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gree, I have been of service; if amongst the many I now see before me, there be one or two individuals who have received benefit from the words that from time to time I have spoken,-one or two who have been quickened to a sense of the importance of religion, or stirred to a greater diligence in the practice of its duties,—to God be the glory and the praise. Only may He whose Spirit has begun the good work within their hearts, carry it forward to the end may He establish, settle, and confirm them in the part which they have chosen: may He increase in them day by day the power of true religion may He nourish them in all goodness, and finally conduct them to the rest in heaven.

And so, indeed, would I pray for all; for rich and poor, for old and young. For those who perhaps till now have cared little about their souls' salvation; for those who have done much to endanger their salvation: for each and for all, would I now offer this my humble but most hearty petition. I pray God, who is rich in mercy, plenteous in goodness and love, that He would pour upon you the dew of His heavenly blessing,-that He would draw your hearts, and all your affection to Himself, that He would make you know and feel the great love of Jesus Christ your Saviour in dying for you, and the obligation under which you and all Christian persons lie, to hate and forsake sin, and

to lead a godly, a sober, and religious life,-that He would aid you in your endeavours so to live,that He would pardon your many fallings back, and not be extreme to mark what you may have done amiss, that He would strengthen you against temptation,—that He would support you in trouble, that He would comfort you in sickness,-be with you in your passage through the dark valley of death, and save you in the awful day of judgment. And this I would beg, even in the manner after which He has commanded us to pray,-in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Little Hadham, June 13, 1847.

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SERMON XVIII.

HARVEST SERMON.

ACTS xiv. 17.-" Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good. And gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."

THE immediate cause which gave rise to these words being spoken is related in the second lesson for this morning. They form part of St. Paul's address to the people of Lystra, whither he had come in the course of his journeying to preach the Gospel, and where he had wrought a remarkable miracle, by healing a man of his lameness who had been a cripple from his mother's womb, and had never walked. Of the miracle itself little need be said, save that it was of that merciful description which characterizes our blessed Lord's like manifestations of power, and further, that the man on

whom it was wrought, was worthy of it: he had faith to be healed: and that faith was, through God's mercy, effectual to his recovery. What happened after the miracle is full of instruction; the idolatrous inhabitants of the place who witnessed what was done, ascribed the sudden cure of the lame man to the presence of their own divinities: they "lifted up their voices and said in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker." Jupiter being the chief heathen god, and Mercury the god of speech and eloquence, the constant attendant as well as messenger of Jupiter.

Nor was this all; not content with calling them gods, they were proceeding to honour them as such. "The priest of the Temple of Jupiter which stood before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice to them with the people." And here I may observe, that extravagant as this conduct may seem now, it was not so in the case of the Lystrians. They were, it is true, heathens, and worshipped idols, but they were religious heathens, and their religion taught them to believe not only in a number of gods, but also in their frequent interference with the affairs of men in the world. They believed them, indeed, to

be but little different from men except in being exempt from death, and capable of working miracles; but in all other points much the same; possessed of the like passions, and affections, only in a more intense degree. With such notions of the Deity, it is not surprising, that on witnessing the sudden effect of St. Paul's words upon the impotent man, they should have regarded him, and his companion,-persons whom they had never seen before, -foreigners in speech and appearance,-as more than mere mortals, as very present divinities; and so regarding them, it naturally followed that they would be eager to pay them the reverence and homage which they sincerely believed to be their due. Their intention was good, for they knew no better but the act, had it been carried out, would have been impious and wrong This, however, the Apostles themselves prevented; Paul and Barnabas were no impostors, no pretenders to a distinction that belonged not to their condition: had they been so, they would probably have encouraged the deluded people in their error, and so greatly added to their own influence and importance. But they did not so. They could not bear for an instant to accept that honour, which they knew was due to God only; so they at once disclaimed and rejected it. Very striking is their language and demeanour, as told us in St. Luke's narrative: They rent 8

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