and we must be glad to share in his sufferings. God desires us to be like our Head in all things.

2. The Lord knows how to deliver them.

(1.) They know not how to deliver themselves. I have no doubt Noah often said: I fear I too shall be carried away with the flood; I fear my faith will fail me; I know not what to do. And Lot often trembled in Sodom; and David, when Saul pursued him. Many of you do not know how to deliver yourselves. You are compassed about as with a flood, by old companions, old lusts, a hating world, a roaring lion. (2.) Man knows not how to deliver you. It is common for souls under temptation to ask counsel of ministers, but they cannot deliver you. Nothing is more vain than the help of man in an hour of temptation. (3.) The Lord knows. More is meant than the mere words imply. The Lord not only knows how to do it, but will certainly deliver the godly out of temptation. He loves them. Every godly one is a jewel in his sight; he died for them, and he will not lose one. When he puts them into the furnace, he sits as a refiner. He has promised they shall never perish: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." He will with the temptation make a way of escape: "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not"

It matters not what the temptation be. It matters not how great the temptation be, and how weak the believing soul. Some children of God say sometimes: If it were a lesser trial, I could bear it; if the furnace were not so hot, if the temptation were not so great, I could get through; or, if I had more strength, if I were an older and more experienced believer. Look at the words: "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation." Is anything too hard for the Lord?

It matters not how few the believers be. There was but one Lot and one Noah. Perhaps they said: "The Lord hath forgotten me, and my God hath forsaken me." God is as able to deliver one as a thousand. One soul is precious in his sight: "I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and bring you to Zion"-"I will sift the house of Israel like as corn is sifted in a sieve; yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth "—" Those whom thou hast given me have I kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled."

II. God's treatment of the unjust: "God knoweth how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished."

1. The end of all the ungodly is to be punished. Whatever be God's present dealings with the ungodly, their end is to be punished. Whatever being shall be found laden with sin, his end is to be punished. The angels sinned. They were of a noble nature-originally in the image of God; yet God did not spare them, but cast them down to hell. The old world sinned- —a great multitude—a worldful; God brought in the flood upon them. An individual town sinned; God turned it into ashes, and made it an example to all that should afterward live ungodly. This will be the end of all in this congregation who live on in sin. Ah! it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for you. Your end is to be burned.

2. Not now: "God knoweth how to reserve." Judgment against an evil work is not executed speedily. During the French Revolution, a young man stepped forward, and dared God Almighty to strike him dead. No evil followed. Many of you have gone on in sin thus. The first time you sinned, you trembled lest you should be quickly summoned to judgment; but no evil followed, and now your heart is fully set in you to do evil. Ah! you little understand. "The Lord knoweth how to reserve." God's ways are not like our ways. When a man steals, the cry immediately follows: "Stop, thief!" else he will be out of reach. When a murder is committed, a reward is offered for the apprehension of the murderer, lest he should escape from the hands of justice. Not so with God. He is not in haste to punish. You cannot flee out of his dominions. Your feet shall slide in due time. God is reserving you to the day of judgment to be punished. He endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction.

(1.) It is not that you have sinned little. Many of you have sinned more than others that have been taken away. I have no doubt there are many in hell who had far less sin than some of you.

God hates

(2.) It is not that God loves your sin. it infinitely. Every new sin you commit provokes him in a fearful manner. Every new Sabbath you break-every new lust you pour forth-God is more and more angry with

you.

(3.) It is not that you are in health-that there are no means of your destruction at hand. God could smite

in one hour. Here is the explanation: "God knoweth how to reserve the unjust." O employ this day of longsuffering, while Jesus waits to save you, and God refrains from destroying you! Lord, help a worm!

SERMON LIII.

DILIGENCE NECESSARY.

"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless."— 2 PET. iii. 14.

I. The description of believers here given: "Seeing ye look for such things." So Paul: "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen."-2 Cor. iv. 18. The unconverted among you look at things seen. All your thoughts, talk, hopes, and fears, are taken up about the things of time and sense. But those of you who have anointed eyes, and hearts illumined by the Holy Ghost, look beyond the bounds of time. But the look here spoken of is more than mere knowledge: it is the look of desire-of earnest longing. It is called “looking and hasting unto." It is like the look of a child for an absent parent, when he looks and runs to meet him. It is like the look of a bride for the coming of the bridegroom. What are the things?

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1. The second coming of the Lord. The scoffers say, "Where is the promise of his coming?"-Verse 4. "But the day of the Lord will come."-Verse 10. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God."-Verse 12. The great event of that day is the coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven. The world are not looking for this, but you that are Christ's are looking for such things. The world think Christ well away, and hope he may never come back again. They believe, in some sort, that the Son of God was once born of a woman, and lay in the manger at Beth

lehem that he walked on the hills of Galilee, and did many wonders-that he died, and went to his Father. And they hope to see no more of him. They think the world is well quit of him. Certain I am, that if he were returning to this place, the most of the inhabitants would wail because of him.

ness:

But he will come, and like a thief in the night. He is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slack"That same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."-Acts i. 11. "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction."-2 Thess. i. 7. "Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him."-Rev. i. 7. Even so. Amen. "Ye look for such things." If you are Christ's at all, you are desiring that blessed hope. Many faithful and godly men believe that the day is near; and who will venture to say they may not be right? The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Does a bride long for the coming of the bridal-day? So will you that are Christ's love his appearing.

2. The trial by fire: "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise: and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up"-" All these things shall be dissolved."

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The scoffing world do not look for such things. They do not desire them, neither do they expect them. They read of them in the Bible as they would read a terrific tale, or a tragedy; they do not read of them as coming realities. Yonder blue heaven, they think, shall always span the earth with its calm cerulean arch-the elements shall continue their sportive warfare, the wind blowing east, and then west -the summer zephyr changing with the winter blast. The green earth, they think, shall still roll on with its seed-time and harvest, summer and winter. Their houses and towers, they hope, shall last for ages; they call their lands after their own names. Ah, brethren! can you say you are looking for anything else than just that to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant? But those of you that are taught of God look for such things. You expect and desire that awful day. You are ever and anon looking up

to see when the heavens shall catch fire, and pass awaywhen the hand that stretched them out like a tent to dwell in shall roll them up like a scroll. You are waiting for the day when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. You look upon the earth as one does upon a crazy house, from which he is about to remove. You look on its mountains, trees, and fields, as soon to be burned up, and all its works, its houses, and palaces, and towers, as soon to be a smoking funeral pile. No wonder Jesus said: "They are not of the world." The wonder is, brethren, that we are so much of the world.

3. The new heavens and earth: "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."-Verse 13. The promise of the new heavens and earth is contained in Isa. lxv. 17; again in Isa. lxvi. 22; and again, Rev. xxi. 1: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth." What that glorious world shall be I cannot tell. No thunderclouds shall ever darken the sky-no lightning flashno blighting east wind blow-no pestilential fogs-no raging whirlwind. There shall be no more curse-thorns and thistles shall nowhere be found-paradise will be restored. All this may be-I cannot tell; but one thing is certain: "Therein dwelleth righteousness." "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." The wicked

shall be plucked away. The world do not look for such things. You do not believe that you shall ever be bound up in bundles, and cast away. You do not believe that there is a world where you will be separated from your believing friends and neighbours. But we look for such things. We look for a time when you will no more scorn us, and cast out our name as evil-when you will no more hate and revile us -a world where you will never be, "wherein dwelleth righteousness.

II. The duty here commanded: "Be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace."

The duty here commanded is diligence-diligence in so living as that, when Christ shall appear, he may find you in peace, without spot and blameless. Two things are implied in this command.