his, and walk to and fro, and have a delightful conversation with him in front of your Parade? The thing is preposterous: the man is a robber: he is not fit society for any honest man. You cannot be in a state of fellowship with God until first of all you are "agreed" with Him.

Is that the only cause of quarrel? No: by no means. It is the first, but not the only cause. God is a Sovereign: He has laid down certain laws. Where is the man or woman who has kept them? Can we honestly say that, taking His own interpretation of His own Statute Book, we have really conformed to the laws of heaven? If not, we are in a position of disagreement with Him. God lays this claim upon our nature, that as we are sworn to His fealty, and bound by solemn allegiance to Himself, we should surrender ourselves to the performing of all His will. Where is the man who has done it? Broken commandments, privileges sinned against, the will of God trampled upon-all these indicate the impossibility of "walking with God" until, first of all, a reconciliation has taken place.

Is that all? Not even that is all. There is more than this. God and the unrenewed sinner are in a state of disagreement with respect to the position which that sinner has to take. If there is one of you who is so far awakened to a consciousness of your true position, that you want to be different, and are making every effort to make yourself better, then you are only perpetrating a fresh quarrel with the Most High; you fall into a renewed controversy. How do you do that? God has indicated to you your true position. He tells you that it is one of helplessness. You have "sold yourself for nought, and you have been redeemed without money:" but you say"These terms are too humiliating: I will do something for my own soul. It is true I cannot effect it altogether, but I will make some use of the provision He has supplied, and the rest I will manage to discover somehow or another from my own resources.' God will not have it so: "His glory will He not share with another." So, do you not see, that in the very act of endeavouring to set this matter right, you are only perpetrating a fresh wrong, and putting yourself once more in an attitude of disagreement with the Most High?

Then you wonder that you do not find peace! and when you open your heart to a Christian friend, you say, "Well, I cannot see how it is that God seems to be dealing so very

hardly with me. I pray, and I struggle, and I try to do my best; and I am very much in earnest: I want to be right, and it seems that I cannot be right; after all that I have done, I still seem left out in the dark and the cold." Are you surprised at it? Your very doing is simply an exhibition of your disagreement with God. God has laid down one plan of salvation, and you say, "No, Lord, not that plan; it is too humbling for me: I will have a plan of my own. I will adopt a certain portion of what Thou hast provided; the rest I will do myself." Do you think God is to stoop to make a compromise with us, wretched rebels, with us, who have merited eternal banishment from His presence? Is He going to bring down His own plan of salvation to suit our plan? Were He to do so, He would have to execute a million different plans of salvation. Every particular, poor, little, paltry sinner would set up a theory of salvation of his own, and God would have to I tell you, God never will. accommodate Himself to it. Before you can really enter into fellowship with Him, and "walk with Him," thou must be "agreed with Him" in the acceptance of His offer of salvation.

But let me come closer.

Dear friends, the disagreement is a personal one. There is something that has slipped in between thee and thy God. It is not with an abstract theory that thou hast to do: it is not with some vast principle: it is with a living Person, a Person who loves thee. The quarrel is all on thy side, and not on His. The disagreement has arisen with thee, rebellious sinner! Blessed be God, He, with whom thou hast disagreed, has Himself found out a way of settling the quarrel. The endeavour to set it right ought to have come from thee; but it has not. It has come from Him. He calls The willingness to be "agreed with thee" is His. on thee, indeed, to " agree with Him," but that is only possible because He has already put Himself in a position to agree with thee. Glory be to God! He has agreed with us: that is to say, on His side, there is no spirit of animosity; there is no willingness to perpetuate the quarrel; but there On His side, the is a Divine readiness to conclude it. reconciliation is already complete: but you know, there are two parties to a reconciliation.

Are you

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reconciled to God?" If you are not, dear friends, it is not because He is not reconciled to you, but it is because you do not accept the reconciliation which He has

already completed; because, on your side, you decline to be reconciled. So it is with all your religious aspirations. You all wish to lead better lives, but if you are shutting yourselves out from real fellowship with Him, you may go to your church, and get no blessing, and you may go to that hallowed ordinance, the Holy Communion, and get no blessing. Why is it? Our Lord Himself teaches us why it is. Listen to His own lesson. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee.' Observe, it is not "remember that thou hast aught against thy brother," but "that thy brother hath aught against thee:" what then? "Leave there thy gift before the altar: first"oh, that I could print that FIRST upon your hearts-"first be reconciled to thy brother, and then offer thy gift."

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There are too many forms of Christianity that have reversed this process, to "First offer thy gift, and then be reconciled to thy brother: "-first, present to God the tribute of a pure and humble life; first, be earnest and devout in your attendance on religious ordinances; first, join with your voice in sacred worship, and participate in the blessed services of the church; first, approach the sacred table and "present yourself, body, soul, and spirit to thy God," and then, when thou hast gone on giving, and giving, and giving gift after gift, at last thou wilt succeed in bribing away the Divine displeasure, and in cajoling a God of infinite equity into something like a condoning of the guilt which has branded thy brow. I tell you that this is the devil's gospel, and not the Gospel of the living God: and, so far from such a gospel raising you into fellowship with Him, it must of necessity exclude you from His fellowship. Put that "first" where God has put it. You are His brother. Yes! He is thy Brother. He wears the garb of humanity: He is a Man amongst men: He looks at us through human eyes, and He speaks to us through the human voice. There is nothing austere in His deportment. He has a Brother's love, a Brother's heart, a Brother's tenderness and sympathy: but there is a quarrel between us, and the quarrel lies on our side. It is not that we have anything" against our Brother." We cannot charge Him with austerity. If we do, it is a lie, and a slander, for He does not deserve it. We cannot say He is wanting in sympathy and tenderness we cannot truthfully say that He has ever done a single action with which we could reproach Him. But our

Our

Brother has something "against us." What is it? Oh! listen to His plaintive voice, the voice of our Brother! "Ye will not," He says, "Ye will not." Ah! dear friends, it is not "Ye cannot," but "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life." That is what thy Brother has got "against thee." He has come into this world as God's Messenger of life, bringing the blessed gift along with Him, and "ye will not come unto Him, that ye might have it." So our Brother has got something "against us.' His tears tell us, that He has something" against us." His sorrows shew it: His voice proclaims it: His whole attitude towards us indicates it. Brother, our best of Brothers, has something “against us.' Dear friends, He hath something "against thee," even now. As I told some of you last night, He is standing outside the door of thy heart, when He ought to be in. Is that right? Has not He something against you, as He pleads so gently with you, and you hear Him say—" My locks are wet with the drops of the night. I have been standing, waiting so long, and thou wilt not let Me in. Those affections, thou hast given them to this world: thou hast given thy whole nature over to My great adversary: thou art guilty of a spiritual adultery: I have somewhat against thee.'

Oh, my dear friends, do you not hear within your own nature the pleadings of your Brother's voice? He says"Leave there thy gift upon the altar: desist from worship: cease your service: first be reconciled to thy Brother; then, when you are reconciled, go and offer thy gift; then there shall be real worship; then the services of the sanctuary shall be true services; then the blessed ordinance of the Lord's Supper shall be a reality; then the Bible shall be a living Book. But until this reconciliation has taken place, "the two can never walk together, for they are not agreed."

I will conclude by words of His own utterance, words of wise and precious import. They sound very solemn words; but they are the words of a Friend:-" Agree with thine adversary quickly." He is your own Brother; He is your own best Friend; yet you have turned Him into an adversary, because you have resisted His claim, and sinned against His law, and refused Him your heart. Friend, “ agree with thine adversary quickly." Life's shadows are closing round you: life's opportunities are passing away: the call of God's love is falling on your ear less effectually; the influence of heaven

is less felt the claims of hell are becoming more inexorable. As you value your souls, I beseech you, by the infinite love of God, "agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with Him." Although you cannot "walk together" in fellowship, yet your God is nearer than He seems. In conscious communion, you cannot be fellow-travellers, but in actual distance "He is not far from any one of us," glory be to Him! "Whilst thou art in the way with Him: whilst there is but a step between thee and the mercy seat, and at any moment you may take that step, and find yourself at the very feet of the Lord, against whom you have sinned-" Lest_at any time." "At any time,"-before the meeting begins this evening; "at any time ❞—before you reach your own home to-day: "lest at any time," without any moment's warning, when the day of grace is ended, and the last opportunity has passed away, "the adversary deliver thee to the Judge, and the Judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, thou shalt not depart thence until thou hast paid the very last farthing."

I

T is a great mistake to suppose, as is very often supposed, that there is anything unmanly in the religion of Jesus Christ. It is quite possible that there may be unmanly specimens of that religion; quite possible that, now and then, we may come across persons who make considerable religious profession at times, while their whole religious life. is not such as to command our respect. But look again,

*Preached to Men only.