richly." It is the store-house of spiritual blessings: apply to it daily for the supply of every need. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye have eternal life" and abundant consolation. One word of GOD, applied to the heart by the HOLY SPIRIT, can turn sighs into songs, tears into triumphs. What, think ye, were the feelings of David, when he was assured by Nathan, that the LORD had put away his sin? what the tranquillity of Abraham, when he heard the manifested and Personal Word of JEHOVAH saying to him, "Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward"? what the sweet composure of Peter, when he was enabled to recollect, that JESUS had said to him, "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not"? what the invigorated sensibilities of Paul, when the LORD said unto him, "My grace is sufficient for thee"? Brethren, consider, that "all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition" and encouragement. It is the office of the SPIRIT to make a particular application of these and similar declarations of Scripture to our hearts; so that we may hear God speaking in these words to our souls, and participate with David, and Abraham, and Peter, and Paul, in that hope, and peace, and confidence, and joy, which they felt, when these gracious assurances were given to them audibly, as from God Himself. Live up to your privileges, therefore, ye who know the grace of GOD in truth. There is a fund of

exuberant consolation provided for you in Scripture: let it be your endeavour to receive daily of these unsearchable riches of CHRIST." And, that such may be your happy experience, continually remember, that the HOLY GHOST is the COMFORTER, by whom the words of CHRIST are rendered effectual to the production of spiritual peace and joy. Depend, then, upon His promised energy to enlighten your minds, to affect your hearts, to calm your fears, to alleviate your sorrows, and to witness with your spirits, that ye are the children of GoD-the accepted and justified disciples of JESUS—and the heirs of all the blessedness which God can confer, and Heaven itself contain.

And is such the blessed privilege of the true Christian? Does he cherish such hopes? Does he feel such consolation? Must it not then be acknowledged, that he has chosen the better part? What do the worldly-minded, and the gay, and the honourable, and the wealthy possess, that can be compared with the present, much less with the future advantages and satisfactions of Godliness? Have they a Comforter abiding with them for ever? Have they a balm for the woes of mortality? Oh, when the day of adversity shrouds them in its cloudy gloomwhen their prospects of happiness are blighted, and the phantoms of earthly pleasure elude their grasp— when "riches make to themselves wings and fly away"-and the thoughtless, and heartless votaries of fashion and frivolity desert the victim of sorrow and

suffering, and disease preys upon the body, and the shadow of death darkens the portal of the earthly house of their tabernacle, and the spirit feels wretched in the present, and desponding for the future—when any or all of these things come upon "the men of the world," from what source can they derive relief? from what quarter can they obtain consolation? Must they not turn to all on which their hearts had been fixed, and with the bitterness of disappointment exclaim, "Miserable comforters are ye all!" Pitiable indeed is the condition of such. But, brethren, this must, sooner or later, be your condition, if destitute of the regenerating and sanctifying influences of the HOLY GHOST. The wicked and unregenerate, no less than the people of God, are exposed to manifold trials and afflictions. Suffering is the certain effect of sin; and every heart of man is the habitation of sorrow. The infant enters into life weeping; and the path of manhood is marked with tears. Like the dove of Noah, the soul flutters over the troubled waters of life, seeking rest, but finding none. One expedient is tried after another, until at length the wearied and afflicted individual is obliged to confess with Solomon, that "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." But the Gospel holds out an all-sufficient good. Come therefore, brethren, and accept the needful blessing. Let your experience of trouble and affliction induce you to seek after the consolatory influences of the HOLY GHOST. He is the COMFORTER,

Ask then, that

the only effectual COMFORTER of man. you may receive His refreshing and cheering communications, and, amidst all the trials and sorrows of life, enjoy that Heavenly peace and confidence, which "neither things present, nor things to come, nor life, nor death, nor any other creature" can take away. And, for the encouragement of those, who have not hitherto received the HOLY GHOST-that they may, without delay, seek His converting grace; as well as for the enlivening of the real Christian's hopes and desires after still further communications of His consoling and sanctifying influence-let us all remember the compassionate assurance of our gracious SAVIOUR, Who said, "If a son shall ask bread of any “of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? 66 or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how "to give good gifts unto your children, how much "more shall your HEAVENLY FATHER give the HOLY "SPIRIT to them that ask Him?" Luke xi. 11-13.

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May God, of His infinite mercy, bestow this inestimable benefit upon all here present; that so we may be happy in life, triumphant over death, and blessed in that eternity, where Saints and Angels unite in ascribing to the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY GHOST, all honour and glory, might, majesty, and dominion, world without end! Amen.

SERMON XIII.

THE WIDOW OF NAIN.

LUKE Vii. 13.

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her; and said unto her, Weep not.

SIN has turned the world into a wilderness; Paradise the garden of pleasure, into Baca the valley of tears. In every land, the thorn and the thistle spring up of their own accord, the sad productions of the earth, cursed for the sin of man; and in every land, also, the sighs and the sorrows, the tears and the troubles of its inhabitants, bear witness of their guilt, and prove the solemn but too often forgotten truth, that the "way of transgressors is hard." But amidst the mournful condition to which man has by sin reduced himself and all around him, we see many a comforting indication of the mercy and long-suffering goodness of GOD. If the earth be barren in some places, yet are there many valleys of fruitfulness upon its surface; and where the thorns and thistles abound to remind us of the justice, the trees which are "pleasant to the sight and good for food," and the corn and fruits which are so plentifully