of an inheritance, our title to which has been written in the blood of the Mediator, and our entrance into which that Mediator ever lives to secure. And therefore is it that we affirm of christian hope, that it is precisely adapted to the preventing the soul from being borne away by the gusts of temptation, or swallowed up in the deep waters of trial. It is more than hope. It is hope with all its attractiveness, and with none of its uncertainty. It is hope with all that beauty and brilliancy by which men are fascinated, and with none of that delusiveness by which they are deceived. It is hope, with its bland and soothing voice, but that voice whispering nothing but truth; hope, with its untired wing, but that wing lifting only to regions which have actual existence; hope, with its fairy pencil, but that pencil painting only what really flashes with the gold and vermilion. Oh, if hope be fixed upon Christ, that Rock of Ages, a rock rent, if we may use the expression, on purpose that there might be a holding-place for the anchors of a perishing world-it may well come to pass that hope gives the soul steadfastness. I know that within the veil there ever reigneth one who obtained right, by his agony and passion, to rear eternal mansions for those who believe upon his name. I know that within the veil there are not only pleasures and possessions adequate to the capacities of my nature, when advanced to full manhood, but a friend, a surety, an advocate, who cannot be prevailed with, even by unworthiness, to refuse me a share in what he died to procure, and lives to bestow. And therefore, if I fix my hope within the veil; within the veil, where are the alone delights that can satisfy; within the veil, where is Christ, whose intercession can never be in vain,-hope will be such as is neither to be diverted by passing attractions, nor daunted by apprehensions of failure it will, consequently, keep me firm alike amid the storm of evil passions, and the inrush of Satan's suggestions; it will enable me equally to withstand the current which would hurry me into disobedience, and the eddies which would sink me into despondency. And, oh, then, is it not with justice that I declare of hope,

that "it is an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast ;" and that I give as the reason, that "it entereth into that within the veil!"

And now we may safely ask, whether, if you know any thing practically of the worth of christian hope, you can be indifferent to the condition of thousands around you, who have no such anchor of the soul? If you are anchored within the veil, can you look on with unconcern, whilst many a noble bark, on the right hand and on the left, freighted with immortality, is drifting to and fro, the sport of every wind, and in danger, each instant, of being wrecked for eternity? We are sure that christian privileges are of so generous and communicative a nature, that no man can possess, and not wish to impart them. And if there be a class of individuals who, on all accounts, have a more than common claim on the sympathy of christians, because more than commonly exposed to moral tempests and dangers, may we not select sailors as that class,men whose business is in great waters, who from boyhood have been at home on the sea, whether in storm or in calm; but whose opportunities of christian instruction are, for the most part, wretchedly small; and who learn to steer to every harbor except that which lieth within the veil? The religious public have much to answer for on account of the neglect of course we speak comparatively-which they have manifested towards sailors. Very little has even yet been done towards ameliorating their moral condition. So soon as the sailor returns to port, after having been long tossed on distant seas, he is surrounded by miscreants, who seek to entice him to scenes of the worst profligacy, that they may possess themselves of his hard-earned gains. And christian philanthropy has been very slow in stepping in and offering an asylum to the sailor, where he may be secure against the villany which would ruin body and soul. Christian philanthropy has been very slow in taking measures for providing, that, when he returned from his wanderings-probably to find many in the grave who had sent anxious thoughts after him as he ploughed the great deep, and who had vainly hoped

to welcome him back-he should have the Gospel preached to him, and the ministers of christianity to counsel, and admonish, and encourage him. It is vain to say, that our churches have been open, and that the sailor, as well as the landsman, might enter, and hear the glad tidings of redemption. You are to remember, that for months, and perhaps even years, the sailor has been debarred from the means of grace; he has been in strange climes, where he has seen nothing but idolatry; even the forms of religion have been altogether kept from him; and now he requires to be sought out, and entreated; and unless in some peculiar mode you bring the Gospel to him, the likelihood is the very smallest of his seeking it for himself. But we thank God that of late years attempts have been made, so far as the port of this great city is concerned, to provide christian instruction for sailors. There is now a Floating Church in our river: a vessel, which had been built for the battle, and which walked the waters to pour its thunders on the enemies of our land, has, through the kindness of government, been converted into a place of worship; and a flag waves from it, telling the mariner that, on the element which he has made his own, he may learn how to cast anchor for eternity; and the minister of this church moves about among the swarming ships, as he would move through his parish, endeavoring by the use of all the engines by which God has intrusted his ambassadors, to arrest vice, and gain a hold for religion amongst the wild and weather-beaten crews. And it is in support of this church that we now ask your contributions. His Majesty the King, by the liberal annual subscription of £50, shows how warm an interest he takes in the cause, and recommends it to the succor of his subjects. The exemplary bishop, moreover, of this diocese-whom may a gracious God soon restore to full health-is deeply interested on behalf of this church. But you cannot need to be told of the great and the noble who support this cause; it asks not the recommendation of titled patronage; you are Englishmen, and the church is for sailors. Yes, the church is for sailors; men who have bled for us, men who fetch for us all

the productions of the earth, men who carry out to every land the Bibles we translate, and the missionaries we equip: the church is for sailors; and yet though the annual expenditure is only between three and four hundred pounds, the stated annual income-I am almost ashamed to say it-is only a hundred and fifty. I am persuaded, that to mention this will suffice to procure a very liberal collection. I cannot bring myself to attempt the working on your feelings. When I plead the cause of sailors, it seems to me as though the hurricane and the battle, the ocean with its crested billows, and war with its magnificently stern retinue, met and mingled to give force to the appeal. It seems as though stranded navies, the thousands who have gone down with the waves for their winding-sheet, and who await in unfathomable caverns the shrill trumpet-peal of the archangel, rose to admonish us of the vast debt we owe those brave fellows who are continually jeoparding their lives in our service. And then there comes also before me the imagery of a mother, who has parted, with many tears and many forebodings, from her sailor-boy; whose thoughts have accompanied him as none but those of a mother can, in his long wanderings over the deep, and who would rejoice, with all a mother's gladness, to know that where his moral danger was greatest, there was a church to receive him, and a minister to counsel him. But we shall not enlarge on such topics. We only throw out hints, believing that this is enough to waken thoughts in your minds, which will not allow of your contenting yourselves with such contributions as are the ordinary produce of charitysermons. The great glory of England, and her great defence, have long lain, under the blessing of God, in what we emphatically call her wooden walls. And if we could make vital christianity general amongst our sailors, we should have done more than can be calculated towards giving permanence to our national greatness, and bringing onward the destruction of heathenism. We say advisedly, the destruction of heathenism. The influence is not to be computed which English sailors now exert for evil all over the globe. They are

crime. If the Almighty were to mark out certain offences, the perpetration of which he would immediately visit with death, there can be no doubt that these offences would be shunned with the greatest carefulness, and that too by the very men whom no exhortations, and no warnings, can now deter from their commission. Yet it is not that punishment is one jot less certain now than it would be on the supposed change of arrangement. The only difference is, that, in one case, God displays long suffering, and that in the other he would not display long-suffering-the certainty that punishment will follow crime is quite the same in both. And thus, unhappily, sin is less avoided than it would be if we lived under an economy of immediate retribution; and "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." In place of being softened by the patience of which we have so long been the objects, we are apt to be encouraged by it to further resistance; calculating that he who has so often forborne to strike, will spare a little longer, and that we may with safety yet defer to repent.

१९

It is, therefore, of great importance that men be taught that there are limits even to the forbearance of God, and that it is possible so to presume on it as to exhaust. And this is evidently what the Psalmist inculcates in the first of those verses on which we would discourse. He seems to mark the times in which he lived as times of extraordinary depravity, when men had thrown off the restraints of religion. "They have made void thy law." They have reduced the divine precepts to a dead letter, and refuse to receive them as a rule of life. The expression manifestly denotes that a more than common contempt was put on the commandments of God, and that men had reached a rare point of insolence and disobedience. And it is further manifest, that, when wickedness was thus at its height, David expected that there would be an end of the forbearance of God, and that he would at length give scope to his righteous indignation. "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law." As much as

bounds prescribed to long-suffering ; they have outrun the limits of grace; and now, therefore, God must interfere, vindicate his own honor, and repress the swellings of unrighteousness.

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This, then, is the first truth presented by our text, that it is possible to go so far in disobedience that it will be necessary for God to interpose in vengeance, and visibly withstand men's impiety. But what effect will be produced on a truly righteous man by this extraordinary prevalence of iniquity? Will he be carried away by the eurrent of evil? Will he be tempted, by the universal scorn which he thrown on God's law, to think slightingly of it himself, and give it less of his reverence and attachment? On the contrary, this law becomes more precious in David's sight, in proportion as he felt that it was so despised and set aside, that the time for God to work had arrived. You observe that the verses are connected by the word "therefore." "They have made void thy law." What then? is that law less esteemed and less prized by myself? Quite the reverse; they have made void thy law; therefore I love thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold." There is much that deserves our closest attention in this connection between the verses. It is a high point of holiness which that man has reached, whose love of God's commandments grows with the contempt which all around him put on these commandments. This, then, is the second truth presented by our text, that there is greater reason than ever for our prizing God's law, if the times should be those in which that law is made void. So that there are two great principles which must successively engage our attention in meditating on the words which form our subject of address. The first is, that there is a point in human iniquity at which it is necessary that God should interfere; the second, that, when this point is reached, the righteous are more than ever bound to prize and love the law of the Lord. It will be our endeavor to set these principles clearly before you, and to examine them in their several bearings and results.

Now, in one of those visions which