I. CLEAR AND UNMISTAKABLE DUTIES SHOULD BE FULFILLED ERE MEN ENTER UPON DIVINE EXERCISES. The deed had already been executed.

II. CIRCUMSTANCES OF TRIAL AND PERPLEXITY SHOULD LEAD MEN TO THE THRONE OF GRACE.

III. THE KNOWN CHARACTER AND PAST ACTION OF GOD SHOULD INFLUENCE MEN'S JUDGMENTS OF PRESENT EXPERIENCES AND STRENGTHEN THEIR FAITH. It is good to rehearse these even in private devotions.

IV. SINS SHOULD BE FREELY AND HONESTLY CONFESSED.

V. ONE SAINT MAY INTERCEDE FOR MANY SINNERS.

VI. THE PRAYER OF FAITH IS ANSWERED. (Vers. 26-44,) - M.

I. TO STIMULATE THE EVANGELIST. And who is the evangelist? Every man and woman who has tasted that the Lord is gracious. Here is your encouragement: the work is God's, and your success is in the hand of Him who made the heaven and the earth.

1. Remember that the world was created from nothing. He spake and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The case of the sinner is a parallel one. You say there is nothing in the sinner. Ay, then, there is room here for a re-creating work; for the Eternal God to come, and with His outstretched arm to create a new heart and a right spirit, and put His grace where there was none before.

2. But you have none to help you or go forth in your work with you. When God made the world — and the same God is with thee — He worked alone.

3. But you reply, "My sorrow lieth not so much in that I am alone, as in the melancholy fact that I am very conscious of my own weakness, and of my want of adaptation for my peculiar work. I am not sufficient for these things; but rather I feel like Jonah, that I would flee into Tarshish, that I might escape from the burden of the Lord against this Nineveh." Ay, but cast thy thoughts back again upon creation. The Eternal needed no instruments in creation. He sayeth not by man's strength, nor by human learning, and eloquence, and talent. It is His strength, and not the strength or weakness of the instruments to which we must look.

4. Dost thou still complain, and say — "Alas! it is little I can say! When I speak, I can but utter a few plain words — true and earnest, but not mighty. I have no power to plead with souls with the tears and the seraphic zeal of a Whitfield. I can only tell the tale of mercy simply, and leave it there." Well, and did not God create all things by His naked word? At this day, is not the Gospel in itself the rod of Jehovah's strength? Is it not the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth?

5. Another pleads, "You are not aware of the darkness of the district in which I labour. I toil among a benighted, unintelligent, ignorant people. I cannot expect to see fruit there, toil as I may." Ah! brother, and while you talk so you never will see any fruit, for God giveth not great things to unbelieving men. But for the encouragement of thy faith, let me remind thee that it is the God that made the heavens and the earth on whom thou hast to lean.

6. "Ay," saith one, "but the men among whom I labour are so confused in their notions, they put darkness for light and light for darkness; their moral sense is blunted; if I try to teach them, their ears are dull of hearing and their hearts are given to slumber. Besides, they are full of vain janglings and oppose themselves to the truth; I endure much contradiction of sinners, and they will not receive the truth in the love of it." Did not the Holy Spirit brood with shadowing wings over the earth when it was chaos? Did He not bring out order from confusion?

7. "Ah," say you, "they are all so dead, so dead!" Ay, and remember how the waters brought forth life abundantly; and how the earth brought forth the creeping thing, and the cattle after its kind; and how, at last, man was made out of the very dust of the earth.

8. See how fair and glorious this earth is now! Well might the morning stars sing together, and the sons of God shout for joy! And dost thou think that God cannot make as fair a heart in man, and make it bud and blossom, and teem with hallowed life?

II. TO ENCOURAGE THE INQUIRER. Many really desirous to be saved are full of doubts, and difficulties, and questionings.

1. Your mind is so dark. "I cannot see Christ," says one; "I feel benighted; it is all darkness, thick as night with me." Yes, but then there is the question, Can God roll this night away? And the answer comes, He who said, "Let there be light," and there was light, can certainly repeat the miracle.

2. Another of your doubts will arise from the fact that you feel so weak. You cannot do what you would. You would leave sin, but still fall into it; would lay hold on Christ, but cannot. Then comes the question, Can God do it? And we answer, He who made the heavens and the earth without a helper, can certainly Bare thee when thou canst not help thyself.

3. "Ay," sayest thou again, "but I am in such an awful state of mind; there is such a confusion within me; I cannot tell what is the matter with me; I know not what I am; I cannot understand myself." Was not the world just so of old, and did not all the beauty of all lands rise out of this dire confusion?

4. There is more hope in thy case than there was in the creation of the world, for in the creation there was nothing done beforehand. The plan was drawn, no doubt, but no material was provided; no stores laid in to effect the purpose. But in thy case the work is done already, beforehand. On the bloody tree Christ has carried sin; in the grave He has vanquished death; in resurrection He has rent for ever the bends of the grave; in ascension He has opened heaven to all believers; and in His intercession He is pleading still for them that trust Him.

5. Yet again, God has done something more in thee than there was done before He made the world. Emptiness did not cry, "O God! create me." Darkness could not pray, O Lord. give me light." Confusion could not cry, "O God! ordain me into order." But see what He has done for you. He has taught you to cry, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

6. It was in God's power to make the world or not, just as He pleased. No promise bound Him; no covenant made it imperative upon Him that His arm should be outstretched. Sinner, the Lord is not bound to save thee except from His own promise, and that promise is, "He that calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." He cannot withhold saving thee if thou callest upon Him.

7. It is certain that there is more room in your case for God to glorify Himself than there was in the making of the world. In making the world He glorified His wisdom and He magnified His power, but He could not show His mercy.

III. TO COMFORT BELIEVERS. You are greatly troubled, are you? It is a common lot with us all And you have nothing on earth to trust to now, and are going to be cast on your God alone? Happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Blessed storm that wrecks thee on the Rock of Ages! Glorious billow that washes thee upon this heavenly shore! And now thou hast nothing but thy God to trust to, what art thou going to do? To fret? Oh, do not thus dishonour thy Lord! Show the world that thy God is worth ton thousand worlds to thee.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)