Take this head from before my eyes. Her wretched mother has anguish enough of her own to bear, without the addition of her daughter's curses. Yet will not those curses follow her, and every mother who brings up her daughter for this world only ? Are they the only mother and accomplished daughter that will have this present world for their only portion, and endless sorrow at the end of it? "I tell you nay, but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

What mischief one wicked girl can do! "She hath cast down many wounded, and many strong men have been slain by her." "Whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her." "He shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray." If any young friend is dallying with temptation from such a source, " deliver thyself as a bird from the snare of the fowler, and as a roe from the hand of the hunter." "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings."

This blessed friend and servant of God was prepared to die; and it was well that he was, for but a very few minutes, probably, intervened between the entrance of the executioner to his cell and the appearance of the ransomed spirit before God. He needed no protracted space between the warning and the stroke of the sword. He was as ready to die instantly as after long notice; and yet, to the eye of man, how sad, how strange. You might say, Will God make no distinction between the righteous and the wicked? No, not in this world, in his providence. "This is one thing," Job says, "therefore I said it: he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent." There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked. John the Baptist, therefore, must not plead exemption from a death which is the mere wanton suggestion of a wanton woman; he must be ready, like all good men, to illustrate, by his own sufferings and death, the great truth, that this life is not a state of reward, but of trial. He must be willing to die in his prime; for he was not over thirty-five years of age, though he is sometimes thought of as a venerable old man, and full of days. He must not refuse to be carried to the grave a headless trunk. Whether Herodias shall pierce his tongue with her bodkin, or whether his head shall be devoured by dogs, or be thrown into the Jordan, John must yield himself to that law of providence which does not discriminate between the evil and the good.

Jonathan Edwards, than whom, of all that are born of women, there is none greater in intellectual endowments, must submit, to have that earthly tabernacle of his destroyed by the loathsome and hideous small-pox, as well as the most common and ordinary of his fellow-men. And yet we read, and still it is true, "Precious, in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints." God did not cast off these servants of his; and the outward circumstances of their death were really not worth regarding, by them nor by Him, compared with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which awaited them. We are taught by this that, to him who is a true friend of Christ, death is easy with the head on a block, or the body wrapped in flames, or covered with honey to attract the bees and wasps, or smothered in a bag with snakes, or sawn asunder with a saw of wood; while, to one who has no Saviour whom he has befriended, it is hard to die on the softest and richest bed of down, unless this greatest curse be added to that dying bed of the sinner, that "there are no bands in his death," but with peace and with apparent resignation, like that smooth brim of the cataract just where it bends over to the abyss, he falls asleep, and wakes in hell.

3. The prominent doctrines and exhortations of such a man as we have seen John to be, deserve our most serious consideration.

We have already considered the testimony which he gave to the preexistence of Christ, and to the great object of his coming, namely, to make atonement for sin. We may also notice his designation of Christ as a purifier of his church.

He represents him as having a husbandman's fan, with which he would thoroughly purge his threshing floor, gather the wheat into his garner, and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Now, Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. He has not come to save men in their sins, but from their sins. We may not plead that we have pious parents, or pious relatives in our ancestral line; for God can of the stones raise up heirs of grace. Nor can we plead, I am a member of the church; for now, also, the axe is laid at the root of the tree; every tree, therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire.'

We are also instructed by this great and faithful servant of Christ, and by what Christ says of our privileges, - making us greater, in some respects, than John, if we improve them, - that it is a solemn thing to live under such privileges as we enjoy in these days. What accumulated testimony, from heathen lands, to the truth and power of the gospel; what instructions are we furnished with by the religious press; what calls, in revivals of religion the Spirit and the bride saying, Come. John closes up his testimony, with regard to Christ, with these words: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Do I believe, or does the wrath of God abide upon me?

Would we testify our love for this friend of Christ, we can do nothing more appropriate than to obey him, as, by his words left on record, he seeks to lead us to Christ. Let us say, as his hearers did, " And what shall we do?" How faithfully he would speak, and tell us to bring forth works meet for repentance; to break off sin by righteousness, and iniquity by turning unto God. How he would terrify sinners, by exposing their secret wickedness, and ringing the alarms of death and hell in their ears. How he would urge the awakened to go, without delay, to Christ, the Lamb of God. And how he would weep over some who have long refused Christ, saying of him, " And no man receiveth his testimony."

Herod, hearing of Christ, said, "John have I beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him." You shall see him, Herod, when he comes in the clouds, and brings with him those that sleep in Jesus. You shall see, also, the man whom you beheaded, risen from the

dead,' as your guilty conscience once made you fear

was the case before.

And there, at that dread tribu

nal, where John and

Herod are to meet once more,