can say, whom have I in heaven but thee, you can add, there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Is it so ?

Again-Do you hope to go to heaven on account of the employments of the heavenly world? If so your hope is well founded. But be not too hasty. If you are prepared to enter on the employments of heaven, you love God's service now. You are able to say, "O how I love thy holy law." "I delight in the law of the Lord, after the inward man." "I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right." Is it so with you?

Again-Do you hope to go to heaven because it is a holy place-because there is no sin there? If so your hope is well founded; but then remember, if this is really so, you hate sin now, and long to be free from it. It is your ardent desire to be perfectly conformed to the image of your Saviour. If this is your real desire, it will eventually be gratified; and you may

say,

"O glorious hour, O blest abode,
I shall be near and like my God,
And flesh and sin no more control,
The sacred pleasures of the soul."

SERMON XXXV.

The nature and reasonableness of Evangelical Repentance.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.-ACTS xvii: 30.

THE text is a part of Paul's discourse before the Athenian philosophers. The times of ignorance to which he alludes, were the times of heathen idolatry. The phrase "winked at," does not mean that God, of course, overlooks the sin of ignorance. It is not the meaning of this, or of any other text in the Bible. The servant who knew his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes; and the servant who knew not his Lord's will, and who committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. They that sin without law, are not saved, but perish without law. It was not their sin, but their ignorance, or the times of this ignorance that God overlooked. Because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, he gave them up-he made no further efforts by raising up prophets to warn them. No commission had been given to preach the gospel to all nations. Even our Saviour when he first commissioned the twelve apostles, said "go not in the way of the gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of

the house of Israel." But now a new commission had been given. The antithetic form of expression shows. this. The times of this ignorance God winked at, but the times have altered. God now commandeth all men every where to repent.

"No more the sovereign eye of God
O'erlooks the crimes of men,
His heralds are despatched abroad,
To warn the world of sin."

Paul now appears at Athens, acting under this high commission. The text is the application of his dis

course.

The great object of gospel preaching is to bring sinners to repentance. The subject though common is very important; for without repentance, there is no pardon nor salvation. So long, therefore, as there is one sinner out of Christ, so long it will be necessary for ministers to preach repentance.

I propose to consider,

I. The nature.

II. The reasonableness of evangelical repentance. I. The nature.

Repentance implies that we are sinners. The gospel without ceremony addresses all men as sinners. The command to all now to repent, is proof positive that all are sinners. This is generally admitted. But something more is necessary. Repentance implies conviction of sin. Without conviction no sinner ever did, or ever will repent. But conviction itself is not repentance; nor is it necessarily connected with it. Conviction may rise to the highest degree-the ' sinner may see and feel that he is lost--he may be for

wrong, that you are required to repent. Your sins have been committed against God, whose character is infinitely lovely, and is it not reasonable that you should repent.

Your sins have been committed against Christ who died for sinners-and is it hard that you should be required to feel sorrow for sins which have contributed to nail the Saviour to the cross? What a heart must that be which does not melt in view of a Saviour's dying love?

It is no more than you require of others-parents of children-you of your neighbors. When they injure you, you feel that they ought to repent. And how is this? Are you of more consequence than your Maker?

Christ and his apostles preached that men should repent; and God now commandeth all men every where to repent. Remember this is not my command, but God's; and whether we urge it or not, it will be binding upon you.

Whose duty is it to repent? The text answers. All men, every where--the high and the low-the rich and the poor-the learned and the ignorant. The king must come down from his throne, and sit in sackcloth-the anxious sinner, however distressed-the thoughtless sinner, however hard and stubborn may be his heart, all are commanded to repent.

When is it their duty to repent? Doubtless it is their duty to repent, when God commands them to do it. And what says the text? God now commandeth all men every where to repent. If it is not the duty of the sinner to repent now, it never has been his duty, and

it never will be. If we cannot urge immediate repentance, we cannot urge it at all. If the sinner finds it hard to repent to-day, it will be harder to-morrow. The longer he delays, the greater will be the number of his sins, and the harder will be his heart. And my hearers, if you cannot repent now, you never can. Do not misunderstand me. I do not say you never will. But you have no good reason to think you ever shall.

Paul preached the duty of immediate repentance; and has thus set an example for all other preachers of the gospel. Surrounded by rows of Athenian philosophers, with wonderful adroitness he says, "As I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God.'" Having selected his text, he begins, "Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." "God who made the world, and all things therein"--It was as though he had shot ten thousand suns into chaos.

With awful solemnity, he pressed home the subject, "God now commandeth all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Just as surely as Christ was raised from the dead, so surely, "all who are in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation."

Mark the effect of Paul's discourse. It divided his audience into three parts.

Some mocked.