of the Saviour, inexhaustible in its fulness, and present in its supplies, is ever accessible; and, in all your journey through the wilderness, invites your most frequent application. Draw near, encouraged by invaluable promises, which give energy to faith, and ensure success to hope.

But keep in mind, that on you rest peculiar obligations to seek the salvation of others. When the eyes of Hagar were opened, "and she saw a well of water," she not only went and took a supply for herself; but she gave to her child, and he also drank. -And are you refreshed with this "living water?" Forget not the condition of your families and of your friends. Are not their necessities similar to your own? And does not the affection you feel prompt you to seek their happiness? What can we think of that parent, that husband, that master, whose only care is for himself, and who seems content, that his nearest connexions should perish in ignorance and sin?-Remember also, that your neighbours around you, and the world at large, are all in urgent need of this "living water;" and are you not aiding its universal diffusion? Surely, it is at once your duty and your honour to do so. "Be ready to distribute, willing to communicate" of this inestimable good. It may be dispensed to others, without impoverishing yourselves; rather you hereby become enriched. The blessings of grace, in Christ Jesus, are a fountain; and the wider its streams are diffused, the deeper they become: while the fountain itself remains inexhaustible, ever rising, and "springing up into everlasting life.

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SERMON XV.

THE LIGHT OF TRUTH.

PSALM CXix. 130.

The entrance of thy words giveth light. MAN is not what he originally was: created in the image of his Maker, the resemblance is gone: knowledge is lost in ignorance, and holiness is sunk in depravity and guilt. In reflecting on our present state and character, we have much cause of grief and shame; for, with all our external advantages, we are strangely unacquainted with what is right, prone to evil, and averse to good: "having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of the heart."

But there is a remedy exactly meeting the discase of fallen man: there is life for the "dead in trespasses in sins:" there is "light for them that sit in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death." -The entrance of thy words giveth light.

Were any of us in a state of natural blindness, deprived of sight, lost to all the beauties of creation, and to the numberless advantages of vision; how welcome would be the news of light? How cheering the thought that the power of enjoying it might be

attained! But here is light for the mind; the light of truth and grace beaming on the heart, and diffusing its benign influence through all the faculties of the soul! It is a subject on which we may speculate; but let us desire to feel it: let us pray that our knowledge of it may be personal and experimental.

The text implies-that the words of God are a LIGHT that there are HINDRANCES TO THE ADMISSION of this light into the heart-that these obstructions MAY BE REMOVED- and that when removed, the most BENEFICIAL EFFECTS are produced, and must follow.

I. The words of God are a LIGHT.

No effect can rise higher than its cause, and nothing can impart what it does not possess; that which gives light on its entrance into the human heart, must be light, or at least have the property of communicating light. Thus David speaks: "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Solomon also: "For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; and the reproofs of instruction are the way of life." The Apostle Paul mentions with emphasis, "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ;" and Peter, referring to the same revelation of truth, and grace, and love, calls it "a light that shineth in a dark place, whereunto we do well that we take heed."

But the words of God are not a light within us, but without us; a visible and external benefit. The sun in the firmament diffuses its beams, it shines abroad, but has no power of giving sight; a man who is born blind, or who has lost the faculty of seeing, is strictly in darkness, notwithstanding the existence of day. In like manner, the holy Scriptures are a light, a light from Heaven: they spread the most essential knowledge, and are adapted to produce the most beneficial effects; but multitudes are

not savingly benefited by them: their minds are still dark, and their hearts remain impenitent and unholy.

It deserves to be very carefully considered whether it may not be thus with some of you. When the holy Scriptures are read, and when these sacred truths are dispensed in the preaching of the Gospel, light is diffused; but it does not follow, as a thing of course, that you receive the light, or that its saving and transforming efficacy is felt. It is a serious thing, in any case, to be in a state of spiritual darkness; but to remain in such a condition, and to prefer it in the midst of evangelical mercies, is criminal and dangerous in the extreme! The guilt of Tyre and Sidon did not equal that of Chorazin and Bethsaida, because of the preaching of our blessed Lord, and the miracles which confirmed the truth of his mission and doctrines; so neither does the guilt of heathen nations resemble yours by many degrees. Elevated in privileges, your obligations bear an exact proportion; and tremendous is the woe denounced against the despisers and rejecters of the Gospel. "This is the condemnation," the heaviest aggravation of guilt, the surest cause of punishment, and the bitterest ingredient of misery,

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that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil*."

II. Something HINDERS THE ADMISSION of this light into the heart.

The text speaks of "the entrance" of the words of God in such a way as supposes that in every case they have not entered. The fact is, that multitudes are not only destitute of light, but there is in the heart a strong barrier against it: men oppose it:

#John iii. 19.

!

as our Lord himself observes, who perfectly understood the subject, "Every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved*."

Hence we learn what this barrier against the word of God is; what hinders its admission, or operates to exclude it from the heart.-Principally it is sin ; the power of sin, and the love of sin: these are opposed to every dictate of heavenly truth, and counteract its salutary effects. "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee;" but where sin prevails it excludes the word, and thus its dominion is easily maintained. It is the sentiment of decided piety: "Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it." But an unconverted man cannot adopt this sentiment: he may utter the words with his lips, but he means them not in his heart. The love of sin can never consist with the love of truth in its purity: whatever is pretended or professed, where sin reigns Divine truth has no place in the sincere affection of the soul..

The influence of the world also is unfriendly to the reception of the truth.-In how many unhappy instances it fills the mind, and closes every avenue to the heart! The interests of the world and of genuine religion are contrary to each other; the claims of the world and of God are opposite: "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.' Some are depressed with the cares and anxieties of the world; others are elated with its fascinating smiles; not a few are occupied in the eager search of its precarious comforts; while multitudes are amused with its empty promise, and deluded with its fallacious prospects. This being the case, what is the treatment of Divine truth? Appeal to your own

* John iii. 20.