yes, Brethren, " to-day" " harden not your hearts;" for you know not what a day may bring forth. Before another day, you may be taken into the eternal world ; or, if not, you may provoke God to swear in his wrath, that you shall never enter into his rest ; and then your remaining days will answer no other end, than to fill up the measure of your iniquities. But surely you have grieved him long enough already; some of you twenty, some thirty, some perhaps even " forty years." Let there be an end of this rebellion against your Maker and your Redeemer ; and let this, which is with him the day of grace, be to you " the day of salvation."]
Ps. xcvi. 1 — 3. 0 sing unto the Lord a new song ; sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord ; bless his name : shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his ivonders among all people.
TO any one who looks even in the most superficial manner into the Holy Scriptures, there must appear a very wide difference between the experience of the saints recorded there, and that which is found amongst persons reputed saints in the present day. The Sa- viour himself is not so much the object of holy glory- ing, as he was amongst some, who looked forward to him at the distance of a thousand years ; nor are the same elevated affections towards him brought into exercise, as were displayed by them. A man who should now exclaim, as David did, " O sing unto the Lord a new song ; sing unto the Lord, all the earth : sing unto the Lord ; bless his name ; shew forth his salvation from day to day!" he, I say, would be accounted an enthusiast at least ; and it would be well if he were not characterized by a yet harsher term. But religion is, or ought to be, the same in all ages ; except indeed that our views of Christ should be more elevated, and our delight in him be more ardent, in proportion as our means of knowing him are more ample, and our motives to love him more enlarged. The psalm before us undoubtedly refers to him ; for it speaks expressly of the pub- lication of his Gospel to the Gentile world. It is