THE RELIGIOUS COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2331, 3 November 1898, Page 62

THE RELIGIOUS COLUMN.

Having made arrangements for printing a Spurgeoa Sermon fortnightly in this paper for one year, sympathisers can help by prayer and volunUiy offerings, winch will he received an.l ackrowlcd^ed by WILLIAM INGS, THE FORBURY, DUNEDIN.

G01) BESfiECHUiG SIHHEBS BI HIS MINISTERS.

A. Saimon delivered on Loul's Day Morning, July 27, 1573, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Clni&fc, and hath given to its the minisfciy of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in Chn=t, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing then trespasses unto them ; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead be ye recoiiciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew nc sin; that wo might be made the righteousness of God in him."— 2 Cor. v, 18—21. Man became God's enemy wantonly, without tho slightest offence given or. God's part, but man did not make advances towards reconciliar tion, or express regret because peace was broken. The first overtures for peace are not made by man tho offender, but by oui aggrieved ar.d . offended God. Hence -our text begins with the declaration, " All things arc of God." Reconciliation of man to his Maker is never achieved by man, but is the woik of God from first to last, and to God must be all ! tho glory. Tho text enforces this truth by giving us a brief summary. Tho Lord first finds the mesI songers of reconciliation by reconciling some men to himself He chooses his ministers, having called them into a state of reconciliation. Read the verse: "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself. by Jesus | Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." The ambassador is sent, not from man to God, but from God to man. Then the matter of the ambassador's message is altogether of God, for it is God who has " reconciled the world unto himself through Je&us Christ." He gave his son to be the atoning saciifice by tho ordained method of substitution ; thug it is he alone who has made o way of access between fallen man and himself. Furthermore, the method by which this atonement is applied to the reconciling of men is also of God. It is not man who beseeches God, but God who beseeches man to be reconciled. It is not man who cries to Christ, but | Christ prays man, through his ministers, whom | he places in his stead, to be reconciled to God. i So that from the furst thought of reconciliaI tion. right on through the provision of the atonement to the conclusion of the solemn league and covenant between the heart and God, all things are of God. lam glad to commence my sermon with such a weighty doctrine; I am glad to have such a theme with which to stir the hearts of the reconciled. You owe it all to God, my brethren, therefore render thanks unto the Most High, and never attribute to your own wills or to any natural goodness in yourselves your present friendship with the Lord, for all this is of God, who hath j reconciled you unto himself. In the process of reconciling the sinner to himself the. Lord U3es means. He might, if i ho had pleased, have influenced all Human | hearts by his Spirit, without a pleading ministry selected from among men, but he has not chosen to do so. God exercises his power oVer the hiiman mind, not miraculously but in conformity with the laws of mind. The Spirit of God beseeches and prays men to be recon- | ciled; he deals with us not as with marble or wood, carving and shaping us by mere power : acting upon the mind of man, he does not act according to the laws of matter, but deals with mind after the mode in which mind must be dealt with; and therefore his grace operates upon human wills by persuasion, — " as though God did beseech you by us," and by pleading, — " we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." But the means used of the Lord aie always such as will ensure that all tho glory shall be to him alone: if God beseoches, there can be no honour to man in yielding to the divine persuasion, but great glory is due to him who in infinite condescension prayed to his own creatures, and stooped from the loftiness of his glory to beseech his own rebellious subjects to have mercy upon themselves. This morning, I shall try to drive at the heart and conscience with all my might, depending upon the Spirit of God to make my appeals effectual ; and with that aim, and no other, I shall first of all speak upon the aml>assadors of reconciliation; secondly, upon the matter of their embassy, the message they have to deliver; and, thirdly, upon the manner in which they are to deliver their message. I. First, then, dear friends, we will begin with the ambassadors of reconciliation. It appears from the text that they themselves were once enemies to God ; " all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself." Yes, beloved, "when we beseech you to be reconciled to God, we give to ourselves no airs, as though we were superior to you by Nature, or had been superior in our former conduct before conversion. Way, rather we are bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. Are you sinful ? Such were we. Are you rebellious against God? Stich were we. Are your hearts hard? Such were ours. "We do not look down upon you from an elevated platform of affected dignity, for we recognise our own nature in yours, therefore we come to you as to fellowsinners; and, albeit it is a sorrowful thing ever to have sinned, we are glad to think that we can speak to you of an evil which has vexed us, the power of which we have painfully felt and penitently mourned, as you must yet do. We hope that our former condition as sinners and unbelievers will make us speak to you more tenderly, and will enable us to reach your hearts the better. God "might have sent angels to you, and you would, perhaps, at fiist, have been awed by their glory ; but their sermons must have been cold and unsympathetic compared with ours, for they could not know your misery and degradation as we do. They would have felt a horror of you, and would not have cared to come near you; their purity would have made them regard you as a heilthy man regards a leper; they must have done so, kind as no doubt they would have tried to be. But we have no such feelings, wo have a horror of your sin but not of you ; and looking at yem as being what we once were, we say to you : Brothers by nature, we trust you will yet become brothers by grace, and that the blood of Christ, which has made peace between us and God, may also reconcile you to the groat Father in heaven. From the text we gather that though those who are now God's ministers wore once his enemies, they are now reconciled. They are no strangers to the reconciliation which they have to preach, for they have been reconciled themselves. Yes, we were by grace diving made to feel the evil of sin; we were led to know its bitterness in our inmost souls, anil we weie led to the cross, and led to look to the Saviour nailed there for human sin : our guilt disappeared, our burden rolled from our shoulders, and we were free; and now we feel no enmity towards God, but, on the contrary, a love to hin? which we desire you tc feel. We have no quarrel now with our Maker; we ; desire that he should always do what secineth him good, for wo are sure that his will is always kindness, and wisdom, and love tow\iids his people;, and now as God's frienela we sneak

to you, and tell you that he is a good Friefid and a kind Father, that he is willing to fcr j give, and does forgive most freely, all those who come to him by Jesus Christ. We havo been reconciled, and therefore can speak to j you, not theoretically, but practically ; we con tell you what we ha\c tasted and handled j of the good word of God, and oiir ho].a is that perhaps jou will be influenced by our tes'.imony as that of men like yourselves, who have ourselves been saved. I Moieover, it seems that the ambassadors of God were reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, in the same way as other sinners. How veiy ' different is this confession from the boastings of priests and prelates nowadays; they are not of the same order as the people whom they addiesfa, but are reverend, and right reverend, I and fathers in God. They speak not as sinners saved, called tc be servants to their own fellow sinners, but as Brahmins, who by the impo- j sition of episcopal hands have obtained magical powers wherewith to perfoim potent ceremonies which shall purify men from their sins. These are not such men as we are, but are very far above us, a superior race of beings— a sacred caste! Do you not observe how they fence off wherever they can one enu of the church for themselves? That pen f.f theirs is holier than the place where the common people sit. Do you not observe how they array themselves in white, and blue, srnd scarlet, and -fine linen, because they are the depositories of nrysterictts powers which reside in none else? It is not that they are any bstter in chaiacter, nor that they have more z&al for the truth as it is in Jesus, nor that even the bishops excel in clearness of doctrine, or courage to defend the truth. Brethren, it is preposterous that these men should claim •so much when they have so little to show for it; here are bishops who can bestow the Holy I Ghost' and yet have not the manliness to speak out while the church is being Romanised, and even the abominable confessional is being set up. I could show tailors and cobblers who arc more earnest for the gospel than the occupants of the episcopal bench. We are taught to believe that these wonderful beings,, tho bishops and priests, are God's clergy or herit?ge, and all the rest of us arc mere stony laics, who ought to do them reverence. I suppose the day will come when our fellowcountrymen will bow their heads to the dust [ beforo a priest, and count themselves thrice blessed if they are but spit upon by their rovereiices. Not thus was it with ministers j sent of God in Paul's day. Here is a man who is an apostle and an inspired man, and all he has to say of himself and other ambassadors is this: "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." No, dear hearers, wo speak to you as brethren m one common fall, hoping that wo may also be brethren in the great salvation. If over I enter heaven I shall owe my cleansing to the blood of the Lamb; not one among you will owe more to the rich, free grace of God than I shall; nay, there is not one among you who shall bow in humbler, lowlier gratitude than I shall before the throne of infinite mercy as he remembers his forgiven sin. Having sinned much, and had much forgiven, we feel we cannot love enough, and cannot too plainly bell the story of our dear Master's grace; and we feel that this is better for you than that we should be something superior to 370u;3 7 ou; for we hope you will be won by a brother's testimony, by the story of one who has received the grace of God just as you must, and is cleansed just as you must be. Again, Paul tells us that the ministers of Christ having been themselves reconciled to God, have a message to deliver which has been given to them — " hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;" and he repeats it— " hath committed unto us the vroid of reconciliation." You see, wo have nothing to tell you but what ] God has told to us. We have not to stand in : our pulpits and utter original ideas, or to invent a gospel for you ; no, we are simply the bearers of a message which God would have [ us deliver to you, and it is at our peril that we add to it or take from it. In these day« there is a great deal eaid about " thinkers," and by " thinkers " they mean men who startle i their people with a fresh heresy every three months : God save us from such ikinkers ! I send my servant to the door with a message, and if on the way she, in her wisdom, deliberates and alters my message to suit her own views, I must discharge her, for I want seme one who will bear my message, and not make one of her own. God would have his minj isters be like transparent glass, which lets the rays of the sun pass through unchanged; and not liko painted windows, which colour all the . rays aftei their own nature. Through in- | firmity we all give some amount of colouring to the gospel, but he is the man according to i God's order of ministry who longs to let the i gospel shine right through him, and does not ! send upon the people anything of his own except the earnestness which the gospel works in him as it streams through him. As some glass adds heat to light by concentrating the | rays, so should the minister add heat to tho gospel, but woe unto him if he adds anything beyond. Brethren, we have nothing to tell you which we have invented, so that if you are i saved by it it will not bo due to our skill. We l have nothing to tell you but what God commits to us, and therefore God will have all the glory if your souls be saved. Once more, and we add it with all sincerity, when we plead with sinnera our expec- , tation of their being reconciled to God does not lie in our pleading, but in the work of the Holy J Spirit. L,never did expect a sinner to be saved j because of anything 1 said or the way in which j I said it. I have expected God to bless the word, and I have seen it blessed ten thousand j times, glory be to his name! But I never j reckoned there was any force in my word, or , that there could lie any potency in the manner j in which I spoko the truth. No, it is God, beseeching you by us, who performs the work, I when he speaks through our lips makes his , own mind to rush like a torrent through our j mind, and bear our mind away by its force; ! when he gives the utterance, and then by his ' Spirit applies it to the conscience and the soul, then arj men reconciled to God, but by no other means. Therefore do we feel a trembling when we speak to you lest our Father ; should leave us to ourselves, and so we should fail to bless you. Therefore do we never come j to beseech you for God without first beseeching ' God for you. We know that you will not be j saved except the Spirit of God shall bless the word, therefore do we ask the prayers of our brethren as well as send to heaven our own thac tho Lord will be pleased to take of the things of Christ, and by the Holy Ghost apply them to your souls. So you see tho ambassadors of God are your brethren. Though I might in some respects magnify our office, for it is no small thing to bo an ambassador for God, yet after all we are as nothing in the matter ; we cannot stand between you and God to take any share of praise; "wo preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus tho Lord " ; wo direct you to the Lord and the Lord alone for " for all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Chiist, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." 11. The second point of consideration is the subject-matter of our message — And first tho faithful minister's message to the sons of men is this, that reconciliation is only to be obtained towards God on the ground of substitution. " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." " For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." You cannot reconcile yourselves to God by weeping and lamentation on account of your past sins. There is no efficacy in regret to blot out trans£j:eflsiqn t Ypu cannot

reconcile yourselves to God by any future afc duous service; all that you can do is already, due to God; you will have done no more than you ought to have done if you should be perfect all the rest of your days. Neither can.' you bo reconciled to God by any ceremony of man's invention, or even of God's ordaining: he hath not 'made rites and outward forms to bo the way of grace; and if you choose them, ; God will not choose you. There were many; in the olden times who went about to establish! their own righteousness, and would not submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ;' and therefore they failed of all reconciliation i with God. But this is the plan of reconciliaI tion:— Men were lost and condemned, for there was no difference between the Jew and the Greek, they all lay under condemnation; then. [ Jesus came into the world, the eternal Son of God, and he took upon himself our manhood! in all its feebleness that he might be our . brothet; and here he lived for 30 years and j more in poverty, obscurity, sorrow and peri secution, tintil at last ho died. In big deatli I ho bore the whole burden of human sin; Gocl laid upon him the iniquity of his people, andl on the cross Jesus suffered what his people I ought to have suffered. What God's justice must have inflicted upon man for sin he inflicted upon Christ; he laid the whole weight of his wrath upon Jesus; and now this day, whosoever will come to God by tho way of the cross may come ; whosoever will hide himself in the wounds of Jesus shall be free from the arrows of vengeance. " Whosoever bslieveth •.hat Jesiis is the Christ 13 born of God: " " He that believeth in him is not condemned." Look unto mo and bo yo saved, all ye ends; i of tho eaxth," is the voice from tho cross of i Calvary, and a true voice it is, and whosoever j heedeth it shall find eternal life. Eeconciliation by the blood, by the substitutionary saorifico of the infinite Son of God, this is the message of our ministry : if we do not testify this it wero better for us that we had never been born ; if we do not preach this constantly and incessantly we have missed our main topic, we have failed in the great commission which our Master sent us to execute. We, do declare it this day in the name of the eternal God: O sinners, there is forgiveness through the blood of Jesus! There is mercy, grace, pardon, heaven, for as many as believe in Jesus, the great Substitute for sin; but there is no other mode of reconciliation under heaven. Then we are told to tell men that this reconciliation, which was made by Christ through his [ substitution, was not apart from God, but that j God was in Christ. We often tell you that j Jesus Christ's sufferings removed the wrath.' of God from his people, and that saying is true; though sometimes it is stated in mac!- ! curate language, yet a great truth is intended ; by it. But mark this : you must never fall into | tho idea that God is revengeful and angry, ! and that the death of Jesus Christ, his Son, | was necessary to pacify the Father. Bej loved, you know better than this, you know that God was love before Jesus died, always love, always full of grace and truth towards his people. The fact is that the substitution made on Calvary was a substitution provided, by God's love, for the Lord himself gave his own Son to die as a manifestation of love as well as a vindication of justice. God waa in Christ, God came on earth to reconcile men, j God made the atonement for us. God waa . not made to love us by the death of his Son, ' but because he loved us, and had. mercy on us, therefore he gave his son Jesus that the [ dishonour done to his law might be wiped out, that tho difficulty which stood, in the way of i his mercy might be removed, that so ho might [ be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly. ! Look at the cross in this light, O sinner, and ■ f I trust it may reconcile yoti to God. It is by that bloody sweat, that crown of thorns, that shame and suffering, it is by those five dear [ wounds, those agonies extreme, that God ha* removed all hindrance to your reconciliation; God himself has given to you his Son, and he j suffered in his Son that you might be recon- , ciled to himself. It is not Jesus, a stranger, who hangs -there to gratify the Father's ven- [ goance. God forbid, — it is God who, in one of his divino persons, bears the penalty which the inflexible laws of right and justice demanded of sinful men. Oh, that you would come to him, and be reconciled , to him by the death of his Son. And now the third announcement of our message is this: that in consequence of God having reconciled the world to himself in Jesus Christ, he i 3 able now to deal with sinners as if they had never sinned, for that is the long and the short of the expression, "Not j imputing their trespasses unto them." He ! treats sinners as if their sins were not theirs. They have sinned, and they do sin, but he does not put their sins down to their account. When he looks upon them in mercy, and they are reconciled to him, there are the sins, but ho lays them upon his son. " The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." We are a mass of sin, but he does not account us such, for he has made him to be sin for us, although he personally knew no sin. Substitution is a plan arranged by wisdom for tne joint display of justice and mercy, and by its means the Lord comes near to us to commune with us, and gives us countless blessings; for having absolved and pardoned, ua he blesses us as if we had never sinned. Ay, and there is something more wonderful than that. God treats poor sinners who are [ reconciled to him as if they were full -of good works, for what saith the text? "He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no em; that we might be made the righteousness of i God in him." What a grand expression! He makes us righteous through the righteousness of Josus; nay, not only makes us righteous, but righteousness; nay, that is not all, he makes us ike righteousness of GocL; that is higher than the righteousness of Adam in the garden, it is more divinely perfect than angelic perfection. He makes the guilty sinner, when he believes in Jesus, to be the " righteousness of God in him " Never did lips have a sweeter message to deliver than mine, and I murmur not if my speech should seem, feeble this morning, and if I cannot garnish' my message with the flowers of oratory, Gocl forbid I should try to do so! To you who are guilty there was never a more important message delivered at any time, and having heard it, 1 charge it on your conscience that you value it and think it over, ay, and accept it. God grant you may. We are moreover bidden to tell man that the atonement of Christ is r.ot confined to the Joy, that God has not reconciled the Jewish, nation to himself, but the " world." That is to say, Christ has died for all nations, classes, sorts, and sixes. The atonement was not made for a class, but for all classes, not for the old exclusively, but for the young, not for the youug only, but for the old as well. This is such an atonement made by Christ upon the cross that it presents a warrant fox every sinner born of woman to come to God and say, " Lord, forgive me, for Christ has died." When, wo preach the gospel it is in no stinted terms, looking about and thinking that perhaps there might be half a dozen in the building to whom tho gospel might honestly be spoken, but looking every man in the face we preach reconciliation by Jesus Christ to him, and point him to tho atoning blood. " For God sc loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life." Let no man, woman, or child here say, concerning himself, that there is a difficulty with God which Christ has not removed. The difficulty is in thine own soul, and if thou be willing to be reconciled, as sure as thou livest, and as sure as God'a Book is true, there is a reconciliation 1 prqvided thee in Jesus Christ, the San of God<

Oh, what gladness it is to be allowed to speak ihna. And now wo are to tell men that there is nothing whatever needed in order to their reconciliation and acceptance with God, except what Christ has already wrought out, for God -was in Christ, reconciling the world unto hirnsolf; not reconciling it by_ some other means, but reconciling it by Christ, doing the work in Christ. Yo have not to bring him your good works, nor your tears, nor your mortifications, nor your feelings, nor emotions, nor anything of the sort; you have only to accept what God has provided. There is the propitiation, and if thou sayest in thy heart, "My God, I take it," thou art reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Oh, gad not abroad to heap together thy vanities, for they cannot appoase him; bring none of thy vain oblations to him; the incense of thy self-righteousness will be an abomination to him; come as thou art, denied and filthy, polluted and wretched, and put thy trust in what he has done in the person of the only-begotten Son, and thou art reconciled unto God. This, then, is the gospel message with which we ara sent. 111. And now, thirdly, and very earnestly, I would speak to you a little upon tho niannor in which this message is to be delivered. The text tells us very plainly — First, it is to be delivered by beseeching nicn, and praying to men. "As though God did beseech yen by us we pray you." Mien if I should merely tell you, deal hearers, the gospel, though God might bless it, I have not done all my duty. To inform the intellect ia noi^the minister's sole work; we aro to proclaim, but we are to do far more — we are to beseech and to pray. We are not merely to convince the intellect, but to beseech the heart. Neither are we alone to warn and threaten; though that has its place, yet it is not to be our main work; we aro to beseech. You know how a beggar bowa his knees, and implores you when he is starving that you will give him bread; with like earnestness aro we bound to beseech you to be saved. You know how you will pray a fellow-creature to help you when you are in sore distress: in that same way are we bound to pray you to bo reconciled to God. As I ponder this I feel selfcondemned. I have besought you, and I have prajed you sometimes, but not as I ought to hp/vo done. Oh. to be taught bow to beseccn nieu. how to pray them' God forbid we should fall into the error of those who think beseeching and praying to be unlawful; it is the Chrislly principle which leads God's ministers so to do; it is th 9 main part of a minister's ■business, and ho who neglects it will have to answer for it before God's great bar. The text goes on to say that we are to beseech men as though God did beseech them. ISfow how does God beseech them? Read one of the Lord's beseechings in the Ist chapter ot Isaiah, how ircploiing it is! He says, "Hear, O heaveus-, and give ear, O earth; I lia/e nourished and brought up children, and they have rtbelled against me." Foi several verses the Lord expostulates, and then pleads — " Come now, and lot us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they bo red like crimson, they shall Uo as wool." Oh, the tenderness of that invitation to reason together! There was first a burst of righteous indignation to arouse the mind, and then came the voice of tenderest pity to allure- the heart. What matchless pleading! If this is how ministers are to beseech we have a high standard sofc before us. We are to plead with men with a boundless freedom of invitation and gentleness of expostulation, so I gather from the 55th of Isaiah, where you have another of God's pleadings: " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and ho that hath no money; come ye, biiy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Oh, think of God talking like this to his creature 1 , and arguing with them — " Wherfore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearkan diligently unto me, "and eat ye that which, is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Oh, what freeness is there, what concern for their welfare, what regret at their mistakes 1 What gentle upbraiding, as though it was not for his sake but for theirs! " Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? " Why disappoint yourselves and _ waste your strength ? It is after this fashion that we are to beseech men to be reconciled to God. Take another instance of matjhleis pleadings. Tvrn to Ezekiel xxxiii, 11: "As I live, saith the Lord God. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: " and then ho says to them, " Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will y© die, O house of Israel? " He swears first to show his deep 1 sincerity that he bas no joy in a sinner's death, and then turns to entreaty — " Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? " There is a passago in Jeremiah xliv, 4, where tho Lord is -epresented as sending his prophets to say to the people in his name — " Oh, do not this abominable' thing that I hate." There is something so appealing, so pathetic about these words that I dare not attempt to open them up to you. Their condescension and tenderness are unspeakable. Perhaps if there is one passage in Scripture in which the entreaties of God are set in a more tender light than in any other, it is to be found in the book of Hosea, 'xi, 8, whore the Lord cries, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Adrnah? how shall I set thee as Zeboira? mine heart is turned within me, my xepentings are kindled together." Oh, how God beseoches men, and he means his ministers to beseech them in the same way, with weeping tenderness and melting pathos, if perhaps the stony heart may be softened and the iron sinew be bowed. Do I hear some strong doctrine brother say, " I do not iiko this " ? My dear brother, I am not careful to answer thee in this matter. If the Lord appoints it, you ought to approve it, and if you do not, you are wrong, but the Scripturo is not. If God beseeches and bids me beseech as he does, I will do it; and, though I be counted vile for it by you, then so must it bo. Besides, it is no derogation for God to beseech his creatures. You say wo make God beg to his creatures. Assuredly that is how the Lord represents himself — " All day long havo I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying generation." It is in the Scripture that he represents himself as crying like a chapman at a fair, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," and bids the pa3sers-by to buy his wine and milk. It is wonderful condescension — if he had not so represented it, we dart not have clone so ; but as he has said it, wg do but follow his footsteps and quoto Ins words. Besides, remember these entreaties of God, in which he stoops to our littleness, even when they do not prevail with man, do affect the divine purpose mysteriously ; they aro a savour of death unto death wherever they are not a savour of life unto life; but then, blessed be God, in thousands of cases they are the means uy which his power works on men's hearts; they do bring men to be reconciled tc him. But I must pass on. Our text, speaking of tho manner of ministers, tells us that we are to pray souls in Christ's stead ; that is to say, wo are to prearh n-; if Clm^t were preaching. Ob, what a mod.4 fo <h>! number I "We pray you in Christ's stead'" I 'im to say to you who are not reconciled to Gnd, — " Be reconciled to him," and T uu tc K.iy it as if Jesus said it. That would not be in a light or trifling maiMier, lliat would not lie in a cold, official style, that woii'kl bo with melting eyes and burning heart. How was J.isua fihrist ac-

customed to implore men? Why, sometimes ho prayed them by setting before them the evil of their ways. " For which of these works do stone me ? " saith he ; and so lam to inquire. " For which of God's works are you his enemy? Are you his enemy because ha keeps you in life, because he has raised you from the bed of sickness? Are you his enemy because ho gives you your bread and your water? Are you his enemy because he sends you the gospel? For wh'cli of these works do you Hate him? " Oh, wanton malice, to be at enmity with the infinitely good God! Sometimes Christ would plead with men on account of the uselcssness of their rebellion. " What king," he says, " will go to make war with another king without first sitting down to see whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? " Why will you be God's enemy when you cannot win tho battle ? The tow may sooner contend with the flame, or the wax with the fire, than you with God. Oh, why then are you not reconciled to him? Sometimes Jesus pleaded with men on account of the result of their sin, as he did when he stood on tho brow of tho hill, and looked down on Jerusalem and said, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gatherefch her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." Remember that wonderful chapter in Matthew where he speaks of his coming with all the holy angels, and dividing the sheep from the goats. Eeniember the passages where he treats of the virgins who had no oil in their vessels with their lamps. Whoever puts tho doctrine of hell into the background, Jesus never did. It i? thought in these days that we had better not say much concerning the terrors of the law, but so thought not the Christ of Galilee; his ministry was full of tho honest warning which proves a tender heart. Oh, sinners, you will bo lost unless you lay hold on Christ, and to bo lost is something unutterably terrible. Oh, tho wrath to come ! The wrath to cornel Who among you will endure the devouring fires? Who will dwell in everlasting burnings ? Thus the Saviour invited, thus lie besought men, and so are we to beseech them. And then you know in what style Jesus pleaded the love of God. I do not say he put it into words that I can quote, but recollect the parable of the Prodigal Son — " When he was yet a great way off, hi 3 father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Was not that an eloquent discourse upon tho abounding mercy of the great Father in heaven, and did not Jesus then tell how willingly God receives the penitent, and how gladly he puts away every sin? And, oh, how he implored man to be reconciled in such sweet words as these— " Coino unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; " and what a word was that when he said, " Him that coineth to me I will in no wise cast out." Never sxich a pleader as Josus. His birth among men, and dwelling here on earth, was a plea, his actions were picas, his death was the master plea. Each groan seemed to say, " Man be reconciled to God! " and his last expiring cry of " It is finished," what was it but saying, " I have put away everything that need separate a sinner and his God? " Be reconciled to God was the true meaning of that consummatum est with which he closed his agony. Once more, it is taught us in the text that the duty of the true minister ia to bring this matter home and press it. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. It comes to this with you, my friend, God says to you this morning, " Throw down your weapons ; why dost thou contend with thy Maker ? What have I done that thou shouldst despise me? .Poor creature that I made, what have I done that thou shouldst hate me? I breathed into thy nostrils thy breath. What have I done that thou shouldst spend it in speaking against me? That throbbing heart of thine, I give it every pulse: what havo I done that thou shouldsb forget me, that my day should be a weariness, and my worship should be an abhorrence to thee? I have raised thee from the bed of sickness, I have given thee many comforts, I spared thy child when she was sick, I have prospered thine efforts in business, I have done a -thousand things for thee; do I deserve to be forgotten? Is it right that thy heart should be warm to thy wife and thy child, and cold to me? ' My God, my soul is in sympathy with thee that thou shouldst be forgotten of thy creatures. There is not one of us that loves to be treated unkindly by those to whom we have been kind. Ingratitude is one of the worst of ills; it biteth like an adder's tooth; and an unkind child wounds to the quick— and will you be such to your Maker? Will you be such to your Creator? Come, be quiet for a moment, and let the Lord speak with thee, and let thine honest conscience answer him. What hath he done that thou shouldst be his enemy? What has Christ done — look at his wounds! — that thou shouldst rot love him? What has the Holy Ghost done that thou shouldst resist him? What wilt thou gain by it? What will be the benefit in time or in eternity? I have been almost every week to tho grave lately with somo one or other of my congregation; soon I may have to go there with you, if I am not carried there myself. Well, and what will bo the wisdom, when thou art dead, of having lived without God? What Vill be tho profit of having gained tho whole world, and having neglected thy Maker ? " Come, O man, hear thou his words, and be reconciled to him! " I said throw down thy weapons, but I havo now another message. Accept tho Lord Jesus. " Kiss the Son, lest ho be angry, and ye perish from tho way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." There is life in a look at the Crucified Onp. Jesus asks no hard thing of theo. God thy Father does not ask thee to do impossibilities, or to prepare thyself by a long round of performances. His command is most simple and plain. Trust thoti in Jesus, and thou shalt be saved; and, being saved, thou shalt love thy God, and then all war between thee and God will be over. God, tho Eternal One, will be-nd from heaven to embrace his once erring child, and thou shalt feel the kisses of his love, whilst in thy heart there shall be music, and dancing, and joy, and feasting, becauso thou hast come back to God. I do not know how to say more, or how to plead moro strongly. I would God that he would beseech you, and that Jesus Christ would pray you, and that the Spirit of God would sweetly touch the secret springs of your will, that you might say — I yield, by sovereign grace subdued, "Who can resist it 3 charms? And throw myself, by love pursued, Into my Saviour's arms. God bo thanked for it. Amen.

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A REMA&KABLE FOISONINB CASE.

The San Francisco correspondent of tho Sydney Telegraph writes:-— A remarkable poisoning case, having its inception in San Francisco and its consummation in Dover, Delaware, has aroused the intense interest of the people of the United States residing on the shores of the two oceans. There were two victims. One. was Mrs John P. Dunning, wife of the former Associated Press agent of San Francisco, more recently a newspaper correspondent in Puerto Rico, and her sister, Mrs J. D. Deuno. The ladies were daughters of ex-Congressman Pennington, to whose houso Mrs Dunning had withdarwn some timo pre\ ious, owing to the mutual infatuation of her husband and a Mrs Cordelia Botkin, a married woman of middle-age, living separate- from her lawful spouse. The surroundings indicate that only the life of Mrs Dunning was aimed at, but her sistor also fell a victim, while a number of other persons residing at or visiting the Pennington house at the time of the reception of the treacherous present were taken sick, but managed to escape a liko fate. The poison was administered through the medium of candy received in a box addressed to Mrs Dunning, and bearing the San Francisco postmark. The fatal box reached its destination in Dover on August 9, just before the Penningtou family were about to sit down to an evening meal. Upon Mrs Dunning opening the box it was seen that, strangely enough, a common cambric handkerchief was spread over the sweets, while also within was a written message reading : " With love to yourself and baby, Mrs C." Although the sender was unknown, as were also the handwritings of the note and the address, the latter that of an illiterate person, as evidenced by the orthographic blunder in transcribing the name of the State, no suspicion was aroused., and the two sisters, j>s well as several children of the , family and some young lady callers who happened to be present partook of the contents. All were subsequently affected, but only Mrs Dunning and Mrs Deane with fatal results. An examination then showed that arsenic had been mixed with the candies. An investigation to ascertain the sender of the poison was immediately undertaken by tho Delaware police. Into their hands were placed two anonymous letters referring to her husband's conduct which had been received by Mrs Dunning ; and Dunning, who had soon thereafter returned from Puerto Rico, pronounced the chirography to be that of Mrs Bothin, as well as that of the note in the box containing the poisoned candy. Meanwhile, during the consummation of this terrible tragedy upon the opposite aide of the continent, the woman who had fallen under suspicion of having been its perpetrator had departed from San Francisco, whence the murderous present had been sent, to Stockton, situated at a distance of four or five hours' railway journey from this city, where she placed herself under the conjugal protection of her complaisant husband. There, on August 23, she was arrested, and brought to San Francisco to await extradition to Delaware on a charge of the murder of the two sisters. Both before and after her arrest Mrs Botkin strenuously protested her innocence. Pending tho extradition proceedings, the local police proceeded to search for additional clues, in which task they met wiih considerable success. They learned that the handkerchief cover ing the bonbons had been purchased at the City of Paris drygoods store in San Francisco ; that the box of candies itself had been bought at Haas's confectionery store, and had been sold by a young woman clerk, who will be called to identify the prisoner as her customer ; and, finally, that poison was obtained from the Owl Drug Store, where the register shows that on June 1 arsenic was supplied to a Mrs "Botkin," evidently a clerical error for " Bothin," the accused woman's true name, as the address given by the buyer was that of Hyde and California streets, where, at the time, she resided. She said she desired the arsenic for bleaching straw. It was evident that if the poison which caused the deaths of the sisters was obtained by Mrs Bothin more than two months previous, its criminal employment subsequently was an afterthought, as she gave her correct name and address. The motive for the crime is thought to bo a desire on her part to prevent Dunning from rejoining his wife after his return from the Puerto Rico campaign. Mrs Bothin has ample counsel, who are making a vigorous effort to prevent the extradition of their client.