giving, let your requests be made known unto God." He is beside you, and you lose a great opportunity and rob yourself of a great privilege if you do not attend to this injunction. "In everything,"-keep back nothing; the cares you hold back, the burden, the sorrow, the anxiety, the difficulty, the sin that you keep back, you will find to be the heaviest of all your burdens. No, he says, "In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." Just pour out your heart to him. Oh, what a blessed thing it is to have a kindred heart to pour one's self out before; the Lord is beside you, he invites you to pour out your heart to him, not for his sake, do you think he needs to be told your cares and difficulties, anxieties and temptations? It is for your sake that you may get rid of the burdens that weigh you down, the anxieties that distress you, the sin that is upon your conscience. Tell it to him, "in everything."

66

And

with thanksgiving." Do not be always murmuring; thank him for such a Friend beside you, thank him for such a heart open to you, thank him for such an arm bared for your deliverance, thank him for such a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and for such a boundless welcome from God Almighty to the chief of sinners; thank him for what he has done, for what he is doing, and for what he will do.

III. And now, lastly,―The precious promise of the text. Observe, it is connected with obedience of those commands, founded upon the fact of the Lord's presence. If we neglect the commands we shall not have the promise. What is the promise? "The peace of God, which passeth all under

standing, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Oh, what a full, precious, desirable blessing-the peace of God! Nothing less than that, the divinest peacethe peace of God, the most lasting peace, the best peace.

The peace of God is spoken of in Scripture in two senses. We read that Christ has made peace with God. Peace which only the sprinkled blood before the mercy-seat in heaven has procured, with the accomplishing, the procuring, or the bestowing of that peace, you have nothing whatever to do. The Lord Jesus Christ has all the honour, he did it, his blood is the ground of it, and himself our glorious High Priest is the author of it, he hath made peace.

But there is another peace; the apprehension and enjoyment of peace in the soul. This can only be had by faith. And let me add, it can only be enjoyed as we walk consistently, according to the faith of the gospel. Inconsistency will rob you of this peace, rob you of all enjoyment in the fact that the blood of Jesus has been sprinkled before the mercy-seat and has made peace. That peace being made, the Gospel is the proclamation of it, faith apprehends and receives it. And if you do not receive that Gospel, but reject God's testimony by reason of your unbelief, or negligence, then you rob yourself of that peace.

Observe, the peace spoken of here is the apprehended peace of God. The Apostle speaks of it in Rom. xv. 13, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Peter speaks of it in 1 Pet. i. 8, “In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." In the passage before us this "peace of God which passeth all under

standing" is the result of faith realizing the Lord is near you, rejoicing in the Lord as near you, and telling all your cares to him (you cannot have peace if you hold them back), the " 'prayer and supplication with thanksgiving by which your requests are made known unto him,"-all are of faith only. If you neglect this, your experience will be very like David's, in Ps. xxxii. 3, 4, "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." And if you are to enjoy this peace it must be in the way of living out the Gospel, and letting your moderation be known unto all

men.

What a blessed position of faith this is! realizing the nearness of the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord, casting our care upon the Lord, making our requests known unto the Lord; the peace of God keeps our hearts, keeps us from sinking, keeps us from sinning, keeps our minds calm when all around may be disturbed, at rest when there is no rest around, at peace even in anticipation of death and judgment; and in the enjoyment of the hope of better, brighter, happier things to come. As to the nature of this love and joy, and hope. The love—it is the love of God shed abroad in the heart, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith; the joy—the joy of the Holy Ghost given unto us; the peace-the peace of God keeping our hearts. And the description given of this love, and joy, and peace, is just wonderful: the Love "passeth knowledge" that we may "know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge:" the Joy is joy unspeakable, and full of glory; and the Peace, see what the text says, it is "peace that passeth all understanding," May we not rejoice in the

Lord whose love "passeth knowledge," whose joy into which he calls us is "unspeakable and full of glory," and whose peace bestowed upon the soul "passeth all understanding." This is the salvation of God, this is the allowance of grace presented to every one amongst us.

May the God of this hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. And may God's blessing be with you, and God's Spirit shine down into your hearts and shew you these things. AMEN.

A SERMON

BY

THE REV. MARCUS RAINSFORD.

"The field is the world."-MATT. xiii. 38.

HIS is the language of parable, and the speaker is

THIS

Christ. If we may judge from the question of his disciples in verse 10, "Why speakest thou unto them in parables?" this was his ordinary mode of teaching; it was written of him, "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter dark sayings of old." He gives the reason in verse 11, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."

Parable has a three-fold effect and operation, it works variously according to the character and discernment of the hearer. From the careless, and indifferent, and inattentive, parabolic teaching tends to veil the truth which the mind does not care to inquire after. From the dull, and earthly, and sensual, parabolic teaching veils the fulness of the truth which would otherwise dazzle and hinder the mind studying it. Then, on the other hand, to the spirituallyminded, teaching by parable illustrates and enforces the truths themselves, rendering them more effective.

SERM. XIX.