CHAPTER IX.

SELECTIONS FROM SERMONS.

DELIVERED FIFTH MONTH 9TH, 1869-PLACE NOT GIVEN.

I am rejoiced in spirit by the renewing evidence which is afforded in the congregation here assembled, that there exists in the human mind a desire for Truth. This desire is exemplified by the large number of those not of our fold, who have come to sit with us this morning. For we, as a people, offer but little, so far as outward surroundings are presented, that is attractive to the natural man, who is looking outwardly; who is seeking gratification for eye and ear, and entertainment for the intellect. As you are aware, there is not present with us the pictured window, the music of the organ, nor the trained voices of a choir; nor is there any one here who has prepared a discourse for the occasion; so far as such preparation is concerned we are all alike. We have come here to wait upon God, looking unto Him for instruction, and knowing, from our own experience, the truth of the Scripture declaration, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them," we are willing to come together in his name, and wait for his teaching.

We recognize, my friends, that there is no teacher comparable to the Divine Teacher; and if we are only willing to look to Him, to draw nigh unto Him, and to seek an acquaintance with Him, He will be found of us. At the same time we, as a people, have recognized that it has pleased

God to qualify, from among those who have learned in his school, men and women to bear witness of what they themselves have tasted of "the good word of life and the powers of the world to come."

And what a high position does this people occupy, relig iously, before men, by its profession of having but one presiding Power acknowledged, and that Power is Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church.

When assembled, as we are this morning, there is no restraint imposed upon any of our members, or upon any of those who may meet with us, save the restraint of Divine Love; for we recognize that where this moves and operates upon the hearts of any who are thus gathered, whether it be the lisping babe, or the man strong in the knowledge of Truth-young or old, male or female, here we stand upon common ground; so that if it please God to move the hearts of any, they are recognized as having the right to bear witness to the Truth; to speak unto others the good things they have learned in the school of Christ. We invite all who have been thus moved to testify according to their measure, whatever it may please God to give unto them.

You see by this, beloved brethren and sisters, at least in a measure, wherein and how this people in their coming together for Divine worship, differ from all other professors of religion, for generally ministers are appointed, and none have the right to speak save him who has been intrusted with the duty. We think that this manner of assembling and waiting is in harmony with the practice of the early Christian Church; whilst that generally prevailing among the professors of Christianity to-day is more in keeping with the practices of the Jewish people, antecedent to the

outward advent of Jesus Christ. Now, we know that the religious world—I do not refer to the Orientals, to the inhabitants of Africa, or to those of the isles afar off-save the Israelitish people, claim to be Christians; and however various may be their practices or forms of worship, all take the name of Christ. Has the matter ever been brought to your attention so as to cause you to reflect and to examine how far the present forms of worship comport with the teachings and the practices of the early Christian church? Had the disciples of Jesus Christ their temples of religion as the people now have? If so, did they enter into them in the manner and with the forms that now prevail? Was it deemed requisite that a man should be qualified by scholastic attainments, by study and preparation, to preach to the people understandingly? When we turn to the record of the Old Testament, and learn of the practices of the Jewish Church, we find that there was an acknowledged priesthood, that the house of Levi held that rank, and that the priests received their portion, their tithes, from the people, for the discharge of those duties, which the office imposed upon them. Here we find the temple worship; here we find the singing men and singing women; here we find the people collected together to hear the words that came from the priest.

But is this acknowledged in the New Testament as the Christian religion; or was it the great mission of Jesus Christ, the Son and Sent of the Father, to draw, to bring, to turn the minds of the people, from the temple worship, from outward ceremonies, from ritualism, and from all the various forms connected with the Jewish Church? Was it not his mission to turn, to draw, to bring the people home to the fountain of living water, as He declared to the woman

of Samaria, when He asked her for water at Jacob's well? But she in her sectarian prejudice, was at once prepared to inquire of Him how it was that He, a Jew, should ask water of her who was a woman of Samaria. Jesus, in reply, said to her, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water."

The testimony which is given me to bear this morning, before this large assembly, is the great mission of Jesus Christ to the souls of the children of men, in his inward appearance. And when we come truly to know and understand Him as the Son and Sent of the Father by our faith in Him; when we come to recognize Him, not only by the sight of the eye, and by the hearing of the ear; but when we come to know Him for ourselves, then will we be ready to bear our testimony, as did the woman at Jacob's well.

And what was the testimony that Jesus brought unto her? "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." It remains as true to-day as it was when He uttered it, that those who drink of the water that He gives them shall never thirst.

Herein is the superior glory of the Christian covenant over any of the past covenants of God with man. Whilst the manna which God gave to Israel in their outward journey furnished them food for the time, it had to be gathered every day; but Jesus declared the character of his mission which He came to fulfill, when He said, "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the

bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from Heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." "I am the

Bread of Life."

Therefore is it, my beloved people, that I feel moved this morning, by the warmth of the Father's love, to stand before you, and to invite you to Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I feel that there are now present many who might apply to themselves the language of the Psalmist, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." But you, like the woman at Jacob's well, have day after day been drawing water, and finding that it does not satisfy. But there is offered unto the children of men, a day of great rejoicing, of great joy; for there is born unto them, in Bethlehem of Judea, a Saviour, Christ, the Lord. He is constant, and is now as ready as He ever has been to save; and He is calling to every sincere seeker, "Give me thy heart."

This is the earnest appeal that is given forth from the source of all Goodness, and it is sounding from the river even to the ends of the earth, "Give me thy heart;" suffer me to rule there. Oh, that we were this very morning ready to do it! There are those here who are hungering and thirsting, and who have not been satisfied; they may belong to different persuasions-our own not excludedand be of various classes; for the name that we have to religion is of little moment, it is the heart which God looketh at, for He is no respecter of persons; "But in every nation. he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness is accepted