being what you are sure to feel when you know that there is cause ; such an emotion not falling under your control, but depending upon circumstances. Let us not be told of such things as these. Your Christian men always should be adjusting themselves to the breathings of God's Spirit. If they cannot call forth the melody which slumbers in the heart, they can awaken the breeze of its music; and they will never count it strange unless indeed as enjoining, what might not seem to need, reiterated command; they will not think it strange that inspired writers should reiterate—“ Rejoice in the Lord alway and again I say, Rejoice."

But these remarks only bear upon the fact, that joyfulness is so far within our power, that our being joyful is so far within our command as our being honest, industrious, and sober. It is not, as though it were only a question of natural disposition or bodily condition whether the spirits shall be depressed. You are not to say that it is idle to call upon the man of melancholy temperament to rejoice, though there is clearly no debate that some persons are naturally of a joyful temperament. One great purpose of religion is, the furnishing us with motives and aids to correct our natural temperament and bringing moral forces into play, to counteract motives so opposite to good. Let the condition of the mind be what it may, the process is merely a recollection of our being always so circumstanced as to have more to gladden us than to depress us. If we would set one thing fairly against another, we might always, if not make ourselves joyful, yet so string the chords of the soul, as to utter praise; for surely you will not deny, that with a true Christian, the causes for gladness exceed the causes for grief-for instance, he has the promise of eternity if he act up to his charter as a child of God and a member of Christ. How beautifully doth the prophet speak of the subject. Hear the prophet Habakkuk-" Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls." Thou hast left no source of sustenance, and what will I do-" Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." If the prophet had said, 'Yet will I trust in the Lord,' it would have been a great thing. The faith of most of us would have faltered and failed were the fig tree to fail and become dead, yet that was not enough for the prophet, for he said-" Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." He explains how joy will exist in spite of the adversities of sterility. My salvation is not affected by these distresses; for these distresses may only be for the perfecting of my salvation, and I will joy in God as the God of my salvation. So, then, let no Christian plead that he must hang his harp upon the willows, so unsuited it would seem, and so untuned to one of Sion's songs. Is he not entitled to discharge all his cares for God's providence? Is he not privileged to lay all his sins on God's Son? Is there not preserved for him, by God's infallible word, an eternal kingdom that cannot fail of joy? Has he a right then, has he an excuse for being disquieted? May we not then call upon him to be glad, in spite of a hundred causes of grief? for he may be sad if he had given up the Redeemer and renounced the faith; but while he holds unto his professions, we may say to him, as the performance of a duty—“ Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."

Now, it is this matter of fact to which I am anxious to give prominence: the duty of being joyful. Some Christians are ready enough to speak of

being joyful; they regard joy as one of the efforts of their spirits, and they are too apt to speak of their efforts as what they are permitted to attempt, instead of what they are directed to do. We wish you now to observe, with attention, that throughout Scripture, joyfulness is a commanded thing as much as a permitted thing, even as temperance is a commanded thing; but being a commanded thing, and not merely a permitted one, being joyful is as actually a duty-a duty to be attempted and laboured at by the Christian as the being temperate, or just, or faithful, or charitable.

We have already shown you that joyfulness is not dependent on the mere condition of animal spirits, but that which may wait on the animal spirits, just as we may on any of our animal propensities, by arraying reasons and motives. It is then actually, and, it is fitly, a commanded thing, this rejoicing in the Lord, and there is not one of you, who if he profess himself a Christian, with a Christian duty to perform, has any more right to withhold himself from the duty of labouring to be joyful, and from the duty of being joyful, than from the duty of labouring to be holy, and yet how little is this thought of. The man who would shrink with terror from the breaking of the commandment which enjoins purity, would often look with pleasure at the breaking of the commandment which enjoins joyfulness. But this is not a matter for human argument, seeing that it is made one of Divine command; there are as express reasons for gladness as for holiness, though many may think it more becoming to go heavily all their days, and that they may be lawfully sad in the face of a commandment to rejoice. They may not. No, no, God designed, and God constructed religion for a cheerful happy making thing, and as though he knew that if he made joyfulness only a privilege, numbers would have wanted it; but he made it a matter of precept that all must strive for it. We therefore ask you, whether ye may not find ground for conviction of having neglected this duty? Have you not been too contented with this state of compunction, contrition, and doubt, in the place of striving to advance into the state of the glorious liberty of the children of God with which it is hard to see how any believer can be sad, and has not this very much sprung from your own overlooking joyfulness, as a duty to be attempted as well as a privilege. You have often said to yourselves—“ if I had a greater share of joyfulness"-but have you laboured for it? have you argued with yourselves as to the causes for gladness and remembered God's glorious promises? If you have not thus endeavoured to rejoice in the Lord, you are charged with having neglected a positive duty, and the continual spirit of gloom, which you find so depressing, may be mere evidence of punishment for disobedience of a command, for rejoicing is a duty not to be neglected. The believer is asked to state-" what is religion?" And it rests with him to show what it is. If he fails to rejoice, he brings disgrace upon religion. If he moves always dispirited and downcast, then he clearly acts in opposition to its precepts and contrary to a Divine command, by which you may understand an injury is done to religion, and by which numbers may be confirmed in the disbelief of religion; and that, too, by the failings of some professed believers. In one case, there is the apparent falsification of his profession by his acts; and, in another case, an apparent falsification by his speech, when affirming of wisdom that “her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace,” he stands convicted of falsehood, and there is a triumph for reason and infidelity. Neither is it only that he who has a wish to continue a despiser may strengthen himself in infidelity by the want of anything.

like gladness in a professed disciple of Christ, but it is that he who is the in'quirer after religion will be deterred from his work when he sees how it defers the happiness for which he is in search, while many will see that those older than themselves in the Christian life are worse off than themselves in Christian comfort; and, without any wish to bear hardly upon those who have much to fear, we are bound to endeavour to arouse a duty of rejoicing in the Lord, and of never letting that duty be forgotten. The downcast religious man, who, while he feels his doubts, entertains ungrounded fear, instead of well grounded hope, as if confidence were not to be placed in God's word. It would be better, if he could be brought to observe that he is neglecting a positive duty; and, that while, through that neglect, he is not only confirming the unbelieving in their infidelity, but he is deterring the inquiring after Christ. Let this be diligently observed and remembered; for, we think we may answer for many now present, that often as they may have read such passages as the text, they have not read them as positive commandments in the same sense, in the same obligation as we have endeavoured to point out; they have gone on imagining that it does not please God to make them larger partakers of joy, whereas, all the while, they have been strengthening themselves in their gloom, and missed the springs of joy without digging for them, as if it were not with this water, as with other, that he who would have it bubble up must often cut through clay and rock. More than this, he has brought discredit on the gospel by presenting its appearance under a gloomy and forbidding aspect.

Once more, then, we beseech you to remember, that our text, and every similar passage in the Holy Scriptures, is a commandment, which having proceeded from God's mouth, may be kept by God's grace, and that our business is to set about to obey it. And Oh, remember this; that you who know little of spiritual peace, confidence, and gladness, to you it may sound strange; nevertheless, it is but the bitter consequence of neglected duty, and irreparable wrong done to the church and to the world by neglecting the text, "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." Still there may be a lingering suspicion that the rejoicing in the Lord, which is so distinctly commanded, may not always be possible; that like some other precepts, it rather marks out what we are bound to aim at than what we may hope to attain ; and we may safely admit, that encompassed with infirmities, enclosed around with sin, Christians must alternate between gladness and gloom. If, still it is more than we can hope that we may never commit sin, it is more than we can hope that we shall ever be joyful, yet if his joy be ever interrupted, it ought only to be as the sun's brightness may be dimmed by a passing cloud, which quickly leaves the firmament as radiant as before. When betrayed into crime, then has he real cause for sorrow; and if he have no heart for sin, sin being that which he abhors, though he may have been betrayed into its commission, he may indeed grieve at having been thus betrayed into commission of that against which he has God's command, and "heaviness may endure for a night, but joy shall return in the morning." There are no causes for sorrow which have a right to prevent continual rejoicing. The apostle bids Christians to rejoice in the Lord, and this he bids then do always. "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." Whatever the attribute specially contemplated, there is reason for rejoicing, there is motive for gladness. "But where is this," exclaims the desponding, let me think of the Lord God as holy; can I, a sinner, rejoice in the pre

sence of the Lord God who is holy !" If it be the goodness, the graciousness, or the mercy of the Lord which is commemorated, one might have readily understood the being called on to rejoice; but holiness, it is that as much, and more than any other quality of God which seems to raise a distance between him and the Christian, as if supposing he were less holy we might approach him with more faith. Some among you may be ready to exclaim"I can look with amazement and awe at the holiness of God, until I am overwhelmed and lost in that holiness of God, and that it is a quality which raises such a barrier between me and God, that I could not dare to rejoice in the Lord always; to rejoice in him always, when I view him in his holiness, and when I view him in his mercy." Had not the work of Jesus Christ been the work which satisfied every attribute of the Lord, and procured the promise that God should welcome back the prodigal, and admit him to all the privileges of the son, it might be hard to believe that it was a work that gave cause to rejoice. It did not, as is often vaguely, but most erroneously thought-it did not shield us from wrath through love coming as a guardian and averting the vengeance which sin had provoked, though love was indeed the moving cause of our redemption. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son;" but what love prompted love arranged, and God in his love made joyfulness a command. Faithfulness unlocked the openings of heaven to every true penitent, and when that true penitent, yea, even the meanest and the poorest among you, when he accepts by faith the finished work of the Redeemer, if he does but fly to the love of God to screen him, he has justice on his side, for God pronounced his debt paid to the last; yea, there is no attribute of God on which he may not boldly look, and challenge it for him, and not against him. With the apostle he may say, that with God he is justified, and if it be God himself who justifies thus, every perfection must find itself provided for in the justifying process. But since every Divine attribute has this actually on the side of the believer in Jesus Christ, what attribute is that in which he may not rejoice? Only that God is too just to bestow a pardon without exacting a penalty. Who could have confidence in a gospel which offered the mourner forgiveness, and yet left the sinner unpunished? Shall he be silent when loftier intelligences, the burning spirits that surround God's throne are mingling their voices in that living anthem-"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." Yea, child of eternity, child even of sin, why shouldst thou be silent? Wouldst thou have God unholy? Would it be any cause of joyfulness that God should not be as he is? Surely then he would not be a God on whose promise thou couldst trust. Now, shall not his very holiness be a motive to praise, to rejoice in, and to rejoice in alway. There is, then, nothing in the attributes of God to prevent; nay, there is nothing but what should encourage rejoicing in the Lord. And is it not too self-evident a proposition to require being supported by argument, that if there be nothing in God in which we may not rejoice, there can be nothing in the universe with which we ought not to be glad. The Redeemer was a man who might say all things were his. We shall conclude in saying, that it is not asking too much for him to say, that his habitual mood may be one of gladness. Ye who may be said to cherish fears and doubts, as though they were safer than bright hope and implicit confidence, bear it to heart that, like the spies on their return from the promised land, you are bringing an evil report; by your gloom you are making others miserable for ever. Remembering the words

of the text, you may, by God's help, cast off gloom, and walk more actually as children of light. Ponder with all diligence the expression-"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."

Half the depression which there is among Christians arises from looking at themselves and into themselves. Even when looking at Christ for righteousness, they look at themselves for comfort. By their own feelings, their own evidences, they are comforted, if their faith seem to them too strong to let Christ go, whereas they should be comforted when they reflect that Christ is too faithful to let them go. It is Christ's hold on the believer that makes him safe. Rejoice then in the Lord. Try to find fresh cause to rejoice in the Lord. What you see in him, and not what you see in yourselves, will ever comfort you and make you more and more cheerful, and more and more rejoice in him; therefore-"Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice."

Unavoidable circumstances render it just that this report should be published as
Notes of a Sermon.

THE POWER OF THE BIBLE.

BY THE REV. H. MELVILL, B.D.

"The entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple.”—Psalm cxix. 130.

We think it right to impress on you most earnestly the wonderful fact, that, if all the books in the wide world were assembled together, the Bible would as much take the lead in disciplining the understanding, as in directing the soul. Living, as we do, in days when intellectual and scriptural are set down, practically, as opposite terms, and it seems admitted as an axiom that to civilize and to christianize, to make men intelligent and to make men religious, are things which have no necessary, nor even possible connection, it is well that we sometimes revert to the matter-of-fact; and whilst every stripling is boasting that a great enlargement of mind is coming on a nation, through the pouring into all its dwellings a tide of general information, it is right to uphold the forgotten position, that, in caring for man as an immortal being, God cared for him as an intellectual, and that, if the Bible were but read by our artizans and our peasantry, we should be surrounded by a far more enlightened, and intelligent, population than will appear on this land, when the school-master, with his countless magazines, shall have gone through it in its length and in its breadth.