for, "can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." It is really astonishing how men are led on from one sin to another, till, at last, they fall into the lake of fire and brimstone, to remain forever with all the nations that forget God. Before they are carried down so low as others by the torrent of iniquity, could you foresee some of their future actions, and tell them of them, they would not believe themselves capable of performing such atrocities; nay, they would detest the thought. How strikingly do we see this exemplified in the conduct of Hazael, who, when conversing with the prophet Elisha, saw him weep, and said to him, Why weepeth my lord? And Elisha answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel; their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, But what! is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria." And afterwards he did those very things. Oh, then, see here the bewildering nature of sin ness, the sinner is led

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like a man in thick darkon he knows not whither.

And here I cannot help mentioning the salutary caution of the apostle Paul, "Avoid the very ap

pearance of evil."

Again, does not this expression denote the awful state of those who commit sin?

They are in a state of ignorance. They know not, neither do they consider the work of the Lord, or the operation of his hands." They know not whither to apply for happiness, and therefore seek

it in improper directions. They are altogether ignorant of God, of Christ, and of themselves; for (O lamentable fact!) "darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people."

They are also in a state of unbelief.

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of them will not believe that the darkness of the Mosaic economy is past, and the true light now shineth. They will not believe, therefore, on Him whom the Father hath sent; but "this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, but they love darkness rather than light."

Consequently, their state, must be a state of

error.

In vain do they attempt to illuminate the darkness by natural religion, or systems of philosophy : one man professes to teach the way of heaven by the works of the law; and another sets up the false glare of human reason, as the true light of the world. "The blind lead the blind, and they both fall into the ditch." No reformation of their own has ever been sufficient to destroy in them the love and practice of the works of darkness. But the apostle in our text describes the sins of

men,

2. By their tendency. ful works of darkness."

They are " the unfruitThe apostle, addressing the Romans, says, "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness; what fruit had ye then in those things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death." By their being unfruitful, we are to understand that they are of no good tendency, but that they are hurtful, inasmuch as they now defile, and hereafter damn the soul.

Men are dreadfully mistaken when they suppose that they are in the road to happiness, whilst they

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are in the way of sin; for, saith the Scripture, "Whoever hardened himself against God, and prospered?" Those who practise the works of darkness, expose themselves to want, to disgrace, to pain, to mental distress, to temporal calamities, and to hell itself. That some fruit is produced by sin we do not deny, but it is of the most awful kind. The direful effect and the sad fruit of Adam's transgression is felt by all that brought death into the world, and all our woe. And let us, for a few moments, look at the ill effects of sin, as strikingly displayed in a few instances in Scripture. For what was the wife of Lot turned into a pillar of salt? It was that God might thereby display his hatred to sin; for you will remember that she had transgressed the Divine command, and for that transgression was made an eternal monument of his displeasure. Again, I inquire, Why was Gehazi struck with the leprosy ? why was his body made white as snow? My brethren, it was for sin; it was one of the fruits of the works of darkness; and to this day it remains recorded in the Scripture, that we may see that our God is the God of truth, and will manifest his displeasure against the workers of iniquity. Let me ask again, Why was Herod smitten by the angel of the Lord, and eaten up of worms? Scripture itself replies, "Because he gave not God the glory." He had long practised the works of darkness, and their awful effects he experienced in the pain of his dissolution. And why did Ananias fall down and give up the ghost after his conversation with Peter? Or, why did Sapphira, his wife, expire so soon after? Both these circumstances took place by the just vengeance of God upon sin; for they had not "lied unto man, but unto God."

And let me ask once more, Why were Nadab and Abihu fearfully devoured by fire from the Lord? This also was for sin; "for they offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not."

These, then, are a few of those temporal calamities with which God has visited the workers of darkness: but what are these to that dreadful doom which succeeds them? Compared with that, all these things are but as the small dust of a balance, without weight, and without regard; for we are told, "the end of these things is death." Yes, my friends, "death is the wages of sin," death temporal and spiritual, but chiefly death eternal. Whilst the righteous are called to inherit "glory, honor, and immortality, and eternal life," sinners "go away into everlasting punishment:" are "turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God :" are punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power:" are doomed to endure the gnawings of "the worm that never dies," and to burn eternally," in the fire that never shall be quenched."

And, O sinner! can you call your life a life of pleasure? Will you not "die as a fool dieth, and will not your end be without honor?" Is God to be discarded, religion to be despised, and your soul neglected for this, for the torments of everlasting despair? O, sinner, consider your ways.

Thus you see that the apostle, when he denominates sin the unfruitful works of darkness, does not mean to say that it produces no effect, that it is followed by no consequences, that it is entirely a neutral thing, and makes a man neither better nor worse; but he shows us that it produces no solid, real, lasting good. Sin may and does afford

momentary gratification to the minds of its unhappy and unhallowed votaries; but this gratification will not bear being reflected upon, and never lasts, but invariably makes a man discontented and dissatisfied. The works of the flesh are to every good thing unfruitful. Solomon, who had tried them all, gives us their amount, their sum total, in the following words :-" Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” "There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked," exclaims one of God's favorites; and surely we must believe these holy and heavenly men; but if this be not enough to prove that the works of darkness are unfruitful, you are called upon to witness the deathbeds of those who have spent their whole lives in the commission of them, and we cannot refuse to believe their testimony; and they unite in showing us, that "the way of transgressors is hard;" that there is no peace in the conscience of an ungodly man; that they never have enjoyed any thing which it is worth living to enjoy, but that there was the rankest poison in their cup of pleasure; and that, when dying, they endure the awful anticipations of the pains of hell.

Will not this suffice for the discussion of the first part of our subject? We now hasten to the latter, and observe, that the apostle, in the text, not only describes the sins of men, but

II. Cautions us against them.

"Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness," is his language.

Here observe, that he does not say, Partake not of such and such a sin, whatever you do of the rest; but condemns sin altogether, and says, "Have no fellowship with any of them, but rather reprove them."