mr was u leren is the eyes if one man, and cry, 1 D001 De Suritan li i vind leg upon our myers se Lari God of Elzah? O mac I mew vier i ngat ind im that I might tume men " IS SAL Las I be 1st be found? The noisins le teni and is can we not ind me a beag i ma se ten to life? Where she' Can we not in May we jeres de Lori God of Elijah?" Bat sich dependance and such a united cry will Dever be inci mased by im. A tea our last icce Som ourselves las vinshed. And now, reduced one last eremity, we cry with greater discress. Where's the Lord God of alï our revivis? Ofa: I knew where I mit ind him, that I might come even to is seat Ca be not be fcond? Wille tousands le dead around us, can we not find the caly being who can raise them to Lie? Where is be? Can we not find him? May we not find him! Why is his power restrained? Is his hand-shortened that it cannot save," or his ear heavy that it cannot hear? iniquities have separated between

No, but our him and us,

and hid his face from" us that he will not hear.” His power and grace are as abundant as when they were so abundantly displayed before our eyes: and if we would seek him he is to be found on the same mercy seat where we found him before. His mercy is not "clean gone forever." Methinks I see him stretching out his hands to this church and saying, Why weep ye? Have ye dead children in your houses? here is my power and grace at your ser

vice. If ye are straitened, ye are not straitened in me but in yourselves. Yes, Lord, the reproof is just. Christians do not call upon the God of Elijah with that reverence, humility, and agonizing desire which are needful to obtain a glorious display of his grace. We might witness more blessed days than any before granted, if they were sufficiently sought. And will they never return? Yes, they shall return. It was said in the introduction that the days of Elisha were distinguished with more glory than those of Elijah. It was not in vain that he inquired for the Lord God of his master. Blessed thought! It shall not be in vain that here and there a solitary Christian is asking for the Lord God of Elijah.— The time will come when every sinner then living in this congregation shall open his eyes and behold the God whom perhaps his fathers rejected,-when these streets shall be full of prayer and of the conquests of Jesus,-when this house, if it be standing, shall be crowded with tender and devout hearers,— when the happy man whose voice shall be heard from this pulpit, will have less grief of heart than your minister now has. Ye sacred walls, if ye be then standing, tell not the tale to our posterity: disturb not that joyful assembly with the recital of what ye witness now. Say not to them, Your fathers who once assembled here, were besought with tears, but some of them mocked and others soon forgot. Before that day arrives this voice shall be silent in death, and I hope this heart will cease to ache. Those seats shall be emptied of their present incumbents, and you will all be ga

230 WHERE 18 THE LORD GOD OF ELLAH?

thered to the assembly of your fathers. But let that day come when it may,—whether I am in this world or that, I think it will give me joy to see the kingdom of Christ prevail in the place where I once labored, and among the descendants of those I once loved. O the delightful, glorious prospect! I could dwell upon it with rapture till I died. Hasten that transporting day. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.

SERMON XIX.

THE BETTER RESURRECTION.

HEB. XI. 35.

And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

The apostle in this chapter was contemplating the power of faith in the ancient saints. To comfort the Hebrew Christians under their various trials, he reminded them how cheerfully Abraham, at the divine command, left his father's house and all his kindred, and removed into a land of strangers, "not knowing whither he went ;" and how, for the kingdom of heaven's sake, he was contented to find no abiding habitation, and to wander about from place to place," dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob." The reason assigned for this conduct was, that he considered this world not as his home, but "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." The apostle then proceeded to consider the resembling conduct of the innumerable saints who descended from

Abraham, and observed in general, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." He particularly noticed the conduct of Moses, who had “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." From Moses he descended down the ages, (taking notice, as he passed along, of the power of faith in the most distinguished saints.) until he arrived at the times of persecution. Here he commenced a most affecting account of the miseries endured by the people of God. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned; they were sawn asunder; were tempted; were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted. tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. Those who were stretched upon racks or fastened to stakes, might, by renouncing their religion, have risen up from the threatened death. (which would have been a sort of resurrection ;) but they hoped to rise to an incomparably better life than they could enjoy on earth. They hoped to rise in one hour to the heavenly rest, and to carry up those tortured bodies in the final