witness! O I speak in feebleness, I cannot throw might into my language; I cannot breathe words which shall take a lasting form and substance, and fall on the worldly-minded among you; but they die not: I seem to hear them reverberate from a thousand echoes, louder and louder, deeper and deeper, and swelling the knell which must be rung over lost spirits. Men and brethren, there must be carefulness on both sides; preaching may witness against the people, and it may witness against the minister. If it be faithful and be rejected, it must witness against the people, and the minister is free from the blood of his hearers. If it be defective as an exhibition of the great truths of the Gospel, it will witness against the minister when he gives account of his stewardship. You may well believe I would earnestly shun being a witness at the last against either you or myself; and to this end there must be diligence on my part that it be the Gospel which I preach, and a prayerful endeavour on yours to receive with meekness the engrafted word. We have now reached that season of the year at which I have been accustomed to seek relaxation from the duties of my office, and for that recruiting of my bodily energies which is indispensable to their continued discharge; and for a few weeks, therefore, we are to be separated. It is a solemn connexion between a minister and his people. I pray God, that whatever in my past ministrations has been agreeable to his word may yet dwell in your memories, and influence your lives; and that if there has been anything at variance with sound doctrine, he may grant to myself pardon for its utterance, and to you wisdom to detect, and strength to reject, the error; and if permitted to resume this mine office, he will grant me, I trust, grace to discharge it with increased faithfulness, and bestow upon you, in yet larger measure, the hearing ear, and the teachable spirit. As to the time of my absence (about which, I believe, there is a misunderstanding)—it is not likely to be longer than on former years; I leave you with the full hope and intention, if such be the will of God, to return to you after just the same interval as on past similar occasions. It is my regret that I have been compelled to labour less frequently among you than I once did, but it is cause of thankfulness to God that I feel no necessity for absenting myself longer than usual from this scene of my labour. "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." These were the words of the Apostle to the elders of Ephesus, and as delivered by the Apostle, they had all the pathos of the words of a dying man; for he had just said, "Behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more." I cannot throw the like pathos into my words; but life is made up of uncertainties, and those who separate, for a few weeks, do well in not reckoning too confidently on meeting again in the flesh. Will no unit in this still assembly, be withdrawn ere those weeks are passed from the sum of human existence? Or if all who listen be spared, may not he who speaks be called away? Be it so; I know where a minister's grave should be, and I know what should be his monument: his grave should be in the hearts of those to whom he has witnessed, and his monument-not the sculptured brass, or the breathing marble, or the poetic eulogy-but the pressing onwards to immortality of the people over whom he was set. May God make you all followers of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises! THE WORLD'S IGNORANCE OF CHRISTIANS. REV. W. JAY. SURREY CHAPEL, JUNE 21, 1829. "The world knoweth us not.”—1 JOHN, iii. 1. We shall consider these words as the language of truth, and not of complaint; a remark which it will be proper for you to carry with you through the whole of the ensuing discourse. The Christian grieves that the world is ignorant of its religious welfare: but he is not ignorant of his own; he is informed, he is convinced; he says he will act independent of others. He will go on, if universally deserted; he will move forward, if universally opposed. He is too wise to be defeated, too much attached to be drawn aside by allurements, too dignified to descend from his elevation to crouch to meanness. "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance." The path of life is light to the wise. He can say with Nehemiah, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down." Let us proceed with our subject. To do some justice to it let us consider three things. The first regards the world. The second, The world's ignorance of Christians. The third, The Christian's independence of the world: for I think no doubt but we shall be able to make it appear before the close of the sermon, that if the world knoweth us not we can go on very well without it. First, let us consider what is here mentioned as the subject-THE WORLD. Now the world here means the world of which the Saviour says Satan is the Prince; and of which Paul says Satan is the God. "The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me." "The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not." He is called the Prince of this world because they are his subjects, and he rules over them, and in them. And he is called the God of this world because they love him. Be not astonished at the language, Satan has his sabbaths, and his sanctuaries, his ministers, his preachers, his ineans and ordinances, as well as the God of Truth. When, therefore, a sinner is converted, he is said to be turned from the power of Satan unto God: turned from his power as a prince, and turned from his power as a god. Further, the world here means the unbelieving world, and the reason is, because it is always in the Scripture spoken of as being in the way of destruction, and you are dissuaded from it. Thus we read that to walk according to the course of this world, is to walk according to the Prince of the power of the air. Hence, says Paul, "Be not conformed to this world." Hence, says James, "Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." And hence says John, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." Further, the wicked are called the world, not only because they are worldly, but because they have been, down to this time, immensely the majority of mankind. There was a time when every imagination of the heart was evil continually, and when Noah was seen alone righteous in that generation. Ten righteous men would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah, but ten righteous men were not there. How few would have preserved Israel in the time of Jeremiah! "Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it." And says the Apostle John in this epistle, "We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." Oh, yes, some are ready to say, but it is not so now. Take, then, first, a globe, and colour all the parts of the earth where Christianity, in any form, in any degree prevails; and, if you are a Christian, your feelings must be shocked at the sight of the smallness of the dimensions; you must fall on your knees, and say, "Let thy ways be known on earth, thy saving health among all nations." Then take a Christian country, and examine the inhabitants take a single village, and observe the tempers and lives of the rustics, and then see whether the stones in their churchyards are chargeable with truth or falsehood when they tell you that all the parish is gone or going to heaven. Then take a congregation, one of a more evangelical complexion, and follow them out from the house of God into common life; and let candour itself tell you how many of these abide with God in their calling, how many walk in the fear of the Lord all the day long. "Broad is the road that leads to death, "The The Second regards THE WORLD'S IGNORANCE OF CHRISTIANS. world knoweth us not," that is, it does not distinguish us, it does not approve of us, it actually dislikes and opposes us that is the threefold meaning of the expression. When it is said the world knoweth us not, it means that it does not discern us. In fact, they generally keep aloof from Christians; they hear few of their words, and see few of their actions, and never see what makes them Christians. They have an absolute inability to judge; they cannot know what a Christian is, I mean as to his principles, as to his conduct, as to his heavenly resources. Therefore the Apostle says, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual knoweth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." Here is the difference between the Christian and the natural man. The Christian knows the natural man, but the natural man does not know the Christian. The natural man has never been in the Christian's condition; but the Christian has been in his condition. The natural man does not know what the service of God is; but the Christian knows what the service of the world is, and he knows it is not pleasantness and peace; he knows that it is not liberty, but bondage; he well knows that whatever the profession of its votaries may be, they are only instances of hypocrisy ; for he knows that his God has said, "There is no peace to the wicked." The world therefore knoweth them not. The people of the world wonder you do not run with them to the same excess: they think it strange you can turn your backs from these scenes of dissipation, which seem essential to their very life, not being aware of the change that has taken place in you-not aware that you have discovered something infinitely better-not aware that you can now as easily resign these as a man can refuse the toys of infancy, or as a thirsty traveller can refuse the dirty puddle when he has discovered the fountain of living waters. They think it strange that you are happy and tranquil under losses and trials, which, to use the words of Isaiah, make them “roar like mad bulls." They can see your burdens, but they cannot see the everlasting arms that are laid under you. They can see your afflictions-alas! these are all visible enough-but they cannot see your access to the throne of the heavenly grace: they cannot see your enjoyments and comforts in the Holy Ghost: they cannot see how, when ready to faint, you believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Then they think it strange that you are active and zealous in those services which, instead of bringing you worldly repute and advantage, often draw on you reproach, and occasion you self-denial. For they are ignorant of the grand lever in your character; they know not the main spring of the machinery; they know not the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. You run all over the world to gather resemblances of him, and then you say: "All are too mean to speak his worth, Too mean to set the Saviour forth." He has no form or comeliness in him that they should desire him. They therefore say, "What is your beloved more than another beloved that you so charge us?" But "the world knoweth us not." They are equally ignorant of the nature of your sorrow: and because it is said that you are to come with weeping as well as supplication; because they know that repentance is not confined to the beginning of the Christian life, but is to pervade the whole of it; they conclude you must be very gloomy, and mopish, and melancholy: whereas, you know that there is a pleasure even in that, and that your repenting hours have been your happiest, aud that you have found more satisfaction at the foot of the cross in beholding him whom you have pierced, than you ever found in the pleasure of sin. You know that they who mourn shall be blessed as well as comforted. The world is always ready to charge Christians with Antinomianism: whereas if they knew all they would find Christians bewailing before God their sins, and mourning over their infirmities, their wandering thoughts, and their imperfections in their motives, which their despisers cannot discern at all. There is nothing in which the ignorance of the world is more apparent than in thinking the doctrines of the Gospel have a licentious tendency: They will have it that a Christian may live as he lists. There is a sense in which this is true-not in the meaning of their censure, but in another view they may, they do live as they list. You may say of a man, he may wallow in the mire. But he cannot. Why can he not? has he not legs and feet to carry him into the ditch, as well as the sow? Yes, but he has not the same disposition. You may say of a mother that she will throw her son into the river; but she will not. Why? has she not hands and strength to throw it in? Yes, but it would be against every feeling of her nature. "Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?" Now, it is the same with the world; they judge by themselves, they suppose that Christians deem sin to be lawful; whereas it is not only their avoidance, but their abhorrence, and therefore they are not likely to indulge in it even if their sentiments would allow it. They suppose that Christians deem holiness to be something of a caste; whereas they feel it to be their privilege. Holiness is their privilege, and therefore they are not likely to disregard it. But the world knoweth us not. And this non-discernment of Christians by the world is aided by their external circumstances often. "The King's daughter is all glorious within," but not without—that is, according to the estimation of carnal men. Had you seen the tabernacle in the wilderness you would have seen a common tent covered with badgers' skins and rams' skins dyed red; but if you had entered in, there was Deity upon the mercy-seat between the cherubim. It is the same with Christians: the light of the Christian is hid, and it is hid not only in his principles, in his resources, in his experience, but it is hid in the obscurity of his condition, in his penury, in the reproach thrown upon him. You very well know that nothing makes a figure in the eyes of some people but money, and power, and authority, and rank. Now, if a Christian is to be judged by this standard, "not many wise, not many mighty are called." But, after all, this is the lowest sense of the expression. When it is said, the world knoweth us not, the meaning is, it does not approve of us. The word know" is often to be taken in this sense for complaisance, acknowledgment. Thus the Apostle John says, "If any man love God, the same will be loved of him." Thus Paul says, "Know them who labour among you and are over you in the word," that is, acknowledge them in a manner becoming their calling. Now how does the world stand here with regard to this? As far as it discerns them does it admire them? Does it esteem them? Does it esteem them as regenerate and spiritual? For this is the question. There is another sense in which they may like them; not because of their spiritual and heavenly-minded qualities; but, if I may so express myself, notwithstanding these, and in spite of these, there is a sense in which they may like them. For they may have other claims; they may be relations, they may be friends, they may be handsome, they may be gentle. Why not? They may be learned as well as others, and amiable and agreeable as well as others. And thus they may approve of them -not because they are born of God, not because they are renewed after his image. The people of the world must often come in contact with real Christians; but they do not make them their models, their chosen companions; they do not wish to be intimate with them when most at home: when they are in their own elements, when they are engaged in spiritual concerns, they know them not, and they would be withdrawn from them. People of the world are under obligations to Christians. Christians are useful to all. For their sakes it is the very frame of nature continues; for their sakes judgments are withheld or withdrawn; for their sakes blessings are bestowed or continued. If they occupy no public situation or office, if they are hardly known to their neighbours, yet they have power; they retire and pray, and their supplications ascend to heaven. Yet the ungrateful world knows them not. If men serve the state they are enriched and advanced. When does |