Volume 13 Number 645
“And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” Revelation 9:4
NOW these words stand connected with the operations of adverse powers, which is agreed generally by Biblical scholars to refer to the great Arabian impostor, Mahomet; called in the beginning of this chapter a star falling from heaven, because he pretended that his revelations were from heaven; and, indeed, there are so many things to which his errors answer, that I think there can be no doubt whatever as to the meaning of the historical and mystical part of this book. But we must understand at the same time that while these things have their mystical meaning, they have also a still farther meaning; therefore the words of our text are not a mere historical matter, but a matter which applies to present circumstances with as much interest as to that deceiving power, Mahometanism, which for more than a thousand years has kept a position and dominion over the minds of millions of men; but by and bye it must give way by the reign of that grace that shall find its way to the earth's remotest bounds, and gather up the people of God from all quarters of the globe, over which they have been scattered in the dark and cloudy day.
But it is not my intention to trouble you with anything like an interpretation of the mystical imagery in the language of our text, but at once proceed to notice it in its Biblical meaning, and in so doing notice:
First: God's care of his people and all that belongs to them; Second: The seal: what that seal is which unbelievers have “not in their foreheads;” Third and lastly: The hurt, or that by which these men are to be hurt; and if we look at the kind of hurt by which they are to be hurt, that will give us a clear idea of that from which those who believe in Jesus are delivered.
Now notice, first, here was a command given, meaning God's decree, and that the Lord would so watch over the movements of these adversaries that they should come so far and no farther. Now it does appear to me that the Lord's people are spoken of under three ideas; first, that of “grass,” and then “green herbs,” and then “trees.” Now here you will readily perceive that the people of God under these simple, yet different kinds of imagery are set forth under different stages and growth. And while the Lord uses the same figure to set forth the ephemeral character of human life, all fleshly objects as grass fade away, “all flesh is grass,” and so are all human hopes; yet here the grass is intended to set forth the prosperity and refreshing of the Lord's people. Upon this I will not much enlarge, any farther than just observe that the first idea is that of spiritual life. The grass is very like, and beautifully sets forth the life of the soul, the life that is first wrought in the soul: how feeble that often is at the beginning! apparently feeble I mean, not really so, but I mean the effect of life in the soul appears very feeble at the first; there is a desire after God, or a few thoughts, just enough to keep you uneasy concerning eternal things, in a word, a springing up of a living hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, and unto such this is one sign by which that spiritual life in the soul or refreshing may be known. Therefore, it is said of Christ that “he shall come down as the rain upon the grass,” and again, “My doctrine shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as showers upon the grass.” Now this is a secret into which none but the regenerated soul can enter, for a man to be brought under such a sight and sense of what and where he is as a sinner, and to feel that nothing can refresh him but a sight and sense of the Lord's love and mercy.
And if we ask what these truths are by which these persons are to be refreshed, the answer is, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he.” These are the doctrines that are to refresh such; the promises of Jehovah on the side of his people; these truths that declare the certainty of his salvation and mercy and the perfection of his work; these are the truths by which these little ones, who are set forth as grass, are refreshed, and by which they prosper and grow; therefore, it is said that these people “shall be exalted on the tops of the mountains like the grass of the earth.” It is, therefore, expressive of these little beginnings of spiritual life in that feeble state when there is just enough of concern and desire after the things of God to make the gospel acceptable to such, and it is our mercy that the Lord does not despise the little ones; yes, the Savior says, “Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The idea intended, is this; that, as a father makes his will and leaves an inheritance to his child, that child being altogether ignorant of what he is doing, when he is grown up into a knowledge of what his father has done for him, he is exceedingly pleased, and accepts this as the good-will and pleasure of his father. “Fear not,” weak and little ones, as it may be read, “it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” So, then, except a man become low and little enough to acknowledge that the kingdom of God is given as an act of grace and of God's pleasure, “he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.” So far from the people of God being discouraged at this, it is everyday encouraging. You must not conclude, because you have not all the evidence, that you are not a Christian. Suppose you have only this one: you are brought to feel that you are a poor helpless creature; and if you have this “kingdom of heaven,” it must be bestowed upon you as an act of grace if you are saved at last; it must be of grace if ever you can call God yours; it must be by the “Holy Spirit shedding abroad his love in your heart;” then, if you are brought thus down, you are a part of the living grass. Suppose you read in one place of one rejoicing that his sins are forgiven, and you are not able to say that, then you must wait till you can. Then you go on and read of another, “Though everything in nature fail, yet he will rejoice in God's salvation.” You cannot say that; very well, you will someday. Another says, “There is a crown of righteousness laid up for me.” “I cannot say that; and yet it seems all these things are God's free gift. I trust I love these things.” If you are looking for salvation in no other way, then you are a “little child,” and you will have other evidences when it pleases God to give them: even this “is the Spirit's rising beam.” Remember, however small the evidence is, if it is real, this is the earnest, a part of the inheritance marked out for the people of God to distinguish them from others. These little ones, little as they are, are “desiring the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby.” These have a taste that no others have; hence it was that Lydia, when the Lord opened her heart, “she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul.” Now they all knew that he was a high doctrine man; and if they had disputed James and John upon the matter, they could not dispute the apostle Paul. If Lydia had listened to the things that were spoken by John, then the answer would be, because he was not so high in doctrine as Paul or James. Ah, yes, James was more practical; but the Lord opened her heart: therefore, she attended to the things that were spoken by Paul, one that dwelt more upon the lofty wonders of eternity than any one of the apostles. These little ones, therefore, have a taste for great things; these are the little ones that believe on Jesus, love his name, and will by and bye see his face and glory in his presence for ever and ever.
Thus, then, they were commanded not to hurt the grass. How easy is a blade of grass trampled down! How easy sin, Satan, and the world trample us down, as far as spiritual thoughts are concerned! But there is a command given that not even these little ones are to be hurt. They shall be safe; for he that touches one of these little ones touches the apple of the Lord's eye. “Behold the angels; are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister unto them that shall be heirs of salvation?” See that you hurt not the grass of the earth. What a mercy it is, friends, for poor feeble creatures like us, “crushed before the moth,” to have a God of omnipotence to take care of us! and if the Lord be on our side there is not anything can do us any ultimate harm.
Then, secondly, they are spoken of as herbs. This seems a step farther; and as the former simile associates them with the purity and resurrection of Christ and his eternal covenant, so does this. Their being called herbs is a step farther in divine life. This, therefore associates them with the same truth, “He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God,” Christ did this; “and he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth, by clear shining after rain.” Now I would not be fanciful or presumptuous here, but does not the tender grass refer to Christ? the cloud, and tender, plant, and the springing up, and the clear shining after rain, does it not refer to the sufferings and death and resurrection of Christ? Therefore, if the people are spoken of by the same simile, is it not spoken of them in conformity to him? Then it stands thus, “Your dead men shall live, for your dew is as the dew of herbs.” Now that is a remarkable scripture, “Your dew is as the dew of herbs.” Do not let us, if we can help it, lose sight of the soul of that scripture. The meaning of it is this. If you see two pieces of ground, one filled with useful herbs and the other covered with brambles; or suppose the other has nothing upon it, a sandy, barren piece of ground: the rain comes upon both, and the dew comes upon both; the sandy, barren ground does no good; but where the useful herbs are, that drinks in the rain, and brings forth fruit, and so on. Therefore, “your dew being as the dew of herbs” is a distinctive promise, to show that while the truth of God will fall upon the ears of thousands, yet it is like falling upon the briny ocean or the barren rock, therefore, no good is produced; but when it falls upon “good ground” they prosper and grow. The meaning is, that they shall not hear the word of God in vain, that it shall not fall upon the ear in vain; they shall not be as the “stony ground” hearers, who receive the truth for a little while and then wither away; nor as the “thorny ground” hearers, whose worldly concerns choke their spiritual concerns, and they are laid aside, and gladly they banish all they have heard from their memory in order to cleave to those things which they like better. They shall not be like these, for “your dew is as the dew of herbs they shall profit by the truth as it is in Jesus; they shall live and praise the name of the Lord; he will refresh his vineyard, and water it every moment,” and it shall flourish, and his people shall bear testimony to the truth of his word that they shall not be hurt.
Then they are called “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified;” and the tree before it can bring forth good fruit must be made good. Now what is good fruit? Very few know what it is spiritually. Now good fruit, if we take it in the spiritual sense, is by the Christian easily understood. We may know the tree by its fruits. Now the fruits of the evil tree are acts of enmity against Christ and against the sovereignty and truth of God; these are evil fruits, so evil that by the living in Jerusalem they cannot be eaten. And if this be true there is a great abundance of it in the present day; there are wagon loads of books written to try to get rid of God's truth; there is nothing free-willers hate more than God's truth; and yet they try to make their own doings pass for good fruits, whereas they are nothing but evil fruits at enmity against God's truth. Now the tree that brings forth good fruit is the tree that is made good. And how does the Lord make the tree good? By bringing the soul into a state of sincere love to God and his truth. Without this there can be no good fruits, as it is written, “A man may give all his goods to feed the poor, and his body to be burned, and his fruits will be bad at the last.” That is going a long way. So, it may be. I believe there are thousands who give large sums of money for building places of worship who will be lost and damned for their deeds, because they have done it more from enmity against God's truth than any other feeling. Do not mistake me on this matter. “The axe is laid to the root of the tree, and every tree that bears not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.” The man who makes no profession at all, his conduct is profane, and everyone sees his fruits to be bad; they themselves would not contend that they were good; their condition lays open; they are in the broad road of profanity; but the others are at enmity against God's truth under the cloak of religion. Good fruits, then, must be acts of love to God when brought to receive God's truth in the love of it, that makes the soul decided for God, the man walks in a divine persuasion of the Lord's love, and prays, and praises his name in love to him; and all that is done by these people, wherever they are, are all acts of love to his blessed truth; these are “good fruits,” these are the trees the adversary shall not hurt: “He was commanded not to hurt the grass,” the Lord's people as little ones, nor in the middle stages, when they grew farther on towards God, nor the “green trees,” but only those men that have not the seal of God in their foreheads. I think that the former part of this verse shows that the Lord's people are intended; then in another verse the adversaries, or four angels that were found in the river Euphrates, these four powers perform their destined work, they were to hurt neither the earth nor the sea until the Lord had sealed his servants in their foreheads, to show that the Lord will not only take care of his people, but all that belongs to them. Job was made to know and understand that if his property be safe, it was the Lord that took care of it, therefore, “honor the Lord with your substance;” what belongs to the Lord's people it lies with the Lord to take care of. And if he does not, and you should lose your earthly riches, they are but poor things at the best, and often make to themselves wings. Human strength is gone in a moment, human wisdom is but a poor miserable thing at the best, and death puts an end to it, “in that very day the wisest man's thoughts perish;” “therefore let not the rich man glory in his riches, nor the wise man (after the flesh) glory in his wisdom; but he that glories, let him glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord;” therefore, he takes care of what belongs to his people. But let us take a little higher ground than this, and that is the eternal life that belongs to them, and God took care of that. Satan thought he had deprived us of that once; “Crucify him, crucify him,” was the language of the adversary; he thought if Christ could be stopped, all the people could, but “no man takes my life from me.” If any man could have taken his life away, that would have taken the life of his saints away, for he is their life, “their life is hid with Christ in God,” and, as John expresses it, “God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son;” and again, “he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one touches him not,” that is, not fatally; he has touched our mortal life and taken it away, so that is what you owe to the devil, the loss of your life, and your soul too, if grace prevent not; he was both a liar and a murderer from the beginning, but we have a life in Jesus that Satan cannot touch. How sweet it is to know that we shall walk all through life without dying spiritually. By and bye we shall die in the body, but the life we have in the soul remains safe in Christ. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also shall appear in glory with him.” Then again we have purity in Christ, the adversary cannot touch that; we may have blemishes in our conduct, our reputation may be injured, but we have a purity in Jesus, Christ that cannot be tarnished; we are ever pure and holy and spotless in him; who would not be proud, rightly so, of a life and purity that is beyond the reach of sin and Satan, or any injury or harm whatever? Again, we have a righteousness also that cannot be touched or injured. “In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.” Again, we have redemption; yes, all the blessings of God's everlasting love by Christ Jesus are where they cannot be lost, “And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me I should lose nothing.” The great decree then has gone forth that these people shall not be injured, nor anything taken from them. Thousands have been called upon to give up all they had, but it is but a few pieces of dust. Suppose you have property and a house to live in, it is but a poor temporary concern compared with that enduring salvation we have in Christ. They were wise men who when put to the test whether they would give up their hope under the sun, or the hope they had above the sun; these wise men were enabled to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony and loved not their lives unto the death. So thus, happy are the people who know something of this spiritual life, and something of being made good in this spiritual sense and led to prize these things. Such will never be lost.
But we notice,
Second: The seal. “But only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” Now, of course, the seal will mean in the first place a mark of distinction. I feel anxious to show presently that this seal or inscription upon the forehead can be read only by a good Hebrew scholar, and not by the world. I will endeavor to give you some proof presently, and the longer we live the more clearly will these inscriptions appear, and they always do appear, and if you cannot make them out now, you will get an interpretation when you get a little farther on. Now it alludes to an ancient custom of certain persons inscribing mystic characters upon their foreheads, with the names of the gods to whom they were devoted, or as expressed in another place, “having their father's name in their foreheads,” meaning in the first place a mark of distinction; hence the Savior enlarges upon this, and says, “I will write upon him the name of my God, the name of the new Jerusalem,” expressive of their love to Jerusalem, that they loved Jerusalem which is free:
“They love her gates, they love the road,
The church adorned with grace.”
“I will write upon him my new name,” here is God manifest in the flesh, this is expressive of the things they are brought to know, understand, and enjoy. Again, the name written in their foreheads is expressive also of their boldness for God, they are not ashamed of the truth, and to own his blessed name and I am sure, if you do own his name truly, that you will have some trials upon this matter. Satan has not left off degrading every place where the truth is advanced, and every one that belongs to that place, therefore, be prepared for everything that people may say against you; if God bestow upon you natural gifts, as he did Joseph in Egypt, all this may be very well, yet somehow or another they get hold of an idea that this is not all your character; they like you very well in these things, but when they come to find out what your religion is, they hate it, they cannot endure that for a moment. They have heard enough of your natural gifts to make them acceptable, but when they get an idea of this religion, they hate you with all their hearts; therefore, do not you think it is your religion that makes you acceptable to them. This Daniel, they dare not speak evil of him, but “concerning the law of his God,” look at the doctrines he holds; he exalts the God of the Hebrews to the exclusion of all other gods; he contends for one religion, and that his religion is the only right one in the world: all the world was against him here, though they dare not speak against him in all the other things; all the world will see this name to be in your forehead, it will denote that the Lord's people hold their heads up to be bold for the truth; they set their faces like flints, as said the Savior himself, “I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed, for he is near that justifies me.” Nothing annoys me more than a halfway professor who knows not which way to go. I hate vacillation with all my soul; “Because you are neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth;” be for or against, one or the other. The devil himself will be tired in time if we speak out boldly and decidedly for God. The man who paints free-will out in as fair colors as old Jezebel's face was painted will be trodden under feet many times; but the man who shows these things in their real character, Satan will be half afraid of him, and glad to get away from such, tired of tempting him. You see, then, that the name in the forehead is expressive of distinction and boldness for God, bearing testimony of his blessed name and standing out for him; but allow me to vary the idea a little just to carry it out a little farther. Now the seal or sign of interest in Jesus Christ will depend upon the circumstances under which we may be placed. My meaning is that the adversary can never rightly read that sign. Abel's sign was the acceptance of his sacrifice; God had respect unto Abel and to his sacrifice, and accepted it, and Cain could read the sign just well enough to make him hate Abel, that is all; he could not read the sign well enough to understand it, so as to make him seek the same mercy and the same distinction, yet there are some that do. I cannot tell; perhaps some poor creature may have come here this evening “dead in trespasses and sins.” If the Lord is pleased to carry home the word with power, the poor creature goes away: “Lord, teach me what this sign is; bring me to know your name, that I may be enabled, while I look on the foreheads of these men, while they converse upon their experience, that I may be enabled, rightly to read by their experience some sign; that I may not hate because you love, but ask and desire a place in the same mercy.” This was not the case with Cain; he saw just enough into the sign to make him hate Abel, rise against, and slay him. The antediluvians could not believe that God gave Noah a sign. There was the plan of the ark, but such bad, “foolish builders;” they could not read the sign. What is that Noah talking about? we cannot tell what he said. It was the sign that God would save him. The world could not read it. They looked and saw something in it that they could not understand; and because they could not understand it they inferred that there must be something wrong; that is the philosophy of the flesh with a witness, but it came to pass at last; they saw that Noah was right. When Moses came into Egypt, and the judgments came, these were the signs; some few of the Egyptians, as well as the Israelites, could read these signs. Some of them brought their cattle home, and they were not destroyed; but Pharaoh could read these signs only to tremble for a moment, and then he hated them more and more. But, passing by a thousand instances, I make these few remarks to show what poor deluded mortals we are still. God takes us in hand; we see not the meaning if God himself does not open our eyes to see the meaning of these signs. If king Saul could have seen the sign when the smooth stone from the brook slew Goliath, he would not have made the same mistake that the woman made when she said, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” If he had understood the sign, he would have taken no notice of the exultations of these people, he would have said, “Neither has Saul slain his thousands nor David his tens of thousands, for the battle is of the Lord; it is the Lord that gave Saul his thousands, and the Lord that gave David his tens of thousands, that man should not glory.” Saul would have placed the crown upon the name of the great Jehovah; if he had rightly read the sign he would have fallen in with David; but being ignorant of God, therefore, he could not read the sign. He put a construction upon it that made him hate David and persecute him to the very last. So, it is our religion is misunderstood by the world, and the signs they cannot read. Presently one comes, and the heavens are opened unto him; and the Holy Ghost as a dove descended upon him, and a voice is heard from heaven. But some said that it thundered; others said an angel spoke to him, and they could not understand the sign. The Savior wrought miracle after miracle, but none of them understood the sign. “The light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not;” and even while the “sky was darkened and the veil of the temple was rent in two, and the graves opened,” yet very few understood the sign, some few did. The centurion exclaimed, “Truly this was a righteous man!” and again, “Truly this was the Son of God!” And on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost was given in abundance, some said, “These men are full of new wine” (showing that some in those days were fond of intoxicating wine, though the Scriptures never speak with approbation of intoxicating wines) “for these men are not drunken as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.” It was reckoned in those days a disgrace to be drunken at that time in the morning (and not much credit any time), but to be drunken at that time in the morning! they could not understand it. But there were three thousand that did; and how came these three thousand to understand the sign? “He whom you crucified is the Prince of life, and peace, and glory, the Savior of men. “When they heard these words, they were pricked in their heart; and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” and how astonished were they when he said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”! And they did believe with all their hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost; and pardon, peace, and comfort flowed into their souls. Then they understood all about it; then they looked in the foreheads of the prophets and read the fathers names upon all the prophets' experiences; they read David's name, and the name of Immanuel, and the name of a divine teacher, and the name of a city, and the inheritance to which they belonged. Just so with some of you. But some of you, perhaps, know no more of what I have been talking about than as if I had been talking Arabic. “It's a curious text, about grass, and herbs, and trees; I cannot make it out.” I don't suppose you can; if you did it would be strange, for “the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” But it does not follow that you never will understand these signs. The Lord may, perhaps, open your eyes; you will then bless the Lord for the “light” that he has thrown upon the path
“That leads us to the Lamb.”
Now the sign and seal will mean those tokens of the Lord's love and favor which cannot he read but by those who are brought in some measure into these things, and the farther they go on the plainer they become. The young Christian that as yet has only felt the sealing home of pardoning mercy, the in-flowing's of the river of eternal peace, and the sweet melting's of God's everlasting love, when he hears the elder Christian talk of some of the depths his soul has been thrown into, and the “billows that have rolled over him,” the young Christian wonders how all this can be. He cannot make out how a good Christian can experience so much darkness and misery as you go on farther in the divine life you will be able to read these things more clearly. When you have experienced a little of it in your own soul, you will understand then all the mystic parts that make up the experience of a real Christian; you will be able to read then “the name in his forehead;” and Satan is sure to mimic us wherever he can in gospel matters, so he has a name written upon the forehead of his church; but our Book tells us the meaning of the seal, and the character of the adversary, and these things will become increasingly clear to us as we go along; and if in this world these things are so clear, how shall it be at the last great day, when the Savior shall stand with the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left? There will be no dispute about the matter then. The seal of God, then, will mean to be brought into the love of the truth, into an understanding of and decision for it.
But, lastly, these men were to be hurt, they were to be tormented five months. History shows us that the five months were months of years; but time forbids me entering into this matter now.
We now come to the adversaries that were to be hurt. “Only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads;” and what was to be done to them? They were to have their lives and liberties granted unto them on the ground of their conforming unto the “name of the beast;” in their foreheads that was the hurt they were to have; they were to be tormented five months, not longer. I know if the Pope had the power to torment England now, it would not take long to torment many into a conformity to his religion. Only five months. Why not more than that? Because that is quite long enough to make Mahomedans of them all. But what was the hurt of these men? Taking it altogether it would be threefold. First, that of their fall in Adam in common with all men, and, secondly, that from which the saints are delivered; they are blinded and hardened against God's truth; “their eyes are made heavy, and their ears dull of hearing, lest they should see and hear, and lest they should understand and be converted;” and therefore, the hurt they received was like Pharaoh's; their hearts were hardened to their own destruction; their hearts were hardened, as we learn from the apostate churches, to their own eternal destruction; but the saints are kept from this apostasy; and what a mercy it is to be kept from it! I may say here, in conclusion, that we have a remarkable display of God's hatred to apostasy in the seven churches of Asia. When speaking of men being tormented into apostasy, it does not take much to torment mere professors, and some real Christians give way a little, but it is only temporary, they soon revive again. But the Asiatic churches spoken of in the first and second chapters of Revelation, three of these churches went over to Pharisaism. The Ephesian church fell into Pharisaism, and God swept away that church and all that belonged to it, and there is nothing now left but a few fishermen's huts; and the church at Sardis fell into Pharisaism, and there does not now exist any town or signs of a dwelling; and the Laodicean church fell into Pharisaism and forsook the Church of the living God; they were rich and had need of nothing, and in Laodicea, while there are some ruins still there are no sign of a town. But the church of Pergamos and Thyatira, though they fell into some of these outward and gross wrongs, it is a remarkable thing that these two places remain to this day; and the two churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia, which the Lord found no fault with, have continued in the most flourishing state to this day, with a population of about twenty thousand of inhabitants, as though these four towns were just holding up their existence till the time shall come when the gospel shall flourish; while we see the church of Sardis, that had a name to live when it was dead, gone from reality to formality, and formality leads to the despising of the gospel altogether. Those places that apostatized are all swept away with the besom of destruction and gone forever. It is an awful thing to be an apostate. May God enable us to hold his truth sacred; that, whatever we may be tormented into, we may never be tormented out of God's truth, and enable us to endure the troubles by the way, that we may come off victorious at last, and bless the grace that rooted and grounded us in God's truth; that, when the “winds blow and the rain descends” we shall not begin to tremble, seeing we are founded upon the Rock of Ages, there to live and there to rejoice for ever and ever.
NOTICE
These Sermons have been regularly published for upwards of twelve years and have attained to a large circulation. The Deacons, therefore, much regret to announce that, owing to the continued illness of Mr. WELLS, this number will be the last for the present. They are, at the same time, happy to be able to announce that Mr. WELLS is recovering, and when again able to resume his labors due notice will be given of the reappearance of their weekly publication.
In AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF
JAMES WELLS,
(surrounded by branches of ivy and laurel, under which is the following inscription)
WHO, HAVING BEEN DELIVERED FROM THE TERRORS OF GOD'S HOLY LAW BY THE POWERFUL APPLICATION, TO HIS SOUL OF THAT PRECIOUS DECLARATION ISAIAH 54, 8, STRAIGHTWAY WENT AND PREACHED IN THE HIGHWAYS THAT GOSPEL WHICH TO HIS OWN SOUL HAD BECOME THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION. IN THE YEAR 1830, BY MEANS OF HIS MINISTRY, THIS CHURCH WAS FORMED, AND FOR 42 YEARS HE WAS PASTOR THEREOF HIS THEME IN LIFE WAS THE MERCY OF JEHOVAH IN AN EVERLASTING COVENANT, ORDERED IN ALL THINGS AND SURE, AND WHICH IN THE SWELLING OF JORDAN BECAME ALL HIS SALVATION AND ALL HIS DESIRE.
HE ENTERED INTO PEACE ON SABBATH AFTERNOON MARCH 10TH, 1872, AGED 69 YOU'ARS
An enriched panel in the base also bears the following inscription:
A DILIGENT STUDENT OF GOD'S WORD,
A FAITHFUL EXPOSITOR OF ITS TEACHINGS, AND AN EARNEST CONTENDER FOR THE DOCTRINES OF SOVEREIGN GRACE, HE STUDIED TO SHOW HIMSELF APPROVED OF GOD. THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY THE SORROWING CHURCH AND CONGREGATION.
The pilasters, architrave, and moldings are all chastely carved with appropriate ornament; the whole tablet is highly polished and rests upon two scroll brackets. The tablet has been executed at a cost of 110 guineas, by Mr. W. T. Hale, sculptor, of 35, Baker street, London, W., who will be happy to supply effective photographs of the same, in three sizes.