long resistance to the holy spirit has, in many sad instances, made repentance impossible. At all times, a death-bed repentance is hazardous and liable to fearful sus

picion. Behold, now is the appointed time! Behold! now is the day of salvation!" Let each therefore examine himself; if he is not awake to the danger of sin, is thoughtless respecting the fate of his immortal soul, indifferent to true religion, we invite him not to the table of the Lord, we rather beseech, and had we the power, would compel him, for his own sake, to pause before he there insults his Saviour, and hardens himself in his impenitence; but in the same breath we cry "repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out!"

Does

he feel that he is a sinner, and that sin is a burthen from which he would gladly be made free; does he desire to know Christ that he may find pardon in his blood; is he ready to follow him whithersoever he goeth," but laments that "when he would do good, evil is present with him?" No reason can exist why such an one should be

Romans, vii. 21.

kept back from that heavenly feast which our blessed Lord has spread so bountifully for needy and fainting souls. One thing only can unfit the weakest and the unworthiest; and that, unchanged, is the soul's eternal destruction—“ an evil heart of unbelief." Not that weakness of faith to which, especially at the outset of his race, every Christian may be subject; not that weight of besetting sin which may long clog and hinder the obedience of a returning sinner; but, a refusal to seek the Lord while he may be found; a determination to enjoy the pleasures of sin, though but for a season; this indeed unfits men for the supper of the Lord; but this unfits them for that eternal feast, to which the righteous shall be called when he comes to his kingdom. Return then, all who have deserted Christ for the God of this world, return" to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls!" Behold the table which he has spread for you in this wilderness of sin and error, and there, con stantly renewing your vows of sincere obedience, seek earnestly the strengthening and refreshing of your immortal spirits!

SERMON XX.

THE GAIN OF DEATH.

PHILIPPIANS, xx. 21.

To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

THE judgment which God pronounced against man, in case of disobedience, was expressed in this fearful sentence, "thou shalt surely die!" and from the hour when the curse fell, it has kept its bitterness; from that hour, to man unjustified and unsanctified, death has been felt to be indeed a king of terrors. Heathens who were capable of reflecting upon a future state, and looked forward to an eternal existence, showed plainly their apprehensions of death by the numerous methods which they took

• Genesis, ii. 17.

to disguise, to drown, or to put to flight, this natural and universal dread. To despise death was always held up as the height of wisdom or bravery; a satisfactory proof, however mistaken the notion, that there was in death something so terrible, that the wisest and bravest could scarcely meet it with cheerfulness. If many of them put themselves voluntarily to death, it was to escape a certain evil greater than the instant loss of life appeared to their ignorance and uncertainty; generally because death in a worse shape hung over them, one which disgrace or the cruelty of enemies would make doubly bitter. With no assurance that holiness, temperance, and charity, would be rewarded by eternal happiness; no knowledge of a heaven wherein to lay up their treasures, rich men sought all their happiness in the things of this world. Expecting no pleasures beyond the grave, the wisest course, as they conceived, was to enjoy themselves to the utmost, while life and prosperity permitted it; and when that day arrived which neither wealth nor wisdom could put off, to face it with as

much fortitude or patience as they could summon. In such circumstances, and with such a prospect before them, it may well be believed that enjoyment upon earth was too precious to be refused, though sin might be the provider. Every thing which could afford delight was sought, at whatever expence; but all was poisoned by the thought, which in the midst of luxury and pleasure, lay upon their souls like the nightmare; the thought that an enemy, slow perhaps, but unavoidable and unrelenting, was ever at their heels, gaining upon them closer and closer still, at some time or another to drag them from all they knew of sweet and pleasureable, to a gloomy hopelessness at best, if not to eternal wretchedness; for the fires of hell glimmered through the darkness of their understanding, though it shut out not only hope but ideas of heaven. The poor were, if possible, in a state still more deplorable; their expectation of the future was even less cheering; for they were taught to believe in the most unpromising fables, while in the higher classes some few, by the exercise of improved powers of mind,