being but a limited period for hearing the word. David says, (Psa. xcv, 7.) To-day, if ye will hear his voice. The Apostle (Heb. iii, 12-14.) lays much stress on this expression, Take heed, lest there be in any of you an en heart of unbelief in departing from the living God: b exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, let any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. for we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the begi ning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; while it said, To-day, if ye will hear his voice. And he after wards again presses this, (chap. iv, ver.7.) Again limited a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after long a time. He tells the Corinthians also, We beseec you, also, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain... Behold, now is the accepted time! Behold, now is ti day of salvation! And so Isaiah says, Seek ye Lord, while he may be found; call ye upon him, while is near. Now if prophets and apostles thus earnest urge us to use the present time, and our Saviour himsel pathetically and deeply sighs over Jerusalem, If the hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace! Surely it must be thing of infinite danger to neglect so great salvation a single day, or a single hour.

th

O the danger of delay and procrastination! It the grand device of Satan to keep our souls from! present attention to our salvation. Most men think of

most needful to your edification; a scriptural denunciation vengeance against your own besetting sin? How know yo but that to the absence of the Christian armour which discourse would have supplied, your fall under recent temp tions is to be attributed? How know you but from the absenc of that armour, temptations, even now impending over your head, will derive their particular strength.”

chap.

in Derid

The grace time!

Isaiah s

being religious at some time or other. Undoubtedly the great multitude of those now in eternal woe once purposed to repent of their sins and turn to God; but they stifled their convictions, deferred the work to another time, and so were lost.

To-day is the whole of time that you can call your own. Attend while you are called; enter in while the door is open, lest it be for ever closed. It is possible that the day of mercy may be ended as to you even before the day of death comes. God sometimes gives up those who have refused to hear, to a hardened heart, even while life continues. Thus Pharaoh was hardened before his death. To-day, then,-forthwith -immediately-while the word is sounding in your ears-while the invitation comes to you-now--now is the accepted time. How know you but that this be the special, the appointed, the only season of grace for you. Now, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. O reader, think of that word, TO-DAY. we be in earnest with you: Satan, and the flesh, and the world, plead hard against Christ, and against you. They all say, TO-MORROW. No! to-morrow will not Begin this very day to There will always

over Jene

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! Surely

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ep our

Most

ptural det sim? How arment

under re

but from t

upendie

do; for God says, TO-DAY.
hear, believe, and obey his voice.

may

Well may

be difficulties. Those difficulties will increase, and not diminish. You never can, you never will, in your whole life, have a more suitable season for breaking through all obstacles, and giving yourself up to God, than the present moment. Behold, says Christ, I stand "at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me. Fear then to lose the divine mercy, divine patience, by inexcusable

⚫and

weary the

presumption. Fear to provoke the divine wrath and pleasure. To defer reconciliation to God to any fue period, is the most reprehensible and ruinous folly. supposes that God will indulge us with the allowa of sensual and sinful appetites, and cause his mercy wait till we have executed our iniquitous purposes. shews that we do in our hearts prefer Satan to Chr sin to holiness, and earth to heaven. And can we se ously think that God will be thus mocked? No; deceive only ourselves; we fill up thus the measure sin to our ruin.

To-day, then, God calls you; to-day he sets bei you the riches of his grace, a free reconciliation, f pardon, the gift of his Spirit, and the sure hope everlasting life. Before you refuse, before you de before you trifle with and neglect so great a salvation think what may be on the morrow. If you reject offer, to-morrow may be too late. God may be sile -his grace may no longer be set before you,--l gospel no more sound in your ears; you may be give up to a hardened heart; you may be doomed to eter perdition. Thus you may be left under the final curs of bitter and unavailing self reproach, and for eve remain in that outer darkness where is weeping and gnashing of teeth. O what an awful description is thei given by our Lord of those who in his day neglected this salvation-This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they hav closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them! May the writer and the reader of these page ever receive from above that power of the Holy Spirit, which may enlighten the eyes of our understanding,

mos, repretesa i

='.. appetites a

Vecuted at Ba

Har bears

cails you; 1-4 grace, a free

Spirit, you refuse,

d neglect s

morrow.

vo late. Got

er be set he

ur ears; y

may be dow

left under reproach, ✔

where i

preserve us from a doom so earnestly to be depreed, so deeply to be deplored! mere reasoning avail?

For, after all, what O blessed Spirit! thou

ne canst convert and edify. It has been most justly
erved, and the author feels that the fault has too
en attached to himself, "Some press to duties, so
t they seem to think, that their reasonings are able to
orce a compliance; or at least they do not take
e to keep up, upon themselves and their hearers,
constant sense of the contrary, in order earnestly to
gage in dependence on the Spirit of the Lord.” ́

O Holy Ghost! into our minds,
Send down thy heavenly light;
Kindle our hearts with fervent zeal,
To serve God day and night.

CHAP. XIV.

Ordination Service.

The Blessed Results of Faithful Hearing.

wful des HE former chapter closed with an affecting descrip

is ware

their on

See

in hisation given by our Lord of the awful state of those who neglected the Gospel: we turn now to a brighter scene. Our Lord, after speaking those awakening words, directly contrasts the state of the wicked with the happiness of his own disciples, receiving his word-But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for

ld underw

and Is

er of the the He

unders

* See Halyburton's Life.

they hear; for verily I say unto you, that many prop and righteous men have desired to see those things we ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those t which ye hear, and have not heard them. They blessed above those around them who disregarded? words of Christ; and above even kings and prop of former ages, who, though they knew Christ, trusted in him as a Saviour to come, had yet paratively very indistinct apprehensions of him, would have rejoiced to have witnessed what Apostles did. The particulars of this blessing In Ce worthy of distinct and full consideration. respects is the faithful hearer blessed?

SOLE

HIS FACULTIES ARE THEN EMPLOYED THE END FOR WHICH THEY WERE GIVEN. various senses and abilities, our sight, our hear our memory, understanding, and affections, bestowed upon us for the glory of God, and our present and eternal good. They are then engaged these ends, and used to the best account, whea are exercised upon discovering and receiving the sac truths of the Gospel. The Gospel alone sets be us that which can fill and satisfy our immortal and when our faculties are employed on other thing without reference to, or concern about, the will of Go all our powers are wasted and squandered away; spend money for that which is not bread, and labour je that which satisfieth not. They are not merely unp fitably expended, but lost in a way that will bring t us future condemnation and final ruin. But let faculties be rightly directed to know and do the will God, and we are so living as he would have us live," will glorify his name, secure his favour, and our ow best happiness.