could not find HIM." Their companions had "entered into the joy of their LORD;" they had "finished their course with joy ;" they had "found HIM WHOм their soul loved;" they, with "the friends of the Bridegroom, were standing and hearing HIM, rejoicing in the Bridegroom's Voice:"5 those were now

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sitting down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven," and the others were "cast into outer darkness." Their lamps and their oil were now to go with them into everlasting darkness. Thus shall the unwise soul, re-united to its body, go into eternal punishment, with all its knowledge of good, and no power to seek it; all its knowledge of evil, and no power to avoid it with the recollection of opportunities, and privileges, and resolutions, past and gone for ever; with the sense of all it was, and might have been; all it is, and must be.

And when the lost, wretched, desolate Christian, once sent forth in peace to meet his GOD, now banished from His blessed Presence for ever, when he recalls to mind

2 S. Matt. xxv. 21, 23.

1 Prov. i. 28.

3 Acts xx. 24.

4 Cant. iii. 4.

5 S. John iii. 29.

1

all these things, and dwells upon them with unutterable, hopeless, endless agony, what will be the very "gall of bitterness," 1 and piercing anguish, in which all his Eternity of wretchedness shall find its centre? what shall be his crowning thought of woe? what my brethren, but this? That when, in order to receive Holy Baptism, he was taken to the threshold of his REDEEMER'S Church, HIS kingdom, to him, yea even to him were proclaimed those words of gracious comfort and of Heavenly joy, "ask, and ye shall have, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Yea, that he was, even then, brought nigh unto the unseen Bridegroom; was forgiven, and was blessed; was strengthened, and received promise of strength; told but to go on as he had begun; to "go on his way rejoicing;" to "lead the rest of his life according to that beginning." That from day to day he had but to ask; to seek; to knock; and be ready whenever the Bridegroom should appear. And once he might have asked, and had; once he might have sought, and

1 Acts viii. 23.

8 Baptismal Service.

2 S. Luke xi. 9.

found; once he might have knocked, and it would have been opened unto him ;—and now he has "asked," "LORD! LORD ! open unto me!" and it has been answered, "Verily I say unto you, I know you not;" now he has "sought," and the Bridegroom has "hid His Face;" now he has "knocked," and it is "too late:" the door is shut.

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh."

SERMON III.

FOR THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.

S. MARK X. 17.1

"AND WHEN HE WAS GONE FORTH INTO THE WAY, THERE CAME ONE RUNNING, AND KNEELED TO HIM, AND ASKED HIM, GOOD MASTER, WHAT SHALL I DO, THAT I MAY INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?"

THE Contrast between this 17th verse and the 22nd verse is very melancholy. The one tells us of a certain young man who "came running" to CHRIST; the other tells us that, on hearing a word from our LORD, “he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved."

Came running went away grieved.

1 The Second Lesson in the Morning Service for the day on which the Sermon was preached.