Then he said to the ministers, after many apologies, that he, as a dying man, begged them to request of the ensuing synod, that they would keep up brotherly love, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and with the utmost care avoid divisive measures, whatever temptations they might be under to them. 'I am concerned,' said he, as long as I am in life, for the church; I even pity you: O let all of us abide by him! O that the ministry of Scotland may be kept from destroying the kirk of Scotland! O that I could obtain it of them with tears of blood, to be concerned for the church! Shall we be drawn away from the precious gospel, and from Christ?' To one of the students he said, 'If I had you, lads, all about me now, I would give you a lesson of divinity: however, this will be a standing witness of the reality, solidity, power, and efficacy of those truths I taught you; for, by the power of that grace revealed in those truths, here I lie pained without pain, without strength and yet strong. I think it would not be a lost session this, though you were all here.' To a citizen he said, 'Sir, I am a monument of the great goodness of God: there are but a few names in this place that set their faces heavenward; be encouraged to go on. The Lord bless you and your family; you have been a kind neighbour.' Then he said, "They "that are planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God." I am planted in the house of God; here is an evidence of it, I am but young, and yet "the child is going to die a hundred years old." In winter last, I thought I was going to be cast as a withered branch over the wall; and now the dead stock, that was cut, has budded again, and grown a tall cedar in Lebanon.' (To be continued.) WE should throw all our services into the arms of Christ for acceptance, and solicit him to put his merits in the front, that they may be acceptable to God.-CHARNOCK. JUSTIFICATION. We must be justified to enjoy the richest jewel that any prince can wear, peace of conscience, that peace of God which sweetens all our afflictions; happy are they who have the power of God to guard, and the peace of God to comfort them; peace flowing from justification is an antidote against all fears.WATSON. SERMON BY JOHN MACGOWAN, MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL, DEVONSHIRE SQUARE, LONDON, 'And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.'—RUTH ii. 14. THE Lord is pleased by this damsel to instruct even the most grown and advanced among his people; so that, as Paul observes, he chooses things that are not, to confound those that are; and as Jesus observes, perfects praise to himself out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, when the wise and prudent are left to perish in ignorance of the great salvation. the : I. She is said to have sat by the reapers at meal time. She knew herself to be a stranger in a strange land, and having found a friend in the person of Boaz, she embraced his invitation with gratitude, and for safety convened with his labourers. It is good for you also, who know yourselves to be aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, to abide by the labourers of your Lord. If you would glean your living, you must follow the reapers if you would eat your dipped morsel in safety, you must sit by the servants of Boaz. It is dangerous to depart into other fields, and sit in the company of strangers. What canst thou have to do in way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee, if thou followest after the ways of strangers. Are you strangers and pilgrims, conscious of your urgent necessity? let your necessity prompt you to cast yourselves upon the mercy of your heavenly Boaz; for he is the friend of the destitute, and the patron of helpless strangers. Embrace his invitation, come hither at meal time, and eat of the bread; who knows but he may reach unto thee the parched corn, and thou shalt be sufficed, and leave: at all events keep close to his reapers, and thou shalt see if at last he will finally cast thee out. Know, if a sinful Israelite could have such compassion on a friendless stranger, much more the Friend of sinners, who laid down his life even for his enemies: trust in his mercy, leave the issue to him, for it shall be well. If thou hast no hope, no Saviour besides him, thou hast his salvation in thy heart, as certainly, though not as fully, as if thou wast already in the region of felicity he is the hope only of the hopeless; the Saviour, the all-sufficient Saviour, only of the necessitous. Ruth was needy, and pressed by want, gladly accepted of the invitation given her; notwithstanding she did not consider herself in any wise equal to the maidens of Boaz. Necessity alone makes the gospel invitation suitable and welcome, removes from the mind all needless scrupulousness: before our necessity becomes absolutely urgent and indispensable, we are apt to frame many excuses, why we should not embrace it. We are too vile, too depraved and unworthy to venture upon privileges so great and distinguishing: we must stay yet a little longer, and remove from the leopard, at least, some of his spots, clear the polluted heart from some of its filthiness, and in some measure abridge the power of sin before we can venture to make use of gospel provision; because we are not like the saints of the Lord; our spots are different from their spots; and our character is far inferior to theirs: for under first awakenings, poor sinners are apt to consider the believer as a perfect character, and the church below as little inferior to that triumphant, however much the contrary appears in future experience. But when the hungry beggar appears at the gate of the rich man, when shall we see him refuse an alms because of his unworthiness, or make any mortifying comparisons between himself and the domestic servants within. We are not aware how much pride discovers itself in that impious modesty of ours, which makes us say with Peter, 'Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man;' 'Lord, thou shalt never wash my feet' little considering that the more sinful we are, we have the more need of the Redeemer's approach unto us; or, that unless we submit to be washed by him, we have no part in his great salvation. Necessity will make the sinner run to the Saviour's embrace; however secure the Israelite might have dwelt in time past, the moment he commences manslayer, and hears the avenger of blood at his heels, he flees with full speed to the city of refuge, nor dare slacken his pace till safely lodged within its environs. In like manner, whilst the sinner apprehends himself innocent, or at most no more guilty than others, he may rest very secure and easy; but when sin becomes exceeding sinful, when the clamours of a guilty conscience become loud and alarming, and the voice, of condemnation sounds louder and louder, he will, he must flee to Jesus for relief: unworthiness and sin are no longer impediments in the way; but he casts himself at the wounded feet of Jesus, saying, 'Though he should slay me, I will trust in him;' if I must perish, it shall be here,-it shall be crying out for mercy, for there is salvation in none other. Ruth kept fast by the maidens of Boaz, and was not found in any other field; nor was her departure at all necessary, seeing handfuls were dropped on purpose for her, and none might reproach her for gathering of them. It is good for believers to glean only in the gospel field, to abide fast by the virgin churches, for in wandering abroad there lacketh not danger. Curiosity, if gratified, may lead us into temptation and a snare, and into divers hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition. It had been well for Jacob's daughter had she confined her curiosity to the tents of her honoured parent, and his family, and not rambled abroad to see the daughters of the land, to the entire pollution of her person, and dishonour of her character. That is a good direction given by him who possesseth all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, 'If thou knowest not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.' What can be expected but peril and jeopardy, when we depart from God's appointed ways? when itch lays hold of the ear, and curiosity presides in the heart, the erring feet are likely to tread the steps of danger, where soul-comfort shall be blasted, and destruction come upon our pleasing sensations. It is good to watch against whatever tempts us to vacate our seats in church assemblies, whatever would induce us to forsake the assembling of ourselves together on the day of the Lord; set the example of the prudent Moabitess before you, and abide by the reapers of our heavenly Boaz. II. She ate what was given to her; 'he reached her parched corn, and she did eat.' She ate corn,-the corn she ate was parched; this parched corn was reached to her, though reached to her by the hand of another, there was enough to suffice her, and still to be left for fresh comers. At meal time she ate corn in the field of Boaz; not chaff or husks, as the sinners eat in a strange land; what she ate was healthful and nourishing, not debilitating, and apt to gender disease. Such is the food of the faithful soul, the corn of heaven drawn from the granaries of God; such only can feed the immortal mind, and nourish up the human soul to life eternal. Grace, sovereign grace, reigning through righteousness to eternal life, is corn proper to the flock of Jesus; but that doctrine which centres in self, and exalts the creature, is light and insipid chaff, which never did, which never can administer suitable nourish ment. Where the great trumpet is blown, and a free salvation is published, thither resort, for that is parched corn provided for the hungry sinner, the friendless stranger; parched corn, a proper emblem of the believer's food, which hath all passed through the fire, before reached to us by our generous Husbandman. The Redeemer's obedience and death includes the whole of the Christian's nourishment; upon this he lives throughout his life; on this he lives in his dying moments; and only upon this shall he live within the regions of light and happiness. This is fitly represented by parched corn, as every part of it has passed through the fire, and that too heated to the utmost. It has passed the fire of human malice and hellish rage, as the Evangelists abundantly witness. He was tempted of the devil, he endured contradiction from sinners against himself, and heard the malicious cry, 'Away with him, crucify him, crucify him.' It passed the fire of the burning mountain, which none with safety could touch; the fiery curse of a broken law, which would have pressed any other subject down infinitely lower than the grave; notwithstanding he rose superior to it, in virtue of his indwelling divinity. This holy obedience, the food of the Christian, passed through the fire of divine anger heated to the uttermost, as must clearly appear from that alarming summons given to the sword of justice by the indignant Father: 'Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the Man, my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered' (Zech. xiii. 7). Here the adorable Jesus is considered as the Shepherd of his people Israel, called and appointed to office by the eternal Father, and therefore owned for his own Shepherd; my Shepherd. But although the relation and appointment is owned, yet, considered as the sinner's substitute, no mercy is shewn him, but he is treated with the utmost legal severity: divine justice is roused; not the rod of a father, but the sword of a judge is employed against him: the rod is for chastisement, but the sword is for bloody execution, and it awoke in all its fury against the person of our holy Substitute; so that our food is corn of heaven in the earth, and parched by sufferings the most intense. This parched corn was reached unto her; he reached her parched corn,' before she could have an opportunity of eating: a fit emblem of the conduct of our heavenly Pastor, who hands forth the bread and the water of life to his humble followers. What we gather, he gives; our industry, however great, doth not in the least impair |