creature of a day, though he offended the imm Creator of all. One, for an oath that gave hin worldly profit; another, for a lie that brought hin real advantage; another, for sabbath breaking w gave him even no present happiness, parted with eternal inheritance, everlasting life, the crown of gr and the bliss of heaven, and bought the condemnat of God, the misery of never-ending despair, and torments of hell. O let the sinner talk no more oft worldly interests suffering by religion. Every intere for time and eternity suffers by irreligion; and it on calls for faith in God's word to make us utterly ashame of all such objections.

Another objection commonly made against a practi cal obedience to the word is this-I CANNOT ATTEN TO IT AT THE PRESENT TIME. Just now, I an very busy, I have many other things to think of, and it would be so unseasonable, that I cannot now think of religion a time will come when I may have more leisure. The answer to all the solemn truths heard is, like that of Felix to Paul, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. But you forget that the present is the only season you really have-now is the accepted time. Can you insure a future time? you cannot! Can you be certain that if you neglect your eternal interests now, God will hereafter give you his grace? Oh, no! you forget that if the soul be lost, it is an irremediable loss; there is no future ransom. By nature you will never have any other feeling than your present feeling of procrastination and delay; and if you trifle with God's present message of mercy, under such a pretext, you make his very mercy, the reason for insulting him the more.

it not be just then, if he never sends agaiu to you, ever again gives you the disposition to close with cious invitations? What if the Gospel should never re be sounded in your ears! O if you should never ain be inclined to turn to God, but given up to a rldly heart! Look at the state of mind of one wakened to a sense of his true condition in a dying Dur! What would he not give for your present season repentance and attention to eternal interests! Whatever be your occupations, he would think them all f inexpressibly little importance, compared with the salvation of his soul. How gladly would he part with all those riches, and pleasures, and honours, for the sake of which he neglected his soul, rather than hazard his everlasting welfare! Or, supposing a man to be so stupified, or hardened through sin, as to have no such views, will he be equally indifferent in the day of judgment, or when enduring the wrath of God in endless. ruin? You cannot put off that day; you cannot defer that ruin! Almighty power girds you in; there is no escaping the reach of his omnipotent arm! O think how the recollection of your present indecision, or rather, of your real rejection of the truth, will aggravate the irretrievable woe which you endure to the keenest degree of anguish. Think, patiently and seriously consider, that the loss of the soul is utterly irreparable, and can only be secured in the present moment, while God gives you the season of salvation, and surely you will be roused, and cease to trifle.

But it is again objected, I shall be COUNTED FOOLISH, AND INCUR SOME ODIOUS NAME. Allow this in its fullest extent; but will you be really foolish to escape merely the imputation of folly? The fear of

the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, is understanding. Job xxviii, 28. The world is ready indeed to think that they mainly are guilty of folly who are in earnest in religion. But one would think, when the case was plainly stated, that no one could hesitate in admitting the extreme folly of neglecting our eternal happiness. Men of the world can at once tell the difference in property between a hundred pence to be received and spent in some wasteful pleasure to-day, in the place of an inheritance worth thousands a year, certainly to be received and enjoyed on the morrow, and would count him mad who would grasp at the present pence and part with all his title to the inheritance, which he was the next day to enjoy for a perpetuity. But this folly is incomparably less than that of every worldly man. O that such men were wise, to calculate the difference between the sixty or seventy years of this uncertain and transitory life, and the more than millions, or hundreds of millions of years, that will certainly and abidingly succeed! How great is the folly of sinful man! At death there is nothing that he will not give for his salvation; while during his whole life he hardly ever seriously thinks of it.

He will do nothing, when he wishes to do all, when it What an illusion is here!

he might gain every thing; is too late to do any thing. What an infatuation! Is not this genuine folly? O be not afraid of the reproach then of man. All the servants of God now in glory have endured it. Moses counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Be assured that there is real happiness in being reviled for his name's sake; If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. 1 Pet.

iv, 14. It is a cheering token of our interest in him, and in his eternal reward! *

Others object, I HATE HYPOCRISY; MANY THAT PROFESS RELIGION ARE HYPOCRITES. You do right to hate hypocrisy; our Lord pronounces a woe upon all hypocrites. But what if, in your present state, you yourself are a hypocrite? you profess to be a Christian, and yet live to the world; that is hypocrisy. You profess to think real religion of value, and yet for fear of

It has ever been the custom of those who are too prejudiced, or too ignorant, or too indolent to enter into the real merits of an opinion, to give the person holding it some odious name, and so condemn it without the difficulty of confutation. In this way the Heathen endeavoured to put down Christianity at first; and the remarks of Justin Martyr, in his Apology written in the second century, are very applicable to names now given to Christians in the nineteenth.

"As for our name, which is tantamount to a crime against a Christian, if we are tried upon that article, we must certainly be acquitted as very good men: but as we should deem it unreasonable when convicted of real crimes to plead a bare name only in arrest; so, on the other side, if both with respect to our name and the nature of our polity, we are found altogether innocent, it is at your door to take care, lest by unjustly punishing a people convicted of no evil, you yourselves deservedly smart for such injustice. Praise and punishment, then, cannot with reason be charged on a mere name, unless there be actions good or bad to justify the charge. But it is very notorious that when any of your own religion are brought to trial, you never punish them before you convict them; but when a Christian is indicted, you snatch at the shadow of his name for a substantial crime; whereas would you give yourselves leave to consider that name, you would find it more becoming to animadvert upon the accusers than the accused; for we are indicted by the name of Christians, but now xensos is a word for kind, or good, and such a word cannot be a just foundation for hatred. Again, if any of the accused retract the name of Christian, you take him presently at his word, and acquit him as having nothing more criminal to charge against him; but he who has the courage to stick to the profession of his name, is certain to suffer for so doing; when the life of the professor and the non-professor both ought to be the subject of your enquiry, that the merits of both might be manifested by their actions."

the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, is understanding. Job xxviii, 28. The world is ready indeed to think that they mainly are guilty of folly who are in earnest in religion. But one would think, when the case was plainly stated, that no one could hesitate in admitting the extreme folly of neglecting our eternal happiness. Men of the world can at once tell the difference in property between a hundred pence to be received and spent in some wasteful pleasure to-day, in the place of an inheritance worth thousands a year, certainly to be received and enjoyed on the morrow, and would count him mad who would grasp at the present pence and part with all his title to the inheritance, which he was the next day to enjoy for a perpetuity. But this folly is incomparably less than that of every worldly man. O that such men were wise, to calculate the difference between the sixty or seventy years of this uncertain and transitory life, and the more than millions, or hundreds of millions of years, that will certainly and abidingly succeed! How great is the folly of sinful man! At death there is nothing that he will not give for his salvation; while during his whole life he hardly ever seriously thinks of it. He will do nothing, when he might gain every thing; he wishes to do all, when it is too late to do any thing. What an illusion is here! What an infatuation! Is not this genuine folly? O be not afraid of the reproach then of man. All the servants of God now in glory have endured it. Moses counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Be assured that there is real happiness in being reviled for his name's sake; If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. 1 Pet.