, and of the great city near us, and throughout all this land. And may this day be a day of mercy everywhere. And may those that are feebly seeking in waste places, and under circumstances of discouragement, to do good, feel the inward strength of God moving them to their duties this day.

And may thy kingdom come everywhere. Look upon the whole earth, now shaken with the tread of thy feet. Going forth for wrath, and for a wrath that is to reveal mercy, when thou shalt have smitten, and burned, and rocked, and overthrown, and done the terrible work with the plow of thy justice, then open the upturned furrows; and grant that the seeds of righteousness and peace may be sown, and that the nations of the earth may learn war no more, but that all lands may see thy salvation, and every man sit under his own vine and fig tree, and the joy of God be the possession of

the whole earth.

And to thy name shall be the praise, Father, Son and Spirit, evermore. Amen.

GOD'S LOVE SPECIFIC AND PERSONAL.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.-GAL. II. 20.

It is not the intensity of this experience that I wish to point out, but its peculiar element of personalness. The life that the apostle lives in the flesh, the inmost life, the secret spring of it, is that which is derived from his love to Christ-from his faith of the Son of God. And that Son of God presented himself to his imagination and to his thought as what? As one who loved the great lover? No, not that; but as one who loved me; who gave himself for me. There is a characteristic element of this experience the recognition of the divine love, and the bringing home of that love to one's own personal experience. The Gospel teaching is that God's love is the prime and grand attribute of his nature. This is the foundation of government, the source of moral law, the philosophy of history, the one golden thread on which all events are strung-although often it is hidden by the things strung upon it.

But this view suggests God's benevolence to our minds, rather than God's love. It is a golden haze of good-will that we look into. So, men think, the summer sun shines on the hills universally, and nourishes infinite flowers and fruits, and cares for nothing of all its brood. It makes them, and fondly fingers them until they are moulded, and fills them with sweet incense and sweet flavors, and then leaves them. For the sun cares not that the apple drops, or that the flower withers. They live, and they perish, and the sun goes on. And when all are cut off, and it rolls in winter, it seems to be just as merry, and just as bright, and just as joyous a sun as it was in the midst of summer.

So men think that God's beneficence is a kind of sunlight, flaming with a flashing fire abroad. It does throw down a certain good will upon everybody, and upon everything indifferently, without regard to character or position. A certain sunshine of the divine nature it is. And so many conceive of God's love as being so universal that it is hardly personal. It is atmospheric to their thought-not minute, not specific.

But the God of revelation is a father. Mankind are his children. He knows all of them, and is personal to each, and is specific to every SUNDAY MORNING, Oct. 2, 1870. LESSON: ISAIAH. XLIIL Nos. 130, 513, 381.

HYMNS (Plymouth Collection):

individual creature of the vast household, innumerable and inconceivable by us. The thought of God points to each one; and as if there was but a single creature in the universe, he looks on that one. As long ago as Isaiah, God had declared,

"I have called thee by thy name,"

as I read in your hearing this morning. And still again, if possible with more minuteness, in the forty-fifth chapter, he says,

"I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou has not known me."

The personality and the disinterestedness and the universality of the divine love are wonderfully set forth in the Old Testament Scriptures -particularly in the later disclosures of the prophets.

The presentation of this thought stirs up a great many doubts in those who have been exercised thereby. Men think that Paul probably was beloved, that Peter was beloved, and that many others were beloved. Men look around, and think that their mother was beloved, and that others, with superior natures and symmetrical parts, and full of moral excellences, were beloved. They can well conceive how those who draw upon their amiable feelings, might likewise excite in the divine mind personal affection. But they say, "When men love single persons, it does not follow that they love all persons. And God loves anen, doubtless; but does he love every one?" God so loved the world, is the comprehensive answer to that question. God loved the world, and the whole world. And the word world, for its definition and boundaries, runs through all time, and among all races. It includes in it all individuals, from age to age. Everywhere God loved the whole world.'

"Yes," men say, "but God loves men after he has made them loveable." But the apostle says, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Love which death tested but could not measure, was shed abroad toward each man and the whole world, without moral conditions. That is the import of what the apostle says. God's disinterestedness is made plain, in that he loves each man, not on condition of repentance, but whether he repents or not. He loves men, not because there is that in them which has a tendency to excite complacency, but though they are sinful. He loves unlovely men. Yea, men that we could not love, God loves. And his love is not generic. It is not a part of the governmental benevolence. It is individualized both ways-in the heart of God, and in the heart of the recipients. It is God's nature to love what his eye looks upon. Every human being, whether he is good, or whether he is bad, God loves. I do not say that it makes no difference to God whether men are good, or whether they are bad, but I do say that the great crowning fact of divine love has no respect of character-that it precedes character, and is not founded upon it.