you of Christ, and Him crucified? When have I disguised my object from you? That object is to get those who do not enter God's house into the habit of going there, and I entreat you now to begin. I am no denominationalist, but only an advocate for truth, and a protestant against vice. I want to make no proselyte to my own peculiar views: I want to hear no man bawling my shibboleth, except in so far as it relates to Jesus Christ. I want to cram every place of worship in this town I care not what its sect-with drunkards, swearers, libertines, thieves, prostitutes, and outcasts. There is a clergyman preaching at yonder church-a good, devoted man of God: he says that I am an enemy to the truth-that I am ashamed of the Gospel-that I entertain these crowds with vulgar jokes, and low buffoonery. No matter what he says of me: if he says it believing it to be true, he is welcome to say it again, and to go on saying it. I say no word against him. I only ask those who do not attend the worship of God's house to go and hear him preach. He is a faithful preacher of the truth, and he proclaims the true gospel of salvation. He is earnest in his desire to save the souls of men, and it will do you good to wait upon his ministry. He may denounce me and my notions, but if he does but feed your soul with the bread of everlasting life-if he does but set the cross of Christ before you in all its simplicity and power-I call God as my witness that my end is gained in having persuaded you to attend upon his ministrations. & "Mind your P's and Q's." What a title! Strange enough, vulgar enough, if you will. But not too strange-not too vulgar, even for a Sunday afternoon-if it should happen by God's blessing to induce any drunkard to grow a moderate man, if it should add the name of any tippler to the temperance pledge, or if it should drive some self-banished alien within the sound of a preached gospel-not too vulgar, if it saves a wife a blow, or a child a curse. But it would not have done so had it been less vulgar, because it would have failed to attract the attention of the right person. Al! men are not philosophers: all men are not transcendentalists. And yet men will go into a place of worship and listen to a profound metaphysical discourse, not half-a-dozen sentences of which they can comprehend, and come away and say, "what an able sermon! what a wonderful discourse!" There are no accusations brought against the preacher of that sermon, that he hides the gospel under a mask. No. He took his text from the Bible, and he never spoke a coarse or vulgar word throughout. Possibly not. But was not the sermon full of hair-splitting and obscurity which none but a deep theologian could understand? That poor woman who went into that place to hear the word of consolation, that unhappy man whose heavy heart was crying out "what must I do to be saved?" they got no comfort or direction, they saw no Saviour through the haze of deep philosophy which was drawn around them. Now, our text this afternoon is "Mind your P's and Q's," or, in other words, "take care!" And on this text we base all the gospel which we know how to preach. We have urged you to reform your vices; but no care and circumspection of this sort can avail if you suffer yourselves to rest in mere sobriety and correctness of outward life. You must feel yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God; you must feel that Christ's blood alone can cleanse you from those sins, and to His cross you must bring them all. Now, let us see who is ashamed of the gospel! Let us see who hides the truth under a mask. My fellow-sinner! Christ, and Christ alone, can save you. Whatever be the burden of your mind, Jesus only can relieve it. He is imploring you nów to repair to Him. He does not disdain the subject of our address, but even under such a title will be content to call upon you to come and taste the great salvation. "Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, and as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." Which then is the best ambassadorship for Christ,—that which persists in pressing home the simple message of His love upon the hearts of men, or that which is ever weaving theories and systems from it for the amusement of the fancy, or the pleasure of the mind. Which is the best use to which to turn a Saviour's blood-to daub up pictures on the canvass of the Fancy, or to try to dash it in a cleansing flood upon the hearts and coneiences of men. can, as Christ He would not He would not Let me try to preach to you as nearly as I Himself would preach if He were standing here. treat you to any learned or mystical harangue. flatter either your pride of intellect or learning. He would only point you to His blood-stained cross. He would only shew to you His bleeding hands and feet. He would only remind you of Gethsemane and His agony and bloody sweat. He would recall to you the day when He was wounded for your iniquities and bruised for your transgressions. And as the scenes of blood and agony came floating past before you, He would say, "I suffered all for you: it was for you I bathed that cross in blood-for you these hands and feet were tornfor you this brow sustained the crown of thorns-for you the cup of trembling was exhausted-for you the garden's olive groves resounded with the groans of anguish and despair;and I did all this that you might be reconciled to God." Yes, this is the sermon that Jesus Christ would preach to you if He stood upon this spot this afternoon. You cannot hear His voiceyou may not look upon His face-but I charge you in His name, O sinner, to listen even unto me, His sinful and unworthy advocate; for behold now I am an ambassador for Christ, and as though God did beseech you by me I pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God." Yes, I tell you I am an ambassador for Christ, and this is the purport of my embassy: to reiterate the overtures of His dying love-to woo you to Him by the tenderness of His heart, the depth of His pity, and the exceeding riches of His grace-to take the toiling pilgrim by the hand, and cry "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". - to snatch the wand of His eternal gospel and smite the rock before the longing eyes of men, and shout "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come buy and eat: yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price." "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." O, can you not hear the bubblings of the crystal and upspringing tide; can you not catch the whisperings of the limpid river as it rushes from the throne of God and of the Lamb, while the inviting voices of "the Spirit - and the Bride say come, and let him that heareth say come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him come, and take the water of life freely." O be reconciled to God. What keeps you back? Is it a sense of sin? He came into the world to save sinners. Is it fear? He will never leave you— He will never, no never, forsake you—" though you pass down the valley of the shadow of death, thou shalt fear no evil: His rod and His staff shall comfort you." How cold you are! Come hither, and warm those shivering limbs at the kindling embers of this precious promise" Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." Does it not thaw your icy fears to confidence and trust?-does it not fill those sluggish veins with a warm tide of fresh exhilaration?-does it not cause that heavy heart to leap with rapt expectancy and gladdening hope? O push not away that Elder Brother's hand. Withdraw that heedless sacriligious foot, and trample not upon that blood of the everlasting covenant. It is no unholy thing. It is the blood of reconciliation—the blood that fills the great propitiatory-and where the robes of all the saints are washed and made white. Be ye reconciled to God. A thousand voices take up the entreaty-a thousand ambassadors for Christ beseech you in His stead. The accents of the teachers of our early youth are heard repeating it. Be reconciled to God. I hear a mother's voice from Heaven whispering it in thrilling emphasis into the ears of her degenerate son. I can see the lips of a sister uttering the words as she looks backward in her heavenward flight. I behold the veteran sage as he puts on the panoply of a sturdier and immortal youth in the bright attiring-room above, reiterating it to his children's children he has left behind. Be reconciled to God. The scarce green graves of friends, a while ago our fellow visitors to this place, are eloquent with the same entreaty. Their vacant places in our midst re-echo the appeal. O! Christ has many ambassadors pleading for him. Let them not fail in their mission, let not the Saviour Himself stretch forth His hands to a crooked and perverse generation, and let Him not weep over you as over lost Judea and cry "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that draw nigh unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her would not; Behold now is wings, but desolate!" ye your Ye dying sons of men, No longer now delay, Nor vain excuses frame, He bids you come to-day house left unto you Though poor, and blind, and lame: Believe the heavenly word Compelled by bleeding love, |