But what is over and above all this, he enjoys the smiles of God. These lighten his pains and give him joy and peace. Hence sung the weeping poet,

"The chamber, where the good man meets his fate,

Is privileged beyond the common walk

Of virtuous life, quite on the verge of heaven."

On the very dying bed have we heard the triumphant song, "I mount, I fly.” Infidelity may declare all this visionary; but it is none the less a reality. It is what God has promised, what his people expect, what the diseased and the dying have told us they enjoyed, and is no more incredible than the new birth, at which the ruler of the Jews marveled.

Now take from the mass of the ungodly, the sturdiest youth you can name, and let him go to his chamber and grapple with disease and death; and place in the adjoining chamber the man of prayer, in precisely the same distressing attitude; and tell me which shall have the palm. The one shall use all his native mind and muscle, shall brace himself against the paroxysms of disease, and cheer up his spirits, and resist the fear of death, and to the full extent of his power, stay his false hope, and wake up his courage. His brave associates shall come round him, and ply their sophistry to put down his pains, and put out the eye of conscience, and hide hell from him, and God from him, and his own history from him. And no Bible shall be near him, nor pastor near him, nor prayers be offered. He shall have through the whole conflict all the help that earth and hell can give him. The other shall but make use of prayer and faith, shall stay himself upon his Redeemer, and encourage himself in the Lord his God, and cast the anchor of his hope within the veil. Now tell me which of the two will triumph in the storm. Ah! I see the strong ones bow. Ye, that hate the Lord, let me assure you, your champion is foiled in the contest. "Even the youths shall faint."

5. I have thought of several other occasions where the ungodly man and the man of faith will have opportunity to test their prowess in the same conflict, but I will add only one. They must both pass the review of the last Judgment. "We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." And to set any value upon a spirit of enterprise or of daring, that will not carry us through that last scene, is to play the fool. I wish to cultivate the principles that will carry me through.

Now follow, if you please, one of the most daring of unbelievers to the last tribunal. How will he manage there? Can he hide his sins? Can he palliate them, or neutralize them? Can he prove that the law was too severe, or the penalty unjust? Can he offer any eloquent plea why he should be acquitted? Will any angel plead for him? Will the blessed Redecmer be his advocate? Will his courage live and thrive in that conflict? If weighed in the balance, will he not be found wanting? If convicted, will not sentence go forth against him? Will devils be afraid to convey him to the place of torment? Suppose him, if you please, to have weathered every other storm, how will he conflict with "everlasting burnings?" By what daring arguments will he keep hope alive in hell, and resist the

embrace of despair, or put out the "unquenchable fires?" Come, ye that intend to brave it through without grace, that dare to live, and expect to die, without an interest in the Lord Jesus, approach the precincts of the pit, and inquire how your champion fares in this last conflict! Does he stand or fall? Does his courage abide by him? May you venture, or not, to join your destiny with his? Let this point be settled before you venture into your dying chamber without the grace of God.

And how does it fare with the man of faith in the same conflict? He ventures not to come to the judgment-seat alone, supported by any courage which his depraved heart can generate. He comes clothed with a Saviour's righteousness, owns his guilt, and pleads the atoning blood of the Redeemer. When bid, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world ;" his reply is, "When saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?” Then will be heard from the throne of judgment, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." You recollect the amazing result. They who come to that throne in their own name, and hope to stand by their own native prowess, "shall go away into everlasting punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels." Let me say then, fellow-sinner, while you resolve to trust in man, or in any thing short of an omnipotent Saviour, there remains for you" no hope," but "a fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation." If it seem to you, however, that your cause will succeed, you have only to make the trial. Storms will beat upon you: but if you still think your own heart can generate all the prowess you shall need in the conflicts of life, and death, and judgment, then you must try. It is my duty, however, to assure you, even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall

that "

utterly fall."

But, on the other hand, there is "strong consolation" to you who "trust in the Lord." The promise is, that "you shall mount up on wings as eagles, shall run and not be weary, and walk and not faint." Now God will do all that he has said; will succour you as he has promised, will enlighten your darkness, will provide you a retreat in temptation, will cover your head in the day of battle, will give his angels charge concerning you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, till you have trodden the whole desert through, and passed over Jordan, and entered the New Jerusalem, to go no more out for ever.

While, then," the wicked perish at the presence of God,”—while it becomes them to "weep and howl for their miseries that shall come upon them,"-" let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God; yea, let them exceedingly rejoice."

THE SINNER'S IMMINENT DANGER.

MATT. vii. 13.--Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.

Ir is a fact, plainly and frequently stated in the Bible, that all men are divided into two, and only two, classes. There is no third class recognised, consisting of neutral characters, too amiable for the bottomless pit, and yet too unholy for heaven. The one class embraces all who have never been born of God, who neither believe in Christ, nor repent of their sins. The other class embraces all whose hearts are regenerated by the Spirit and the truth of God. In perfect accordance with this fact, we have the assurance that there are two states, and only two, in the world of spirits: a state of happiness for the righteous, and a state of punishment for the wicked. As there are no neutral characters among men, so there is no middle state between the joys of heaven and the agonies of despair.

the

Leading to these two states, in the future world, there are two ways? the one, broad, with an easy, inviting entrance, through a wide gate ; other, narrow, entered only through a strait gate: the one, crowded with vast multitudes who are led on from pleasure to pleasure, from one pursuit to another, without a serious thought respecting the end of their progress; the other, travelled by a few, who are often beset with difficulties and trials; but strengthened by the Comforter, and animated by the blessed assurance, that the way in which they are struggling onward and upward leadeth unto life. While these, under the guidance of the truth and Spirit of God, are safe; what will become of those gay, and busy, and thoughtless multitudes who are in the broad road? Ardent

as they now are in their pursuits, and cheerful as they seem to be, the way in which they are urging forward leadeth to destruction.

Many of you, my friends, are in this broad road; for you do not even profess to have been born again, to be the sincere and humble followers of Christ. And some of you who make this profession may not have scriptural evidence to believe that you are in the narrow way. You are not aware of your danger, and are, therefore, not pursuing that course which a due regard to your future prospects would require. It is the design, therefore, of this discourse, through Divine aid, affectionately to point out YOUR REAL DANGER, AS SINNERS AGAINST GOD.

I. Your danger is GREAT; inconceivably great Every reason which proves that God will punish sinners at all, proves, with equal force and clearness, that this punishment will be in exact proportion to their guilt; and this guilt will be in proportion to the number and aggravation of their crimes. How numberless are your sins! you have sinned in thought, in word, and in deed. Every year, month, day, and hour, from the first moment of your moral agency to the present, you have sinned; you have done nothing but sin. Your daily vocation, your profession has been to commit sin. Every thought, every train of reasoning, every conclusion, every purpose of your understanding; every affection, every desire, every imagination of your heart, has been evil, and only evil, and that continually. Every word which you have uttered has been sinful, You may have spoken the language of kindness to your friends, given useful instruction to your children, salutary advice to your neighbors; but in the sight of God, every word has been sinful. You may hesitate in admitting the truth of this declaration; for it is calculated to produce alarming apprehensions. But you will acknowledge what has come under your own observation; that a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit; that an impure fountain cannot send forth a pure stream, It is equally true, that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. If, then, the heart is not right in the sight of God,—and it is not, unless it is purified by faith, the words flowing from it in succession are all sinful. Your conduct, your daily actions are the result of the desires and affections of the heart, as these are of the thoughts, conclusions, and purposes of the understanding. Hence, every action of life has been sinful. You may have fed the hungry, and clothed your the naked, and attended, with decency, the public worship of God; but we know, from the highest authority, that these same actions, in the pharisees, were sinful. So this part of your conduct, though blameless, and even useful in the sight of men, is criminal in the sight of God, your Judge; because it flows from a sinful and wicked heart; from a carnal mind, which is enmity against God. Before the tribunal of Heaven, therefore, it deserves and can receive nothing but condemnation.

As you have not the spirit of Christ, you are none of his, and nothing spiritually good and holy can belong to you. If your thoughts, words, and actions are not sinful, they must be indifferent, neither good nor bad. But if this could be affirmed of one thought, word, and action, it might of others, and of others again; and thus a whole character might be formed, neither righteous nor wicked, which might go from the judg ment seat neither into happiness nor misery. This, you know, contradicts the plain declarations of Scripture, and especially the decision of Christ himself; he that is not with me, designedly and actively with me, is against me. Indifference, if it were possible, is here judged and condemned as criminal. There is, therefore, no escaping the conclusion, that all your thoughts, words, and actions are sinful.

In

That you may feel how far the number of your crimes exceeds comprehension, take a single day; consider the vast multitude of thoughts, feelings, words, and actions of this one day; every one of which, as some of you have been taught in childhood, "deserves God's wrath and curse both in this life and that which is to come." this manner you have added day to day, till you have filled up a week; and then week to week, till you have reached a month; and then month to month, till you have completed a year! At the close of that day, under what danger did you give your eyes to sleep! At the close of the week, it was seven times greater; at the close of the month it was thirty times greater; at the close of the year, it was more than three hundred and sixty times greater! Multiply the sins and the danger of that one day by the number of days you have lived in this manner, and how amazing the danger to which you are, at this moment, exposed! Surely none but God, against whom you have sinned, can comprehend the indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, which await you!

But your danger has not increased merely by the ratio of simple addition; by adding sin to sin, day to day, and year to year, each one being equal, and no more than equal, to the preceding; but according to the compound ratio of the aggravation of the guilt of your sins. This aggravation, this increase of guilt, arises from the circumstances in which you have sinned. Every day the goodness of God has supplied your wants and preserved you from death; every day you have been warned of your danger, called to repentance, and invited to the fountain of mercy. Conscience has often reproved, and the Spirit has, in some degree, enlightened your mind and convinced you of sin. In short, you have enjoyed the clear light and precious privileges of the gospel. The guilt of your sins must, therefore, be aggravated in proportion to the light and the privileges you have enjoyed; for where much is given, much will be required. On this principle it is that Sodom and Gomorrah,