Son of man, with his angels, shall descend, and three worlds shall be assembled at his bar. No longer a weeping infant in the manger, or a bleeding sufferer on the cross; no longer an humble suitor at the door of your hearts, he appears the sovereign Judge, arrayed in all the glories of the Godhead. No longer is his blood to be slighted, his Spirit resisted, and his sacred person insulted by an ungrateful world. For different purposes has he made his second appearance; to judge the world, to call sinners to a strict account, to scrutinize every action and thought from Adam to his youngest son, and to execute the long delayed sentence of his righteous law. Then, when all your sins shall be displayed before assembled worlds, and the curse fastened to each shall be ready to fall upon your defenceless head, and nothing to arrest the rushing war but the mediatorial shield, and your earthly friends unable to help either you or themselves; then will you in the fullest sense, though alas too late, feel your need of that friend which sticketh closer than a brother. You would then give ten thousand worlds for that interest in him which you now refuse.

And will your need of him end here? No, it will continue to all eternity. When friends and riches and honors and pleasures shall be no more; when for former comforts shall be substituted the torments of the never dying worm,-a conscience lashing you with torturing reproaches, a memory furnishing the most poignant stings, and your passions, let loose, shall rend you with the fury of

whirlwinds; when you shall look up and behold some of your former friends in heaven, regaling themselves at the immortal banquet, while you pine in eternal want; then will you "mourn at the last, when" your "flesh and" your "body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof!"

O sinners, I adjure you in the name of God, not to treat this warning as you have treated all that are past. Retire to your closets and let these solemn realities pass in review before you. Place yourselves before the bar of God, and anticipate the awful scenes of the final judgment. Ponder upon your guilt: look at the readiness of Christ to save you, and let the charming echo of his invitations still sound in your ears. And at the conclusion solemnly ask yourselves, Why will I die? O wretched men, are not the glories of heaven worth a few serious thoughts? If you could continue blind forever, I should not be so importunate. But light will break in upon your anguished sight; and those lids which were obstinately closed, will be forced and held open to gaze at the tormenting glare of light while God and truth remain. O reflect before reflection shall come too late. Why should you exchange your souls for toys, your God for mammon, and your glory for despair? Why should the great enemy of man be served for the recompense of damnation, rather than this divine friend for the reward of heaven? Should you, after so long a time, resolve this day to take the

counsel now offered, do you think you would repent it in a dying hour? Would you repent it at the judgment day, or in any one moment of your immortal existence? I can say no more. "If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest thou alone shalt bear it." Amen.

SERMON V.

CHRIST A COVERT FROM THE TEMPEST.

ISAI. XXXII. 2.

And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

This prediction, which was uttered in the days. of Ahaz, is thought to have had primary reference to Hezekiah, and to the relief from wicked magistrates which would be experienced in his reign. But in the opinion of the best commentators it had ultimate reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the person of our Redeemer, who is very man as well as God, it is fulfilled that "a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

In a serene day when no wind is up, when no rain is falling, a man may see by the way-side a shelving rock and may pass by it without emotion.