OS SUSD:iT AKD TIIURSD,%P EVENIXGS, AT TIIE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, DY 6. .s N. ---e--- %mbon : PASSXORE ASD ALBEASTER, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. ADVERTISEUEETT. L THE Pastor of the Metropoiitan Tabernacle lives so much on his watch-tower, and is so constantly on the look-out for souls in imminent danger, or in absolute distress, that our special set of volumes, selected from his Sunday evening and Thursday evening sermons, must appear iiicomplote without such a series of flaring beacons and shrill varnings as we have here entitled ‘‘ STORM SIGNALS.” We have therefore issued it as a sequel to “TYPES AXD EMBLEMS,”(I TRUMPETCALLS TO CHRISTIAN ENERGY,”and I‘ THE PRESENTTRUTH,’‘ each and all of which have found vide acceptance with the Christian public. That this volume, like those, may be blessed of Him who is the Fountain of all blessings is the sincere prayer of THE PUBLISHERS. " The word of the Lord came unto me, sasng, Eon of man, I have made thee a wak,tChman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, an8 give them wsning from me." EZFXBI, iii. 16, 17. CONTENTS. I’LGE ! Spared ...... ... ... ... ... ... 1 Startling ! ......... ... ... ... ... ... 1; Lovely, but Lacking ...... ... ... ... ... ... 37 A Grave Charge ...... ... ... ... ... ... 65 Woes to Come ! ...... ... ... ... ... ... 68 The Sinner’s Only Alternative ... ... ... ... ... 81 A Jeremiad ......... ... ... ... ... ... 102 Ho I EIo! ......... ... ... ... ... ... 118 A Caution for Sin-sick Souls ... ... ... ... ... 134 Contrition ......... ... ... ... ... ... 153 The Battle of Life ...... ... ... ... ... ... 173 Attention! ......... ... ... ... ... ... 193 Perilous Procrastination ... ... ... ... ... 216 A Soul-Stirring Meditation ... ... ... ... ... ... 234 The Wendcring Bird ...... ... ... ... ... ... 249 Tlic Strait Gate ...... ... ... ... I.. ... 270 Cries of Distress ..... ... ... ... ... ... 287 A Firebrand ......... ... ... ... ... ... 305 To the Iicscuc ......... ... ... ... ... ... 323 Tlic Lions’ Dcn ...... ... ... ... ... ... 338 “ I was left.”-Ezekiel k. 8. HE vision of Ezekiel, which is recorded in the previous chapter, brought to light the abominations of the house of Judah. The vision which follows in this chapter shows the terrible retribution that the Lord God brought upon the guilty nation, beginning at Jernsalem He beheld the slaughteimen come forth mith their weapons, he marked them begin the destroying mork at the gate of the Temple, he saw them proceed through the main streets, and not omit a single lane; they slew utterly all those who mere not marked with the mark of the writer’s inkhorn on their brow. He stood alone -that Prophet of the Lord-himself spared in the midst of universal carnage; and as the carcases fell at his feet, and the bodies stained vith gore lay all around him, he said, “I mas left.” He stood alive amongst the dead, because he was found faithful among the faithless; he suixiyed in the midst of universal destruction, because he had served his God in the midst of universal depravity. 1 2 &opm Sigizals. We shall now take the sentence apart altogether from Ezekiel’s sision, and appropriate it to ourselves, and I think when me read it orer and repeat it, (‘1 was left,” it Fre~-naturallyint-iteeus to take a retlqospect of the past, very readily also it suggests a pvospecct of the future, and, I think, it permits also a terrible con- trast in reserve for the impenitent. I. First of all, then, my brethren, tFe haye here a pathetic reflection, which seem to invite us to take si solemn retrospect-<‘ I mas left.” You remember, many of you, times of sickness, den cholera was in your streets. You may forget that season of pestilence, but I never can; when the duties of my pastorate called me continually to walk among you terror-stricken households, and to see the dying and the dead. Im- pressed upoii my young heart must ever remain some of those sad scenes I witnessed when I first came to this metropolis, and mas rather employed at that time to bury the dead than to bless the lising. Some of you have passed through not only one seas011 of cholera but many, and you have been present, too, perhaps, in climates where fever has prostrated its hundreds, and where the plague and other dire diseases have emptied out their quivers, and every arrow has found its mark in the heart of some one of your companions. Yet you hwe been left. You walked among the graves, but you did not stumble into them. Fierce and fatal mala- dies lurked in your path, but they mere not allowed to devour you. The bullets of death whistled by your ears, and yet you stood alive, for his bullet had no bilIet for you heart. You can look back, some of you, through fifty, sixty, seventy years. Your bald and Spared 1 3 grey heads tell tlic story that you are no more raw re- cruits in the warfare of life. You have becomeveterans, if not invalids, in tlic army. You are ready to retire, to put off your annour, and give place to others. Look back, brethren, I say, you who have come into the sear and yellow- leak' j remember the many seasons in which you have sccii clcntli 1i:diiig multitudes about you ; aid think--" I was lcft." And 'cvc, too, mho are younger, in whose veins our blood still lcnps in vigonr, can remember times of peril, wlicii thousands fell about us, yet wc can say in Gocl's liousc with great emphasis, '( I 'vv'as 1cft"- l)rcservcil, grcat CXotl, ~vlieninany otlicrs pcrishcil ; six- tniiicd, stdiiig oil Llio rock of lifc when tlic W~VCSof dent,li clnshed. :djoiit ine, tlic spray fell heavy ~ipoliinc, and my botly vas s:~tiir:~tcdwith cliscasc and pin, yet nin I still alive-pcrniii tail still to minglc with tho busy tribes of MCL Now, tlmi, vhnt (loci;such a retrospect ns this suggest? Ought we not c:di one of us to ask thc question, What was I sparccl for? Why 'vvas I loft? Many of you wcrc at that time, :uid some of you evcn now are dead in trcspnsscs aid sins ! Yon wore not spared becnusc of your frniifnlncw, fur you brought forth nothing but tlic gral?cs OF Qomormh. Ccrtniiily God did not stay his sword bccnusc of niiythiiig good in you. A inulti- tude of clnmorous cvils in your disposition if not in your conclnct might wcll liavc clemaiidcd your summary csccution. Yon wcre spnrcd. Let me ask YOU why T Was it that mcwy might yet visit you-that gracc might yct rc'nc~vyour soul? XImo you found it so? IIas sovcrcigii gracc overcome you, Lrokcn clown your prejudices, tliawccl your icy heart, brolccn your stony 9 Stom Sigtials. dlin pieces ? Say, sinner, in looking back up011 the times when you hat-e been left, were you spared in order that you might be sadvith a great salvation? And if you cannot say “Yes” to that question, let me ask you whether it may not be so yet? Soul, why has God spared you so long, v-hile you are yet his enemy, a stranger to him, and far off from him by wicked works? Or, on the contrary, has he spared you-I tremble at the bare mention of the possibility-has he prolonged your days to develop yo~wpropensities, that you may grow riper for damnation-that you may fill up your measure of crying iniquity) and then go down to the pit a sinner seared and dry, like wood that is ready for the fire? Can it be so? Shall these spared moments be spoiled by misdenieaiiours, or shall they be $yen up to repentance and to prayer? Will you now, ere the last of yo~wsins shall set in everlasting dark- ness, vi11 you now look unto him? If so, you will have reason to bless God through all eternity that you were left, because you mere left that yon might yet seek and might yet find him who is the Saviour of sinners. Do I speak to many of you who are Christians-and you, too, have been left. When better saints than you were snatched away from earthly ties and creature Bin- dred-when brighter stars than you were enclouded iii night, were yon permitted still to shine with your poor flickering ray? Why was it, great God? Why am I now left? Let me ask myself that question. In sparing me so long, my Lord, hast thou not something more for me to do? Is there not some purpose as yet unconceived in my soul which thou wilt yet suggest to me, and to carry out which thou wilt yet give me grace and strength, Spared .f 5 and spare me again a litt,le while? Am I yet immortal, or shielded at least from every arrow of death, because my work is incomplete ? Is the tale of my years pro- longed because the full tale of the bricks hath not yet been made up? Then show me what thou wouldst have me do? Since thus I have been left, help me to feel myself a specially-consecrted inan, left for a pur- pose, reserved for some end, else I had been worms’- meat years ago, and my body had crumbled back to its mother earth. Christian, I say, always be asking your- self this question ; but especially be asking it when you are preserved in times of more than ordinary sickness and mortality. If I am left, why am I left? Why am I not taken home to heaven? Why do I not enter into my rest ? Grcat Lord and Master, show me what thou woaldst havc me do, and give me grace and strength to do it. Let us change the retrospect for a momciit, and ldi upon the sparing mercy of God in another light.