the tempest of the heart; and both, the emblem of that final judgment when, as the prophet speaks, "The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the storm shall overflow every hiding-place of the wicked."-But if the curse be sure, no less is also the proposed deliverance. There is the refuge of a faith that is revealed for all; a hope on high that maketh not ashamed." Day and night the ark of God opens wide its doors, and bids the afflicted child of sin and grief enter, and be safe. In other words, and, to say all in one, we have a Saviour. We have a full atonement made for sin, an all-availing intercession for the transgressors. We have the grace of an all-present Spirit, the strength of an Almighty Arm, the *reconciled countenance of a heavenly Father through the merits of his Eternal Son. "When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only*." "In ME," reiterates our Saviour, "ye shall have peace: In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world t."

* Job xxxiv. 39.

↑ John xvi. 33.

I would remark further, that the promises and provisions of the Gospel imply a spirit of prayer, in order to acquire them; a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving in their actual reception. The nature of prayer is fully learnt from the similitude we have considered, as being nothing short of the expression of urgent want, the vehement exclamation of alarm. Praise and thanksgiving are equally here exhibited, as the involuntary utterance of conscious joy under the sense of a great deliverance. And these, even these emotions, so very familiar in the lesser vicissitudes of mortality, are the express and marked test which the Scriptures give us of our interest in the higher blessings of salvation. Doubtless, in the accents of a heart thus disposed towards its own best mercies, and its heavenly Deliverer, the Almighty finds His own appointed call to awake and save us. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Let the Sinner, conscious of trouble, and awake to danger,-the danger of sinking to eternal ruin,-adopt the language of the present Penitential Season, as most befitting his own condition: 66 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord; Lord hear my voice: and

let thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint....There is forgiveness with thee, therefore thou mayest be feared*.”

Let the Suffering of whatever class, in mind, body, or estate, turn in unaffected prayer to Him who once not only stilled, but even walked the waves: who to the distressful cry of Peter, "Lord, save me, or I perish," stretched out His arm to help; `but with a voice at once to cheer him, and to chide, pronounced, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

The solitary Voyager over this world's dark and stormy surface, friends and years and hopes decaying, may still find here an object of trust; and may raise a song of gratitude to Him who is at once the Pilot to direct, the Star to lighten, and the Way to carry him safely to his home. "I go to prepare a place for you.”

As Members, finally, of the Church, and in our civil capacity, let us look to the same guidance, and follow the same Star. Good citizens and good Christians, let us commit the common venture of our hopes and joys to

* Psalm cxxx., one of the Penitential Psalms appointed for the First Day of Lent.

Him who knows them all; to whom we are far more wisely dear than even to ourselves; and who is Lord of all the armies of heaven, and all the inhabitants of the earth. Has He not already claims on Britain for gratitude, far more than on the countless tribes of our fellowmortals? "He hath not dealt so with any nation." Not less exposed to national vicissitudes, than the very sea which girds our shores to the strife of elemental war, we still can testify from age to age, that though afflicted we were not forsaken, and though tempesttost we still had hope. Not the outcries of clamor and discontent, not the machinations of secret conspiracy, nor the force of open rebellion, have as yet succeeded, or only for a time, against us whilst we trace our fairest history, and all our best and highest privileges, to times when faith and loyalty walked hand in hand; when Britons could be free without licentiousness, and render what was due to God and the king. It must be still in steady, peaceful, and religious attachment to our sacred institutions, and our Protestant establishment both in Church and State, that security is to be obtained: and, though the weapons of our warfare may not be carnal, yet through faith and fervent prayer shall they be

mighty and availing. The strongest efforts of a worldly policy, for whatever cause exerted, shall in "the day of Jacob's trouble" profit us little. But the silent energy of trust in God, the secret yielding of our ways to him, the rest, the quietness, the confidence, the peace-that << perfect peace" which God ordains in the worst of times;-by these we shall be saved; in these obtain our truest strength, and meet in hallowed conflict every opposing danger.Israel fought in just encounter with her foes on the plain and may God uphold our civil rulers, our legal guardians, and constitutional defenders of their country's rights, in every just political enterprise on its behalf. But it was whilst Moses lifted up his hands in prayer to God, that Israel prevailed on Amalek*. In a later period, the spirit of the Reformation was pre-eminently a spirit of prayer. In times still future, the untried blessings of the Messiah's triumph shall be ushered in by the same spirit" I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications." We look then back to history, and we look forward even to prophetic periods; and we gather from

* Exod: xvii. 11.

† Zech. xii. 10.