by mockery and external show; "A sacrifice to God is that of an humble and a contrite heart;” nor will that temporary piety which is produced by distress or fear, render us acceptable before him: it is humility from a sense of our unworthiness, and profound contrition of heart for past offences, with sincere purpose of amendment, and a resolute determination to resist the slightest approach of temptation, and to return from the paths of evil, that will gain us favour in his sight.

If, with these sentiments in our minds, we supplicate the throne of mercy, we have every encourageinent to confide in the divine clemency; for we are assured that "None who come unto Chirst will he in any wise cast out*." Consoling promise! Suppose any one under sentence of death were offered a pardon, the errors of his past life to be for ever buried in oblivion, and honours and riches to be liberally bestowed upon him, on condition that he confessed his crime and pledged himself to lead a virtuous life in future; surely such a person must be considered mad, should he obstinately persist in guilt, and allow the sentence of the law to be carried into execution, when the means of preservation and of averting his dreadful fate were in his own hands! Let me ask any of you, whether you would not gladly have undertaken to renounce for ever those errors by which you were first led astray from the pleasing paths of virtue, to prevent your being now separated from your native country? Undoubtedly you would. Yet how trifling, how insignificant are loss

* John, chap. vi. 37th verse,

of life and separation from the dearest objects of affection, compared with an eternal exile from your heavenly Father, and the destruction of the immortal soul! The thought is overwhelming.

There are some, unfortunately, to be found, who tell you their lives have been so bad, they have trespassed so frequently and so enormously, they have gone so far in vice, that it is useless to think of receding,, as there can be no chance of their being saved, and that they may, therefore, as well go on to the end. Such is the degrading, humiliating language that sin dictates when it has attained its haughty ascendancy over the human mind, and influences every action. Let us follow these wretched creatures a step further in their senseless career; let us view them on a sick bed, which guilt has converted into a couch of torture; their fancied pleasures have vanished like a shadow, and the terrific prospect of a future state is forcibly and awfully presented to their distempered imagina tion; no relief is then in hope, because they had rejected it before. It has fallen to my lot more than once, nay more than twenty times, to witness the dying moments of men whose lives had been misspent ; but I earnestly hope in the divine mercy, that I may never again be exposed to scenes where my feelings should be so torn as they were on those melancholy occasions, It is difficult to imagine any thing equal to the gloom and horror with which those miserable mortals viewed their approach to the presence of a just God from whom they expected no favour. Ten thousand worlds would they have given for a week, a day, even an hour, to be added to their existence on earth, an existence

which sin and conscious guilt had rendered exquisitely wretched, and insupportable. It is really shocking to contemplate the situation of the hopeless sinner "whose ungodly race is nearly run, and he verging fast to the brink of eternity. The awful idea of meeting that God whom he has so often offended, tortures his already distracted mind. Conscience is at this moment his bitterest enemy, it fills his drooping heart with poignant remorse, and self-condemned, his hell begins even before life ends." Infatuated, unthinking beings! how could guilty passions, or the allurements of sinful pleasures, so much blind your reason as never to allow you a moment of serious reflection on a future state, until you are incompassed by the jaws of death, until you hear those appalling words thunder in your ears, "Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward!"

Let me admonish you, my friends, not to reserve repentance for a death-bed; depend upon it that the pangs of dissolution will be enough for human nature to bear, without adding the indescribable tortures of a troubled conscience: besides, the efficacy of repentance at the moment of death has been questioned, doubted, and denied by some of our ablest and most learned divines. In all cases of doubt or difficulty it is wise and prudent to choose the safe side; we have the declaration of the Saviour himself expressly, that Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven *." We have, moreover, the divine authority that our efforts

* Matthew, chap. xviii. 35th verse.

will receive divine aid, and be ultimately crowned with success. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good things of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it*."

Hence you may clearly understand how all those who labour and are heavy laden may come unto Christ and find rest. Let me exhort you to implore unceasingly God's mercy with penitent and humble hearts, and you will assuredly find comfort in your souls; for you will experience his bounteous mercy, ever open to receive and cherish the truly repentant wanderer. He is more ready to give than the sinner is to ask; in chap. Iv. 7th verse of Isaiah, he says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

By keeping these consoling truths constantly before your minds, and losing not a moment in cultivating the precious opportunities of being reconciled to your heavenly Father, you will doubtless soon experience an ineffable delight and tranquillity infused into your souls: but, that great good being effected, I think it my duty to offer you some further advice, lest you should lose the advantages you will have acquired by repentance.

* Isaiah, chap. i. 18th verse.

It would not, I think, be difficult to show, that even were there to be no future state, virtuous actions tend more, infinitely more, to promote our happiness in this world, than the most successful career of vice. For proofs of this assertion I will confidently appeal to the experience of your own lives. Let any one present look back to the days of peaceful innocence, and compare them with the present. Her meal may have been frugal, perhaps it was scanty, and necessity may have compelled her to unceasing toil; but conscious innocence secured a blessing, and diffused a comfort, that may be sought for in vain at the guilty banquet, or in the useless and baneful luxury of sinful dissipation. On this subject Dr Blair has with equal truth and beauty made the following apposite observations:

"Were the sinner bribed with any certain and unquestionable advantage, could the means he employs ensure his success, and could that ensure his comfort, he might have some apology for deviating from the paths of virtue. But he is not only liable to that disappointment of success, which so often frustrates all the designs of men, but also liable to a disappointment still more cruel, that of being successful and miserable at once. The advantages of this world, even when innocently gained, are uncertain blessings; when obtained by criminal means, they carry a curse in their bosom.'

I hope enough has been said to relieve your minds from all doubt as to the influence of religion on our happiness in this world and that which is to come. The sincere penitent is commanded to hope for salvation, and it is criminal to despair. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the