1. What it is we aim at in all our Ministrations —
[We find you all in the sad predicament of this poor cripple. But, because the weakness is in your souls, and not in your bodies, you are not conscious of it : whereas you may see in one moment, if you would candidly examine your state, that you have been, from your very birth, as destitute of all spiritual energy in your souls, as that poor man was of activity in the use of his limbs. And hither we see you brought, some perhaps by a formal regard to the habits of your country, and others by mere curiosity, and none of you expecting to receive more than some customary gratification : but we come (to work a miracle, shall I say ? — that would be deemed presumptuous ; — but we do come) to convey a benefit which not all the angels in heaven could confer, even the renovation of your souls in the name of Jesus Christ. We do say to you, and you, and you, " In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, arise and walk ;" and if only you can receive that word in faith, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ for his blessing, a healing operation shall go forth with the word, and salvation come to your souls this very day. It is thought by many, that we would make you melancholy. Yes, as melancholy as was that healed cripple in the first hour of his deliverance. Dear brethren, search the Scriptures, and see what the effects of the Gospel were in the days of old. And such they are at this hour; and we account not ourselves to have ministered it to any good effect, any further than we see realized in you the blessed miracle which has been this day set before your eyes. O that not only one or two of you might experience it this day, but all of you together ; so that you might all be " filled with peace and joy in believing;" yea, and all be transported with a "joy that is unspeakable and glorified ! "]
2. What it is that we expect from you, if ye " receive not the grace of God in vain " —
[We expect you no longer to continue the poor, low, grovelling creatures that ye have been; but to shew to all around you, that you are endued with power from on high, and enabled to " walk even as Christ himself walked." We expect you to shine as lights in the world : yea, the world itself expects this of you. If you profess to have experienced the converting grace of God, the world will ask you, and with reason too, " What do ye more than others?" And they should be made to see, that there is in divine grace an energy and a power, to which they are utter strangers ; and an efficacy, for which they know not how to account. Dear brethren, ye must live above the world: ye must delight yourselves in God. Ye must not be afraid of man : nor, if man ridicule and revile