be possible for God, henceforward, to retain the affections and confidence of his creatures anywhere? "If Judas has been released and taken into heaven, others may be permitted to follow him, Even Satan himself may hope, in due time, to ascend up where he was before; and that, too, not because he shall have repented and submitted, but because it has been discovered that his punishment is not just. And if Satan is released and taken to heaven on such grounds, who knows but that Gabriel may be cast out of heaven and sent down to hell? If God has been unjust in one instance, who knows but he may be in another? In short, who knows any longer what to depend on, or what to expect, under the govern ment of God?"

Manifestly, all confidence in the great Sovereign of the universe, in the rectitude of his law, and the stability of his government, would now be lost. And this being lost, the government of God must henceforth be one of mere force, or must be annihilated. Revolt would follow revolt, and rebellion succeed rebellion, till anarchy and revolution should prevail every where and become universal.

I conclude this general topic with repeating what was said when I entered upon it. In order to understand the dispensations of God, and the reasons of them, we must steadily contemplate him as a Sovereign. We must keep in mind his claims, his obligations as a Sovereign. Governing, as he does, unnumbered worlds, and that, too, by mere force of law, he must guard well the honors of his law. He must be strict to maintain its authority. He must not suffer one iota to be detracted from it. If in any instances he may seem severe, it is because, as a Sovereign, he must be so. He delights in the exercise of benevolence and mercy; but he cannot exercise either of these attributes at the expense of justice, or in a way to endanger the great interests of the universe. Indeed, it is benevolence on a wider scale which prompts the Divine Being to protect his law, and to take all the measures requisite in order to its protection. It is benevolence which prompts him to declare, "till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

In concluding this discourse, I will only say further, that, as the subjects of God's holy government, it is incumbent on us all to study this government, that we may understand it. It is moreover incumbent on us to bow to it, and rejoice in it. We have nothing to fear from the justice of God or the strictness of his law, so long as we love and obey him. And though we have dreadfully sinned against him, still we have nothing to fear, if we will now repent and turn to God, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. It is only the obstinate, persisting rebel, who will not repent and sue for pardon, that God's law smites and his government crushes; and every such rebel a holy government ought to crush.

Persons of this character have, indeed, every thing to fear from the operation of that government which has been described. For their holy Sovereign, they may be sure, will never yield to them.

His law will not be modified, or its strictness abated, or its penalty relaxed, to favor them. Persisting as they are, they rush directly on the thick bosses of his buckler. They rush upon the point of that flaming sword which is lifted up to destroy them. Persisting. as they are, they will soon be in that world of fire which has been kindled to consume them, and from which there is no escape or deliverer. We have seen already that the material universe might sooner pass away and be no more, than that one impenitent, unpardoned soul should be released from its prison, and escape its destiny, in the other world.

Let us then hear, and fear, and do no more wickedly. Let us stand in awe, and sin not. And for all that we have sinned, let us repent, and mourn, and humbly seek forgiving mercy. We are now indulged with precious privileges, the effect of all which will be, if they are not worse than lost upon us, to bring us back from our wanderings, and confirm our allegiance to God and his law. May such be their happy effect upon us all; and may we all be prepared to sing, now and for ever,-what we are assured they sing in heaven,—“ Allelulia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

SERMON CCLXXXIV.

BY NOAH PORTER,

FARMINGTON, CONN.

D. D.

GOD THE STRENGTH OF HIS PEOPLE.

"He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."—Isaiah, 40:29.

This was said with primary reference to the captive church in Babylon; cut off from human aid, and abandoned to the will of her enemies, she was inclined to despondency; as though God himself had forgotten his promises, or were unable to fulfil them. It was in prospect of this that Isaiah was inspired to deliver and record for her admonition and encouragement a considerable part of his interesting prophecy; and, among the most interesting parts of it, the passage which includes the text. "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his un

derstanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." These animating assurances and appeals are no less applicable to us, (and to the people of God in all ages,) than they were to the Jewish captives. Our strength, both for the purposes of our individual existence in the present world, and for the cause to which the true Israel from age to age are devoted, is not in ourselves, but in God alone; and as this is obviously true with reference to whatever natural strength of body and of mind is necessary for these purposes, so also it is true especially, and, as I apprehend, according to the spirit and design of the text, with reference to the moral strength, the power of faith, the energy of purpose, the strength of holy fortitude, and patience, and disinterestedness, and zeal which they demand. It is with particular reference to this that it is said, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

It may then be useful for us to dwell upon this truth, a truth cheering to the humble, and one of which we all need to be often reminded that God is the strength of his people. In illustration of the text, I would refer you,

I. TO THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD AS BEING WITH

OUT STRENGTH.

II. To the fact that God strengthens them.

III. TO THE method of HIS WISDOM IN DOING THIS.

I. I would refer you to their condition as without strength. I do not speak of their natural capacity. Man was created in God's own image; and though fallen, he retains the faculties of his high original. As an intelligent and moral being, he is possessed of godlike powers; but as to their proper result, he is feeble-in the language of an apostle, he is "weak through the flesh," by depravity he is without strength, he has no might, and what man is, as fallen, such are the people of God, except as grace makes them to differ. Their moral strength, in respect to its source, is not in themselves but in God alone. In themselves they are without strength, whether considered in relation to their duties, their trials, or the cause to which they are devoted.

They are without strength in relation to the duties incumbent on them. So Paul found himself to be. Hear his lamentation over himself. "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.-For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I find another law in my members warring against the law in my mind, and bringing me into captivi

ty to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!" Such every person finds himself to be who understands in the same manner the nature of the divine law, and endeavors with the same zeal and perseverance to obey it. That law demands not external morality alone, but internal holiness, the exclusion of all selfishness, pride, covetousness, envy-demands absolute purity of love, reverence, humility, submission, gratitude, and good will. Obedience to it on the part of fallen men involves a complete revolution in their governing intentions, affections, and motions, "a new heart and new spirit." To begin this, to break away from the dominion of sensible and worldly objects, and come under the influence of things invisible and spiritual; to renounce all selfish and worldly ends, and seek as his main end the glory of God in doing good; to be no more conformed to this world, but transformed in the renewing of the mind,-whoever has seriously made the attempt, has found to be, not of himself, but of the grace of God alone; and, having begun, to persevere he finds to require the continued influence of the same grace. The grace which he may have had yesterday avails not for to-day; the good impressions, the pleasant frames, the pure and pious intentions which he then enjoyed could not perpetuate themselves. On the contrary, he is surrounded with influences which tend continually to draw off his mind from the objects of faith, to damp the ardor of his spiritual affections, to corrupt the purity of his governing intentions, to shake the constancy of his obedient purposes, and thus to bring him down from the moral elevation to which faith had raised him, to a level with the men of the world. Hence the conflict in which all the language of the Bible supposes christians to be engaged; hence their need of continual watchfulness and effort; and hence the prayerfulness, which, having done all, they find it indispensable to maintain, casting themselves helpless on God; and with all humility and gratitude uniting in the acknowledgment, "Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us."

They are without strength, also, in relation to the trials incident to their lot. There are afflictions under which nature, unsupported, droops and dies. Thousands have met them in the midst of their joyousness and hope, and from that moment have been inconsolable. So absorbing have been their griefs, as to pall their sensibility to remaining good, drink up their spirits, and sink them by swift degrees into the grave. From such afflictions the people of God have no exemption; and under them they too have been found weak as other men. Not only philosophy and friendship, but their former faith and piety, have been insufficient to sustain them. See Job cursing the day of his birth. There was none in all the earth his equal-a perfect man and upright—and for a season he sees his earthly hopes swept away with an even mind-he bears his personal sufferings also with serenity; under loads of sorrow and disappointment, he is still resigned, and thankful, and joyful in God; but at length the spirit fails-hope

is lost-he yields himself to the mighty pressure; he says, "0 that he would hide me in the grave. Cursed be the day wherein I was born." See Jacob, when Joseph's blood-stained coat is presented to him, rending his clothes and refusing to be comforted, saying, "I will go down into the grave, unto my son, mourning." See David, when Absalom's death was announced to him, going up to his chamber, and as he goes lamenting, "O my son Absalom, would to God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" How extravagant! how unmeaning! And what are we, that we should pretend to be better able than were those servants of God to sustain the evils of life?

If under heavy affliction we are apt to despond, we are apt also to repine. It is on this account that they are called trials. They are like the furnace to the gold. They put our faith and submission to the proof. They make obedience difficult. It is, in truth, on account of the difficulty of sustaining, in the trial of afflictions, an active trust in God, and a cheerful acquiescence in his allotments, that we are so apt to sink under them; acquiescence and trust being, in their nature, peace. Nor are afflictions our only trials. There are smiles of prosperity as well as shocks of adversity; there are allurements as well as buffetings of the world; there is an even course of personal gratification as well as a succession of painful disappointments, which make it difficult for us to maintain that humble trust in God, that spirituality of mind, that constancy in prayer and obedience, which belong so essentially to the life of godliness. Temptations of some sort are inseparable from our present state; and what occasion we have to pray that if we must needs be subject to them, they may be only those which are common to men, or that we may have strength proportionable to bear them! how weak the best of men have been found in themselves when exposed to them, the sacred page affords us solemn and repeated admonitions. There is Abraham, the father of the faithful, turning aside into crooked ways lest strangers kill him for the sake of his beautiful wife. There is Moses, the meekest of men, indulging himself in passion and in pride at the waters of strife. There is David, the man after God's own heart, going up to his neighbor's bed, and then shedding that neighbor's blood to cover the atrocious crime. And there is Peter, one hour protesting to his Master, "Though all men should deny thee, yet will not I," and then next denying with oaths and imprecations that he knew the man. The experience of all the world has shown that the best of men, if left to themselves, may commit the greatest of sins; that there is no man who, if not prevented by divine grace, may not commit any iniquity; that the firmest resolution against it, when measured with the strength of appropriate temptation, is utter weakness, and that therefore it becomes every one who, for a course of years, has held on his way of steadfast obedience, to say, "It is not I, but the grace of God that has been with me."

If in relation to their duties and their trials, the people of God