burnings, arise and take the kingdom of heaven by violence. Delay not a moment. Urge no excuse. By the worth of your never-dying souls I entreat you, by the love and sorrows of Calvary I adjure you, by the authority of the ever-living God I charge you, not to reject this mission of the Holy Ghost. Your everlasting all is at stake. It is likely to be your last chance. And if any thing is done you must rise up to an agony. These saunterings between jest and earnest are only trifling with the Spirit and will provoke him to leave you. Either fixedly resolve to perish, and set yourselves firmly to resist God and his people, or come up to the business with all your heart and soul. Halt no longer between two opinions. Do not stand at too awful a distance from the Saviour. Imitate the blind men and go up to him with confidence. Be of good cheer, “he calleth thee." By the soft whispers of his Spirit he calleth thee. And if he can call, you may venture to go. Shrink not on account of your poverty and pollution. It is the same Jesus still,— the same heart that pitied the blind men of Jericho. Go to him boldly, and when he would know your request, cry in his ears, Lord, that my eyes may be opened. Why will you die when such a glorious Deliverer is so near? Why will ye go down to hell; like the dying thief, from the very side of an atoning Saviour? I call heaven and earth to witness that if you perish after this, your blood will be upon your own head. And if you go down from these streets through which the kindest of all Sa

viours is passing, you will wish ten thousand times that you had gone to hell before this revival,-that you had been in hell on the day that this sermon was preached. O that you were wise, that you understood this, that you would consider your latter end. Turn ye; turn ye, for why will ye die? Why will ye die, O my flesh and blood?

SERMON II.

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

JOHN III. 14, 15.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus and his salvation were the substance of all the ancient shadows, the end of all the Mosaic rites, and the burden of every prophet's song. They were the favorite theme of the Old Testament and the New. They are the subject of the highest songs of the upper world. They bring the purest joy to hearts on earth broken for sin.

There are few types of happier influence to illustrate the Gospel remedy and the manner of its application than the brazen serpent. When the Hebrews provoked God in the wilderness, he sent among them fiery serpents of a most deadly bite; so called either from their colour, or from the heat and thirst occasioned by the wound. They were

probably of the species of the "fiery flying serpents" mentioned by Isaiah. It is supposed that they hovered in swarms over the camp and suddenly darted upon their prey; none of the congregation being able while on their march, and few being able in their encampments, to defend themselves against the fell attack. What a scene of distress was here! Hundreds lying dead in the camp; hundreds more writhing in torture and crying in vain for relief; every one trembling for himself; now a child and then a wife and then a brother crying out under the tormenting bite; and swarms of the enemy still hovering over the camp. What could they do? They hasted away to Moses and said with tears, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us." And Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to him, "Make thee a fiery serpent, [that is, the image of a fiery serpent,] and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, [so that it could be seen from every part of the camp] and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived." Glorious emblem of him who was "lifted up that whosoever, believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life."

This brazen serpent was preserved with great veneration seven hundred years, until it had become so much the object of idolatrous worship, that He

zekiah broke it in pieces about a century before the Babylonish captivity.

Let us trace a little more particularly the resemblance between this type and the antitype.

1. It was provided for people in a condition somewhat resembling that of the race to whom the Saviour was sent. Many of them were groaning under the anguish of their wounds and ready to die, others heard the cries of their parents and children around them, and could neither snatch them from death nor afford them a moment's relief. Such is the state of those for whom a Saviour was provided. They are dying under the tormenting inflictions of sin; panting with restless desires which nothing can satisfy; or tossing under anguish of conscience and a "fearful looking for of judgment." They behold around them the wide ruins which sin has made. They contemplate the present and endless misery of their parents and children, without being able to afford them any relief. The whole race lie in ruins, amidst the wide and frightful ravages of the curse, amidst misery and death in a countless variety of forms; walking over clods once animated with human life,-seeing their brethren huddled together in the grave, and all the living going down after them,—sinking, sinking, till they are out of sight;-death temporal and death eternal swallowing up all. Such is the ruin of a world smitten with the curse of the Almighty. What need there was of a Saviour to seize a race going down to hell, to force death to resign its prey, and to call sleeping nations from the tomb.