until the preventive plan was fallen upon.

Whatever tears parents have to shed, whatever prayers they have to offer, whatever expostulations they have to address, let them do it when their children are comparatively uncorrupted, else it will be too late. How many young men in every city have been ruined by dissipation and profligacy, and how few in the same time have been reclaimed from their vices! And yet how slow are many to favor plans intended to prevent crime and forestall vice.

But why is any greater exertion of power necessary in conversion, than in moving a mountain or making a world? Among the reasons, perhaps this may be one and a principle one, that in the one case there is opposition and resistance, in the other none. In nature there is nothing to rise up against God-in man there is much that does this. There is no spirit of rebellion in any thing upon which God exerts his power, but the will of moral agents. He commands nature and he is obeyed. He commands men and is disobeyed. He said, "Let there be light, and there was light." But of men he says, "I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded-they would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof." "Here is the peculiarity of the sinner's case, that he can and does resist God. Therefore in addition to the power necessary to form his soul aright, there must be power exerted to overcome resistance-a resistance which will suffer the flames of eternal torment rather than yield. Where is the man in this Christian ⚫land, who has not contended against God, and resisted

the Holy Ghost? Perhaps there cannot be found in any of our worshipping assemblies, one unconverted man, but for his positive resistance to the benevolent strivings of God's Spirit. If so, how will the revelation of this fact clear the divine character from any injurious imputation cast upon it by "all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." This doctrine teaches us,

1. How different a thing faith must be from what some esteem it to be; since it is the product of the exceeding greatness of God's power, the result of such an energy as that by which Christ was raised from the dead. You say you believe, but have you ever experienced this power of God upon your soul?

2. How evidently does salvation depend on God. Nothing can effect it but his power, his mighty power, It is possible only with God. In vain you work, unless he work in you to will and to do. But remember why and for what such an exertion of divine power is necessary. It is necessary because of the strength of your reluctance, invincible by any power not omnipotent. It is necessary to make you willing.

3. If with all the working of this mighty power, the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

4. How devotedly should Christians thank God for the exertion of this power on them, and how fervently implore that it may be exerted for others. Why should not we cry unceasingly in this behalf?

5. How unlike others in spirit and conduct should they be on whom the exceeding greatness of God's

power has been exerted; who have been transformed by the renewing of their minds, who have been created anew in Christ Jesus!

6. How vain the purpose and expectation of sinners to repent and turn to God by and by. You will as soon make a world, as mould your souls anew, or change your hearts. How are you going to love that in which you see no beauty, though the splendor of the brightest and broadest day be shed around it? How are you going to change your inclinations, when it is absurd to speak of your having a disposition to change them? How are you going to move your will, when all the motives which can be assembled together, make no impression on it, and when a change in your connexions effects no change whatever in your relations?

Suppose you were on your death bed, and one should say to you, now make a world and you shall be saved, or raise a dead man and you shall be saved, would you do it to save you-would it not be mocking you? But there is no more hope if left to yourself, you will repent and believe when death stares you in the face, than there is that you will perform a resurrection; for we believe "according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead."

7. How deeply and dreadfully depraved the human heart must be, that such a power should be necessary to bring it to repentance, to faith in Christ, and to the exercise of love to God. What manner of persons must we be, that we must be created anew unto good works, before we shall perform any?

8. In view of this subject, how criminal and fatal appears the act of grieving the Holy Spirit of God. It is often done. It is the worst a man can do. Don't you do it. God forbid you should do it. If you are doing it, cease from it. If you have done it, and he is grieved away for ever, nothing need be said. All is lost. But peradventure he may return. Then call upon him; for as there is no other name whereby you may be saved, but the name of Jesus, so there is no other influence but the Spirit's, which will ever bring you to Jesus.

FIXED PURPOSES.

I remember reading of a young man, who, in the course of a few years, squandered a large estate. Reduced to absolute want, he one day wandered out with the design of putting an end to his life. He came to the brow of an eminence which overlooked the estates he had lost. He sat himself down, dropped his head, and remained for some time in fixed deep thought, then suddenly sprung up, and with a vehement exulting emotion, while a gleam of hope irradiated his dark eye, exclaimed, "They shall be mine again." He had made his resolution and formed his plan. He now hastened to execute it. The result in due time was complete success, with an addition of other property.

There was another, who, after long darkness and distress of mind, at length exclaimed, "If there be a God in the universe, I will seek him, and find him, and devote myself to him." That man, (as his life proved,) is now in heaven.

Our salvation does not depend so much on our laying hold, as on our holding on. It is not he that sets out, and for a while runs well, but he that endureth to the end that shall be saved. We might as well not lay hold, as not hold fast. Indeed it is better not to vow, than to vow and not to pay.

LABORS OF LOVE.

There is no labor so certainly effectual and so largely productive, as that which is expended in the work of the Lord.

The love of Christ should constrain you to live unto him, and not merely to speak well of him.

The viciousness of the wretched, so far from exempting us from obligation to supply their urgent necessities, is an additional reason why we should endeavor to do them good, win their confidence, and save their souls.

Let him that hath ingenuity, plan, and him that hath strength, labor, and him that hath money, give, and him that hath none of these, as well as him that hath all of them, bow the knee, and with the faith of Abra