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polluted. At length, about the going down of the sun, the approach of Deity is felt. "And when the sun

was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram: and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him," Gen. xv. 12. How insupportable must be the visitations of God's anger! (I tremble while I speak) if the visions of his mercy and love are so awful and tremendous ! While he was in this extacy, the principal events that should affect his family for the space of four hundred years, are revealed to him; and the issue is to be, at the end of that period, the quiet and certain possession of the very land which he then inhabited; even from the Nile to the Euphrates. But we trespass on your patience too long.

....Let us, in conclusion, raise our thoughts to a new covenant, established on better promises; to a sacrifice whose "blood cleanseth from all sin;" "to a new and living way consecrated into the holiest of all, through the veil, the Redeemer's flesh." Let us look to that body which was broken upon the cross, the atonement for transgression; to that inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away;" to that kingdom which cannot be moved," that government and peace, of "which there shall be no end;" to that great multitude which no man can number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, which stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands;" to that day, when "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever."

....Is every discovery of God a mixture of light and darkness," a furnace that smoaketh, a lamp that burneth," "a pillar of cloud, a pillar of fire?" Let us rejoice and walk, and live in that light; let us revere, adore, and preserve an humble distance from that darkness. Are the visits of God's wrath intolerable to the wick, ed; and the approaches of his gracious presence awful

even to the good? Let us, then, think of drawing nigh to him, only through the Son of his love, in whom he is ever well pleased.

Is the covenant on God's part "ordered in all things and sure?" Are all "the promises" in Christ " yea and amen ?" Is the "glory" they propose and ensure, yet to be revealed ?" "Be not faithless, but believing;" "cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you." "Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known.' "He who cometh will come and will not tarry." "The grace of our Lord Jesus be with your spirits."

Amen.

History of Abram.

LECTURE XIV.

He that believeth shall not make haste....ISAI. XXviii. 16.

THE

ways of Providence and the workings of the human mind do not always keep pace one with another. In the pursuit of their ends, men are at one time careless and indolent, at another, over eager and hasty; but God is ever advancing towards his, with a steady, progressive, majestic pace. When we get sight of a favorite object, we grasp at it through possibility and impossibility; we hurry on to possession, too little scrupulous about the means. To God all things are possible; and "he is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity; just and right is he." Men ignorantly and weakly judge of their Maker by themselves, and foolishly attempt to regulate the divine procedure by their own preconceived opinions of it: "Behold I thought," said Naaman the Syrian," he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper;" but God had said, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times and thou shalt be clean." It is rare to find a faith which steadily, cheerfully, and constantly walks hand in hand with the purpose and promise of Heaven. We either "stagger at the promise, through unbelief," or impatiently strive to bring forward the accomplishment by indirect methods.

When we look into history, how unlike do events appear from the form into which they were previously shaped by the fond expectations of the persons concerned! The Jews in the person of Messiah, looked for a prince who should revive the faded splendor of David's throne; but the Messiah whom God raised up, established a kingdoin "of righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The disciples are dreaming of sitting at their Master's right and left hand, when " the kingdom should be restored to Israel;" he is sending them forth to "suffer shame for his name."

The sentiment of the prophet which I have now read, as the foundation of another Lecture on the history of Abram, is just and striking. "He that

believeth shall not make haste." Faith neither lags behind, nor strives to outrun the word of God. "Thus saith the Lord," is its rule and measure; it endures, waits, proceeds, acts, refrains, as "seeing him who is invisible." But in the most composed, firmest, and faithfulest of believers, we find the frailties and infirmities of the man frequently predominant; and a slighter temptation sometimes prevailing, after more severe and difficult trials have been withstood and overcome. Nothing can exceed the solemnity with which God ratified his covenant with Abram, as recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. Under the sanction of the most awful forms and ceremonies, a son is promised, the future father of a numerous offspring; and an inheritance is allotted to that chosen seed, by him who has all things in heaven and in earth at his disposal. Abram takes the word of God as a full security; believes and rejoices. He had now dwelt ten years in Canaan; and notwithstanding his advanced period of life, we find him discovering nothing like eagerness or impatience; he "believed and therefore did "not make haste." But though he was not the first to devise an undue and intemperate method of arriving at

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the accomplishment of the promise, we find him ready enough to adopt one of this nature when it was suggested to him.

It was now put beyond a doubt, that Abram should become a father, but it has not yet been declared explicitly that Sarai shall be a mother. With the anxiety natural to women in her circumstances, however, we may suppose her to hope till she could hope no longer. At length, her feelings as a wife gave way to her concern about her husband's glory and happiness; and she consents to Abram's having children by another, rather than that he should not have children at all. Projects formed and executed in haste, are generally repented of at leisure; and when we fly in the face either of nature or of religion, we shall speedily and infallibly find both the one and the other much too powerful for us. Sarai's was a lot to be envied by most women; beautiful and beloved even to old age; mistress of an ample fortune, and a numerous train of domestics; the wife of a prince, and, what is much more, of an amiable and excellent man. But the glory and joy of all these flattering circumstances were marred and diminished by one perverse accident," she bare Abram no children." Not blindly and capriciously, but in wisdom and in righteousness, the great God apportions to the sons of men good and evil in this life; that none may be exalted above measure, and that none may sink into dejection and despair. During Abram's sojourn in Egypt, Pharaoh, smitten with Sarai's beauty, had made his court to her, on the presumption of her being a single woman, by the usual modes of attention, and presents numerous and costly, suitable to his rank and the manners of the times; r sheep, oxen, he-asses, men-servants, maid-servants, she-asses, and camels." Of the female servants probably bestowed upon that occasion, one is now brought particularly into view, and occupies a conspicuous place henceforward in this history. The deception attempt