Consider, moreover, my friends, whoever you may be, whatever may be your rank and condition in life, that by deferring your conversion to a future day, besides depending upon a time which may never be granted to you, you rashly presume on the assistance of that divine grace, which is the free gift of the Almighty, which he offers you, indeed, at present, but which, if rejected by you now, he may never perhaps bestow upon you again: for by neglecting to correspond with it, and thus rendering it unprofitable and vain, you provoke the rigor of inexorable justice to avenge the cause of slighted mercy by abandoning you to the depravity of your corrupt hearts.

But if the conduct of the wise men exhibits to your view an admirable example of the promptitude with which it becomes you to yield to the impulse of divine grace, by entering without delay on the reformation of your lives, it presents you, in like manner, with a shining model of the firmness and intrepidity which you are called upon to display in opposition to every obstacle which you may have to encounter, in the prosecution of so excellent and laudable an undertaking. They were not ignorant of the length of the journey on which they were about to enter. They were aware of the fatigues and hardships they might have to endure. And the thought of leaving their native land, their families, relations, friends, and every other object of their fondest attachment, may be fairly supposed to have · occasioned no small pain to the feelings of nature.

They did not however permit these, or any other considerations, to alter their resolutions, or to abate the ardor of their zeal. But convinced that the same Omnipotent Disposer of events, who, in so extraordinary a manner, had manifested to them an event of such importance, would never abandon them in the prosecution of an enterprise to which he had thereby prompted them, they proceeded, with alacrity, to carry it into execution.

I know, full well, my friends, the discouragements and difficulties which you may also have to encounter in the accomplishment of your conversion. I know, that to men who have been accustomed to listen to the loose suggestions of the world, the pure maxims of the Gospel will appear at first unpleasant and difficult. I do not dissemble that to break asunder the bonds of infernal servitude, to renounce the excesses of irregular pleasure, to lay a severe restraint on the impetuosity of ungoverned appetites, and to subject them to the salutary discipline of mortification and self-denial, may be a somewhat painful and arduous task. But let not these considerations discourage you. Let them not dissuade from making at least a manly and vigorous attempt. You do not desist from your vain pursuits of imaginary honors and perishable riches, on account of the pains and hardships with which they are attended. And are not the permanent interests of eternity more worthy, far, of your laborious efforts than all the fleeting advantages of your temporal existence? Contemplate that great and intrinsic dignity which you will pro

cure to your immortal souls by banishing from them those hordes of unclean spirits which defile and enslave them, and causing them to become the pure temples of the Holy Ghost. Contemplate those everlasting joys which will reward hereafter your present sorrows. Contemplate that lasting and uninterrupted repose which will ultimately terminate your transient labours. Contemplate that peace and serenity of mind which will spring up within you, when every tumultuous passion shall have been appeased, and religion shall have established within you her supreme dominion. Be assured, also, my friends, that the hardships you may have to undergo in the work of your conversion, will not be of long duration. They may be violent in the beginning: but their violence will decrease in proportion to your advancement. They all arise out of your former habits. And when you shall have exchanged those habits for others of an opposite description, they will totally disappear. Nor will he, who from the highest heavens shall behold you struggling with undaunted fortitude in so noble a cause, withhold from you his divine protection. No. He will impart to you his invigorating aid. He will fight, himself, your honorable battle. He will frustrate all the assaults of the enemies of your salvation. He will crown your efforts with victory, and your brows with laurels of unfading glory.

But, to return to the wise men ;—we learn from the Sacred Scripture, that the star which they had seen in the east, and which had preceded them in

their journey to Jerusalem, withdrew itself from their sight on their arrival at the holy city. Image to yourselves for a moment, my friends, the awkwardness of the situation in which they were now placed. Allured by the appearance of this extraordinary star, they had abandoned their native country, they had carefully pursued, over a considerable tract of land, the course marked out to them by their heavenly guide, and, behold! when, under its direction, they had reached at length the capital of the nation whose king they sought, it vanished from their view, and left them, in the midst of a strange country, destitute of all connections, and unprovided with recommendations, to shift for themselves. This indeed, must certainly be acknowledged to have been a trying situation; and had they not been endued with extraordinary constancy from above, it must have induced them to relinquish their inauspicious enterprise, and have caused them to return, in disappointment and vexation, to the distant country from which they came. Yet, notwithstanding the discouragements under which they laboured, they still remained undaunted and firm.

Learn, my friends, from the steady and persevering constancy of the wise men, during the temporary absence of their Celestial Guide, not to be disheartened, if, after having been illumined by the light of divine grace, and stimulated, by its influence, to reform your conduct, you should be left destitute for a time of that spiritual joy, that sensibility of devotion, those tender effusions of divine love which

you may have experienced perhaps in the earlier moments subsequent to your conversion. The enemy of your salvation enraged at your emancipation from his infernal bondage, employs on these occasions all the artifices of his malignant ingenuity, to persuade you that the Almighty has relinquished his designs of mercy in your regard, that his ears are deaf to all your supplications, and that you have nothing to expect from him but the utmost severity of his inexorable justice. But do not listen to his malevolent suggestions, my friends. They are presented to you with no other view than that of precipitating you into your former excesses, by rendering you desperate. Suffer not a notion so injurious to the darling attribute of the Almighty to possess your minds, as to imagine that he will reject the humble petitions of a repentant heart. No; God, you may be assured, will never abandon you, if you do not first abandon him. The temporary suspension of that inward comfort and satisfaction which you may have before enjoyed in your devotional exercises, is not the effect of his ill will towards you, or a mark of his displeasure. On the contrary, it is a signal proof of his affectionate regard; the pure result of that earnest solicitude and attentive care, with which, like a kind and tender parent, he wishes to promote the true and permanent interest of his beloved children, by subjecting them to a mild and salutary discipline. Were you indulged, without interruption, in a constant fruition of spiritual delights, did you always experience that sublimity of