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zeal of the church, that is expanding like the leaven that shall leaven the whole lump, and diffuse itself throughout the world.

God is present, positively and personally present, in every scene of idolatry. God is positively present in every heathen temple; he is present at every idolatrous festival; he is actually present in the very midst of the worshippers of all man's absurd and ridiculous superstitions. Aye, he is in the presence of his whole church; he is observing them, and his eye is upon them all; he is listening to their insults, observing their blasphemies, their fanaticism, their absurdity, and yet he does not put forth directly his power to enlighten, to convert, to sanctify, and to make them all that he could delight in. But he could do that, and why does he not do it? God in his benevolence and love to mankind, is personally present in the midst of them all; why, then, is it they are not brought to him and taught to love him? Why, because the instrument is not there, the record is not there, the preaching and interpreting of the record is not there; the instrumentality that he has determined to employ is not there, and therefore God cannot work; it may be said with perfect propriety, God cannot work, because he determines to do it by instruments; as he is necessary to us, we are, in some measure, necessary to him; it is from the necessity of things that God is necessary to us, but it is of his own sovereign pleasure that we are necessary to him. Let us remember always, that human instrumentality is necessary in order that the little stone may become a mountain, and fill the whole earth.

Now, why has not the stone grown larger? Why is it not by this time a mountain? Why does it not fill the whole earth? A great many reasons may be found, some of which we have to refer to the divine sovereignty, to the secret things that belong to God. But there are other things that belong to us, and causes to which we ought to give the most earnest heed. For my part, 1 have no hesitation at all about saying, that I think the connexion, alliance, and confederacy, unnatural and improper friendship of the church with the world, has been a great obstacle in the past ages of Christianity, and in the present, to the going forth of God's chariot in all its freedom and in all its power. Men have taken God's chariot, have decorated it, and emblazoned it, and have put upon it their splendid furniture: thus, impeding its wheels and preventing it from going on in all its freedom, conquering and to conquer. I am afraid they have done more; they have frequently put another chariot in the place of God's chariot, and then more injury was done than good. Just the same impiety and absurdity that would have been committed, if, when Jericho was to fall they had substituted gold or silver trumpets for the rude ram's-horns they were directed to employ; or if they had decorated their rams'-horns with all the little bits of finery and all the splendour they could exhibit, for the purpose of giving dignity and patronage to Almighty God. Oh, no, brethren, the stone was cut out without hands. The Christian church, before it was encumbered with wealth, went on with God in the midst of her, and the shout of a king accompanied her; and it will do so again! We exult in the thought-we feel confident in it.

This great and delightful object has been impeded by the oblivion of the church. The church forgot both the duty and the privilege of the work: she soon forgot when she fell into luxury and case, the solemn obligation resting upon her from Christ, that so long as there was a corner of the earth in which there was not a preacher, the command remained to be fulfilled-" Go into a

the carth, and preach the Gospel to every creature." We are not alive to the fulness and the intensity of this obligation yet; we forget that duty and privilege, obligation and honour, are united, and that the highest glory of man is, to be a co-worker with God, to sympathize, as it were, with God's mind, with God's aid, and with God's purposes; to be as it were appropriated, taken hold of, and united by the Divine Being to himself; to be employed as a fellow agent in carrying on that great work which is emphatically termed the plan of Jehovah, on which the eternal mind looks with complacency. There is nothing grander than this in heaven, and angels feel themselves honoured in the fufilment of these duties and obligations, aiding in any manner God's great purposes of benevolence in the universe: they feel it to be an honour to be employed here in the work which rests on you and me, at once as an obligation, and as a manifestation of the kindness and benevolence of God in giving us a privilege so splendid, a duty so magnificent. But we have forgotten this. We want our Sensibilities refined in order that we may perceive all the goodness of God towards us, in making the conversion of the world to rest upon the church. It will be well, then, to remember that the Gospel dispensation is here spoken of under the idea of a kingdom—the kingdom of God, setting up a kingdom. But, brethren, I cannot close without saying, that if you and I are true Christians, as we profess to be, we are subjects of the kingdom of God. A kingdom implies laws, authority, duty, respect, reverence for the government under which we live, under which we act, and by which we are protected. Let us feel that, and let us act as obedient, devoted, humble, faithful subjects of Him who is the Head and King of that government under which we live, and by which we are protected. Remember that the kingdom of God is within you, in the reign and power of principle, in the influence of the Spirit and the power of God operating upon the heart. Oh, how this animates us when we think of it! What, am I beset and surrounded by enemies? Have I adversaries? Am I called to a warfare-am I called to a contest? Yes; but the kingdom of God is within me; I have the power of God on my side; I have omnipotence to aid me, and, therefore, so long as my faith keeps hold of the attributes of God, these attributes are continually by me, they are on my side, they are round about me, and the enemy must pierce through them to injure me. God is our defence, our refuge, our home, our resting place, our security, and our strong tower. There is something delightful, both in thinking that we are under the government of God as subjects, and that we have the kingdom of God within us to give us vigour for the work of Christ.

Then I think we may feel from this subject, that we need have no fears about the ultimate realization of the intentions of God, all our fear ought to be with respect to ourselves; our fear should be, whether we are faithful to our trust, faithful to our God, faithful to our country, faithful to our church, faithful to the world, faithful to posterity. They are in our hands; they are in the hands of the church-that church which is the salt of the earth, which is to be the light of the world, from which is to go forth all healing influence, and all pure and accurate knowledge. We occupy a solemn position in the church of God, coming in between the fountain of eternal truth, of eternal light and joy, and those dark places of the earth, that are full of the habitations of cruelty, which are to be illumined and vivified through us. We are standing between the living and the dead; between the eternal God-between the throne of God and the hearts and spirits of his ignorant creatures. That is the position of

God's people: it is a solemn and awful position; and it becomes us to feel it, that we may be impressed with its obligation, as well as feel its delight.

And now, brethren, at the close of nearly another year, oh, let us impress upon our hearts that we shall soon have done with days, and months, and years, and times. We shall soon pass into that determined and fixed state, in which we shall have to experience, either the results and consequences of dying in our sins, for ever and ever; or experience the results and consequences of the mediation and sacrifice of Him in whom we profess to trust, and in whom we profess to believe. Oh, brethren, though we are so near the end of another of those great divisions of our time, yet the message may be sent with respect to some of us, even yet, so late, just upon the close of this division of our time- This year," into the last month of which we have now entered—“ This year thou shalt die." Some of you before the termination of this month may know the grand secret; you may have penetrated into the eternal world, and entered on that everlasting and unchanging kingdom, to which the kingdom of which we have been speaking leads, and is introductory. Happy, happy are they to whom sudden death will be but a sudden, abundant, glorious entrance into the presence of our God and his Christ! Is that your case-is it mine? Oh, brethren, are we thus living-are we thus preparing to die? Are we dying daily? Are we ready to be offered? Are we feeling an anxiety to be thus fitted for our departure? Yes, brethren, you and I shall soon be gono; we shall soon have left this glorious and noble work to others; our prayers will be ended, and our preaching will be ended, and our efforts will be ended! Oh, shall we meet before the throne of God, and of the Lamb? Shall we form a part of that great and glorious company which shall constitute God's redeemed church; be satisfied with his likeness, and happy in his presence? May God grant that these few practical hints may be impressed upon our hearts; that his kingdom may come, and that his will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven, and that you and I may be fitted by the sanctification of the Spirit to do that will, and to enjoy the beatitudes and the blessedness that are in reserve for his faithful people!

21

ISAIAH'S VISION.

REV. J. STRATTEN,

PADDINGTON CHAPEL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1833.

*In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke."—ISAIAH vi. 1—4.

66

"In

"In the year that king Uzziah died," which, according to chronology, was the year in which Romulus, the founder of the Roman empire, was born. the year that king Uzziah died :” for kings must die: "All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of grass." The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, all the beauty, and all the wealth of the world, await alike the inevitable hour.

"The path of glory leads but to the grave."

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" But God lives; he is the Everlasting King; his throne endureth to all generations; his dominion does not pass away: and he revealed himself in unwonted splendour and majesty to the mind of his prophet when king Uzziah died. And so we are to look away from the mortality and mutability of man to the immortality and immutability of God. Uzziah died under a cloud; his character was eclipsed; he did that which he ought not: but God's glory is unshadowed, the divine honour is unimpeached; the purity of heaven shines forth the brighter amid the guilt and the infirmity of man.

"In the year that king Uzziah died," was this vision. I may remark, that all the communications of God and of his truth to the mind of man, have been gradual and progressive. There was some radiance in the first promise; there was a brighter light in the patriarchal age; the records of Moses contained still more illumination; every prophet added something to the common stock; and, at length, "Life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel." It is so in individual minds. First of all, there is but a dim and imperfect apprehension of the elemental truths; in process of time, there is a firmer grasp of them, and a clearer insight into them obtained; at last, there is the full-grown man in the knowledge of the Gospel, an arrival at the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. And it is so with men in office, with inspired men in the church, with those who sustain ministerial functions. Moses received his illumination by degrees; David did not receive the plenitude of inspiration all at once; Ezekiel and Daniel saw one vision of the Lord after another: the Apostles were pre

pared for their ministry by three years' tuition of Jesus Christ; and even after that, they were not fully qualified until the communication of the Pentecostal day; and, which is the most extraordinary illustration of all, even of Christ himself it is said, that he "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." So we find the prophet before us, who had exercised the duties of his ministry many years antecedently to this period, now confirmed, as it were, in the prophetical office. There were larger and more amazing communications of God and his truth to his mind; there was a new era, so to speak, in his ministry and prophetical functions. And I may take occasion to observe, that there are now times and seasons in which the mind of a man of God is baptized with a deeper, a richer, and more overflowing unction; there are periods in which his spirit is awakened and stirred within him by fresh visions and revelations of the Lord. There are points at which he is shown and made manifest to Israel in his graces and gifts, in the weight of his responsibility and obligation. And I suppose we all find, that, as we advance in grace, and deepen in experience, our duties accumulate, and they become increasingly important. It was so in the case that is before us. Uzziah died; but God

opened to the mind of his prophet a richer light, a new career, a vaster usefulness. Then was revealed this vision: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple."

There are but two points in this passage to which I am about to invite your attention this morning. The first is, the glory of God, as manifested in Christ Jesus to the prophet's mind; and the second is, the manner in which the seraphim witnessed the deed.

Here is, first-THE MANIFESTATION OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN CHRIST TO THE MIND OF THE PROPHET.

He says, "I saw;" for his eyes were opened. He was, as we express it, broad awake; his senses were not locked up. There were other instances in which God, in dreams and visions of the night, did impart religious knowledge to the minds of his servants. But, in the case before us, all the senses were in exercise; all the mental faculties were in full power, and in self-possession. It had been so antecedently with Balaam. "The man whose eyes were opened hath said, he hath heard which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open." It was the case, subsequently to this, with Ezekiel; "I looked," he says, “and behold a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself." It was so with the apostle Peter; he was entranced, and he saw heaven opened, and a sheet let down from thence by its four corners, filled with all manner of living creatures. It was the case with the apostle John; "I was in the spirit," he says, 66 on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet; and I turned to see the voice that spake with me; and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks." He was not asleep; his eyes were opened; but Deity had the possession of his faculties. God filled and replenished his mind with divine communication, as he did in the case which is before us.

The scene of this vision is said to be the temple. You have heard much of the temple. It stood in all its pomp and spaciousness at this period. As you are aware, there was the outer court, the principal objects in which were the vast altar of sacrifice, and near to it the great brazen laver. There were then folding doors, and a vast voil, leading into an inner and very splendid apart

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