tent back to God. The outcast from the pale of human intercourse, fainting in the deep waters, and buffeting with the waves of infamy and destitution, is sometimes driven, by these very extremities, to the throne of grace. He feels his lost estate-he flies for pardon to the blood of Jesus-he calls on God in his trouble, and he delivers him out of his distress. Here the remedy is hazardous indeed, altogether desperate in the case of any who could, on calculation, try the experiment, and venture down the precipice themselves. Nevertheless by thus feeling sin in all its horrors, brands have been sometimes plucked out of the burning-souls have been converted to God-publicans and harlots have passed the gates of heaven, and left the self-righteous, the wavering, and the lukewarm behind, in outer darkness.

But the evil stops not here. The lukewarm are to others the instruments of a delusion no less fatal than their own. And in no instance does this more lamentably appear, than where their influence and counsels come in contact with a soul just upon the point of turning from darkness unto light.

A man has, perhaps, been living like the world around him; outwardly decent, but inwardly a stranger unto God. In this state,

conscience shines for a moment with a truer light, and refuses to say peace where there is no peace. The slumberer begins to doubt whether this heartlessness in religion may not be the sleep of death; and whether Christianity may not be, after all, that very thing which he had scorned, and scouted as fanaticism and folly. Here the lukewarm often interpose. They are at a loss to know why one so punctual in his duties, should now imagine that any change is necessary. They resolve all these notions into mere low spirits, or nervous dejection. They dread the consequences: they are fearful lest this melancholy should end in loss of life, or reason; and thus every expedient is tried, every engine set at work, to persuade the unhappy sinner that all his scruples were but fancies; to ply him with business, or hurry him on with what are called amusements, till all these fancies are, indeed, effectually forgotten-till the struggle is over, and the soul goes down again into the darkness of this present world.

But we may picture to ourselves a still more affecting instance of this kind; and would to God that a melancholy experience did not furnish us with examples. A heedless youth has been, we will suppose, pursuing the mad career of wild extravagance, and been sunk in all the

tent back to God. The outcast from the pale of human intercourse, fainting in the deep waters, and buffeting with the waves of infamy and destitution, is sometimes driven, by these very extremities, to the throne of grace. He feels his lost estate-he flies for pardon to the blood of Jesus-he calls on God in his trouble, and he delivers him out of his distress. Here the remedy is hazardous indeed, altogether desperate in the case of any who could, on calculation, try the experiment, and venture down the precipice themselves. Nevertheless by thus feeling sin in all its horrors, brands have been sometimes plucked out of the burning-souls have been converted to God-publicans and harlots have passed the gates of heaven, and left the self-righteous, the wavering, and the lukewarm behind, in outer darkness.

But the evil stops not here. The lukewarm are to others the instruments of a delusion no less fatal than their own. And in no instance does this more lamentably appear, than where their influence and counsels come in contact with a soul just upon the point of turning from darkness unto light.

A man has, perhaps, been living like the world around him; outwardly decent, but inwardly a stranger unto God. In this state,

conscience shines for a moment with a truer light, and refuses to say peace where there is no peace. The slumberer begins to doubt whether this heartlessness in religion may not be the sleep of death; and whether Christianity may not be, after all, that very thing which he had scorned, and scouted as fanaticism and folly. Here the lukewarm often in- i terpose. They are at a loss to know why one so punctual in his duties, should now imagine that any change is necessary. They resolve all these notions into mere low spirits, or nervous dejection. They dread the consequences: they are fearful lest this melancholy should end in loss of life, or reason; and thus every expedient is tried, every engine set at work, to persuade the unhappy sinner that all his scruples were but fancies; to ply him with business, or hurry him on with what are called amusements, till all these fancies are, indeed, effectually forgotten-till the struggle is over, and the soul goes down again into the darkness of this present world.

But we may picture to ourselves a still more affecting instance of this kind; and would to God that a melancholy experience did not furnish us with examples. A heedless youth has been, we will suppose, pursuing the mad career of wild extravagance, and been sunk in all the

horrors of abandoned profligacy. In the midst of this, the Spirit of God moves upon his soul--God says, let there be light, and there is light. He is brought to see his real state, and real misery; his ingratitude to heaventhe terms of an offended God-the wretcheves that servands in the blessedness be Max them away. Be as a mind as fathek Jose de remembers the days of icewe maapani sees C REST TEITi termine at a change i l m H srað g mamang, MULTUS V suma ZenA Awam fe RÈTE SLINE, Fates and ཝཱ སྶ པ མཱསྶ ཡ ཨཱཝསུ ཝཱ, ཏཝཱ, སཾསཱུ, རཱ ཙྩཊྛིཏྭཱ.