great extent that is over. The clergy of the Church of England do now what it was once infamous for us to do. Now the theatre hears the voice of Christ; now the cathedrals echo with the holy hymn-blessed be God for all this! We enjoy a degree of peacefulness, and have not now all the world against us, as once we had. Now we shall be apt to fold our arms and say, Let us subside into the easy respectability of other congregations, and let it be well with us.

During all the time God has been pleased to favour us with profound peace in the Church. We have been disturbed by no word of illdoctrine, by no uprising of heretics in our midst, or any separations or divisions. This is a blessed thing: but still Satan may make it a dangerous matter. We may begin to think that there is no need for us to watch, that we shall always be as we are; and deacons, and elders, and pastor, and Church members, may all cease their vigilance, and then the root of bitterness may spring up in the neglected corner till it gets too deeply rooted for us to tear it up again.

We have accomplished, as a Church, the great work which we set for ourselves the building of this house of prayer. And now we come to our place in our loved house of prayer, and feel the Master's presence with us. But without a grand object before our eyes imperatively demanding self-sacrifice from each one of us, as this object did, without some enterprise which we can all lay hold of and feel that we could give our last shilling to carry it out successfully, we are apt to grow rusty, to lean upon our weapons instead of using them, and to withdraw from the Lord's host instead of rushing on to battle with the shout of men who mean to win the victory. Ah! give us back again all the noise, and the confusion, and the strife; let us have once more the coldness, and the harshness, and evil speaking of the entire Church of God, if we may but have our early enthusiasm and earnestness for Christ. Our work of educating men for the ministry may supply the object for our zeal; may the Lord give zeal for the object!

Dear friends, let me say solemnly, there are many tendencies to make this Church sleep. We come frequently into contact with professed believers who will throw cold water upon every effort-who think doing anything for Christ a work of supererogation, and there is a tendency in us to go with them, and to say, "Let it be so; let us be quiet." It is almost necessary for the Church that, at least once in a hundred years, there should arise in it some new body of enthusiasts; for the old Churches, though noble at the start, like all human things, flag ere long. Why, Methodism, though still most powerful, has nothing like the fire it had in Wesley's and Whitfield's time. It is now no more like a great volcano sending up torrents of holy fire to heaven in prayer, and sending down streams of all-consuming lava into the plains of sin. It has grown respectable, and learned, and fine. So with each of the Churches. Do they not all degenerate? No matter whether it is England, America, France, Switzerland-wherever it may be, there is a down-drawing tendency constantly at work; and unless God the Holy Ghost come in with irresistible might, we shall as a Church succumb to general lethargy, and yield ourselves to apathy.

What shall we do, as a Church, then? Let us take heed to our foot

steps, every one of us, and be doubly careful: let us meet together in greater numbers for prayer; let each man feel more and more his individual responsibility to Christ; let us weigh the awful necessities of this huge city; let us put out every energy, and use every agency that can possibly be employed for the regeneration of this dark, dark land. If we grow idle; if the Church of Christ universally shall grow idle, we cannot expect that our enemies will be idle too. Once the Light said to the Darkness, "I am growing weary with shooting my arrows every morning at thee, O Darkness! I am weary with pursuing thee around the globe continually. I will retire if thou wilt." But the Darkness said, "Nay, it is of necessity that if thou yieldest thy dominion I shall take it; there can be no truce between thee and me."

Friends, I might address the members of this Church as it is said an old Scotch Commander once addressed his soldiers when he saw the enemy coming. This was his brief, terse speech: "Lads," said he, "there they are, and if you dinna kill them they will kill you." Look, members of the Church; if you do not put down lethargy and sloth, if you strive not against Popery, Infidelity, and Sin, they will put you down. There is no other alternative; to conquer or to die; to live and to be glorious; or to fall ignobly. See, Jehovah lifts his banner before our eyes to-day! Rally ye, rally ye, rally ye, ye soldiers of the cross! The trumpet soundeth exceeding loud and long to-day; and the hell-drum on the other side soundeth too. Who dares to hesitate, let him be accursed. "Curse ye, Meroz, curse ye, Meroz," saith the Lord, "curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, if they come not up to the help of the. Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty; "He that is not with me is against me; he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." Out on you, ye indifferent ones! Know ye not ye are either on Christ's side or else ye are his adversaries. On the charge comes: Forward, heroes of heaven! What shall become of those who are midway between the two armies? Over ye, over ye; troops shall trample on your bodies. Ye shall be the first to be cut in pieces, O ye indifferent ones! who are neither this nor that; and then shall come the shock, and then the charge; and as in that conflict you shall have no portion, so in that great triumph which shall surely follow, you shall have no share.

I will give way to my friend, Mr. D' Aubigne, who will address you for a few minutes, when I have simply reminded those who are not in Christ's army that with them there is something to come before service, "Except ye repent and be converted, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." The door to that kingdom is Christ; trust him and you are saved. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

My dear friend, Dr. D'Aubigne, is here this morning, having been called by the Bishop of London, according to the order of our beloved Queen, to preach in the Royal Chapel of St. James. In a kind note with which he favoured me last week, he expressed a desire publicly to shew his hearty fellowship with his brethren of the Free Churches of England, and I am delighted to welcome him in the Tabernacle this morning, in the name of this Church, and I may venture to add, in the name of all the Free Churches of England. May the Historian of the Reformation continue to be honoured of the Lord his God!

DR. MERLE D'AUBIGNE: I do not speak your tongue, my dear friends-I speak it very badly, but I will do what I can to make myself understood. When I heard your dear pastor reading to us the 16th chapter of the Romans, I remembered those words which we find very often in the Epistles of Paul-"Love to the saints," and "Faith in the Lord." In the 16th chapter we find a beautiful exhibition of the love to the saints, the children of God. We see it was written from the Church of Corinthus, in Greece, to the Church of Rome. Observe how many Christians that Church of Corinthus and the apostle knew at Rome! We have a long catalogue of names-Priscilla, Aquila, Andronicus, and others. I must confess, my dear friends, to my shame, that in this great assembly I know only two or three names. I know the name of our dear friend, Mr. Spurgeon; I know the name, but not the person, of Mr. North, upon my left, and I know the name of the friend who has received me in your great city, Mr. Kinnaird, "Gaius, my host," as the apostle says. But in this great assembly of six thousand men and women, and I hope brethren and sisters in Christ, I do not know another name. Well, my dear friends, I would ask you, do you know the names of many Christians in Geneva? You do not know perhaps three; perhaps two; perhaps one. Now, that is to me a demonstration that fraternity, or brotherly love, is not so intense in our time as it was in the time of the apostles. In the first century, for a man to give his name to the Lord was to expose himself to martyrdom; and Christians in that time formed only one household in the whole world, in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Let us remember that, and may we, by the Holy Ghost, say that we who have been baptized with the blood and the Spirit of the Lord, have only one Father, one Saviour, one Spirit, one faith, and we are only one house, the house of the living God, the house of Christ, one house of the Holy Spirit in the whole world; not only in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but in America, in Australia, one house, one family. Oh, my dear brethren, let us grow in the love to the brethren!

Then there is another thing, faith; faith in the Lord Jesus. There can be no love to the saved and the redeemed, if there is no true living faith and hope in the Saviour and the Redeemer. Well, I suppose all of you in this great meeting would say, "We believe in the Lord, we have faith in him." Yes, but that faith must be sincere, must be living, must come from the heart. I will tell you one word from Rome. Probably all these friends sent some words to the apostle, but I will tell you one word that was said once in Rome, not at the time of Paul, but at the time of our blessed Reformation. There was in the latter part of the sixteenth century, a man in Italy, who was a child of God, taught by the Spirit. His name was Aonio Paleario. He had written a book called, "The Benefit of Christ's Death." That book was destroyed in Italy, and for three centuries it was not possible to find a copy; but two or three years ago, an Italian copy was found, I believe, in one of your libraries at Cambridge or Oxford, and it has been printed again. It is perhaps singular, but this man did not, as he ought to have done, leave the Romish Church. But his whole heart was given to Christ. He was brought before the judge in Rome by order of the Pope. The judge said, "We will put to him three questions; we will ask him what is the

first cause of salvation, then what is the second cause of salvation, then what is the third cause of salvation?" They thought that in putting these three questions, he would at last be made to say something which should be to the glory of the Church of Rome. They asked him, "What is the first cause of salvation?" and he answered, "Christ." They then asked him, "What is the second cause of salvation?" and he answered, "CHRIST." And they asked him the third time, "What is the third cause of salvation?" and he answered, "CHRIST." They thought he would have said, first, Christ; secondly, the Word; thirdly, the Church; but no, he said, "Christ." The first cause, Christ; the second, Christ; the third, Christ; and for that confession which he made in Rome, he was condemned to be put to death as a martyr. My dear friends, let us think and speak like that man; let every one of us say, "The first cause of my salvation is Christ; the second is Christ; the third is Christ. Christ and his atoning blood, Christ and his powerful regenerating Spirit, Christ and his eternal electing grace, Christ is my only salvation, I know of nothing else."

Dear friends, we find in the epistle to the Romans these words: "The whole Church saluteth you." I have no official charge, but I may in a Christian and fraternal spirit say to you, the Genevese Church, the Church in Geneva saluteth you; and I would say, the whole Continental Church saluteth you, for we know you and we love you and the dear minister God has given you. Now we ask from you love towards us. We do what we can in that dark Continent to bring forward the light of Jesus Christ. In Geneva we have an Evangelical Society which has that work before it, and in other places we are also labouring; we ask for our work an interest in your prayers, for the work is hard among the Roman Catholics and the infidels of the Continent. But as our brother in the beginning of the service reminded you that from the little town of Geneva light came, by the grace of the Spirit, to many nations, and especially to England and Scotland, by the ministry of John Calvin, our Reformer; I may mention to you that upon the tri-centenary anniversary of the death of Čalvin, which will take place in two years, on the 27th of May, 1864, we desire to erect in Geneva a monument to the blessed Reformation, and to the Reformer who has been the instrument of God in promoting the true doctrine, not only in Geneva, but in a great many countries, and I ask also your interest in that work, and in that spot which has been blessed since the 16th century, for Switzerland, for France, for the Netherlands, for Germany, for England, for Scotland, and is now blessed for the United States, and for the ends of the earth. I beg of you, dear friends, your deep interest and your earnest prayer for us. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all! Amen.

CHOICE PORTIONS.

A Sermon

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 25TH, 1862, BY
REV. C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For the Lord's portion is his people."-Deuteronomy xxxii. 9.

"The Lord is my portion, saith my soul."-Lamentations iii. 24.

THE love of God changes us into its own image, so that what the Lord saith concerning us, we also can declare concerning him. God is love essentially, and when this essential love shines forth freely upon us, we reflect it back upon him. He is like the sun, the great father of lights, and we are as the moon and the planets, we shine in rays borrowed from his brightness. He is the golden seal, and we, his people, are the wax receiving the impression. Our heaven is to be likeness to Christ, and our preparation for heaven consists in a growing imitation of him in all things. See, brethren, how the Lord gives the word, and our heart, like an echo, repeats every syllable. The Lord loveth his people, and we love him because he first loved us; he hath chosen his saints, and they also have made him their chosen heritage. The saints are precious to Jesus, and unto us who believe he is precious, Christ lived for us, and for us to live is Christ; we gain all things by his death, and for us to die is gain. The Church is the looking-glass in which Christ sees himself reflected; she is like a fair songstress taking up the refrain of Jesus' canticles of love, while he sings, "My sister, my spouse," she answers, "My beloved is mine, and I am his." It is most delightful to perceive how, through divine grace, believers come to have the same feeling towards their God which their gracious Lord has towards them. Our two texts present us with an interesting instance: the Church is God's portion, he delights in her, he finds in her his solace and his joy; but God is also, as the result of this, the Church's portion-her full delight and bliss. Beloved, the love is mutual. And whereas, the Lord is married to his people, we perceive that it is no forced match on either side; he voluntarily gave himself to her, and she joyfully surrenders her all to him. His whole heart he gave unto his chosen people, and now they as voluntarily, though led by divine grace, give themselves to him; and while he clasps his Church in his