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more impregnable than anything he can bring to bear against us, and that is the power of our God: "Kept by the power of God!" And, thirdly, we have the means of our security kept through faith-because faith lays hold upon his strength, makes use of his resources, rests in his promises. The power of God is our supply, and faith is the hand that draws out of that supply and ministers to our need. And, fourthly, we have the duration of our security-kept unto salvation. These are precious matters to dwell upon. When we think of that inheritance, we say can we ever attain to it ?" Oh! then, 'tis sweet to say "Kept by the power of God through faith"-how long? "Unto salvation,"—" unto the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Observe, again, with reference to this salvation, it is not revealed yet. Some people make a great mistake about this salvation : they say, "alas! I haven't got it." Why? "Oh, because I feel so poor, so weak, so helpless, so inconsistent, and so unworthy." Thank God you do feel these things. Then such a word as "Kept by the power of God" will be precious to you. If you never felt your need, you would never fly to the strong arm of the Lord God Almighty to support you. But this salvation is not revealed. Ah! when it is revealed, no temptation will worry you, and no fear will trouble you, when it is revealed no conflict of the flesh with the spirit, and the spirit with the flesh, will weary you! We are waiting for this salvation not yet revealed. It is "nearer than when we believed." But we are persuaded of it, we embrace it, we look forward to it, and confess that we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth. But it will be revealed, brethren! it is "ready to be re

vealed." When? The text says, "In the last time." The seventh verse says, "at the appearing of Jesus Christ." We were reading to-day, in the epistle, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory." Yes, the salvation shall be revealed.

Who are

And now one word more and I have done. those begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to the inheritance reserved incorruptible and undefiled, and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation? Who are they? Perhaps some of you may even now say, “Would that I knew I had an interest in that resurrection!" You read and hear of the "inheritance of the saints in light" and the tear of longing desire may perhaps glisten in some eye, and the wish be echoed from some heart, "Oh! that I had my portion there!" The living hope has been spoken of, and you are saying, "Oh! that I could hope!" And the strong arm of God keeping the soul unto that inheritance has been spoken of, and you are saying in your own heart, "Oh! that I was one of those kept!" Now we have the description of those who are kept in the chapter before us. We are told at the opening of it, they are "strangers, scattered.” Have you learnt to be a stranger in the earth, like the patriarchs of old ? They desired something better, and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims here. Have you learnt that this earth cannot satisfy you? Are you thirsting for better fountains and for purer scenes ? Have you heard something of Jesus and his glory, and do you want him and his? Well then you are "strangers." Elect to what? "Unto obedience

He adds "elect."

and sprinkling of the

blood of Jesus Christ."

That is to

Have you obeyed God?

Have you

say, elected to obey. heard the message of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and have you obeyed the gospel in receiving the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you gone to the "blood of sprinkling?" Have you said, "Lord, sprinkle this poor leprous soul of mine ?"

Again, we find that they were tempted ones. In the sixth verse we read, "In heaviness through manifold temptations"—rejoicing meantime in him who is their hope. "Whom having not seen ye love." Do you know anything of this?

But look, dear friends, to the twenty-first verse, where you have their full description. They are those "who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory." Why? For what end and object? "That your faith and hope might be in God." My friends, let us often ask and answer to ourselves this question: Why hath God raised Christ from the dead? "That our faith and hope might be in God." Are these things so, and are you of those who by him do believe in God? If so, begin your song, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten me again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away; reserved in heaven for me who am kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed when Christ who is our life shall appear, and we shall appear with him in glory."

A SERMON

BY

THE REV. MARCUS RAINSFORD,

Preached on Sunday Morning, April 24th, 1870.

"And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed."-NUMBERS xvi. 48.

You have already heard the chapter read. It contains some very remarkable teaching, presented to us in a very striking and unmistakeable way. We are living in very solemn times, in days when a vast amount of human learning, and not a little store of human ignorance are expending their efforts to disparage God's word. We are all familiar with the fact that many call in question very much of the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures. Some take exception to one part, and some to another, and if we add together all the parts which are questioned, very little would be left to us of God's record in the Old Testament. Now, for myself, I am quite prepared to say this, if it could be proved to me that any one portion of the Old Testament, quoted in the New, and professedly written for our instruction, was neither genuine nor authentic, I would give up the whole book as a revelation of God. I think we must take the Bible as a whole, or give it up as a whole. I do not see that we have more authority for receiving one part than another, and well convinced I am, the enemy of souls is sapping at the foundations of God's word, with the view of overturning principle after principle, truth after truth, till we are left without a chart in a shoreless sea, where we can neither discover an exit nor a way.

SERM. IV.

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Well, at all events, we have been forewarned. We find the apostle telling us in the second epistle to Timothy, that the days will come when men (in the third verse of the fourth chapter) "will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts" (and desires-whether they be spiritual, intellectual, or fleshly, it matters very little) "they shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." It seems to be quite sufficient to attract a large audience in these days, simply to have it advertized that a man will stand up and proclaim some absurdity, never heard of till the generation in which we are living. They shall turn away their ears from the truth;" that is the first step: and the next is, they shall be turned to fables." Note! we must have our ears turned away from the truth, before our hearts or our ears can be turned to fables. And therefore it is that Safan tries (and there are many, his dupes, not consciously, but yet his dupes, who are doing his work), to turn away men's minds from the Word of God, endeavouring to disparage its authenticity and its genuineness, and turning them to what? What do they give us? They who tell us the Bible is not God's word, and that its historical records are old wives' fables-what do they give us in lieu thereof? They give us nothing, friends-nothing. The precious

truths in which our forefathers lived, the blessed records for which prophets and apostles were willing to lay down their lives, men now-a-days take from us with a sneer, and a smile at our folly for supposing they could be divine! What do they give us in lieu thereof? Fables, nothing, or worse than nothing: lies! Again we read in this epistle to Timothy, the solemn injunction of the apostle (in the sixth chapter of the first epistle to Timothy, at the twentieth verse), "O`Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust." What was that? The truth as it is in Jesus; the oracles of God. He was placed at Ephesus to proclaim them, to teach them, to live them. Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee." Ah, we need grace to keep us from the learning of the present age!

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