behold my heart; see how foul! how foul! Behold my sin; how strong, how active, how sweet! See my struggles, how weak they are; my danger, how great! Behold these things, and in pity give me strength; help me to check my sin; help me to exalt Thy glory and to do good." These men will take this warning home, and will thank God Who brought them here to hear it; they will think upon it with prayer, and God's blessing will answer them.

But are there those who will cast these things away? The scoffer will; the hard-hearted will; the disbeliever will; he that loves his sin more than his God; these will cast these things behind them! My brethren, end your last service of this year with me in a prayer for these people, and say, "Merciful God, who hast made all men, and wouldest not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live, have mercy upon them, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of Thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to Thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord."

f Collect for Good Friday.

SERMON VII.

Second Sunday after Christmas,

OR

FIRST SUNDAY IN THE YEAR.

LAMENTATIONS iii. 17, 18.

I forgat prosperity: and I said, My strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord.

HESE are the words of a man in despair. The

Book of Lamentations was written by the Prophet Jeremiah after the Jews had been led into captivity by the Babylonians. The language of the Book is full of sorrow; and it is loaded with pictures of the miserable and pitiful sufferings of the Israelites. Here and there a bitter complaint, like the words in my text, breaks from the lips of the Prophet, and he seems so utterly overwhelmed and cast down. by the wretched condition of his countrymen, so heart-broken by the cutting insults and the grinding cruelties which they endured, that he now and then appears to despair of God's goodness; and he lets fall words, like these before us, which seem to say that he considered himself and his country outcasts

for ever:-"He forgat prosperity; and his strength and his hope perished."

But this despair, though his grief and his punishment was so heavy, did not abide with him for ever. Though their "inheritance was turned to strangers";" 'though their princes were hanged upb" by their enemies; "though their young men were taken to grind," as slaves at the mills; though "the children felle" down under the burdens which were placed upon them; though the "tongue of the suckling cleaved to the roof of his mouth for thirstd;" though "their soul was poured out into their mother's bosome;" though the enemy "hissed and gnashed their teeth, and said, We have swallowed her up," we have consumed and destroyed her; and though all this seemed fully, utterly, and most bitterly true, still the Prophet, even in this total and cruel downfall, saw God; and seeing God, like light in a tempest, he could not abide in despair. In the midst of his lamentations, in the deepest parts of his grief, ever and anon a faint hope would tremble on his lips, and he would not give up prayer altogether:-" Hide not Thine ear," he beseeches the Lord,-"hide not Thine ear at my breathing, at my cry!" He knows that his griefs are from the Hand of God, and in the depths of his affliction, in the smarting of his wounds, he turns his prayer to the

a Lam. v. 2.
e Ib. ii. 12.

b Ib. 12.

f Ib. 16.

c Ib. 13. d Ib. iv. 4.

g Ib. iii. 56.

Hand that smiteth him, because he knows that It is full of love:-"The Lord will not cast off for ever; though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion."

My brethren, entering, by the blessing of the Lord, on a new year, starting on a new course of trials, having another period, seemingly spread open before us, in which to seek God, I wish to preach to you on this part of the Prophet's conduct; on his afflictions; on his despair; on his trembling hope that would not be put down; and to apply his case to ourselves.

That which the Israelites suffered on account of their manifold sins in their worldly estate, we may always apply to ourselves in our spiritual estate. When they fell in the deepest afflictions, and were led into captivity for their sins, we may always take from their condition a spiritual lesson, and remember that if we suffer our sins to lead us also into captivity, afflictions and griefs will follow with great weight, and in great numbers.

When a sinner reckons up his sins, and all sinners, stifle their thoughts as they may, must reckon sometimes, when a sinner comes to have some sight of his continued evil life; when he sees how many his sins have been, how reckless his life, how regardless of God's laws; when he remembers that this evil course was persevered in against all God's mercies; when

Lam. iii. 31, 32.

he sees how often he has injured mankind by it; when he remembers how often the Lord awakened better feelings in his bosom, how often the Lord touched him with some sense of thankfulness for heavenly mercies, and how often he conquered his thankful feelings, and went forward into sin; how often the Lord, when he was about to harm and injure his neighbour, touched his heart with pity, and how often he conquered pity, and went on into cruelty or wrong; how often the Lord threatened in his ears, and awakened fear for his own soul, and he shut his ears, and pushed fear aside, and went into fresh wickedness; when he remembers how often God called him by His ministry, and he disregarded their voice, derided them, neglected them; when he remembers in how many strivings with his sinking soul the Holy Spirit laboured, and how resolutely he resisted, till he subdued the given graces of God, and in a determined spirit went forward to be a reprobate,—when these things come into a sinner's mind, then he begins to feel what spiritual affliction is; then he begins to say, "What a wild, what a wilful, what a wicked course I have run! What calls I have received, what goodnesses I have received, what wickednesses I have given back! My neighbour and my God have suffered me, and endured me; I have risen up to fight against both! I have been led away captive in sin; where am I now? what is my hope ?"

This is the sinner's question; and like the Pro