When all this is taken into consideration, it should make men more careful than they seem to be, of the time allowed them for learning to be religious. It should teach them, that when they come in the end to aim at improving themselves, and preparing for death, they will find much more to learn than they are in the habit of expecting; that they will find almost as much difficulty in knowing what they ought to do, as in doing it when they know it. Every thing will seem strange and new to them; and they will find themselves bewildered by the difference between what they actually experience, and what they have before imagined to themselves, when going their duty over only in thought. Such will be their situation even in respect of religious knowledge; they will find that even this, if it were all that is necessary to a religious character, would still be enough to occupy the whole time that is given them; and that, begin as early as they may, and live as long as they may, they will always have more to learn than they have time to learn it in.

Here, then, is one, among many reasons, against delaying the time of repentance. By so doing we lose the only opportunity we can possibly have, of learning what true repentance is, and what is the sort of life which God will require of us. May we lay this to heart in time, and resolve to make the best of the days that are allotted to us! And may the Lord, from whom all good things

do come,

grant to us His humble servants, that by His holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by His merciful guiding may perform the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ;-To whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, &c.

SERMON IX.

AFFLICTIONS NECESSARY FOR EARNESTNESS IN

RELIGION.

ROM. V. 3-5.

Knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed."

MOST people who are accustomed to think at all will be likely now and then to have the thought cross them, that their temper of mind and way of living are very different from what they ought to be. Whatever excuses they may make to themselves for their misconduct during the presence of the temptation that urged them to it, and however successful they may generally be in convincing themselves that God will not indeed deal with them by the severe rule which He threatens, there will, in spite of all this, be moments when they feel a misgiving that all is not right, and when they are disposed to resolve on altering the courses which lead to such painful dissatisfaction. This is a feeling which all are likely and even certain now and then

to experience, unless they take one of two means to stifle it, unless they are steadily bent on one of two objects, either to act resolutely and manfully on the highest possible rule, conforming all their thoughts, words, and deeds to the strict commands of conscience; or on the contrary, to rid themselves altogether of its troublesome admonitions, and to follow the bent of their inclinations, wherever they may lead.

Except we take one of these two courses, and pursue it consistently, it is next to impossible but that now and then we should be crossed with the painful feeling, that unless we amend our lives and sacrifice our pleasures, it is impossible we should ever secure to ourselves the favour of God.

Now it is to be hoped that few are so bad as to escape this unsatisfactory feeling in one way, and it is to be feared that there are few indeed who escape it in the other that few are so bad as utterly to have deadened their consciences, and few so good as to have secured uninterrupted peace of mind. The generality of people are between these two states; they know what is wrong much better than they do what is right. And though they sometimes escape the stings of conscience by thoughtlessness and habit, they now and then are brought, as it were, to their senses, and resolve, however feebly, to set about a reformation of character.

Such is the condition of a very large portion of Christians, and, strange to say, it is a condition in

which many are contented to remain all their lives. In spite of all the warnings which God gives them through their conscience, they seem, as far as their moral improvement is concerned, to sleep on in a kind of listlessness without getting much better or much worse, but to all appearance the same in temper and feelings, except so far as the progress of age brings about a natural change in some of their tastes. If we do but look about us, how very few instances do we find of men who seem to have effected any considerable apparent change of character! How few do we see who were once too fond of money, and who afterwards become liberal! How few who have begun by being cowardly, and yet afterwards make themselves brave! How few that began by being indolent, and who afterwards roused themselves, so as to make the most of their time! The same thing is true in almost every point of character; except, indeed, that in some cases the same vice takes a different turn in old men from what it had taken when they were young, or circumstances arise which make it inconvenient to people, in a worldly point of view, to go on indulging pleasures which once were attended by no such inconvenience. These two considerations will account almost entirely for the few cases in which men seem to change as they grow older. They change their outward conduct, but if we may judge from appearances they seldom change or even seriously attempt to change their tempers. The