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in spirituality of mind, if we love God better, and do what we can to make others love Him too, we shall so glorify Him. It is said of the righteous, that he shall bring forth more fruit in his age." Let us try and pray that this may be true of us; that as the richest and ripest fruit hangs longest on the tree, and is the last to fall, so, our last days may be our best days, and our faith and love and hope may wax stronger and stronger every day and hour that we continue here. But I said that the subject we have been considering had

A voice to the young. Let all such remember, that though it is day with them now, it will be evening soon, and night at last. Young they may be, but they will not be young always; and though they may imagine they can do very well without religion now, What will they do without it in the end?

Let them lay this question up in their hearts; and let them resolve to be Christians at any rate, and to win the kingdom of God, whatever it may cost them. It will certainly cost them something; they must give up much of what people call pleasure, and much of what they suppose to be profit, to gain it; but in the end the believer in Jesus Christ finds that he has not paid too dearly for his purchase. The dying saint, when he passes from his clay into the presence of God-when he meets at the gate of glory those who have gone before him, and have already entered into rest-when he first sees heaven's light, and hears the angels' song, is not sorry for what is past; he does not think, that in valuing his soul above his body, and in seeking heaven more than in enjoying earth, he has acted the part of a foolish and misguided man:

and when he has been but a day above, he will think the delights of that one day cheaply purchased at the price of a thousand years of trouble and toil below.

Be ye therefore reconciled to God, and give yourselves up to Christ. Consider that the Saviour who is preached to you, was young when He gave up His life and shed His blood to save your souls. So while youth and health still remain to you, engage in His service and enlist under His banner. Be not conformed to this world, for it is a very bad world; but fix your affections on, and ask God to meeten you for, another and a better world. Believe that Christ died to save you, and is willing to receive you, and then go and pray that He would confirm your faith, and strengthen your resolutions-that He would lead you into the safe and right way, and keep you unto everlasting life.

SERMON XV.

HEBREWS xii. 16.

"Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright."

WE are told, Genesis xxv. 27. that Esau was a cunning hunter; and no doubt he was. But cunning and clever as he was in hunting, it seems he was a very simple and foolish person about other more important things.

It is a great pity that Esau did not use some of the talents and capacity which God gave him, to much better purpose than he seems to have done; and instead of spending all his time and employing all his mind in hunting and similar pursuits, he had not devoted the best of them to improving his religious privileges, and learning the way of life.

Esau did not want for capacity. God gave him a good understanding; and I doubt not, his father Isaac gave him a good education. So if he had only given half the attention to spiritual things, which he bestowed upon his worldly amusements and employments, he would have never done the foolish deed recorded in the Text. But the fault was not with his head, but with his heart. He had capacity enough for any thing, but no heart for God's service and the good of his own soul.

Now there are very many persons in the world like Esau. There are numbers, who have good abilities, and who can do and learn any thing which they choose; and the only thing in which they fail, is spiritual wisdom; that wisdom, without which, though a man have all the capacity and acquirements of all the philosophers and clever people in the world put together, he is but a poor simple fool in the sight of God.

We shall consider in connection with the Text, 1. THE STORY referred to therein.

II. THE PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS it suggests.

I. THE STORY referred to in the Text, you will find Gen. xxv. 29–34.

Here we find that on a certain occasion, Esau having been out hunting all the day, returned home quite spent and worn out with fatigue. He had been out perhaps a long time, had had a hard chase, and had not tasted bit or drop since he left home. So when he came back, young and strong as he was, he was quite faint and sick with weariness and hunger.

Now it so happened, that Esau came home just at the very time when Jacob his brother was about to sit down and eat the food which he had prepared for himself, viz. a mess of pottage. And when he saw the tempting and savoury dish, he wanted to have some of it, and said to his brother, "Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint."

Upon this, Jacob thinking he had now an excellent opportunity of obtaining what he had probably long set his heart upon, and getting his brother's birthright upon very cheap terms, proposed to

Esau to make the exchange, the birthright for the pottage; the honours and privileges which belonged to the eldest son, for the savoury and tempting dish which was before them.

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One would have supposed, that Esau would never have consented to such terms as these- that he would have had far too much regard for his own interest, to give up his rights as the eldest son of the family for a mere morsel of meat. But Esau was a careless thoughtless person-one that cared not about to-morrow- one that was perfectly satisfied with a little present enjoyment, and never thought of what it would cost hereafter. So he began to reason, (if reasoning it can be called,) "Behold I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?" And Jacob seeing him in this favourable humour, struck the bargain at once; and being willing to make sure work, and to allow his brother no power of flying from his engagement, said, "Swear to me this day: and he sware unto him; and he sold his birthright unto Jacob."

This is the story referred to in the Text. I have here one or two observations to make before I go

on.

The apostle on account of this act, calls Esau in the verse from which the Text is taken, a profane person. It may be asked, 'What was there in this action which shows that Esau was a wicked and ungodly man? There is enough to show that he was not a very wise man; but how is it to be proved that he was a profane one?'

And truly if the birthright which Esau sold his brother, had consisted only in some temporal advantages and privileges, though he must even

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