heaven to obtain. Have you never thought, that there is a God before whom you must shortly stand, and to whom you must give an account?

Do

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you imagine that truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness, ignorance and knowledge, reverence and blasphemy, are the same to him? and that no distinctions are to be made between right and wrong; between him that serveth' God and him that serveth him not? Be not deceived; God is not to be mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The wicked shall not stand in his sight, for with such he is angry every day. But you may be ready to acknowledge your belief in a God, and even in his Son Jesus Christ as the Saviour; but think it unnecessary, till the day of sickness or the time of old age arrive, to commence a life of devotedness to him. But do you not know that the older you grow in sin, the more hardened you are likely to be in it? and is it not a most melancholy fact, that, among all the conversions recorded in scripture, there is not one of a sinner who professedly delayed his repentance? O consider, then, what a fatal delusion this is, and how likely you are, by thus procrastinating, to drop into the grave with all the guilt and curse of sin lying heavy upon you. You do not think neither what inconsistency and ingratitude mark your conduct. After you have spent your youth, the best of your time, the flower of your talents, the days of health, and the seasons of activity and usefulness, in the service of the world and of sin; then, when you can pursue them no longer, when necessity drags you from them, when you cannot taste the joys of folly as you have done; then, when decrepitude and old age steal upon you, and the days

arrive in which you say you have no pleasure in them; then God, your almighty protector and best friend, may have your services. And what, alas! are these? What are the services of a poor wretched old sinner, whose body and health have been worn out in the work and drudgery of Satan; whose faculties have been decayed in the slavery of the world; whose vigour and life, whose strength and talents, have all been spent in the toils of vanity and human concerns? O miserable man! Is this thy kindness to thy Friend? Is this reason? Is this gratitude? Is this obedience? O pray that the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee; that thou mayest no longer stand at a distance from Him, who alone can make thee happy, in this world and that which is to come. No longer trifle, therefore, with thine immortal part. Hasten to that fountain which is open for sin and uncleanness. Look up to the God of grace to give thee that repentance which needeth not to be repented of. Behold his word waits to instruct thee, his house to receive thee, his people to give thee the right hand of fellowship. Behold the God of grace willing to pardon, the Saviour of sinners looking with pity, the Spirit of all truth ready to guide thee in the way thou shouldest go. Behold the innumerable monitors rising up, and calling thee. The voice of truth, of conscience, of example, of creation, of providence, of mercy, of affliction, and of the gospel, all saying, Come, for all things are now ready. O God, may their voice be heard, prejudice be removed, sin pardoned, the heart changed, and grace triumph in the conversion of sinners to thyself! Amen.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE substance of the following Treatise was delivered in several Lectures by the Author to his own Congregation, and is at their request now made public. Instead, however, of printing it in the form of Sermons, I have thought it more advisable to divide it into Chapters. Some alterations and additions are made, but which, I hope, will not render it the less acceptable. That it may be attended with a Divine Blessing in the perusal, is the fervent prayer of the Author.

C. B.