Lord, choose ye this day whom ye will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods." Thus also the prophet Elijah-"Why halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him." He does not set it before them as if there could possibly be any comparison in the choice, but strongly to express the necessity of a prompt and vigorous determination. Similar to this is the language of the text; our Saviour here expresses his views of the state of the Laodiceans-not that coldness or fervour is equally acceptable, or that coldness is at all acceptable, for reason and revelation concur to assure us that the open and avowed rejection of the Gospel and contempt of religion is a most aggravated wickedness-but he desires to intimate that lukewarmness is also an aggravated wickedness. If his language is susceptible of paraphrase, it would appear to be this: Lukewarm professors, your spiritual state is so bad, that you can hardly change for the worse; I would rather that you were almost any thing than what you now are; you cannot be in a worse situation; for if you were open and notorious profligates, you would be but in danger of hell fire, and as you are lukewarm, you are in danger of the same. far as your eternal interests are concerned, you are in no better condition than the worst enemies which I have, for though you are not professedly my foes, yet you are not decidedly my friends. In short, my brethren, the language of our Saviour, interpreted

So

with its utmost strictness, holds forth precisely the same sentiment which he inculcated so forcibly during his sojourn upon earth. "No man can serve two masters; he will either love the one and hate the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He that is not with me is against me." He that would be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God.

The expression of the text lays an iron hand upon every thing like worldly conformity, and it absolutely crushes into nothing all hopes built on the possibility of a neutral stand in religion. Christ says-you must be one thing or the other, and one thing or the other I wish you to be. If you will be my disciples, be so in truth and sincerity of heart, and with a bold and decided spirit. If you will not be my disciples in this manner, then give up your pretensions; go over to the camp of the enemy; let the world know what you are, so that they may not be deceived. You are not advancing your interests by pretending to be my disciples; all that you are doing is deceiving the world and deceiving yourselves, and pushing on to eternal death. I am not deceived. "I know "I know your works." Make up your mind, then, to be one thing or the other-"I would thou wert cold or hot."

2. I am to consider the expression-"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."

The very nature of this subject, my brethren, will preclude the possibility of my giving it a lengthened consideration; yet the very choice of the terms made by our Lord, should convince of the awful danger of their condition all who are guilty of this sin of lukewarmness. In the whole compass of the English

language, I do not know that a word could have been used more expressive of all that is abhorrent. The figure is taken from the well-known effect of lukewarm water upon the delicate organs of the stomach. It produces nausea, a state of the sensations the most unqualifiedly disagreeable, and that which, from the effect thus produced, is cast from the stomach, is held in indescribable detestation. I have said thus much, my brethren, because I would desire to say the truth with unshrinking fidelity, and I have an earnest desire that you should distinctly understand the condition of the lukewarm. To give force to his denunciation, our Saviour says, that to him they are nauseous, bringing the subject down to a level with our finite understandings; he represents them as exciting in him a feeling of disgust, so much so, that it is impossible for him to tolerate them; he will cast them from him. Search the Scriptures, brethren, and there is not another class of sinners spoken of in such terms of unmingled detestation. The wicked, Christ says, generally, shall be cast into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Unbelievers of every grade shall have their portion in the lake which burneth with fire for ever, where their worm dieth not. Drunkards, and adulterers, and covetous, and blasphemers, and liars, and thieves, and Sabbathbreakers, shall go into everlasting condemnation; but of the lukewarm alone is it found in Scripture, as far as I have ever seen, that they are spoken of in terms of such abhorrence, that the most disgusting figure in all the circle of nature is employed to represent the feeling entertained towards them—“I will spue them out of my mouth." It is one of the

last and most deplorable conditions of sinners: for let a man be placed in any other of the conditions of sin, if he is a persecutor, a blasphemer, and injurious; if he is an infidel, or a criminal, in its worst sense, he may be brought to repentance and the acknowledgment of the truth, and so restored to favour; but the condition of lukewarmness seems to come nearest to utter hopelessness.-" So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."

But perhaps I may hear, is not this a terrible visitation for such a crime? What is there so aggravated in lukewarmness which authorizes such a strong anathema? Brethren, our Lord Jesus Christ, as he never spake without meaning, so he never spake without reason. It was no part of his celestial oratory to use rhetorical flourishes and bold figures for mere embellishment. And this leads me,

3d. To consider the reasons why a lukewarm state of mind and heart justifies such strong expressions of abhorrence.

1. Because lukewarmness, however speciously it may be named or disguised, does in effect deny the paramount importance of all that is vital in religion. It is the remark of one, I mean the celebrated Davies, than whom there never was a more faithful promulgator of the truth as it is in Jesus, without fear and without hesitation-"If there be a God, as religion teaches us, he is the most glorious, the most venerable, the most lovely being; and nothing can be so important to us as his favour, and nothing so terrible as his displeasure. If he be our Maker, our Benefactor, our Lawgiver and Judge, it must be our greatest concern to serve him with all our might. If

Jesus Christ be such a Saviour as our religion represents, and we profess to believe, he demands our warmest love and our most lively services. If eternity, if heaven and hell, and the final judgment, are realities, they are certainly the most august, the most awful, the most important realities; and, in comparison of them, the most weighty concerns of the present life are but trifles, dreams and shadows. If prayer and other religious exercises are our duty, certainly they require all the vigour of our souls, and nothing can be more incongruous than to perform them in a languid, spiritless manner, as if we knew not what we were about. If there be any life within us, these are proper objects to call it forth; if our souls are endowed with active powers, here are objects which demand their utmost exertion. Here we can never be so much in earnest as the case requires." And if we are not in earnest, brethren, believe me, it is because we doubt the paramount importance of religion; and doubt has here the same practical effect as unbelief. It is trifling with religion. Lukewarmness is a kind of vain idea that religion is something in which we cannot heartily concur, and yet which we do not like altogether to lose. Trifle about any thing, but I beseech you trifle not here; be careless and indifferent about the brightest honours this world can afford; be indifferent about health, and life, and all the world, but O! be not careless and indifferent about such immense concerns as these. Has not Christ reason to say of the lukewarm, then, “I will spue thee out of my mouth,” when the careless, indifferent course pursued by many Christians, testifies that they do not consider the vitality of religion a matter of paramount