these things; these things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, do;-and the God of peace shall be with you*."

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Lastly, we pray to be delivered from God's wrath, and from everlasting damnation." When the great day of his wrath is come, it is unquestionable, because revealed, that many shall be unable to stand, who now, in all the presumptuousness of self-sufficiency and folly, think they cannot fall; many will look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn, who now prefer trusting to their own poor worthless merits rather than unto His; many 66 will say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb+;" who are now laying to their souls the flattering unction of impunity, because punishment is deferred, and bidding them take their ease. If we are of that unhappy number, my friends, our agony will be increased by the knowledge that we owe it entirely to our wilful ignorance, and insane infatuation. We shall feel that, if we are lost, it was not for want of a benevolent and almighty Being to seek and to save us; that, if we fail in obtaining life eternal, it is only because we would not come unto Him, that we might have it. His "precious blood," speaking better things than that of Abel, was never yet pleaded in vain by any really-repentant sinner. * Philipp. iv. 8, 9. + Rev. vi. 16.

Christ is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him, and not only able, but willing and anxious to save them. However thoughtless and wicked the prodigal may have been, in wasting what is of far greater value than any earthly substance he could possess,-in wasting and losing the short time which is given him to prepare, and in wasting and abusing the spiritual aid which is given to enable him to prepare, for death and judgment; still, if he turn away from the wickedness which he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive; his father will welcome him home, and there is joy in heaven if he repent. Did God say, Why will ye die, O house of Israel? He now says, Why will ye die, O household of Christ? He says to you and to me, to all of us, Why wilt thou die, O Christian? I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth; then turn ye, and live.

And now, in the sense which I have endeavoured to explain to you, and with all the feelings, and views, and resolutions which, on the authority of God's own word, I have humbly, but earnestly, recommended to you, let us now, both minister and people joining successively and heartily in the prayer, address ourselves to the throne of grace, by saying, "From all evil and mischief; from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the devil; from Thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation,Good Lord, deliver us!"

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LECTURE IV.

From all blindness of heart; from pride, vain-glory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all unchari tableness,

Good Lord, deliver us.

CORPORAL blindness, my friends, is a very sad thing. It must be very painful to be unable to see the cheering light of the sun, the richly-diversified beauties of nature, the kindred features of a beloved child, and a thousand other objects which are pleasing to the sight, and inspiring to the heart of man. Our Lord frequently manifested His tenderness, in restoring this delightful faculty to those who had unhappily been deprived of it; and all that the inferior agency of mere human means can do for this purpose is zealously and laudably attempted by the skill and science of our own day. But, after all, what is blindness of the eyes to blindness of the heart? What is the light of the sun compared with the light which is come into the world to lighten us Gentiles? What are the beauties of nature, compared with the beauties of holiness? What is anything that can delight the eye, for a brief space only, in this world, com

pared with the glory that shall be revealed to the eye of God's saints, through all eternity, in heaven? What was the blindness of the converted Saul at Damascus, compared with the spiritual blindness of the unconverted Saul, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" at Jerusalem? Our Lord emphatically described the awfulness of this spiritual blindness, when he said, "If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!" It matters. not whether there be little or much light within us; if what there is be darkness, it is a great and an awful darkness. It matters not whether we have ten talents entrusted to us, or one; we shall be judged according to what we have, not according to what we have not; but, if we abuse what we have, it is an abuse for which we must answer when the Lord comes to take account of his servants.

It is deeply to be lamented that, in this Christian land, where the banner of the cross has been now unfurled nearly eighteen hundred years, there should still be so many to whom not one talent of Gospel truth has yet been committed. Are we, who suffer this, duly employing our talents? It is painful to reflect that, from insufficiency of churches and pastors in populous districts, there are thousands among us, in this nineteenth century, on whom has never shone the brightness of * Acts ix. 1.

Him who was given "for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house." If, instead of bestirring ourselves at once, we suffer this stain to continue upon our land, will not the light that is in us be darkness? And, however clearly we may see, and however zealously endeavour to supply, the spiritual wants of others, let no "blindness of heart The diffusion of the light

con

ceal from us our own. of the Gospel, both at home and abroad, is a duty, an imperative duty, a delightful duty. At the same time, let us never forget the still more pressing duty of diffusing it over our own hearts. This ought we to do, but not to leave the other undone. And yet, how common is this "blindness of heart," even among the most favoured professors, among those who are ever ready to say, with those Pharisees of old,

"We see*.

Were "What wilt thou that

How many might still

the Saviour present to say, I should do unto thee?" say, if they would say, with Bartimous of Jericho, but in a loftier sense, "Lord Jesus, that I may receive my sight." How many, to whom light is come,-who

come, who say, We see, and whose sin therefore remaineth-love darkness rather than light! And why do they love darkness rather than light? It can only be for the reason which our Lord states, because their deeds are evil. They do not examine

* John ix. 41.