needlessly spend on your apparel is, in effect, stolen from God and the poor. And how many precious opportunities of doing good have you defrauded yourself of! How often have you disabled yourself from doing good by purchasing what you did not want! For what end did you buy these ornaments? To please God? No; but to please your own fancy, or to gain the admiration and applause of those that were no wiser than yourself. How much good might you have done with that money! and what an irreparable loss have you sustained by not doing it, if it be true that the day is at hand when "every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor!"

GEORGE WHITEFIELD

(1714-1770)

eorge WhiteFIELD, one of the greatest extemporaneous orators of modern times, preached his first sermon at Gloucester in 1736, and his formidable appeals to their consciousness of wrongdoing are said to have "driven fifteen persons mad." In view of this assertion of what is generally accepted as a fact, the reader must judge the extent to which it is a misfortune that Whitefield's written sermons do not at all represent his power as an extemporaneous speaker. It is said by one of his critics that "his printed works convey a totally inadequate idea of his oratorical powers, and are all in fact below mediocrity." While "The Kingdom of God," here used to represent him, does not deserve this sweeping condemnation, it is certainly not equal in force or style to the average sermons of his great associate, Wesley, whom as an extemporaneous speaker he certainly surpassed. Whitefield was born in Gloucester in 1714. He began life as potboy in an inn, kept by his parents in Gloucester, and it is said that in his youth he was addicted "to Sabbath-breaking, card-playing, and other vicious practices." eighteen, however, he became more sober-minded, and entering Oxford as a servitor of Pembroke College, he came under the influence of the Wesleys. This decided his career and made him one of the founders of the Methodist Church. He was ordained as a minister of the Church of England and left it only when his great eloquence and astonishing power caused him to be condemned by the more lymphatic as an emotional enthusiast. It is said that he preached eighteen thousand times during the thirty-four years of his ministry, visiting almost every town in England, Scotland, and Wales, and crossing the Atlantic seven times back and forth between England and America.

30th, 1770.

At

He died at Newburyport, Massachusetts, September

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

(From a Sermon on Romans xiv. 7)

HE kingdom of God is "righteousness."

THE

By righteousness

we are here to understand the complete, perfect, and allsufficient righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, as including both his active and his passive obedience. My dear friends, we have no righteousness of our own; our best righteousness, take it altogether, is but so many filthy rags; we can only be accepted for the sake of the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. This righteousness must be imputed and made over to us, and applied to our hearts; and till we get this righteousness brought home to our souls, we are in a state of death and damnation, the wrath of God abideth on us.

Before I go further, I would endeavor to apply this. Give me leave to put this question to your hearts. You call yourselves Christians, and would count me uncharitable to call it in question; but I exhort you to let conscience speak out,-do not bribe it any longer. Did you ever see yourselves as damned sinners? Did conviction ever fasten upon your hearts? And after you had been made to see your want of Christ, and made to hunger and thirst after righteousness, did you lay hold on Christ by faith? Did you ever close with Christ? Was Christ's righteousness ever put upon your naked souls? Was ever a feeling application of his righteousness made to your hearts? Was it, or was it not? If not, you are in a damnable state,-you are out of Christ; for the Apostle says here: "The kingdom of God is righteousness"; that is, the righteousness of Christ applied and brought home to the heart.

It follows "peace." "The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace." By peace I do not understand that false peace, or rather carnal security, into which so many are fallen. There are thousands who speak peace to themselves when there is no peace. Thousands have got a peace of the devil's making; the strong man armed has got possession of their hearts, and therefore their goods are all in peace. But the peace here spoken of is a peace that follows after a great deal of soul trouble; it is like that calm which the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to the wind: "Peace, be still; and immediately there was a great calm"; it is like that peace which Christ spoke to his Disciples when he came

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and said: "Peace be unto you,”—“My peace I leave with you. » It is a peace of God's making, it is a peace of God's giving, it is a peace that the world cannot give, it is a peace that can be felt, it is a peace that passeth human understanding,- it is a peace that results from a sense of having Christ's righteousness brought home to the soul. For a poor soul before this is full of trouble; Christ makes application of his righteousness to his heart; and then the poor creature, being justified by faith, hath peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. My dear friends, I am now talking of heart religion, of an inward work of God, an inward kingdom in your hearts, which you must have, or you shall never sit with Jesus Christ in his kingdom. The most of you may have peace, but for Christ's sake examine upon what this peace is founded- see if Christ be brought home to your souls, if you have had a feeling application of the merits of Christ brought home to your souls. Is God at peace with you? Did Jesus Christ ever say, "Peace be to you"-" Be of good cheer"-"Go thy way, thy sins are forgiven thee "-" My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you"? Did God ever bring a comfortable promise with power to your soul? And after you have been praying, and fearing you would be damned, did you ever feel peace flow in like a river upon your soul? so that you could say: Now I know that God is my friend, now I know that Jesus is my Savior, now I can call him: "My Lord, and my God"; now I know that Christ hath not only died for others, but I know that Jesus hath died for me in particular. O my dear friends, it is impossible to tell you the comfort of this peace, and I am astonished (only man's heart is desperately wicked) how you can have peace one moment and yet not know that God is at peace with you. How can you go to bed this night without this peace? It is a blessed thing to know when sin is forgiven; would you not be glad if an angel were to come and tell you so this night?

But there is something more-there is "joy in the Holy Ghost." I have often thought that if the Apostle Paul were to come and preach now, he would be reckoned one of the greatest enthusiasts on earth. He talked of the Holy Ghost, of feeling the Holy Ghost; and so we must all feel it, all experience it, all receive it, or we can never see a holy God with comfort. We are not to receive the Holy Ghost so as to enable us to work miracles; for, "Many will say in that day: We have cast out

devils in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works." But we must receive the Holy Ghost to sanctify our nature, to purify our hearts, and make us meet for heaven. Unless we are born again, and have the Holy Ghost in our hearts, if we were in heaven we could take no pleasure there. The Apostle not only supposes we must have the Holy Ghost, but he supposes, as a necessary ingredient to make up the kingdom of God, in a believer's heart, that he must have "joy in the Holy Ghost." There are a great many, I believe, who think religion is a poor, melancholy thing, and they are afraid to be Christians. But, my dear friends, there is no true joy till you can joy in God and Christ. I know wicked men and men of pleasure will have a little laughter; but what is it, but like the crackling of a few thorns under a pot? it makes a blaze, and soon goes out. I know what it is to take pleasure in sin; but I always found the smart that followed was ten thousand times more hurtful than any gratification I could receive. But they who joy in God have a joy that strangers intermeddle not with -it is a joy that no man can take from them; it amounts to a full assurance of faith that the soul is reconciled to God through Christ, that Jesus dwells in the heart; and when the soul reflects on itself, it magnifies the Lord, and rejoices in God its Savior. Thus we are told that "Zaccheus received Christ joyfully," that "the eunuch went on his way rejoicing," and that "the jailer rejoiced in God with all his house." O my friends, what joy have they that know their sins are forgiven them! What a blessed thing is it for a man to look forward and see an endless eternity of happiness before him, knowing that everything shall work together for his good!-it is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, may God make you all partakers of it!

Here, then, we will put the kingdom of God together. It is " righteousness," it is "peace," it is "joy in the Holy Ghost." When this is placed in the heart, God there reigns, God there dwells and walks-the creature is a son or daughter of the Almighty. But, my friends, how few are there here who have been made partakers of this kingdom! Perhaps the kingdom of the devil, instead of the kingdom of God, is in most of our hearts. This has been a place much favored of God. May I hope some of you can go along with me and say: "Blessed be God, we have got righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost"? you so?

Have

Then you are kings, though beggars; you are happy