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have spoken of the Lord's Anointed. Jesus of Nazareth professed to be this Messiah. The rulers of the nation put him to death; and from the dead God raised him, thus triumphantly vindicating his character, and establishing his claims. And He who was thus put to death, and thus raised from the dead, He has actually appeared to ME, now standing before you. I have heard his voice, and beheld his glory. I am myself the witness of these things." The very finishing stroke seems to have been given when, having stated the facts of the case, and shown the scriptural doctrine on the subject, he so pointedly appealed to the judgment and conscience of Agrippa. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know thou believest." The appeal was resistless. Agrippa felt it to his inmost soul. Scripture doctrine, well-attested facts, firmly sustained argument, all combined to make the impression; and what he felt his almost involuntary exclamation will show:-“Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” The exclamation was the means of displaying the character of Paul as a Christian man. He had before shown talent in arguing. He now discovers the nature of the feeling which animated and governed him. He felt the joy of the Lord to be his strength. He knew he was right: right in judgment; right in choice. He felt that, in all the grand points of the case, he was what man ought to be; and with this feeling, he could not but wish that others were in this respect as he was. But the impassioned feeling of Paul was not enthusiasm. It allowed the exercise of the more minute and delicate emotions of the heart; and, therefore, though he gloried in his own bonds for Christ's sake, he wished not that others should share them. Hence his beautiful reply: "Would to God, that not only thou, but all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, EXCEPT THESE BONDS." Happy had it been for Agrippa had he yielded to the sacred feelings which had now been excited in him. There was the word of truth, and that word evidently sent home to his conscience with divine influence and power. It was a season of merciful visitation. The general condition of human probation was now fully presented to him. "Choose life," was the inward as well as the outward voice; and Agrippa

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was moved by it. He was almost persuaded;" but he saw that sin must be renounced; that truth must be embraced; that God must be obeyed. He could not bring himself to make the sacrifice. He fell back on his former self, and lived and died as other men. He is gone. We judge him not. The Judge of all the earth will do right. But the subject is calculated to be eminently useful to ourselves. Let us fix our attention on its principles.

1. Let me very briefly point out to you what it is to be a Christian, in the full scriptural sense of the word. It is to believe in Christ with the heart unto righteousness. It is to love God. It is to love his holy law. It is most decidedly to prefer heaven to earth; and in our whole practice to seek the things that are above. All that is inconsistent with faith, and hope, and love, in this New Testament character, will be renounced; and our conduct will exhibit the work of faith, and patience of hope, and labour of love.

2. Now there are very many who, like Agrippa, are only "almost persuaded" to be Christians. They have a general approbation of the Christian religion, a general belief of its doctrines, a profession of its very name; but they only go to a certain point. A direct, personal interest in Christ, as obtained by a self-renouncing faith; a renewal of their hearts in righteousness, in holiness, making the will of God supreme, and placing earthly in complete subordination to heavenly things; in a word, Christianity as implying the forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, Christianity in its glorious reality and power, though they approve yet they do not possess; and they possess it not because they do not, in God's own way, seek it. They are almost persuaded," but that is all.

3. Examine this more particularly.

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(i.) There are moments when truth shines with brighter light, and exerts an unusual power. All the reasons why we should no longer stay without,-not far, perhaps, from the kingdom of God, but still most effectually excluded by the very position we occupy, and which implies a distance we cannot resolve to travel over,-all these reasons come home to our spirit.

(ii.) But the very light they bring discovers to us what is to be renounced,-utterly and permanently renounced. All sin must be given up. No matter how great the pain, or the cost of the sacrifice, it must be made. We see all that the choice requires, as well as all that it implies.

(iii.) And, O, how many are unfaithful and disobedient to the heavenly visitation! They look at life, and they look wishfully; but they cannot bring their mind to this,-to tear their hearts from that which cannot be retained, if Christ is to be sought. The result is, though the judgment, the heart, the conscience, are fully convinced, the man, in the exercise of that awful power by which he is the fit subject of moral government, and will be at last judged in righteousness by the God that made him, the man decides not to yield. He refuses to choose life: he resolves to prefer the pleasures of sin.

(iv.) And the result is usually a state of great darkness. The Spirit of God is grieved. The rejection is punished already. The tenderness of conscience, the movement of the heart towards God, all that is included in being "almost persuaded," gradually disappear, and there is in their room a terrible quietness in sin, perhaps seldom disturbed. Days of mercy thus put away from us may not be recalled at pleasure. The more convenient season comes not; and we at last die, and perish of our sins.

I address you, first, who are just Christians because you were born in a Christian land. As far as you understand the subject, your belief is in Christian doctrines; and your worship, when you do worship, is according to your belief. I remind you, if you ever knew it, that the kingdom of God is more than this. You must be a Christian inwardly. The mere name will not serve you. Say not, therefore, you need no persuasion. You need to be persuaded to flee from sin, to turn to God, to come to Christ, to receive the grace of God, and submit to his will. You call Christ, Lord, Lord: you must do more, or your light will aggravate your guilt and punishment.

Do you see this? Is your heart moved? Do you see the beauty of religion? its desirableness? Do you wish to be at

peace with God, to have a sanctified nature, a mind enlightened by truth, affections regulated and purified by heavenly love, to be under the guardianship of Providence, to have a good hope of life eternal? This is yours, and far more, if you be a Christian. But here is the point, "My son, give me thy heart." You must give up all, by yielding up yourself.

Do you hesitate? And for what? Come, let us reason together. We want your decided choice. You are almost persuaded; and what keeps you at the "ALMOST?" What produces the hesitation? If you resolve to abide by it, you give up Christ, you give up heaven, for it. Is it worth the price? Will it satisfy you long? Will it give you peace in trouble, hope in death, safety in judgment?

Give it up AT ONCE; give it up Now, FULLY, and FOR EVER. Come now to God, by Christ, for grace to make the sacrifice. Be it to cut off thy right foot, to pluck out thy right eye, yet, remember, the real choice is not merely between religion and sin, but between heaven and hell. Wilt thou live in sin, and be cast into hell, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched; or wilt thou gladly part with all for thy own soul's sake, that thou mayest "enter into life?”

Happy you who have made the choice. The most painful moment was that of decision. But, as soon as you broke off the mind from what it loved, the influence was gone, and the pain; and now, O how thankful you are that you were ever persuaded, wholly persuaded to be Christians; Christ's Christians, whom he loves, and whom he will save for ever!

Still let your choice be fixed. Let nothing disturb it. Keep your eye fixed on invisible realities, Christ; your Saviour and Judge; the crown of life and glory. Often think of the rapturous gratitude with which you shall praise God in eternity for enabling you thus to embrace, and hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life.

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JONAH.

SERMON I.

"Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me."-JONAH i. 1, 2.

THE book of Jonah is important, among other reasons, for this, that it introduces us to the regions beyond the circle of the theocracy, shows the government of God as extending to those who were not his covenanted people, and intimates, by no means obscurely, the influence which the members of the theocracy were required to exert on them that were without. The Jews had been organized into a particular community, with laws arising from their peculiar circumstances. Jehovah was their civil head, as well as their God; and the system under which they lived referred to this. But, though the Gentiles had rejected God, his claims upon them were not renounced. Man is God's subject. The theocracy, while it continued, imposed new obligations; but the obligation to serve God did not grow out of the theocracy. The Ninevites were as truly the subjects of God as were the Jews. This, the book of Jonah distinctly declares. To declare this, seems to be, in fact, its peculiar province as a portion of the sacred The government of God is here shown to be universal. It grows out of the unchangeable relations in which man, the creature, stands in reference to God, the Creator. This is shown throughout the book, and my remarks will chiefly refer to it. They will be general and practical, rather than critical and minute.

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Jonah is mentioned 2 Kings xiv. 25-27. The time is generally supposed to have been somewhat more than eight hundred years before Christ, in the reign of Jeroboam the Second. It was a season of bitter affliction for Israel; and God pitying them, had sent a promise of deliverance by "his servant Jonah," who was thus declared to be a prophet of the Lord. The promise was fulfilled; and Jeroboam, as the appointed instrument, drove back the foes of Israel, and extended their borders.

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