There is no suffering like that which has its source in the mind. All suffering has its seat there. But some has its source there. The pain of sensation is not to be spoken of in comparison of the pain of reflection. Nothing hath such an edge, nothing such a point as thought, memory, consciousness, anticipation. There are no feelings of anguish like those which sometimes stand connected with these mental operations. No knife cuts so keen as reflection, no dart pierces so deep, no fire burns so fierce. We are sometimes asked, if in our opinion the punishment of sense constitutes any part of the retribution of the lost, and especially if we suppose there will be the presence and action of material fire on the miserable subjects of perdition. We may answer these questions, by ourselves asking, What if there be no punishment of sense, no action of material fire? What is gained to the mind by that admission? There will be at least the punishment of thought, the action of immaterial fire. There will be the truth, intended by such figures as these,-"snares, fire, brimstone, and an horrible tempest." There will be that to the mind, which fire is to the body-the remembrance of a lost heaven, a neglected soul, a slighted Saviour. And the soul will receive within itself, a restless, corroding something, which will be to it the worm that dieth not. Even here, in this childhood of our existence, and in this world of mercy and hope, it is not unfrequently a man's most impassioned and earnest prayer, that he may be saved from his own thoughts and reflections. In the short space of some twenty, thirty, or fifty years, men often come to dread no being so much as them

selves, and to deprecate no society so much as self-communion, and to fear no reproaches, like those which are whispered from within. And we know to what expedients they often resort to forget, and as it were, escape from themselves. Did you ever think what sort of an eternity must lie before such persons, when the object of their disgust and dread shall be ever near them, under their eye, when all their employment shall be thinking, and the subject themselves; when no opiate can drown reflection, and the maddening inebriation of the mind, will be only such as is consistent with the most vivid impressions of the past, and the clearest perceptions of the future.

When pain of body is suffered, there is refuge and support in the mind; but when the mind. itself is writhing in agony, from the cruel thrust of some thought, the deep piercing of some remembrance, or from that gnawing, called remorse, there is nothing back of the mind. to take refuge in. The Christian from his mental sorrows has a refuge in God. But the sinner has none. The Christian has underneath him the everlasting arms. But the sinner has nothing under him for support. This is what is meant when it is said, “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?" May you never know how insupportable such a spirit is! A soul stung by itself -a soul its own accuser, executioner, and enemy-a soul whose reflections and anticipations are so many envenomed arrows. The accusations and reproaches of all other beings are less to be dreaded, than those you may heap on yourself. It were better that every other

intelligence should be acquainted with your sins, than that they should be known to your conscience; better they should be emblazoned on every other record, yea, written in flowing capitals, and exhibited to the whole universe, than that they should be remembered by yourself.

DELAY.

"I am waiting," says the sinner. For whom does he wait? For God? God is ready for him. Waiting! What folly to wait for one's self to act!

Every sinner being dependant on the aid of the Holy Spirit for a disposition to embrace the Gospel offer; it cannot be safe for him to delay his surrender to Christ, except on this condition, that God agrees to it. If he agrees to a postponement, let it be so. But where has he given his consent? Has he not, on the contrary, threatened most severely all who hesitate?

He is in a sad way, whose income never met his expenses, and whose expenses are daily becoming greater, while his income is daily becoming less. It is just so with every sinner who defers repentance. He is like a man unskilled to swim, who is by every step he takes, going further from the shore, and into water of greater depth, besides becoming every moment more. and more exhausted,-the man plunges on, while ten

thousand voices on the shore, call and conjure him to stop and turn; and that which calls loudest, and conjures most earnestly, is the voice of God: "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth; but that he turn from his wicked way and live."

But it is not every kind

What can exist hereafter, that does not now exist, to give sinners the disposition to repent? What inducement will there be that is not now? Circumstances may indeed change. Adversity may overtake a man. He may be sick-he may be afflicted, and he may feel himself to be drawing near to death, and under these circumstances, he may have some inclination to religion, which he has not now. of inclination to the subject, that will answer the purpose. A man may have a disposition to be saved, yet no disposition to trust in Christ. Now the former without the latter is of no avail. The awakened sinner has some disposition towards religion, yet how long he remains, notwithstanding this, without the willingness to be a Christian; and sometimes dies without it. So sometimes the sinner on his death bed, is exceedingly solicitous about his salvation, and it seems as if there was nothing he would not do to secure it, and yet after all, he is not willing to give his heart to God. Perhaps if any sinner were sure of dying in a day, he would have some disposition towards religion. And yet with this certainty of death before him, he might be as far from the right disposition towards religion as he is now. Every sinner is dependant on God for the disposition that availeth. He never will

have it until God give it to him. Make his circumstances ever so favorable, and still it does not exist. The heart did never originate, and will never originate this disposition. It must come from God; and "He has mercy on whom he will have mercy."

He knows not what he does, who puts off repentance from the certain present, to the uncertain future; or if he knows, he does a deed of daring, which would signalize the most nefarious spirit in the dark dominions of eternal death.

To-morrow exists not but in anticipation. It is but the reflection of time-the shadow of a day, that recedes continually as we advance, till it is lost in eternity. To-day is all of time that we have.

Should any ask, how long a time it will require to make up the mind rationally, deliberately, and fully, to embrace Jesus Christ as the Saviour? I answer, just as long as it takes a drowning man to make up his mind to let go the little twig which he has in his hand, and lay hold on the spar that is thrown out to save him.

Delay is refusal; and refusal is base ingratitude; and ingratitude is full of danger. When men say, we will repent and be reconciled to God by and by, they say we will not repent and be reconciled. All honest purposes of repentance relate to the present time.