chains of his guilt, and, making supplication unto Jesus, cries, "Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great" (Psa. xxv. 11). comes with the prodigal's confession, "I have sinned," and longs for the sweet "kiss" of pardoning love. He " acknowledges his sin unto the Lord, and hides not his iniquity," and longs and begs to know the "blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile" (Psa. xxxii. 1—3). 2. He calleth to the Lord for justification. He has been arraigned at the bar of a broken law. There the sentence has come forth against him. There he stands condemned, and upon the ground of works can look for nothing but the curse. But he is now making his appeal from the throne of justice to the throne of grace. He is now turning his face from "the mount that may be touched, that burneth with fire, and blackness, and a tempest, and from the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words," and is looking toward "Mount Zion, to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling" (Heb. xii. 18-24), and to the finished righteousness of Jesus, begging to be delivered from the condemnation of Sinai, through the atonement of Jesus, the King in Zion. He wants the sentence" of acquittal to come forth from the Lord's presence in the "blessed mount where He commands the blessing, even life for evermore" (Psa. xvii. 2; cxxxiii. 3). He wants that blessed faith that enables to fly from the burning mountain in the deserts of Arabia to the rich and glorious mountain, Calvary, where Jesus, and pardoning love and blood, are food for dying souls. He is "black as the tents of Kedar" in himself, but begs for faith to put on the righteousness of Jesus, that he may be "comely as the curtains of Solomon" (Solomon's Song i. 5).

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3. He begs for the rich privilege of entering into the holiest, washed in the Saviour's blood, clothed in His righteousness, and with the sweet Spirit bearing witness with his spirit that he is a child of God (Rom. iii. 16). He wants to "draw nigh with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and being washed with pure water" (Heb. x. 22). He wants to be able to say, "Abba, Father," without a wavering tongue. In a word, he wants and begs for his filthy soul to be washed in Jesus' blood; his naked soul to be clothed in His righteousness; his lost soul to be saved with His salvation; his hungry soul to be fed with His bruised body; his diseased soul to be healed with His balm; his refugeless soul to find refuge in Him. He wants Calvary's cross for his shade; Calvary's wounds for his refuge; Calvary's atonement for his peace. He wants to be built on Christ as a foundation; to dwell in Christ as a temple; draw nigh to God through Christ; live through Christ; live upon

Christ; live to the praise of Christ; and at last live with Christ for ever, to praise the sacred Three in everlasting hallelujahs of joy, peace, and triumph. These, then, in substance, are the things that "the stranger calleth to the Lord for." But

IV. We have to observe the success attending the stranger's errand, or the blessings which are sure to be given him, in answer to the Saviour's prayer. Whoever may find his prayers unavailing, Jesus, the great Solomon, will never find His so. If the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man be much availing, surely we may assert that the effectual fervent prayer of Jesus is all availing. The cries of the spiritual stranger must come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, because the great Angel of the covenant, on his behalf, officiates at the golden altar (Rev. viii. 3), and adds to his anxious breathings the sweet incense of His own sacrificial and intercessory work. Indeed, there are several immutable things to secure the success of the supplicating stranger. The will of the Father is on his side, and it is "according to the will of God" that the Holy Ghost "makes intercession" for the stranger (Rom. viii. 26-29). There are the "yea and amen promises" (2 Cor. i. 20) as well as the never-to-be-forfeited "oath" of a covenant God on his side (Heb. vi. 17, 18). But the point of security which the text makes most prominent is, the intercession of the Greater than Solomon. Oh, Jesus is looking, coming stranger, with a heart full of tenderness and compassion upon thee, and looking to the Father with an authoritative and confident cry, "Hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place, and do`according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for." As if He should say, pointing to the poor, guilt-stung, coming stranger, and lifting up His eyes to the throne of the Father, "Look upon an object of Thy everlasting love. See, there is one whom Thou gavest Me to redeem. I bought him with My invaluable blood. His name is on My breast, and deep engraven on the palms of My hands. Now, taught by the Holy Spirit, he sees his strangership; he feels his helplessness; he feels his ruin; but he sees the way of pardon, justification, and access. His eyes are upon, and his hands are stretched out toward, the place of meeting, Myself, the true Temple. Hear his humble confession, 'I have sinned'; listen to his supplication; read his wants in his earnest looks, his deep sighs, his heart-felt cries; read his heart, see its woes, mark its wants, and do according to all that he calleth to Thee for." Can we doubt the stranger's good success with such an Advocate with the Father, who, though

"With cries and tears He offered up

His humble suit below,

Yet with authority He asks,
Enthroned in glory now "?

No; indeed, there can be no Scriptural ground to doubt the success of the coming stranger. He may not have his requests granted him just in the manner and measure, nor at the time, nor by the means he has desired and hoped. God displays the absolute sovereignty of His character in all His dealings with the heirs of salvation; but, while the exercise of sovereignty gives endless and admirable diversity to His handiwork in the souls of His children, the immutability of His will and the stability of His Word secures to them all the blessings of pardon, justification, and access to the Father. In the reception of the blessings the stranger seeks, God alone is the efficient cause, although the blessing is received by faith; but still, that faith is "not of himself," but is "the gift of God" (Eph. ii. 8).

Since Jesus, with His obedient life, and atoning death, and justifying resurrection, is the only channel of pardon and peace, and the only way of access that the Scriptures reveal, he that thinks he is pardoned, and may draw nigh to God, and yet his pardon was not gained by "looking unto Jesus," is deceiving his own self. Hart might well say

"Worship God, then, in His Son,
There He's love, and there alone;
Think not that He will or may
Pardon any other way."

When God's time of blessing the stranger has arrived, he is enabled, by whatever means the Lord pleases, to go, a poor, guilty, black and hell-deserving sinner, to a law-fulfilling and sin-atoning Saviour; and, notwithstanding all his guilt and wretchedness, to believe that he is welcome to Jesus, and that He "will in no wise cast him out" (John vi. 37); and so drop with all his load of sins and woes upon the atonement of Jesus, and so believe Him to have stood in his law-place, to have paid all his debts, and to have endured all his hell, that his conscience becomes unburdened and clean, his soul is in sweet rest and peace, and his heart is enlarged with the "love of God, shed abroad therein by the Holy Ghost" (Rom. v. 5). And truly most blessed is the effect of this believing sight of Jesus "making peace" for him "through the blood of the cross" (Col. i. 20). The law is no longer his terror, for he sees that, in his blessed Surety, it is "magnified and made honourable" (Isa. xlii. 21). Justice no longer seems against him, but on his side; yea, every perfection of Deity is for him. The wretched hardness of his heart is taken away, and softened, meekened, humbled, happy, and free, he can draw nigh to the mercy-seat, and feel no terror nor guilt; he can lift up "holy hands, without wrath and doubting" (1 Tim. ii. 8); he can serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness" (Luke i.

74, 75). "Perfect love" has "cast out fear" (1 John iv. 18). "The mount that may be touched, that burns with fire, and blackness. and darkness, and a tempest" (Heb. xii. 18), is now far behind him in the desert, and Mount Sion" is full in view. The righteousness of Jesus is now his dress, and glitters in his eyes. with ten thousand lovely charms. The blood of Jesus is exceedingly dear. Christ is the "Chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." Fair are his prospects, great his possessions, rich his inheritance, and clear his title; and now he can indeed say that the wilderness and the solitary place is glad; the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose. The lame man now leaps as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb man sings; for in the wilderness waters have broken out, and streams in the desert (Isa. xxxv. 1,6). This mighty and happy revolution makes his old title obsolete, for he is now "no more a stranger and a foreigner, but a fellow citizen with the saints, and of the household of God; and is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone" (Eph. ii. 19, 20). He now not merely prays "toward" Jesus, the Temple of the Lord, but he prays "in this house," and there, "in the secret place of the Most High, he dwells and abides under the shadow of the Almighty" (Psa. xc. 1); and is there

"No more a stranger, or a guest,

But like a child at home."

And well is he taught to know that to God belongs all the praise of the great things that are done for his soul; and, indeed, all is to be traced to the dateless love of the Father toward him, the precious work of Jesus for him, and to the mighty power of the Holy Ghost in him; and it, therefore, well becomes him, and is every way congenial with his feelings, to "give thanks unto the Lord, whose mercy endureth for ever" (Psa. cxxxvi.); and well can he respond to the Psalmist's exhortation, "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. O come, let us worship and bow down : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand" (Psa. xcv.); and happily can he join the blessed song, "The Lord liveth; and blessed be my Rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted" (Psa. xviii. 46).

But, although all the Lord's people in this life know something of this sweet change-the oil of joy given for mourning (Isa.lxi.3) -yet a complete and full donation of the stranger's requests is reserved for another and a better life. There the stranger will

indeed be satisfied. There every power of his soul, unembarrassed by sin and the mortal tabernacle-and at the resurrection, his body, too, immortal and spiritual-shall find endless employ to contemplate and gaze upon, adore and feast upon, Jesus, the true Temple and eternal All of the chosen.

Now, my hearers, in conclusion, permit me to remind you that you are either in a state of entire strangership, or in a state of sensible strangership. In other words, you are either dead in sin, or quickened to feel the burden of sin, coming to Christ for the pardon of sin, or have found rest in Christ, the Saviour from sin. Examine yourselves with that carefulness, and conclude with that conscientiousness, that becomes you upon so momentous a subject, remembering, if you are in the former of these states, you are journeying to an endless hell; if in the second, the Gospel calls you to Jesus, and points you for help to the "Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the world"; if in the third state (coming to Jesus), the Gospel promises and God's oath, with Jesus' intercession, are on your side. But, if you are resting on and believing in Jesus, all the blessings, promises, ordinances, precepts, and cautions of the Gospel are your's, with heaven at the end of your race. Indeed, "all things are your's, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your's; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. iii. 21-23).

"HOW DID YOU LIKE THE SERMON?"

LET us, if only for the sake of variety, change this trite commentary on our Sunday engagements. How did you enjoy the prayers? How did the reading of God's Word affect you? How much reality did you feel in confessing your sins? How many of your sick, weary, sorrowful, and sinful friends did you remember on your knees? How much did your thoughts go with the hymns you sang? How much did you pray that the servant of God might be blessed in His Word, and that your own soul might be humbled and assured in the love of Christ? And how far has the prayer been answered? "Oh," but you say, "these are really private questions!" Then put them to yourself, dear friend.

EVERY man blameth the devil for his sins; but the great devil, the house-devil of every man, that eateth and lieth in every man's bosom, that idol that killeth all, is himself. Oh, blessed are they that can deny themselves, and put Christ in the room of themselves!-Rutherford.