him, unless he is "looking unto Jesus:" and let me urge on you, my brethren, with all plainness of admonition, the warning; that no man is, to any effectual purpose, “looking unto Jesus," who does not by the observance of those Christian duties which I have mentioned, endeavour continually to set him vi. sibly before himself.

But if I would earnestly impress this truth on all, much more would I urge it upon you, the young, who hear me; you who purpose, I trust, to run as hopeful candidates in the race which leads, if steadily pursued, to a "crown of glory that fadeth not away."* Now is the favorable moment for you to lay aside every weight, and "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."+ May you, while yet in the commencement of your course, consider its

* 1 Peter v. 4. + Philippians iii. 13-14.

end: young as you are now, and going onward with a light and joyous step, which seems only to tread on flowers; remember, I implore you, that your journey is full of peril, and that nothing will enable you to "finish your course with joy,"* unless from the outset you"lay aside every weight;" unless you are freed from the encumbrance of every sin, and day by day "look unto Jesus" as to "the friend that sticketh closer than a brother,"† "the author and finisher of our faith :" as to him, whose spirit shall enlighten you in every difficulty-whose grace shall "be sufficient for you" in every temptation-and through whose intercession if you "run with patience the race that is set before you" you shall finally be presented "faultless before the presence" of God, to whom "be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

* Acts xx. 24. + Proverbs xviii. 24.

|| Jude 24-25.

2 Cor. xii. 9.

SERMON III.

ROMANS viii. 28.

"AND WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD, TO THEM WHO ARE THE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE."

THESE words form part of a general declaration of St. Paul, which has given frequent occasion for entering into the discussion of a deep and mysterious subject—the foreknowledge and purposes of Almighty God respecting his children. It is, no doubt, to be desired, that as the sacred writers did not themselves dwell so much on the hidden counsels, as on the plain requirements of God, so in like manner men would follow their wise example, and

insist, both with others, and with their own consciences, on the plain duties and revelations of Christianity, rather than on points which we shall never clearly discern till the veil which shrouds mortality shall have been taken away, and we admitted to see God as he is, and "to know, even as we are known."

The language which follows the text-" for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son," and which declares farther that whom God did predestinate, he, in due time, " called," and

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justified," and "glorified,"* is a declaration in itself plain, though involving the deep things of God. If we consider this language as it has reference to the Almighty, it is plain, and consistent even with our imperfect ideas of the Godhead; for it declares no more than that God is omniscient-that to him the past, the present, and the future are but one; and that as the natural eye sees at a glance all

* Romans viii, 29-30.

that is subjected to its limited vision, so that God always from the first beheld every possible combination of moral and physical agency, and the results: it declares only that "known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.”*

But if the language of St. Paul, viewed in connection with the text, might, for a moment, induce the idea of some partial and limited offer of salvation, as confined to individuals foreknown, and predestinate, and justified, and glorified; we have only to continue our perusal of the chapter, and we shall find, to use the language of the Apostle, "what to say to these things." Writing an Epistle "to all that be in Rome, called to be saints," that is, all who in that city had received the faith of the Gospel; writing, moreover, to a large society, known only to him as yet by the report of their steadfastness in the faith; not having had opportunity to discharge any personal

*Acts xv. 18. † Romans i. 7.