-"Ho, every one." Do not go away, saying, I am not invited to this rest; let every one thirsting for rest, thirsting for home, thirsting for happiness, and disappointed, come-come. Three times we have this manner of invitation. In John vii. 37, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." And he is the same Christ upon the throne as when he stood that day at the feast of tabernacles; for we find in the last chapter of the Revelations this message from heaven, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely:" so here it is, "every one that thirsteth."

Now for the provision: "Come ye to the waters." Here is a figure, how rich and full. By the waters the God of all grace means all covenanted blessings in Christ; he says, "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." In the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the Apostle Paul tells us (Acts xiii.) the sure mercies of David are sealed to our souls,-the benefit of his life and death, and living, at the right hand of God. "The sure mercies of David," these are the waters. In the previous chapter the spirit had been speaking of some of these things: verse 5, "thy Maker is thy husband;" verse 8, "the everlasting kindness;" verse 13, "all thy children shall be taught of the Lord;" verse 14, "righteousness and security;" verse 17, "this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord." These are satisfying; they endure for eternity, they begin to shine when the darkness of death comes, they open new treasures to us when all earthly things are passing away— when the hope of the hypocrite fails like the shifting sand on the sea shore.

“Waters ”—cleansing, refreshing, fructifying, soul-filling waters, ascending waters: "the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life,”—soul-satisfying waters, "whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." Water is the most ubiquitous of all the elements. It floats in the clouds, it descends in the showers, it rolls in the rivers, it tides in the ocean, it bubbles up under our feet wherever we go, constant emblem of himself? "Come to the waters;" this world offers water to the thirsty, but it proves to be bitter to the taste; and you find the fountain broken when, perhaps, you most need to find it full; but not so with the waters God gives. He invites you to come to waters, and you find the waters wine and milk; "Yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price;" and there is no rise in the market in virtue of the rise in the commodity; for it is still "without money and without price.'

Now the promise,-do not forget it: "Hear and your soul shall live." We want life for the soul, my friends, if we were to die with time temporal life and a temporal portion would satisfy us, but the soul wants an immortal inheritance, for its portion an immortal object, for its affections an immortal fountain, immortal light, the soul wants the immortal God. "Ho, every one that thirsteth," "hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you"-with you sinner, far-off one"even the sure mercies of David."

Let me read in conclusion a passage which is a beautiful commentary on the whole subject: "He shall dwell on

high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers? Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand. Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down;"-all earthly tabernacles shall be taken down—“not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.” "And the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." (Isa. xxxiii. 16-22, 24.) Now thirsty ones, come to the waters, "without money and without price."

May the Lord command his blessing. AMEN.

A SERMON

BY

THE REV. MARCUS RAINSFORD.

"For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him."-ISAIAH lvii. 17-19.

THIS

HIS is a very richly laden bough of the tree of life, a mine full of divine treasures, a cluster of most precious promises.

It is not sufficiently realized that our God has condescended to make promises to sinners, as sinners; we have not to wait till we are good to find God making promise to us; we find promises even to the chief of sinners, and promises, so far as the sinner's merit is concerned, absolute and unconditional. All the promises of God are in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are yea and amen in him; the Lord Jesus Christ is God's gift to sinners, and upon this ground we are (every one of us) not only warranted and permitted but bound to receive the promises to rest in them and plead them with God; God never refuses the plea; God never denies his own word; God never denies himself, he cannot do it; if the promises are not made to us in Christ, God cannot charge us with unbelief; in

SERM. XXI.

fact, unbelief would be no sin, but unbelief is the root of all sin. What is unbelief, but refusing to believe what

God says.

The fact that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, is an all-sufficient warrant to every sinner under the heavens to come, and a security to every such sinner that he shall not come in vain. This great fact proclaims what we are very slow to believe, that there is nothing in God against the sinner, but that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them-Emmanuel is God with us, God for us, God on our side; his precious blood the fountain for our sin and uncleanness; his risen life the power for our service; his person the object for our affections; his offices, God's arrangement for our salvation; his relationships the inexhaustible sources of our comfort; his Spirit our teacher; his love that upon which we may always rely.

Now, if it were otherwise, how could God charge sinners with rejecting his love and neglecting his salvation? how could he upbraid them for making a liar of him? or ever say—as we find he will say to thousands at the last day-"Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh."-(Prov. i. 24-26.) "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." of the Gentiles founds his great argument (in Rom. viii. 34),

And on this fact the Apostle