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When God puts forth and reveals His arm, He proves to us, indeed, that there is more of Him that is not revealed; but it is profane to demand that it should be revealed. When He tells us, that the world was created so many thousand years ago, He proves that it was not before then; but He does not permit us to inquire, what was then? When He tells us, that He made all good, and that the devil introduced evil, He does it not that we should inquire subtilly into the origin of evil. We are to study what is revealed, and not what is hidden. Where did GOD exist before the worlds were made? What is existence without beginning? How was matter produced out of nothing--evil out of good? How is it possible for GOD to have His will, and man his? Why did not GOD prevent evil? Why does He now tolerate it? Why were fallen angels not redeemed? Why is man not perfected without trial? How can finite beings be infinitely rewarded or punished? These, and the thousand other curious questions, which perverse man is ever asking, are inquiries which He forbids and baffles--which we may be sure provoke His displeasure.

Check we, then, brethren, our wandering fancies, by the thought that we are to know only in part; and that the only part which we are to know is, that which concerns our duty, and hopes, and fears; and our intelligent service and worship of Him. There is no better sacrifice to God than that of curbed idle curiosity. There is no better discipline than that which requires us to trust in what we can only imperfectly comprehend. There is no surer test of our earnestness about salvation, than the ready renunciation of unnecessary inquiry, and the steady, concentrated effort to understand that which was revealed to be understood.

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper."

SIN unconfessed is sin unforgiven. He who has not brought himself to the approved publican's mind, and with that publican's deep, heartfelt humiliation and self-abhorrence, poured out the contrite entreaty, "GOD be merciful to me a sinner;" he who, as he stands or kneels before the throne of grace, is not emptied of self-justification--is not convinced that mercy alone can save him--is not eager to embrace the only proffered propitiation of rebels and outcasts , is still in the depths of iniquity--still under the condemnation of the law: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Nor even if he has this general sense of sinfulness and unworthiness, is he much nearer to pardon and justification unless, besides, by diligent self-searching he has found out wherein he is a sinner and unworthy, and, like penitent David, makes mention before God of every ascertained act, and word, and thought of offence; every omission, every transgression, and prays for power to know himself better, that he may confess himself the more fully.

I need not stay to prove to you that all this is required. There are many precepts and many examples in the Bible, which set forth clearly the necessity of both general acknowledgment of sinfulness, and also special confession of particular sins to GOD, as preliminary to pardon.

And there is a gracious purpose, a merciful regard for the sinner's best interests, in this imposed law of general and particular confession. The offering of frequent confession will keep a man mindful of his state before God. It will lead him to consider what he has to confess; and so, through self-searching, he will come to self-knowledge: and the act of describing each sin to GOD will operate in representing that sin faithfully to the sinner; so that the very ordinance, which is properly the acknowledgment before GOD of sins realised, regretted, and forsaken, will often serve to show the sinner, for the first time, the sin which he has to repent of and forsake.

To obtain pardon, then, for past sins, it is necessary to confess them. To know ourselves, our difficulties, failures, trials from within and without; to shame ourselves out of sin, and to guide and encourage us to victory over it, it is expedient that we should tell out before Him, ever and anon, all that we can rake up against ourselves; and not present even that as a total, but beg Him to add to it the secret things, in which we offend without knowing it. "Who can tell how oft he offendeth? O, cleanse Thou me from my secret faults."

My brethren, think of these things; think of your imperative duty, and your sovereign interest; and let close self-examination, honest, heartfelt, contrite confession, be your frequent and diligent exercise. Every morning settle what you have to do and avoid; every evening consider what you have done and omitted, and lay the account religiously before GOD. Daily dress and undress your souls. Cleanse yourselves of what is amiss by confession and repentance. Prepare yourselves for future success, by the examination of past failures. You cannot approach GOD: He will not approach you , unless you have thus purified yourselves, and put off the things that defile holy ground.

Thus much by way of reminder and entreaty respecting confession to GOD, general and particular. But the question is asked in these days, and being asked should not be left unanswered, whether, in any case, and if so, in what, confession should also be made to any other than GOD?--whether it is ever needful, or expedient, to uncover our sins, and make known our spiritual burthens to our fellow man?

Whenever, then, you feel spiritual perplexity, heaviness of soul which you cannot relieve, faintness of heart, need of consolation or help in prayer, you may and should make known your circumstances to some pious and wise Christian or Christians, able and willing to advise, to succour, to intercede for you. And whenever you cannot undo the consequences of your sin without the active assistance of others, you are bound to take to you partners in the work, and to communicate freely to them what you have done, and wish undone.

It is not easy for me to say--your own feelings will guide you best in such a matter--what confessor you should choose. In some cases a parent would be the most fitting, or a bosom friend; in others, a stranger, or slight acquaintance; in some cases, again, a person of your own age and circumstances; in others, a senior, or a superior. But if these fail to serve and relieve you, then, in all cases, should you avail yourselves of the ordinance of GOD, and choose out your spiritual guide from among those whom He has specially appointed to teach, and to console, and to intercede. First, be sure that you cannot help yourselves, because GOD has imposed upon you an individual responsibility, and entrusted to you powers of soul and mind which you may not neglect to exercise. Then, if you fail, go, call to yourselves that aid which seems best in itself, and can be secured with least violence to your natural feelings, and least injury to your social character and position. If that does not avail, then betake yourselves to the ministers of religion, in the hope, nay, with the assurance, that even if their learning, their habitual examination of human nature's wants and failings, their experience and interest in soul-work, should, after all, leave them insufficient guides and helpers, still GOD, to Whom in the person of His representatives you have thus come, will not let you depart without a blessing, but will send down from heaven itself His light, and comfort, and effectual strength.

One of two objections to this teaching may present itself to some of those who hear me. Some of you, my brethren, may be ready to assert, that human aid is not wanted in such circumstances; and others, that to seek it of the clergy is to draw near to the error and corrupt superstition of the Romanists.

To the first, I would simply answer, that they cannot really know much of spiritual life, if they suppose that he who would lead such a life can always get on without external help, and that they are little acquainted with GOD'S mysterious ways, if they do not know that He ever works by agents, in the religious and the moral, as well as in the physical world. For their enlightenment, let them inquire of the eminently spiritual, or the marvellously reformed, and they will assuredly find, that human helps and sympathies have formed many steps of the ladder by which these have climbed so high towards heaven.

The other objectors merit a longer answer, because the charge they make is a serious one; not only affecting individuals, but casting a blot upon the good fame of our Church itself, which unmistakeably teaches and recommends, in special cases, the use of human and clerical confessors.

My dear brethren, let me ask you to bear with me patiently. I have no party motives to serve, nor party prejudices to indulge; GOD is my witness I reluctantly speak to you on this subject. I am only induced to do so by the consideration that, when a religious question is agitated out of doors, it is the minister of GOD'S bounden duty to take it up in the pulpit, and exhibit it, as far as he can, in scriptural light, keeping aloof alike from prejudging approval, and from capricious and worldly condemnation of the thing maintained. "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth."

Such is Rome's course. I need scarcely tell you, that our Church, in condemning the "sacrament" of penance, and denying the existence of a purgatory, has swept away the only pretences on which such a prying, unscriptural, and most mischievous confessional could be maintained.

But, still, the Church of England has a doctrine and a practice of confession. In the exhortation to holy communion, it is enjoined, "If there be any of you, who by this means," "cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned minister of GOD'S word, and open his grief, that by the ministry of GOD'S holy word, he may receive the benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness." And in the Order of the Visitation of the Sick it is directed: "Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter." And let it not be said, that these are Romish elements in a "tesselated ritual." The exhortation is a Protestant composition; and the words that make it imperative on us to move every sick person we visit to a special confession, if he needs it, were added at the last review of the Prayer-Book.

What, then, is the sum of Church teaching? Men are to confess their sins to GOD alone, with a view to pardon and religious homage. When they find this confession sufficient to procure spiritual peace and amendment of life, they need not, and ought not, to make known their faults to others. They are not to make their ministers partakers of the thoughts and secrets of their breasts; they are not to look to them for pardon; they are not to get rid of their responsibility to GOD, by accepting penance at man's hand; they are not to seek direction from a priest, in the ordinary ways of life; they are not to submit themselves to close catechisings, and prying investigations. But they are, when in doubt, in difficulty, in overwhelming grief, in all circumstances of spiritual helplessness, so to reveal their lives and open their thoughts to a spiritual officer, that he may, out of the treasure of his knowledge and experience, and by virtue of his commission as a minister of holy things, direct, and comfort, and strengthen them, more really and effectually than he can in public sermons, from mere guessing at their condition. When the public ministry suffices for them, let them seek no more; when they need, likewise, private ministry, by all means let them demand it: the Church binds us to render what they ask.

This kind of confession has the hearty approval of spiritual men of all ages, and all shades of theological opinion. All our reformers urged it. Luther said he would rather lose a thousand worlds than suffer private confession to be thrust out of the Church. Calvin exhorted all who thought they would be benefitted by it, to use it readily, and showed them, by precise rules, how to do so. Puritans of old, so-called evangelical ministers of our day--presbyterians, anabaptists, wesleyans, independents, all maintain and practise it now, though sometimes under other names--"consultation," "history of conversion," "detailing of experiences." Richard Baxter's characteristic words, exhibiting the true spirit of Church teaching, and showing how nonconformists cling to it in this case, are specially worthy of full recital.

"I know," he writes, "some will say, that it is near to Popish auricular confession, which I here persuade Christians to; and it is to bring Christians under the tyranny of the priests, and make them acquainted with all men's secrets, and masters of their consciences. To the last, I say--to the railing devil of this age--no more, but the LORD rebuke thee. If any minister have wicked ends, let the GOD of heaven convert him, or root him out of His Church, and cast him among the weeds and briers. But is it not the known yoke of sensuality to cast reproaches upon the way and ordinances of GOD? Who knoweth not, that it is the very office of the ministry, to be teachers and guides to men in matters of salvation, and overseers over them. . . . I am confident, many a thousand souls do long strive against anger, lust, blasphemy, worldliness, and trouble of conscience, to little purpose, who, if they would but have taken GOD'S way, and sought out for help, and opened all their case to their minister, they might have been delivered in a good measure long ago. And for Popish confession, I detest it: we would not persuade men that there is a necessity of confessing every sin to a minister before it can be pardoned. Nor do we it in a perplexed formality only at one time of the year, nor in order to Popish pardons or satisfactions; but we would have men go for physic to their souls, as they do for their bodies, when they feel they have need. And let me advise all Christian congregations to practise this excellent duty more. See that you knock oftener at your pastor's door, and ask his advice in all your pressing necessities. Do not let him sit quiet in his study for you: make him know by experience, that the tenth part of a minister's labour is not in the pulpit."

One more quotation: it will be heard with respect when I tell you it is from the Bishop of Lincoln's sermons on repentance: "As ministers should be, by their profession, usually the best advisers in cases of conscience, and are, or ought to be, every penitent's ready and sympathising friends, so to them the stricken or perplexed soul will often have recourse. And thus, there is a sense in which those dreaded words, 'confession to the priest,' may express an edifying practice, and even at times a duty."

"There is forgiveness with Thee."

Forgiveness, ransom from eternal death, deliverance from the terrible inflictions of Almighty wrath, gracious reception into GOD'S own family, and full participation of His inexhaustible love and benediction, how can sinners consent not to value this when given or offered, not to desire and seek it when needed? Yet so it is. There is many an one of our poorest possessions which we cherish more fondly; there is many an unobtained bauble which we would make more real effort to obtain.

Ask yourselves, seriously, and answer to yourselves, honestly, my fellow-sinners, whether it is not so. All of you believe that you have been forgiven some thing, nay, many things. You do not suppose that you are carrying about, each one of you, the unmitigated condemnation of original sin; the full burthen of every transgression and omission of your whole lives, from the first exercise of your self-will in childhood, to that in which you offended but an hour since. You know, indeed, that much remains written against you; but you believe that much more has been blotted out; that GOD has been propitiated and reconciled to fallen man by the sacrifice and intercession of His Son; that wrath has been displaced by love; that the way of return is open; that the ears of mercy are unclosed; that the arms of grace are stretched out to unfold all those, who by birth inherited banishment, and were kept in exile by the fiery sword which turned every way and allowed none to pass to the paradise of bliss and the tree of life. What Adam lost, that and much more has Christ won. In Him you already have regained much; through Him you may have all and abound.

This you know. How much of it do you feel? Where is your joy of deliverance? where your heart-leapings of praise? where your homage of gratitude for what has been forgiven? And where are your yearnings, your wrestling prayers, your strenuous efforts after the forgiveness yet needed? the cries and struggles of drowning men, grasping in your fresh peril the again stretched out rope of deliverance; imploring to be taken up once more into the ark of salvation; to be landed yet again on the shore of hope? Alas! where? Is not forgiveness obtained, unheeded; forgiveness not obtained, unsought? Not altogether, GOD be praised! There are some who never forget their deliverance; who have learnt from it gratitude for the past, and hope and direction for the future. There are some who are wont to gaze upon the book of the Divine account of them , and as they gaze, to keep moist with the tears of humble penitence and love, the red stain of Christ's blood, which hides, nay, has obliterated so many of the black items against them; and who, seeing how much is cancelled, cannot bear that aught should remain uncancelled, and therefore rest not, nor cease from pleading and entreating, while one single black figure is uncovered by the crimson mark of remission.

Some of you, my brethren, surely there are, who, looking back, perhaps upon a youth of wild and wicked folly, or a manhood of worldliness, or much of an old age of dull, spiritual indifference, from the thraldom of which, by GOD'S grace, you have been delivered, whose fearful guilt, you have reason to believe, has been remitted; some of you, I say, surely there are, who so appreciate the obtained mercy as to think nothing comparable to it, no gratitude enough for it; and who, therefore, when need of more forgiveness arises , betake yourselves early, with the first fruits of your desires, and the quick steps of urgent, craving want, to the fountain that ever floweth, by whose waters alone you can be cleansed and refreshed. Yes, there are such; a few of them; and they do value, they do seek forgiveness.

But, do the many? Judge for yourselves, brethren. Trace back, all of you, as far as you can, the course of your respective lives; review your old habits, your former careers of transgression or omission; or pick out some single sin, if you will of recent date; some one of those many offences against which GOD'S wrath is pronounced, and on account of which it must descend, unless forgiveness is secured. Is it a lie, a filthy jest, a profane speech, a word of slander? Is it a thought of malice, an encouraged lust, a meditated misdeed? Is it an act of fraud? Did you use false balances, or adulterate your wares, or drive an unfair bargain, exacting more, or giving less than was right? Did you pilfer from your employer, or rob him of your bought service, or betray his interest? Is it direct ungodliness? Did you act in defiance of GOD'S known commandment? Did you profane His holy day? Did you disregard His fear? Did you withhold aught that He claims of service, of prayer, of praise, of money, time, talents, influence, of example?

First, consider what Divine forgiveness is. It is not capricious reversal of the sentence, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Divine justice does not give up its claim. Divine truth does not belie itself; Divine resoluteness become fickle. GOD is not a man, that He should repent, or that He should say and not do, or that He should come to love what once He hated. GOD might have been freely reconciled to the transgressor, if He had not made transgression sin. He might, even then, have left the sinner alone, imposing no other punishment than exile from His presence, if He had not solemnly declared, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." But now, His holiness, His justice, and His truth are irrevocably pledged to banish and destroy transgressors. It can never be otherwise. Holiness cannot tolerate near unholiness: like Satan from heaven, like Adam and Eve from paradise, it must be cast out. Justice cannot acquit the guilty. Truth can never say, "Thou shalt not die," to him to whom it has already said, "Thou shalt die." There is no such forgiveness. If you transgress, you are a sinner; if you sin, you are condemned; if you are condemned, you must die. GOD has said it, and there is no variableness, or shadow of turning, in Him.

We are wont to think otherwise. We fancy that sin, though wrong, is not destructive: we wrap ourselves in false security, and flatter and mislead others, by a perverse assurance that GOD will not be extreme to mark what is done amiss. Yea, we think we have Scripture warrant for so doing. We read of Divine promises which were never realised, and Divine threats which were never executed; and we gather from them that, like our poor fickle selves, GOD easily goes back from His resolution of favour or wrath.

Thus only does GOD change His word; thus only is there forgiveness with Him. The sinner must change his sin, for sinlessness; and then for wrath he shall have favour. But this change he cannot make. He cannot wipe out or undo the past; he cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean; he cannot repair the breaches in his soul; he cannot strengthen the things that are ready to perish. Vain, then, is his idle trust in the non-fulfilment of a published threat; and vain are all his efforts to avert that threat. While he is a sinner, GOD will not forgive him; and a sinner he can never cease to be.

Now, in this day of grace, He is labouring to save: and He will save to the uttermost all who seek His salvation. But, by and by, He must come to judge; and then, whosoever has not been already saved, must be utterly destroyed. Are you forgiven? Christ has forgiven you. Are you seeking forgiveness? If you seek it aright, Christ will bestow it. Are you not forgiven? Will you not seek forgiveness? Then, rely upon it, you must be condemned; and that not only or chiefly by the law, but by the Gospel, the dispensation on the one hand of unspeakable goodness, on the other of unpardonable severity. If Christ is not made your Saviour, He will be your destroyer. There is forgiveness with Him. There is no forgiveness elsewhere.

Let me press this upon you, dear brethren, even though in so doing I repeat what I have already said. There is no forgiveness with GOD, the Father, apart from Christ, the Saviour. There is no forgiveness, for the Saviour's sake, to those who do not belong to the Saviour. You must not go to the Father and plead, while you continue in your sin, that, since One has died for sins, there is no longer any such thing as sin. You must not suppose that holiness, and justice, and truth are set at nought in all other cases, because they have been maintained in one. You must not expect that He who once refused forgiveness, now freely grants it to the same persons in the same state; that He is changed, and, therefore, you need not be. No! to find any comfort in the assurance, "There is forgiveness with Thee," and to verify it in your own case, you must have observed, and be still observing, the prescribed conditions. You must have become Christ's, and Christ have become yours. You must have obtained the pardon from Him, and you must hold it through Him; and He must testify thereof, and plead for you, ere the Father will pronounce His absolution: "The LORD hath put away thy sins: thou shalt not die."

But how is all this to be done? Not by idly assenting to the truth, that it ought to be done. Not by mere thinking and talking of Christ. Not by working upon your feelings, and warming your affections, by the contemplation of Him as a historical character; not even by making mention of Him in your prayers, and pleading His merits, and asking to be wrapped in His imputed righteousness; but by intelligently, and heartily, and actively observing the conditions and using the means of salvation, which Christ has proposed to you, and put within your reach.

As soon as Christ had accomplished His work on earth, and had been exalted to be the new head of the human race, the source of pardon and grace, calling in the powers of His Godhead, He established supernatural means whereby other men might be actually joined, and kept joined, to Him, and might derive from Him the properties and privileges of a renewed and perfected nature. The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the blessed Trinity, became the wonderful agent to effect and maintain this union and communication, providing mysteriously for the gradual subjugation and destruction of the old nature, with its guilt and proneness to sin, and for the development and establishment of spiritual excellence in all those who become objects of His operations. To become such objects, it is necessary that men should be prequalified , by realising the misery and condemnation of their natural state, by sorrowing over and renouncing their sins, by desiring pardon and grace, and by believing that Christ had them to bestow; and, then, after becoming thus prequalified, it is further necessary, that they should make appointed use of certain outward ordinances, in the due observance of which He pledges Himself to meet them, and to apply to them the merits and the graces, in the possession of which they shall be accounted dead with Christ unto sin, and alive with Him unto righteousness. On none but those thus qualified will the Spirit operate; and on these only, when they come to Him and invite His operation in appointed ways. Such, my brethren, is the doctrine of forgiveness; such is the law of its bestowal. There is forgiveness with God of this kind, and on these terms; but there is no other forgiveness.

It is because we are not fully persuaded of this truth, that we are so indifferent, so apathetic, so unthankful, so unrighteous. We do not appreciate forgiveness, through not understanding it; we do not duly seek it, through not considering how only it is to be obtained.

Commending to your full and serious consideration the great importance of all the Gospel-ordinances, and bidding you remember the sin and danger of neglecting any one of them, let me now confine your attention, for a few minutes, to the application of forgiveness by the authorised ministers of reconciliation, in what is called ministerial absolution. Whenever you draw near to GOD in the sanctuary, and make a public confession of your sins, whether in the ordinary daily service, or in the office for the holy communion, immediately after such confession, the priest is directed to stand up and pronounce what is called an absolution; in the one case declaring, that "GOD pardoneth and absolveth," in the other, praying that He may do so. Whenever private scruples and peculiar spiritual difficulties keep you from the holy communion, you are exhorted to go to some discreet and learned minister, that you may receive the benefit of absolution; and whenever you are laid on a bed of sickness, and the clergyman is summoned to your side, he is directed to move you to a special confession, if you feel your conscience troubled by any weighty matter, and if you humbly and heartily desire it, to absolve you from all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. All of you know that such things are to be found in the Prayer-Book. Some of you treat them with perfect indifference, caring not that they are there, neither assenting to them or opposing them. Others accept the poor explanation, that they are mere kind, comfortable delusions for weak minds. Others kick against them, and denounce them as relics of Popery and instruments of priestcraft, indignantly repelling the notion, that there is any such forgiveness promised or allowed by the Word of GOD.

Hear me dispassionately, dear brethren, while in few words I endeavour to vindicate the Church's teaching; and to guard it against both superstitious misuse and profane contempt. You know, of course, that Christ, in His life-time on earth, before His passion, commissioned certain disciples to go before Him into every city whither He Himself would come, and when they entered into any house, to pronounce peace upon its tenants, with the assurance that His peace should, in such case, always rest upon them, if they were worthy. You know, too, that just before His ascension, He invested the apostles with the power of remitting and retaining sins; and that they both exercised that power themselves, by absolving and excommunicating, and also handed it on to others--so that St. Paul tells the Corinthian presbyters, that to whomsoever they forgive anything, He forgives also, and that his forgiveness is the forgiveness of Christ. And you likewise know that the doctrine of ministerial absolution, and the practice of administering it, have been steadily maintained in all parts of the Church, from the apostolic age to the present.

Brethren, thus soberly and scripturally regard the Church's ordinance of absolution. On the one hand, do not superstitiously look upon it as an inherent power, which any priest can give to whom he will, and withhold from whom he will; or as an indemnity, to be bestowed without conditions, to operate as a charm in absolving those who have not desired, nor prepared themselves for forgiveness; and, on the other hand, do not make light of its true exercise, and forego opportunities of having it applied to yourselves, according to Christ's appointment, and your several needs. Prepare yourselves duly for it, and heartily accept the ministry of it, and give GOD the glory. Yes! be sure you give GOD the glory. Use the means, and reverence them, because GOD has instituted them; but let the gift be more thought of, and let the Giver be adored. When, with penitent hearts and humble lips, you have made your open confession, and the herald's consequent proclamation of pardon is ringing in your ears, bethink you that it is GOD'S forgiveness which is being offered to your acceptance. Bless Him for the ordinance; but look through it to the Spirit who is present in it, to the Saviour who sent the Spirit, to the Father who provided the Saviour, and let the vision both convince you of the sinfulness and condemnation of sin , and also prompt you to value the forgiveness which GOD has so much at heart, and so labours to bestow. "There is forgiveness with thee." Take to yourselves the unspeakable comfort of so sweet an assurance when it is offered; but be sure that you always respond to it, out of grateful and resolute hearts: "Therefore, O GOD, shalt Thou be feared, and served, and loved."

"Neither will I offer . . . unto the LORD my GOD of that which doth cost me nothing."

IT was a thrice enforced precept of the law that none should appear before GOD empty; that when men drew near to Him to celebrate His past mercies and deliverances, to ask for blessings, to deprecate wrath, to render thanks, to acknowledge dependence on His providence, they should at the same time present unto Him some offering of their substance. And this, be it observed, was not a mere temporary ordinance. It was not, like the sacrifices of bulls and goats, a ceremonious shadowing forth and pleading of the one sacrifice by which alone GOD could be approached and propitiated. It was a free-will offering, an acknowledgment that all things come of GOD, and that all things, though intrusted to them, belonged still to GOD. It was a confession of His Lordship, an act of homage, an exhibition of gratitude, a pledge of readiness to yield all that He might require. As such, it was to be offered whenever man perceived GOD to be operating upon, or for him, or whenever he would have GOD to be thus operating; it was to be presented at prescribed places, and under prescribed circumstances, which rendered pains and exertion necessary in the offerer; and it was to be of a kind and in a measure which should make it a real sacrifice--the giving up of something valuable and valued. "Every man shall give as he is able," says Moses. "I will not offer unto the LORD my GOD," exclaims David, "of that which doth cost me nothing."

This is the principle and measure of Christian offering to GOD. Would we offer affection? it must be all affection. "My Son, give me Thy heart." Submission? Deny Thyself in all things. Time? Let it be all time--instant, continual, day and night. Substance? Be ready to part with all that thou hast. Work? It must be all work; every labour, and every occupation. Whatsoever thou doest, do all to the glory of GOD, that GOD in all things may be glorified through JESUS CHRIST. We, and all that we are and have, are claimed as whole sacrifices to GOD. The duration of the offering is to be the length of our life. The altars upon which we are to be offered, are all the places and all the circumstances in which GOD puts us, or we put ourselves; and we are to be continually laying ourselves upon these altars, without fear or grudging of the cost, yea, rather with cheerful incurring of it.

It should cost us much thought--more thought than anything else. Does it? Is it the most frequent and most encouraged employment of our minds to meditate on GOD, our Creator and Preserver, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, our Lord and Judge, on heaven, on holiness, on trial and reward, duties and hopes? We all of us have some favourite subject of thought and meditation, something which we ponder chiefly, and lay most plans about, and zealously occupy our mental faculties upon. Is it religion? Does that cost us more thought than anything else? or does business or pleasure, or politics or philosophy, or worldly prospects or cares? If so--no matter how innocent the object, how laudable in some respects its concern--in making it a chief consideration, we leave nought to offer GOD but that which costs us nothing, and which is therefore nothing accounted of, yea, rather is rejected by Him.

Again, religion should cost us much affection. Our affections should be chiefly set on it, and only on other things when they can be lawfully considered the adjuncts of religion. Is it so? Do we love GOD more than anything else? Do we desire heaven's treasures more than earth's; eternal glories more than temporal? Do we delight above all things in spiritual pursuits? If any other person, any other thing presents itself as a candidate for our best affections, is it rejected because the place is already filled? Is it disliked, if opposed to religion? Is it but moderately esteemed and distantly entertained, when though not opposed to it, is not religion itself? If otherwise, then religion costs us not our best affections, and so of our hearts we offer unto GOD of that which doth cost us nothing.

Again, religion should cost us much labour, much self-denial, much zeal and patience, more than anything else. Does it? Is there nothing for which we toil more, and endure more, and encounter more; nothing which we pursue more constantly and zealously? Do we take more pains to please GOD than man? Do we make more strenuous endeavours to become good Christians than to become apt scholars, profound philosophers, able and respected politicians, successful tradesmen, accomplished members of society? Would we, and do we rather rise early, and late take rest, go without our usual meals, undertake fatiguing journeys, contend with difficulties, suffer reproaches for religion than for anything else? Do we bear the inconvenience of a warm church more cheerfully than that of a close shop, a crowded hall of business or pleasure? Do we venture forth on religious errands, in cold, and wet, and forbidding weather, more readily than we do for anything else? In what do we wear out our strength and energies, run our greatest risks, and consume our time? Is it, directly or indirectly, in religion; or is it in business or in pleasure? For what do we renounce all needless occupations, for what do we get through as speedily as may be our necessary work? Is it to have time and strength for religion, or for what? The answer, my brethren, which your consciences honestly give to these questions, and many like them that might be asked, will help to determine what religion costs you in this respect, and whether or no, you offer unto GOD only of that which doth cost you nothing.

What, my brethren, let me ask in all plainness, for I speak for GOD, and GOD'S representatives--the poor--what does religion cost you in this respect? Are you sure that you have left no Lazaruses to perish of hunger? no pining sick to die for want of the nutriment or attention which you could have afforded? no children to grow up in ignorance and blasphemy whom you could have maintained at school, and helped to make enlightened, serious, holy men and women? Have you looked to these things, yourselves? or have you ungrudgingly, liberally supported those who do? Have you ascertained that the sick and visiting funds of your parish are able to meet the many demands upon them? that there is no difficulty in maintaining the necessary staff of the poor's best guardians, the clergy? that the alms-boxes will hold no more, or that there is no demand on their contents? Have you done all this before you have laden your tables with rich viands and costly wines, and bought expensive toys and ornaments, and gone on unnecessary excursions, and paid much for amusements? Or have you consulted self first, and fed, and decked, and petted, and amused self, and then been ready to give up something of what self could conveniently spare, for crying, grievous necessities--sparing GOD your leavings, that which you did not want, or, at least, could easily do without? Remember, brethren, I lay no charge against any one of you. I only, in faithfulness, put to you plain questions, which it is your duty to consider; and bid you speedily discover, from their consideration, what your religion costs you; whether, in your succour, temporal and spiritual, of those worse off than yourselves, you deny and inconvenience yourselves, giving what you cannot part with without feeling its loss and curtailing from other things on account of it ; or whether you offer unto GOD, in this way, of that which doth cost you nothing.

Once more, religion should cost you much in the direct service of GOD; in providing amply for His wide and becoming worship. I pass by now, as duties which there are other opportunities of enforcing, the maintenance of missions, at home and abroad; the building and endowing of schools and churches, and many like things, that I may dwell for a few moments upon the costliness of the materials of our churches, and their furniture, and, let me add, their ornaments; for all which, if I understand the Bible, we Christians are bound to provide. In the descriptions given us in the Bible, of heaven and heavenly things, there is frequent mention and great display, as it were, of gold, and precious stones, and musical instruments, and beautiful robes, and the like. There are some who understand these descriptions literally, and who suppose that, being raised in material, though glorified bodies, the redeemed will inhabit a material heaven--either this earth transformed, or some other planet--and will be surrounded with glorious material objects, the most beautiful and precious of nature's productions, fashioned like to art's best accomplishments. If this is to be so, then it is urged, earth's tabernacles, as the type of heaven, should be as nearly assimilated to heaven as possible; we should improve and furnish our plainer and barer churches as much as we can; we should build our new churches in the best, the handsomest style of art; and decorate and furnish them in the most substantially costly manner.

Without subscribing to this view , I would humbly suggest that, since GOD, when He designed an earthly tabernacle, prescribed that it, and all in it, should be costly and ornamental; and that when He speaks of heaven He does so under the image of all that is accounted splendid and costly on earth, He either must have meant to require that we should erect and adorn our churches after this description, or He must have taken for granted that we should best understand spiritual beauties and excellencies by their comparison with what we account earthly beauties and excellencies, and that we should naturally honour and worship Him with the best of these within our reach. It seems, then, to be our duty, nay, to be natural to us, if we are in earnest, whichever view we take, to make our churches and their contents beauteous and costly, either as images of the future church in heaven, or as the nearest representations to it which we can furnish, and the best copies of GOD'S own pattern.

To this it has been objected, firstly, that the primitive Christians afford us no such example; and, secondly, that it seems unfitting, trifling, unseemly, to decorate the spiritual palace as we would an earthly mansion. The first objection falls to the ground, when we remember, that the early Christians were very poor, and, moreover, were obliged to hide themselves, and, therefore, to refrain from all that would attract attention; and that, as soon as they had the means and liberty, they made their churches very splendid, and furnished them very gorgeously. And the second objection is as soon disposed of. What is unfitting, trifling, unseemly, for the Master, is surely as much, and more so, for the disciple. If GOD is to dwell in tents, we ought not to dwell in ceiled houses; if gold, and precious stones, and beautiful arts are unfit for Him, then they are pre-eminently unfit for us. If we may not furnish His house with rich furniture, and put into it, for instance, the best musical instrument, we must not do so in our own houses. It is enough for us, that we should be as our LORD. We must not be above Him, or different from Him. We must not glory in what is unfit for Him. Be then our own abodes rude; let everything in them be homely, unadorned, inferior; banish from them all traces of the artist's skill; or give all, and use all, more exceedingly upon and in the house of GOD.

One more argument for adorning and furnishing to the utmost, the house of GOD:--We must not offer unto GOD of that which doth cost us nothing of our substance. Now, all that we offer indirectly, no matter how much, how frequently, may yet cost us nothing--that is, it may be only the laying out of that for which we get an immediate equivalent. When you relieve the sick, rescue the tempted, raise the fallen, by the contribution of your substance, if you have not the reward of their gratitude, there is at least the felt human satisfaction of the act; and that would and has remunerated many an infidel. The sacrifice, therefore, in this case, ceases to be a sacrifice; it is a laying out for those who pay you again. But when you expend your substance largely on the direct service of GOD, hoping for nothing again, perhaps getting nothing, then you offer of that which costs you something; something for which you do not expect an equivalent. The exercise is a good one, and the duty is imperative. If you got your money's worth, and your human satisfaction, for its outlay, then you would be offering to GOD of that which doth cost you nothing.

It is because Christ has purchased you wholly, body, and soul, and spirit, thoughts, words, and deeds, talents and substance, to be an entire and constant sacrifice unto Him; it is because He is watching over you, and working for and in you, to make you that sacrifice; it is because presently He will judge and deal with you, according as you have been, or have not been what He required, that I have enforced on you the pre-eminently Christian lesson of taking solemn, anxious heed, that you offer not unto the LORD your GOD of that which doth cost you nothing.

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of GOD in Christ JESUS."

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