its frowns: "The prince of darkness" will endeavor "as a roaring lion," to affright, and discourage, and drive to despair, or as a subtle serpent, to deceive and draw aside from the paths of righteousness. "We wrestle not only with flesh and blood, but with principalities, and powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, and with spiritual wickedness in high places." He who turns his face towards Zion, and expects his "soul for a prey." must conflict with opposition on the right hand and on the left. "The kingdom of heaven" is thus represented as "suffering violence, and the violent as taking it by force." When, therefore, we realize the infinitely great work to be done, and the many obstacles to be surmounted, how inexcusable do indolence and indifference appear? Are we not commanded" to pray without ceasing; to strive or wrestle," or agonize, "that we may enter in at the strait gate? To work out our salvation with fear and trembling? To give all diligence to make our calling and election sure? to gird up the loins of your mind as a man running a race," where the utmost exertion is required, will bind his garment around him; "to be sober, and hope unto the end for the grace which is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ?"

3. To indulge this security appears inexcuseable in the extreme, when we reflect that our "day of salvation" is short, and must soon terminate for ever. In this world we

are merely travelling to another world; we are daily passing along to an unchanging state of existence, and it is only in the present life that preparation can be made for the next. If we neglect the Lord Jesus Christ, "there is no other sacrifice for sin ;" if we misimprove the opportunities now enjoyed we need not expect any further dispensation of mercy. "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whether we are going." As the condition of every man is found at death, it will remain through eternity without the possibility of change. There is no remission of sin beyoud the grave: The message of reconciliation is never heard in hell. Once damned the sinner is damned irrecoverably. How explicitly does the Holy Ghost mention "an accepted time, and a day of salvation?" How pointedly does he admonish us "to seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon him while he is near? To hear, and give ear, and give glory to the Lord our God, before he cause darkness, and before our feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while we look for light he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness? To seek righteousness, to seek peace before the day pass as the chaff; before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon us; before the day of the Lord's anger come upon us?" Are not these considerations sufficient to startle the sinner from his security, and excite him

to the most diligent "redemption of his time?" The man who would remain at ease when he knew that the house was in flames around him would be pronounced infatuated, and inexcusable: The man who would offer deliberately to compose himself for sleep on the verge of some fathomless gulph would be pronounced infatuated, and inexcusable: The criminal, lying under sentence of death, who had the assurance of pardon by asking it within a limited time, and yet wasted that time in indolence, or amusements would be pronounced infatuated, and inexcusable; but incomparably more infatuated, more inexcusable art thou, O man, who doest remain unconcerned about thine immortal destinies. Is the situation of the persons alluded to dreadful, thine is infinitely more so. It is not the displeasure of a mortal to which thou art exposed, but the wrath of almighty God. It is not merely the loss of thy natural life to which thou art liable, but the loss of both soul and body, their utter exclusion from God the source of glory and bliss. It is not the torture of a few moments which thou art in danger of suffering, but torments "for ever. They shall be punished with EVERLASTING destruction." The ETERNITY of its torments is the very essence of hell. It throws a deeper shade over the region of damnation, that there reigns the blackness of darknes FOR EVER. Amidst apprehensions thus awful "how long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when

wilt thou awake out of thy sleep?" I have not language to express my astonishment at the stupidity, the madness of men in sporting with their everlasting interests: I am often amazed at myself that I can reflect on the sinners danger, on the value of his soul, on the plenitude of that happiness which he despises, on the horrors of that hell to which he is hastening; that I can speak to him, or write to him with such indifference; I am often amazed that I can indulge a moment's ease, until I have aimed at plucking every thoughtless acquaintance, or neighbor "as a brand out of the burning." The Lord God of gods awake from his sloth every reader of these pages, lest "he sleep the sleep of death" eternal.

This doctrine may with propriety be applied both to sinners and saints. To the former permit me again to repeat the expostulation," "how long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard, when wilt thou awake out of thy sleep?" Is not the time past of your life sufficient to have wasted in trifling, unprofitable pursuits; "laboring in vain and spending your strength for naught, and in vain?" How many weeks, and inonths, and years of a short, uncertain life are already gone, and charged to your account in the records of heaven? Who knows but a righteous God, grieved and provoked with your impieties, may be now asking "why should they be stricken," or admonished, or entreated "any more?" He may perhaps be chal

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lenging the holy angels to attend, and witness the rectitude of his conduct in your immediate destruction, "what could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done to it: Behold! these three," or six, or twelve, or twenty years I have come seeking fruit on this, or" the other tree, "and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" I appeal to your own consciences whether this accusation might not in justice be brought against some of you. Ye who are parents and masters, must not some of you acknowledge that your families are no less strangers to prayer and praise, and the other duties of religion this year, than they were three, or six, or twelve years ago? I would carry my appeal to the hearts of the young, and ask, are not some of you as thoughtless about God your Creator, your kind Benefactor, your constant witness, your impartial Judge about Jesus the friend of sinners, the Saviour of the world, the only "Mediator between God and man;" about the Holy Ghost without whose sanctifying, sealing influence you cannot see the kingdom of heaven; are you not as inattentive to prayer, to the word of God, to self-examination now, as you were months or years ago? Remember, ye who continue thus unfruitful under all the means of cultivation, that nothing but the sovereign mercy of God keeps you out of hell; nothing but sovereign mercy restrains him from completing your perdition by cutting