66

I know very well, that all conversion from sin to the living God, must come by the instrumentality of that God himself. 66 No man," said the blessed Jesus, can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him:" this cannot be denied. But let not the sentence be misunderstood. It does not, in the first place, imply, that this drawing is to be irresistible: no; far from it: God draws, but we have to decide on following. Again, it does not enable us to say, "I cannot follow, for I am not drawn." God forbid! God declares his wrath against sinners: but will God punish sinners for not coming to him, and yet, all the time, withhold the drawing, without which he knows they cannot come? O gracious and merciful Father, far from us be such imputations upon thy perfect nature! No: every man is drawn by God's Spirit: some more, and some less; some in one way, and some in another; some by secret

whisperings, and some by a voice of anger; but all in a thousand suggestions of conscience, and all in a degree sufficient for the purpose. All are drawn: and woe be to him that resists the summons!

My brethren, we go forth into the world, as Isaac walked out into the fields it is the Christian's duty to improve, as he did, the circumstances around him. We go abroad into the streets, and witness activity and enterprise: we mix in society, and see nothing but smiles: we return to our own homes, and there the Lord has blessed many of us with ease and prosperity.

Isaac also, in his walk at eventide, you remember, was charmed at first, but he was not long in finding out the canker that preyed upon his joy: and this is the great discovery we also have to make. We must learn to distrust the world, and to know that the devil is every where. Sin is to be found busy

with the merchant, on the mart; busy at the feast; busy in undermining the firmest fabric of family tranquillity; busy in our closets; busy even in religious assemblies, and in the worship of God!

But, while Isaac saw this, and trembled, you may rejoice in the assurance, that for your sakes, Christ has overcome the world. That while Isaac heard of worlds destroyed, and burning cities, to you it is spoken of "green pastures," and "the waters of comfort:" that when earth and all its fair scenes are past and gone, when the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining, then, they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and "that there remaineth a rest for the people of God."

46

SERMON III.

GENESIS XXiv. 63.

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field

his eyes,

and

at eventide: and he lifted up
saw, and behold, the camels were coming.

In reviewing all the circumstances unIder which the son of Abraham entered upon meditation, we are enabled to suggest another cause of his special retirement, and another profitable subject for our own reflections. There is nothing that sobers the gayest mind, or disposes it for the reception of serious truth, so much as domestic affliction;- and it is in such seasons of distress, when we have received one of those heart-sinking wrenches, which all who live long must

suffer, and of which they who live longest will suffer the greatest number, that the Lord is peculiarly at hand to heal the broken in heart, and giveth medicine to heal their sickness. Now, it was somewhat in this predicament that Isaac went out into the fields at eventide; he had come forth from the house of sorrow; the particular occasion of which, I shall now proceed to lay before you.

The chapter preceding the one from which the text is taken, thus opens with the recital of a very important event in Abraham's history:-" And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old; these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirgatharba." In the chequered life they had passed together, the Patriarch and his wife had been happy and blessed: they had received their trials,—as who have not? They had been not without their failings; and who in the world is free? But they had travelled a long pilgrimage