your fortune: you are getting money. True: but money is not your ultimate end. The treasuring up gold and silver, for its own sake, all men own, is as foolish and absurd, as grossly unreasonable, as the treasuring up spiders, or the wings of butterflies. You consider this but as a means to some further end. And what is that? Why, the enjoying yourself, the being at ease, the taking your pleasure, the living like a gentleman. That is plainly, either the whole, or some part of the happiness above described. Supposing then your end to be actually attained, suppose you have your wish, before you drop into eternity: go and sit down with Thleeanowhee and his companions on the river side. After you have toiled for fifty years, you are just as happy as they.

45. Are you, can you, or any reasonable man, be satisfied with this? You are not. It is not possible you should. But what else can you do? You would have something better to employ your time; but you know not where to find it upon earth. And indeed it is obvious, that the Earth, as it is now constituted, even with the help of all European arts, does not find sufficient employment, to take up half the waking hours of half its inhabitants! What then can yon do? How can you employ the time that lies so heavy upon your hands? This very thing which you

seek, declare we unto you. The thing you want, is the religion we preach. That alone leaves no time upon our hands. It fills up all the blank spaces of life. It exactly takes up all the time we have to spare, be it more or less: so that "he that hath much, hath nothing over, and he that has little, has no lack."

46. Once more. Can you (or any man of reason) think, you were made for the life you now lead? You cannot possibly think so; at least, not till you tread the Bible under foot. The oracles of God bear thee witness in every page, (and thine own heart agreeth thereto,) that thou wast made in the Image of God, an incorruptible picture of the God of glory. And what art thou even in thy present state? An everlasting spirit, going to God. For what end then did he create thee, but to dwell with him above this perish

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able world, to know him, to love him, to do his will, to enjoy him for ever and ever! O look more deeply into thyself! and into that Scripture, which thou professest to receive as the the word of God, as right concerning all things. There thou wilt find a nobler, happier state described, than it ever yet entered into thy heart to conceive. But God hath now revealed it to all those who "rejoice evermore, and pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks, and "do his will on earth as it is done in heaven." For this thou wast made. Hereunto also thou art called. be not disobedient unto the heavenly calling! At least, be not angry with those who would fain bring thee to be a living witness of that religion, "whose ways are" indeed ways of pleasantness, and all her paths, peace.'

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47. Do you say in your heart, "I know all this already? I am not barely a man of reason. I am a religious man: for I not only avoid evil and do good, but use all the means of grace. I am constantly at church, and at the sacrament too. I say my prayers every day. I read many good books. I fast every Thirtieth of January and Good Friday.” Do you indeed? Do you do all this? This you may do: You may go thus far, and yet have no religion at all; no such religion as avails before God. Nay, much farther than this, than you have ever gone yet, or so much as thought of going. For you may "give all your goods to feed the poor," yea, "your body to be burned, and yet" very possibly, if St. Paul be a judge, “have no charity," no true religion.

now,

48. This religion, which alone is of value before God, is the very thing you want. You want (and in wanting this, you want all) the religion of love. You do not love your neighbour as yourself, no more than you love God with all your heart. Ask your own heart if it be not so? It is plain you do not love God. If you did, you would be happy in him. But you know you are not happy. Your formal religion no more makes you happy, than your neighbour's gay religion does him. O how much have you suffered for want of plain dealing! Can you now bear to

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hear the naked truth? You have the form of Godliness, but not the power. You are a mere whited wall. Before the Lord your God I ask you, Are you not? Too sure. For your "inward parts are very wickedness." You love "the creature more than the Creator." You are "a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God." A lover of God! You do not love God at all, no more than you love a stone. You love the world; therefore "the love of the Father is not in you."

49. You are on the brink of the pit, ready to be plunged into everlasting perdition. Indeed you have a zeal for God; but not according to knowledge. O how terribly have you been deceived! Posting to hell, and fancying it was heaven. See at length that outward religion without inward, is nothing; is far worse than nothing, being indeed no other than a solemn mockery of God. And inward religion you have not. You have not the faith that worketh by love. Your faith (so called) is no living, saving principle. It is not the Apostle's faith, "the substance" (or subsistence) "of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." So far from it, that this faith is the very thing which you call enthusiasm. You are not content with being without it, unless you blaspheme it too. You even revile that life which is hid with Christ in God; all seeing, tasting, hearing, feeling God. These things are foolishness unto you. marvel; "for they are spiritually discerned."

No

50. Oh! no longer shut your eyes against the light. Know you have a name that you live, but are dead. Your soul is utterly dead in sin; dead in pride, in vanity, in self-will, in sensuality, in love of the world. You are utterly dead to God. There is no intercourse between your soul and God. "You have neither seen him," (by faith, as our Lord witnessed against them of old time,) "nor heard his voice at any time." You have no spiritual "senses exercised to discern spiritual good and evil." You are angry at infidels, and are all the while as mere an infidel before God as they. You have " eyes that see not, and ears that hear not." You have a callous, unfeeling heart.

51. Bear with me a little longer: my soul is distressed for you. "The god of this world hath blinded your eyes," and you are "seeking death in the error of your life." Because you do not commit gross sin, because you give alms, and go to the Church and Sacrament, you imagine that you are serving God; yet in very deed you are serving the devil. For you are doing still your own will, not the will of God your Saviour. You are pleasing yourself in all you do. Pride, vanity, and self-will, (the genuine fruits of an earthly, sensual, devilish heart,) pollute all your words and actions. You are in darkness, in the shadow of death. Oh! that God would say to you in thunder, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

52. But, blessed be God! He hath not yet left himself without witness!

"All are not lost! There be, who faith prefer,

Though few, and piety to God!"

Who know the power of faith, and are no strangers to that inward, vital religion, the mind that was in Christ, “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Of you who have "tasted the good word of God, and the power of the world to come," we would be glad to learn, if we have erred from the faith, or walked contrary to the truth as it is in Jesus. "Let the righteous smite me friendly, and reprove me;" if haply that which is amiss may be done away, and what is wanting supplied, till we all come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

53. Perhaps the first thing that now occurs to your mind, relates to the doctrine which we teach. You have heard, that we say, "Men may live without sin." And have you not heard, that the Scripture says the same? (we mean without committing sin.) Does not St. Paul say plainly, that those who believe, do not continue in sin ?—That they cannot "live any longer therein?" Rom. vi. 1, 2. Does not St. Peter say, "He that suffereth in the flesh, hath ceased from sin ?---that he no longer should live---to the desires of men, but to the will of God," 1 Pet. iv. 1, 2. And

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does not St. John say most expressly, "He that committeth sin is of the devil :---For this purpose the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil? Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot commit sin, because he is born of God," 1 John iii. 8, &c. And again, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not," ch. v. 18.

54. You see then, it is not we that say this, but the Lord. These are not our words but his. And who is he that replieth against God? Who is able to make God a liar? Surely he will be justified in his saying, and clear when he is judged! Can you deny it? Have you not often felt a secret check, when you were contradicting this great truth? And how often have you wished for what you were taught to deny? Nay, can you help wishing for it at this moment? Do you not now earnestly desire to cease from sin? To commit it no more? Does not your soul pant after this glorious liberty of the sons of God? And what strong reason have you to expect it? Have you not had a foretaste of it already? Do you not remember the time when God first lifted up the light of his countenance upon you? Can it ever be forgotten? The day when the candle of the Lord first shone upon your head?

"Butter and honey did you eat,
And lifted up on high,

You saw the clouds beneath your feet,

And rode upon the sky.

Far, far above all earthly things,

Triumphantly you rode;

You soar'd to heaven on eagles' wings,

And found, and talk'd with God.".

You then had power not to commit sin. You found the Apostle's words strictly true," he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." But those whom you took to be experienced Christians, telling you, "This was only the time of your espousals: this could not last always; you must come down from the