صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON XXXII.

ATTAINING THE "FULL REWARD."

"Look to yourselves, that we lose not the things that we have wrought; but that we receive a full reward."-2 JOHN 8.

Ambition stimulates mankind in the pursuit of wealth, honour, happiness, and ease. Not always in the attainment of spiritual blessings.

I. A danger supposed: "losing our full reward."

1. A great portion of many blessings may be forfeited. 2. Our whole reward may be lost.

II. The danger may be averted by attention to the exhortation: "Look to yourselves!"

1. This will promote humility.

2. Diligence in the improvement of privileges.

3. An aspiration after entire holiness.

4. A conscientious and persevering observance of the

practical duties of religion.

Enforce the duty of seeking the full reward.

London, 27th April, 1850.

SERMON XXXIII.

CHRIST PRECIOUS TO THE BELIEVER.

"Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious."-1 PET. ii. 7.

Christ was the theme of Paul's epistles.

The believers mentioned in the text are the regenerated.
I.—To them Christ is precious as a Redeemer.
II.-Christ is precious as an Intercessor.

III.-Christ is precious as an Instructor.—
IV. He is precious as an Example.

V. He is precious as our Hope.

Are we thus firmly united to him as our head?

As we grow in grace, the value of Christ will be more thoroughly felt.

London, 27th April, 1850.

SERMON XXXIV.

SPIRITUAL MELANCHOLY CONSOLED.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God."-Ps. xliii. 5.

Salvation is a great deliverance. Yet some monuments remain to remind us of the "rock whence we were hewn, and of the hole of the pit whence we were digged. These are the afflictions of which we all are the common partakers. This and the preceding pathetic psalms were written by David, when Absalom rebelled. Here we have-The Christian cast down by trouble, and lifted up by hope. I. The Christian cast down by trouble. 1. By constitutional infirmity.

2. From a sense of sin remaining in us. 3. From the reflection of unfaithfulness.

4. From the state of the world.

5. From personal afflictions of a temporal character. II.-Why art thou cast down?

We should be comforted,

1. By the consideration of his providential care. 2. By the rich provision made for our entire holiness. 3. By the promises which authorize us to expect the universal spread of the Gospel.

4. By the sufficiency of divine grace for our various adversities.

5. By the hope of exemption from trouble.

London, 27th April, 4850.

SERMON XXXV.

COMFORT FOR THE BEREAVED.

(FUNERAL OCCASION.)

"Wherefore comfort one another with these words."-1 THESS. iv. 18.

Death, a source of terror to man-Dark to the Pagan― Gloomy to the Jew-Bright to the Christian. State the words. We proceed to consider their truth and comforting tendency.

I.-The doctrine to be proved is the Resurrection of the body, and the eternal happiness of the Believer.

1. It is evident from the design of God in the creation of man.

2. From the unequal distribution of happiness and misery in the world.

3. From the work of Redemption.

4. From the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The body must be raised to accomplish the happiness of the soul.

II. Their comforting tendency.

1. They speak of the way prepared by Jesus.

2. By allusion to the personal appearance of Christ. 3. By the honour promised to the saints.-"The dead in Christ shall rise first."

4. By the assurance of eternal bliss.-"So shall we ever be with the Lord."

Address the believers and the unrighteous.

London, 27th April, 1850,

SERMON XXXVI.

EASE IN ZION.

"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the Mountains of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel caine."-AMOS vi. 1.

The degeneracy of modern from primitive religion.

I. The characters described.-"Them that are at ease in Zion."

They may enjoy some of the love of God.

II.-The evils which they incur.

1. The purposes of God are frustrated, and thereby our usefulnes is prevented.

2. Declension in spirituality.

3. They are preventing the pleasures of zealous cooperation with God.

4. They are excluding the ultimate reflection of a well spent life.

London, 27th April, 1859.

« السابقةمتابعة »