fear his name may the Sun of righteousness arise and give you just such clearness and light.

But according to the text, the Sun of righteousness, when it rises on those that fear the Lord, gives them healing. There is healing in its wings. By the wings of the sun are meant the beams that shoot up from it into the air, or seem to slant down from it when it is aloft in the sky. There is really healing to men's bodies in the sun. Hare we not seen them come to the sunny land consumptive and doubled with weakness, and as they have sat in the sun and warmed themselves for a few weeks, the wound within the lung has begun to heal, and the consumptive man has breathed again, and you have seen that he would live. Some have gone thither who scarce could speak, and beneath the sun they began to speak again, like men whose youth has been renewed. The sun is the great physician. Where he enters not the physician will be needed, but where he shines men speedily revive. As for the Sun of righteousness, oh, how he heals the sick! I would like you sick Christians to sit in his sunlight by the year together, if you did nothing else but bask there, as animals delight to bask in the sun. The flowers know the sun, and they turn their cups to him and drink in of the health he gives them from his golden store. Oh, that we had as much sense to know the Sun of righteousness, that we might by prayer, and meditation, and holy living, bask and sun ourselves in his delicious beams. We shall be strong indeed if he rises upon us with healing in his wings. He has risen, but we wander into the shade: he has risen, but we get into the ice wells of worldliness and sin, and shut out his warmth, and then we wonder we are sick, but sick we always shall be till we come out into the light again, and Jesus shines on us from morn till eve.

I must not enlarge upon any one point, for my time is limited; but I would have you notice how the text says that when the Sun of righteousness shines the Christian gets his liberty. "Ye shall go forth." I have been staying where the invalid does not venture out if the wind blows, and if it is a little chill and the sun is not bright he must stay indoors or lose the benefit he has received; but when the sun is out and the air is calm, then he comes forth and leaves his bedroom, and is all alive once more. There are Christians who have been kept indoors a long time; they have not walked the length of the promise, nor spied out the breadth of the covenant, nor climbed to the top of Pisgah to gaze upon the landscape. O beloved, if the Sun of righteousness, even the Lord Jesus, shall shine upon you, you will go forth not only to enjoy Christian life, but to enter into Christian service, and you will go further afield to bring others to Christ.

Then you will begin to grow. That is another effect of the sun, and how wonderfully the sunlight makes things grow. Here we have in our hot-houses little plants that we think so wonderful that we show them to our friends, and put them on our tables as rarities, but I have seen them in the sunny south ten times as large growing in the open fields, because the sun has looked upon them. The rarities of our country are the common-places of the land of the sun. I have known Christians who have received a little faith and been perfectly astonished at it, and God has blessed them with a little love to Jesus, and they

have felt as though they were splendid saints; but if they lived in the sunlight they might move mountains by their faith, and their love would lead them to devote their whole life to Jesus, and yet they would not be astonished. The Sun of righteousness can produce fruits rich and rare. Our cold, sunless land, beneath its cloud and fog, what can it yield in the winter? In more favoured parts of the earth, even in our winter, the trees are golden with fruits. So is it with the soul. What can it grow if it lives in worldliness? What can it produce if it lives to itself? But when it knows the love of Jesus and the power of his grace, even in its worst estate it brings forth the richest and the rarest fruit to the glory of his grace.

I shall close by exhorting my fellow church members to live in the sunlight. Get out of the shadows. There are dreary glens in this world where the sun never shines: they are called glens of pleasure, and sometimes the pale moon looks down on them with sickly ray; but the saint knows the light of the sun from the light of the world's moon. Get away from those chill places into the clear light. "But," says one, "I did not know there were joys in religion." My dear friend, do you know true religion then? for it is "a thing of beauty, and a joy for ever." He who knows Christ has seen the sun, but till he has known him he has seen but the glow-worm's glitter. Peace, deep peace, he never knew who never knew the power of the blood; and joy, real joy, such as angels call joy, he never knew who never trusted in the Saviour's atoning sacrifice. Oh, come ye depressed and distressed and despondent ones, whose religion has been slavery, and whose profession has been bondage: get a true baptism into Christ by faith in him, and when you have been plunged into the Godhead's deepest sea then shall you know a joy and peace which pass all understanding. The world gives them not: it cannot take them away. "Unto you that fear the Lord, the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings."

I would encourage those who fear the Lord a little, I mean the seekers. Come ye into the light. Come and welcome, none will question your right. I never heard of anybody yet who said "I must not sit in the sun; the sun is not mine.' The lords of this world have hedged in every acre, and there is scarce a sterile mountain side which is not guarded with "trespassers beware." trespassers beware." But they cannot hedge in the blessed sunlight; no, not even for an hour. Through the poor man's window, though the glass be broken and stuffed up with rags, a beam of sunlight will pierce its way as gladly as into the halls of monarchs it shines on the beggar's rags as well as on the prince's scarlet it is free. When Diogenes bade Alexander get out of his sunlight he had a right to do so, for the sunlight belonged as much to Diogenes in his tub as to Alexander who had conquered a world. O meanest of the mean in thine own judgment, lowest of the low in thine own esteem, guiltiest of the guilty as thy conscience calls thee before God, know thou that the Sun of righteousness has risen, and his light is free. Come into the sunlight; come into the sunlight! "Oh, but I shall get better soon: I am sick, but I shall get better soon." Come into the sunlight, man, for there is healing beneath the wings of the Sun of righteousness, but nowhere else. "I am kindling a fire, I am hoping that I may get warm by the sparks of my own kindling."

Come into the sunlight, man. What were all thy fires? Though thou shouldest set Lebanon upon a blaze, and take all the timber that ever grew on Sirion to make a pile thereof, what were it as compared with yonder mighty furnace of the sun, which has burnt on for ages, and will burn on till the last eye of mortal man shall have looked upon it? O soul, go not about with thy whims and thy fancies to save thyself: but come into the sunlight! Come into the sunlight, man! "But perhaps I may not." Who is the poorer if the sunlight shine on thee? There is enough for others even though it pour its floods on thee. The sun is no brighter if thou hast not his beams; he will be no duller though thou and a thousand like thee should lie by the century together basking in his light. So with Jesus. "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." If thou take all the mercy that can be wanted to lift thee up from the gates of hell to heaven itself he will have as much mercy left. If all the merit thou canst want to save thy condemned spirit and make thee into a child of God should be thine, as I pray it may, there will be as much merit left in Christ as ever. Why keep back? Why keep back? "But I am so base." Does not the sun shine on dunghills? May not the mercy of God shine on thee, thou dunghill sinner? Thou canst not be too low, thou canst not be too vile; the infinite mercy of God, like the infinite light of the sun, can reach thee. "Alas, I am dark." And what night was too dark for the sun to turn it into day? Alas, I am cold." But what iceberg was too cold for the sun to thaw it? What winter was too severe for the sun to turn it into summer? Yield thyself up, thou icicle, yield to the sun, and it will melt thee. Yield thyself up, thou dead and shrivelled bough, to that dear sunbeam which waits to kiss thee now, and it will awaken life within thee, and warm thee till thou shalt be laden with rich fruit, to the praise and glory of the Sun of righteousness which has risen upon thee. The Lord grant it may be so with us all, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

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PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Malachi iii. iv.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-795, 799, 19.

LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON.

DEAR FRIENDS,-Although I am still weak upon my knees, I am so greatly refreshed in spirit that I feel able to return to preach on Sunday, April 13. Glad tidings of the Lord's work at home have greatly cheered me, and I am also rejoiced that most of the work committed to me has prospered during my absence. This is a great point gained, for now all will know that the work is a living one, and does not depend upon personal oversight. I heartily thank all the workers and givers, and most of all our gracious God who has kept them

A REFRESHING PROMISE.

WRITTEN

Sermon

АТ

MENTONE, BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

"I will water it every moment."-Isaiah xxvii. 3.

WHEN the Lord is most intent on justice he is at the same time earnest in his love. The day of vengeance of our God is also the acceptable year of the Lord. In the Scripture before us the prophet saith, "Behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity," (Isa. xxvi. 21), and he foretells that the Lord will come forth as one armed with a great and strong sword to smite the fiercest of his enemies with a deadly wound (Isa. xxvii. 1); yet before he had bared his arm for the battle he prepared chambers of refuge for his people that they might dwell as within closed doors until the tempest of indignation was overpast (Isa. xxvi. 20). The shoutings of war did not prevent the Lord from remembering his beloved and his song of love concerning her, for he saith, "In that day sing ye unto her, a vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment." Happy people, who even in the day of wrath are satisfied with favour. Blessed heirs of grace who hear the just and terrible avenger say concerning them, "Fury is not in me" (verse 4).

The love of the Lord towards his whole church goes forth to each individual member thereof; the care which he displays towards the vineyard is exercised upon each vine which he has planted. So, then, we may without hesitation believe that the Lord will do for us personally that which he promises to do for his people as a whole; else would there have been exceptions stated, and the word would have run thusI will water a part of my vineyard, but a portion of the plants shall be left to be dried up. The Lord's word is so truthful that it would never raise ungrounded expectations by general statements if there were, indeed, cases not included therein. We are always safe in concluding that if the Lord had meant to shut out one believing soul from a privilege he would have mentioned it, for he has not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth, anything which would militate against the happiness of any one of his people. This then, beloved friends, is the pledge of love concerning the spiritual life of my soul and yours, and the soul of every humble believer in Jesus,-"I will water it every moment.” This is a precious promise, and the more we meditate upon it the more rich will it appear. May we now be watered by the Holy Ghost while we meditate upon this promised watering.

Nos. 1,464-5.

In warm climates irrigation is essential to fertility; hence, travellers see on all sides pools and watercourses, wheels and cisterns, and channels for the water to flow in. The watering arises from necessity, and it is carefully attended to, because otherwise the husbandman or gardener would look in vain for fruit. I remarked to a gardener in the South of France that the weather was bad, but he replied that it was good for the garden, for the rain gave plenty of water, and that was the chief thing. In Paradise it was no mean advantage to its verdant bowers that a fourfold river pursued its course through its midst, and that before the rain had fallen upon the earth there went up a mist from the earth and watered the face of the ground. From the necessity and value of water to the plants of the earth the Lord would teach us our own need of his grace, and the preciousness of that grace, and render his promise of supply the more delightful to our souls.

That we may prize the goodness of the Lord in the promises before us we shall consider the necessity of our being watered, the manner in which the Lord promises to supply our need, and the certainty that he will do so. O for a living meditation, not upon the letter of the word only, but upon its innermost teaching.

I. There is a great NECESSITY for the watering promised in the text. This we might conclude from the promise itself, since there is not one superfluous word of promise in the whole Scriptures, but it becomes more evident when we reflect that all creature life is dependent upon the perpetual outgoing of divine power. Existence is a continued creation, for the creatures have no power within themselves to preserve their own being; even the solid rocks and the great mountains would melt away as so many shadows if eternal omnipotence did not every moment keep them in being. The world is not like a wheel, which, having received a great push from a strong hand, continues to revolve long after the hand is withdrawn ; but the divine energy goes forth continually to uphold all things which it has made. Now, the same law holds good in the more choice and illustrious works of God in the kingdom of grace, and multitudes of illustrations of this are to be found in Holy Writ. Believers are stones, but their upholding comes continually from the foundation; they are branches sucking nourishment perpetually from the stem, members of the body always deriving life from the Head. Towards God we are streams and not fountains; rays of light, not suns; lamps which must be trimmed and nourished with oil; sheep which need unceasing care and feeding. The inner life cannot live upon itself. It is one mark of its presence that the believer is not only dependent as a creature, but feels it as a living, sensible, instructed, and trustful creature. The Christian has no quarrel with the hint of utter weakness which is implied in the text, for he is right well aware that he must be each moment watered or he will dry up from the root and cease to be.

Moreover, the truth is specially certain as touching the believer, for a multitude of agencies are at work to dry up the moisture of his soul. As far as this world is concerned, he is planted in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; his sorrows tend to parch him, like a hot wind from the desert, and earthly joys are still more like a sirocco which burns as an oven. Satan's temptations scorch and wither our hearts