For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.”— Colossions, chap. 1. v, 19.

You are aware I am preaching to-night in behalf of the Wesleyan Chapel, New Radford. The chapel is in considerable debt, and I hope the friends will be as liberal as possible. It is always creditable, you know, to a minister, if the collection is good, for any benevolent object; because, if the collection is bad, you know, it seems to be a sort of thermometer that people measure the good feeling of the people by, and if the collection is bad, it seems to imply that the people are not very well pleased with the preacher. But, whether the collection is great or small, I should not like that to be the measurement. Praise the Lord! For I believe there in a good feeling, and I believe God will bless me to-night. Lift up your hearts in prayer to God.

This is the last sermon I expect to preach in England for the present. Where I shall preach again before I return to England I cannot tell. My heart says―

Captain of Israel's host, and Guide

Of all who seek the land above;

Beneath Thy shadow I abide,

The cloud of Thy protecting love:

My strength Thy grace, my rule Thy word,
My end the glory of the Lord.

By Thy unerring spirit led,

I shall not in the desert stray;
I shall not full direction need,
Nor miss my providential way;

As far from danger as from fear,
While love, Almighty love is near

And what is better than all poetry-" Honor the Lord in all thy ways, and He shall direct thy paths."

The text that I have chosen to-night, you will find in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians, the 19th verse. "For it pleaseth the Father that in him"—that is, in Jesus"should all fulness dwell.”

:

I have sometimes sat on an eminence since I have come to England, and I have watched the sun going down over the western hills; and as the sun was going down over the western hills of England,-Well, I have said, now that sun has to go away (vulgarly speaking), and it will inake its appearance in the eastern heavens again and then I have watched it, and seen it rising, and have cried out, THERE's A TREMENDOUS MOTION SOMEWHERE, and I do not know where. Astronomy tells me the earth goes about the sun; I cannot tell.-Why astronomers would call me a blockhead if I would not believe it :-Well, I suppose it is so; but after all, there's a mystery about the revolutions of the planets that I cannot understand. All I have been able to say in looking at it, is. I know not any principle in astronomy or philosophy which I would be willing to trust my soul upon in the present day.-Between the leaves of this bible I Do find something I can rest my soul upon.-I have seen the sun; and I have seen the moon, appearing in the western heavens like a ring on lady's finger, or more properly like a Turkish crescent, and I have watched her rising in full orbed majesty in the east ; and I have, said THERE'S MOTION SOMEWHERE.--But when I see MIND in motion, when I see the poor sinner on his knees crying for mercy, I am not at a loss about the motion there; I know its cause; it is at the centre; it originates in CHRIST; for it pleased the Father, that in Him should all fullness dwell.

And I have sat by the ocean shore, and have watched the tide coming in and I have watched it coming in, and it has beaten me back from rock to rock, and it has demanded every inch of me, and the language of the incoming tide has said Go back, go back! and if I dared to stand my ground it would come upon me to beat me back:-I have said, THERE'S TREMENDOUS MOTION SOMEWHERE; and I have watched the' tide filling every creek, every crevice along the shore; and I have said, THERE'S TREMENDOUS MOTION SOMEWHERE. Yea I have stood upon the banks of a mighty river, and I have seen that river rolling its tremendous volume of water to the ocean, and saying in powerful language to the sea, "Go back, and admit me:" I have stood, and, to my surprise, that river has been stopped, and a voice from the mighty ocean has said, "No further! back with you!" And I have seen that river running back again to its source and nobody said it

was a miracle, because they say it is the regular course of nature—aye, but I say IT IS A MIGHTY MIRACLE And I have said, THERE'S A TREMENDOUS CENTRE OF MOTION SOMEWHERE but where is it?-There I stopped there I have stopped and, in all that I have read about the tides of the sea, I cannot understand it.-I cannot understand why you have two miles of tide,-one mile, two miles, three miles of tide, on the shores of England,-in Naples six inches, and so on;-why, I answer, I cannot tell: ITS MYSTERY ALL! And there's as great a mystery about the tides of the ocean as some of the infidels talk about the mysteries of Chrisanity. But when I watched the tide and said, How's this? I dared not drown myself like Aristotle because I could not tell the mystery of the tides.-God keep the poor infidel who will send his soul to hell because he cannot understand the myste.ries of creation.

I have stood in a population of hundreds of thousands of souls, and I have seen a mighty mass of men going down, in one dark black current, to the cataract of hell; and, GLORY BE TO GOD I have stood besides the banks of that river, and have seen the tide parted backward, and running backward, contrary to the course of nature, by a Power:-and have cried out, my God, who hath turned these towards heaven ? and I have not been at a loss on that point.-If I cannot explain the tide, I do know what caused that mind-motion. That motion of mind comes from heaven. And there was a power here last night, bless God, to turn the whole sinners of Nottingham in a moment! and where is that centre of power? It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell,

ALL FULNESS IN CHRIST! I have sometimes thought. the apostle St. Paul took the sun, the solar system, and made it a sort of a type of the gospel; that, as the sun is the centre of the solar system, and as all the other systems are directed by this sun, and by the same powerful attraction kept in their orbs; so St. Paul places Jesus Christ as the great centre and sun of all the doctrines and ordinances of Christanity and he places Him in the centre, and all the doctrines revolve around Him. He's the centre of all that is in Christianity, And let every person read this chapter over, and you will see how beautifully he represents Christ.-Hear how he goes on. "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who

hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.', So, His dear Son's got a kingdom, and therefore is a king: and that is the first step, the kingly authority of Jesus Christ,-"In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgivenes of sins ;---"through His blood;" UNITARIAN? STOP THERE !---" Forgiveness of sins through His blood' ---Some persons talk about the atonement, and about merit ;---well, well, well, well, well, we are not going to quarrel about merit but is not this merit, ---"in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins?”—Do as you like; discard merit if you like; there is forgiveness through blood, make what you will of it. That is one step; what's the nexf?--Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature."---You will find out what he made Christ, before you have done with it.---For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible, and invisible.' What! is Christ the creator of the world? Yes, ne is.---All things, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him.---"Ah but!" says one, "he had a delegated power."---Oh, no, ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM AND FOR HIM;"---they were made for him: He made them, and they were His own "and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.

There is a fulness in Christ in many ways, but I shall promise no more than one at a time: then I can stop when I think you are tired, or when it is proper to stop. Lift up your hearts in prayer.

There is a fulness in Christ,-my text says it,-of light, of mercy, of power, of grace of everything the soul of man needs fulness of benevolence, of merit, of intercession :-for it is said, "He ever liveth to make intercession for us:-and "There is one mediator between God and man,--Christ Jesus." Therefore in Christ all fulness dwells.

The first thing I want to touch upon is this:- that unless the measure of that fulness,-take which point of the fulness you will,-is communicated to the sinner, he never can see himself as a sinner: I hold that to be an unquestionable pro