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SERMON XII.

(PREACHED ON TRINITY SUNDAY.)

TRUST IN GOD, AND FEAR OF GOD.

PSALM XXXIV. 8, 9.

O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.

O fear the Lord, ye that are his saints; for they that fear Him lack nothing.

THESE words, from one of the Psalms of this evening's service, appear to me to be suited at once to the great festival of the church which we celebrate this day, and to our own situation also, as so soon going to separate for our accustomed holidays. For the words speak generally of God's goodness, and of the blessedness of fearing Him, and trusting in Him. They do not name any particular mercy, such as those which we commemorate on other festivals, our Lord's birth, when He became man, or His resurrection, or His ascension, or the descent of the Holy

Ghost.

But these and all other blessings which we have ever received from God,-our creation at

first, our preservation daily, our sanctification daily,

our redemption once, whatsoever good we

have derived in body or soul, or spirit, from Him who made us and redeemed us, and sanctified and sanctifies us. All these belong to the matter of this day's solemnity, which thus in a manner, as it is the last in order of all the festivals of the church, is also the union and the crown of them all. Thus the words of the psalmist have, as used on this day, a most comprehensive meaning. God's mercies, all brought together before us, are indeed more in number than the sand; they can no more be counted than they can worthily be comprehended. And still more, if we would ascend from His mercies to Himself, the tongue and thought of man must utterly fail, and that in His divine existence, which is dimly shadowed to us by the representation of the Three Eternal Persons in one Godhead, like all the other truths which relate to God's nature, and not to His dealings with man, must of necessity be far beyond the reach of our minds to grasp it.

In this matter we must ever remember, that no man hath seen God at any time; that the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. The Father and the Holy Spirit we can know only by their works.

He

Notion, conception, image of God, we can form no other than that of Jesus Christ our Lord. is the image of the invisible God, and in Him is represented all the fulness of the Godhead, until we shall know even as we are known.

We should bear in mind that the Scripture itself recognises the difficulty of considering God in His own nature, and therefore urges us to seek Him in and through His Son Jesus Christ. We do ill when we neglect the merciful help He has given us; when we would come, as it were, directly before God without our Mediator. Providence, the Supreme Being, the Deity, and other such terms, repel us of necessity to an infinite distance; they speak of One incomprehensible and unapproachable. Our God is the Lord, revealed to the Israelites as the God of their own nation, who came down upon Mount Sinai to give the law, who dwelt between the cherubims in the mercy seat, in the innermost part of the Temple; revealed to us as the Son of Man, born of a woman, made in all but sin one of ourselves, living and dying and rising again, after the common condition of us all. This is our manifestation of God. To Him we should come in faith and love, and He will show us of the Father, and give us of His Holy Spirit, in such measure as our present nature can bear, preparing us for a fuller revelation hereafter.

But, returning from that which is unutterable and incomprehensible in the truth which this day bears witness to rather than makes manifest; returning from the natural mystery of God's nature, to the Christian mystery; that is, the revelation of what He has done for us;-then we come to matters of which we can speak, and on which we can be understood; to truths capable at once of being known and loved. "Taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him,"-"Fear ye Him all ye His saints." Here we come to matters not veiled within the heaven of heavens, but stretching from heaven to earth, to lift up earth to heaven; to thoughts, divine indeed, and high, and holy, but which, as I said before, suit our present condition as we are here assembled at this moment; the best charm which we could each carry with us when we go to our several homes, to bless our stay there and our meeting here again.

"Taste and see how gracious the Lord is." We may do this, it is true; but we may also refuse to do it. We look forward to many and great enjoyments, and in the common course of things we shall not, I suppose, be disappointed. There will be pleasure tasted, humanly speaking, by most of us, with very little effort or care of ours. It would be, therefore, a mere waste of words if we were to say to you, "Taste of pleasure and see how sweet

it is." But to say, "Taste and see how gracious the Lord is," is a very different thing from saying, "Taste of and enjoy your pleasure;" even although it is most true that that pleasure cannot come without God's permission. It cannot come without His permission; but it may well come without His blessing. And, as I have often said before, if it come not with His blessing, it will come assuredly with His curse.

It

Therefore, try to consider the pleasure you are looking forward to as God's gift. Is it not so really. What hinders it from being so? It is not an unlawful pleasure, is it, that you should go home, and enjoy the happiness of home? is not a forbidden pleasure to be with those who love you, and whom you love, nor to receive their kindness. The happiness which your earthly parents do not grudge you, is not grudged by your Father who is in heaven. He gives it to you freely to enjoy. What should hinder you from so receiving it.

Nothing, I do fully hope and believe, will hinder many from so receiving it. We drew near to God last Sunday, receiving together the holy communion; we prayed and resolved, and some of us at the very least, will have prayed and resolved not in vain. What they wished and purposed last Sunday, they wish and purpose still. There is yet in them the frank confession of and

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