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words of Joseph which he had said unto them; and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived, and Israel said, It is enough, Joseph my son. is yet alive, I will go and see him before I die." Christian brethren, may the remains of incredulity

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your bosoms be extinguished by the same gentle means, eradicated by the same tender method. Unbelief does not usually yield to argument: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness," says the scripture, and experience fully justifies it. May the words which you are privileged to hear from time to time, not merely convince your understanding, but by the Holy spirit of power and love, be instrumental in softening and changing your heart; the words, not of man, but of Christ himself, inviting you who thirst to come without money and without price unto him and drink; calling you who labour and are heavy laden, and affectionately assuring you that he will give rest; may these his own declarations, accompanied, as they will be to all who seek it, by the felt and acknowledged presence of Him who spake them, fully satisfy you that the invitations of your Redeemer, that the offers of his purchased inheritance, are not too free, not too bountiful, not too unrestricted, to be most literally and

most blessedly true. And as the spirit of Jacob revived when he beheld the wagons which were to convey him to his son, so may it be your privilege, that by all the dispensations which your Lord shall send to bring you nearer to himself, your spirits may be revived, sustained, and comforted; and that in the very hour of your departure from the country in which you are travelling, to the fair land where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, the language of your soul may be, "It is enough: I am willing to take my journey, not merely to leave a land of famine and of trouble, or to throw off this mortal body which is for ever harassed by sorrow or tormented by sin," but with the Apostle, "I am willing rather to be absent from the body that I may be present with the Lord." "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.”

LECTURE VIII.

GENESIS XLVII. 8, 9.

"And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? and Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."

WE are this morning to review the closing scene of the life of that patriarch who has formed the subject of the short course of lectures in which we have been engaged, Let us, before we do so, return our sincere and humble thanks to the Giver of all good, for that measure of his grace with which He has been mercifully pleased to bless the undertaking, and for permitting us, contrary almost to our expectation, thus to bring it uninterruptedly to a conclusion. Most inadequately as this instructive subject has been treated, we would still venture to believe that the divine blessing has not been entirely withheld; that some among you may have been led, while meditating upon the life of this man of God, to search the more earnestly, to scrutinize the more carefully your own bosoms, to observe

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whether your wordly comforts are leading you, as they appear in the course of this history too often to have led the patriarch, further from God: whether your trials and your afflictions have been the painful, but salutary means of bringing you nearer to Him; whether you, like Jacob, are fully penetrated with a deep sense of your own unworthiness and sin, are trusting to the blood of the everlasting covenant, and to that alone, for your acceptance with God, and as strangers and pilgrims on the earth, are seeking a better country, and a more enduring inheritance.

If there be any among you who have been thus influenced by the subject in which we have been engaged, to look more seriously than you have hitherto done into your own life and conversation; and if, when comparing them with this holy man of old, you find there is a sad and fearful difference -that the spiritual religion of the Bible differs widely from that which you have embraced-that the true and living faith is a far more influential grace than you have found it-that the consistent, self-denying obedience of this holy man was of a very different nature from your own--that the love of God in Christ Jesus brought with-it into his -bosom such peace as passeth man's understanding, such joy and strong consolation as you have never

known, we should, as a last, as a parting request, ask this at your hands--that you would "search the scriptures," daily for yourselves, with carefulness, thoughtfulness, and prayer, and, with the Bereans of old," see whether these things be so." Take nothing upon the credit of mere human teachers, but bring every opinion, every doctrine, every word of the preacher to the touchstone of divine truth: "Try the spirits whether they are of God," and may the Holy Spirit of light and grace direct you in your search, until you have indeed discovered the pearl of great price; until you have found Him of whom Moses and the prophets did write; and until, by the grace which is given you, He, even the Lord Jesus whom we preach, "is made unto you wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption."

We resume the history in which we are engaged, at that point of time when Jacob, having received with gratitude and joy the tidings of his long-lost son, had formed the immediate resolution, "I will go and see him before I die." Doubtless the delight of the anticipated meeting was the predominant feeling in the mind of the patriarch at this period, yet must there have mingled with it some strong sensations of regret upon bidding farewell to scenes endeared to him by the blessings,

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