could not forbear going to acquaint their famished countrymen with the good tidings p : and shall we be backward to inform our neighbours respecting this tree, whereby all their diseases may be healed, and all their wants supplied ? The moment that Andrew and Philip had discovered it, they endeavoured to bring their friends to a participation of their bliss q. Let us do the same. Our enjoyment of its fruits will be enhanced, rather than diminished, by a communication of them to others. Let us, I say, in compliance with the direction given us, exert our- selves to the uttermost, if peradventure we may introduce them to the knowledge of Christ, and be instrumental to the salva- tion of their souls r.]
p 2 Kings vii. 9. i John i. 40,41, 43, 45. r Isai. xii. 4 — 6.
Ezek. xxxvi. 24 — 28. I will take you from among the Heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and ivill bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all your Jilthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you. an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk hi my statutes : and ye shall keep my judg- ments, and do them. And ye shall divell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I ivitt be your God.
IT will appear strange to say to a Christian assem- bly, that the true nature of Christianity is but little understood : but it is even so : for almost all persons regard it only as a code of laws, or a system of re- straints : whereas, in truth, it is a mine of promises, of " exceeding great and precious promises," which are made to every one who feels his need of them, and desires to embrace them. I say not that it does not also contain precepts ; for no doubt it enjoins a total surrender of ourselves to God : but there is not any thing which it requires, which it does not also make over to us as a free gift of God for Christ's sake. Take, for example, the passage before us. It is