weep and wail for ever in the prison of despair, because we give not ourselves unto prayer, believing, prevailing prayer. Neglect this duty, and our thoughts are sensualized, our discourses breathe no life-giving spirit; our lives are assailable, and all our ministrations are sadly misdirected, if not perverted. "For Zion's sake, then, hold not your peace, for Jerusalem's sake rest not, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.' It is, I trust, with no ordinary feelings of gratitude to God that we are again permitted to assemble from our field of labor, to this seat of sacred science, made deeply interesting to us by a thousand delightful associations. Here we prayed and wept as we looked out upon the dying world. Here we buckled on the armor and prepared to go forth to the great battle with sin and error. With what courage, and faithfulness, and success we have engaged in the conflict, our Great Captain will reveal to us when the war is ended. We have shared in the responsibilities, labors, trials, honors, and happiness of preaching the everlasting Gospel to our fallen race. And we have now come to inquire, "watchinen, what of the night?" to exchange also our congratulations, blend our sympathies, and kindle anew at this altar our fraternal love. Nor will we forget, amid the pleasures of this occasion, to speak of those whom we loved,-with whom we have taken sweet counsel, but who have finished their work on earth, and gone before us to receive their reward in heaven. Nor can we forget to drop a tear on that newly made grave which has just received the remains of our honored and beloved father. If prayer offered to God without ceasing could have held him back from the grave; if professional skill could have warded off the fatal blow; if great intellectual and moral worth could have prevailed with the king of terrors; or if agonized conjugal and filial affection could have shielded him in her embrace, our venerated friend and teacher had not died; a throb of indescribable anguish would not have smote the heart of that institution, and hung its consecrated walls with curtains of black; nor would the Church of God be now pouring out floods of grief, because a great and good man has fallen in Israel. But who, since the dying agonies are over, would call back the sainted spirit from his crown and harp? Much as we loved him, and wide as is the breach made by his departure, we would rejoice in his victory and triumph; and while we are looking into the heavens whither he has gone, and cry, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof, may a double portion of his spirit, and his mantle fall upon us all.

Dr. Richards died about a week previous to the anniversary.

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."-2 Pet., iii. 9.

THE uniformity of the laws of Nature and of Providence has always been a fruitful occasion of scepticism and scoffing to irreligious men. This was true in that early age of the world, when Solomon, under the guidance of inspiration, recorded the fact, that "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." It was true in the days of our Saviour, and was strikingly symbolized in his parable of that evil servant, who said in his heart," My lord delayeth his coming," and so began to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and to drink with the drunken. It is true in these last days, of which Peter prophesied in the context, that there should come scoffers, "walking after their own lusts and saying: where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." The sinner is not destroyed by an angel from heaven in the very act of transgression. The Atheist mocks God and spits against the heavens, but no avenging bolt strikes him to the ground. The enemy of the cross of Christ repeats in their spirit the taunts of his murderers," he saved others, himself he cannot save; if thou be the Christ, save thyself and come down from the cross:" but no withering frown lowers on the brow-no scathing look of indignation flashes from the eye of the meek and benevolent sufferer. The heathen world is full of idolatry, and the Christian world of unbelief, and the hearts of the sons of men, almost universally, are fully set in them to do evil. But there are no signs that the world is coming to an end-no appearance of the Son of Man, as an Avenger and a Judge, in the clouds of heaven-no unusual lightnings, and thunderings, and heaving earthquakes, and falling stars-all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. True, as the Apostle suggests in the

Preached in the Amherst College Chapel on the last Thursday of February, 1842-the day set apart by the churches to be observed annually as a day of fasting and prayer for colleges and other seminaries of learning.

context, there are destructive elements, out of which the earth was originally constructed, of which it is still in no small part composed, and which need only be let loose, and it would be dissolved in a moment. Nay more, the records of Science and of Revelation agree in teaching, that one of these elements has already swept every part of the earth's surface with the besom of destruction, and left it bare of everything that has the breath of life. And another element, still more terrible in its energies and desolating in its effects, is now reserved in the bowels of the earth-that vast and portentous magazine of ever-living fires, which need but a word from the voice of the Almighty to burst the thin shell in which they are encrusted, and convert the world into one bottomless, shoreless ocean of surging flames. But wicked men walk over the pit of destruction in willing ignorance, or in desperate recklessness of the fiery billows that roll below, because they do not feel the earth giving way under their feet, nor see the heavens gathering blackness over their heads, nor find the elements melting with fervent heat around them; but they behold sun, moon and stars rolling on in their appointed circuits, and seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat, day and night succeeding each other, as they have from the foundation of the world.

How mysterious the circumstances under which man passes his probation! How much there is in them to remind him of his guilt and to warn him of his danger! Yet how much there is, of which he may take occasion, if he will, to lull his conscience to sleep, and harden still more a hard and impenitent heart! How strange that he should be allowed a probation at all after sinning so often, or sinning so much at once, under such circumstances! Why does heaven's vengeance sleep over the head of the transgressor? Why has not the deluge of fire long since gone forth and consumed a guilty world? Does the moral Governor of the universe connive at the violation of his law? Does he too, like the rulers of the earth, promise and not perform, or threaten and not execute?

To these questions we have an answer in the words of my text. The Lord is not slack in the fulfilment of his promise, however much men may charge him with slackness. This delay is the result of his forbearance and his goodness, and is designed to lead men to repentance. For he is not willing that any of his creatures should perish in sin. He desires the repentance and salvation of every individual of the human race. To this reason for God's delay to execute the sentence of his violated law-particularly to this last proposition, your attention is now invited.

God desires the repentance and salvation of every individual of the human family.-1. This great truth appears in the first place from the express declarations of his word. It is affirmed in the text as explicitly and as strongly as language can express it. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It is taught in the writings of Paul as clearly as in those of Peter. God our Šaviour will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge

of the truth. The Prophets assert it with no less earnestness than the Apostles. The language of God has been the same in all ages and under all dispensations. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Nor does he affirm it merely as a general and abstract proposition. He urges it upon the heart and conscience of particular transgressors, saying: turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? And when his affectionate warnings and expostulations are unheeded, how tenderly he mourns over their perverseness: oh, that they had hearkened to my voice! How shall I give thee up, how shall I deliver thee over to destruction! My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger. I will not return to destroy; for I am God and not man.

2. This truth results necessarily from the character of God. The idea is suggested by the passage just quoted: I will not return to destroy, for I am God and not man. A willingness to destroy is foreign to the nature and character of God. For God is love; and is love willing to inflict evil on the object of its affections? The very name of God imports that he is good-the good Being above all others-supremely good; and can supreme goodness be willing that any individual of our race should be eternally sinful and miserable? Punishment is his strange work. His delight is in the exercise of mercy. If he is brought in any instance to punish the guilty, it is only because his mercy extends to all his creatures and endures for ever; and mercy to a universe of immortal beings requires the sacrifice of the incorrigible transgressor.

Never shall we adequately conceive of the strength and intensity of God's desire for the salvation of men; for never shall we comprehend the length and breadth and height and depth of his infinite attributes. Does a father desire the virtue and happiness of his darling child beyond even the love he bears to himself? God is the real Father of all mankind. We are parents only in a secondary and subordinate sense. We are only the instruments of our children's existence-he is the Author of their being. We are finite in our conceptions of what is desirable, and in our affections for those we love. He is infinite in both. If we then, being evil, know how to give good things unto our children, how much more must he be willing to confer the gift of eternal life on all who are willing to receive it! How infinitely must our Father desire the holiness and happiness of all his children! Have you ever mourned over perverted faculties and blighted joys in some gifted sinner, and shuddered to think of him as sinning and suffering for ever in hell? But what do you know of the guilt of sin, or the pains of hell, or the capacities of man in comparison with the Omniscient mind! What abhorrence of sin and misery have you ever felt in comparison with him who is infinitely holy and infinitely benevolent! Is there joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth? And does not God himself rejoice infinitely more? To doubt that God desires the salvation of every sinner is not only to dis

credit his word and make him a liar, but to impugn his character and suppose him less benevolent than his creatures-less good than ourselves. If there be any proposition in theology, which admits of demonstration, it is this, that a Being of infinite goodness must look upon the eternal sin and misery of a single creature as an infinite evil. 3. The same truth is clearly manifested in the mingled goodness and severity of God's providential dispensations. This truth, and this only, can explain his forbearance and delay to execute judgment upon the ungodly. So argues our text and context. We have already adverted to the argument. But we wish to bring it up again for further consideration in connection with those divine attributes, to which we made little or no reference under our last head.

We must contemplate the justice and holiness of God, if we would see how benevolent he is in his dealings with our race. It is only in view of his hatred to sin, that we can appreciate his love to the sinner. When we consider how strong is his regard to his law, how intense his displeasure at transgression, and how much we are constantly doing to provoke his righteous indignation-in a word, when we consider how powerful are those holy principles of his nature, which impel him to our destruction, then we feel that our preservation for a day or an hour in unrepented sin is explicable only on the supposition that he has an ardent desire for our repentance and salvation.

Look then at the holiness of God-so spotless in its nature that the heavens are unclean in comparison-so high in its demands that he charges his angels with impurity and folly-so opposed to sin that he turns with loathing and abhorrence from the slightest stain of pollution. See him shrinking and shuddering, as it were, at the sight of transgression; and hear him exclaim: Oh, do not that evil, that bitter, that abominable thing, that my soul hateth.

Look at his justice, set for the defence of his law, armed for the punishment of the transgressor, whetting its glittering sword and eager to pierce the hearts of the King's enemies. See him seated on the throne of the universe, the natural guardian at once of his own rights as the moral governor, and of the interests of all his creatures as the subjects of that government, which rights and interests may all be endangered by the spreading spirit of insubordination and rebellion if it is not checked by the prompt infliction of condign punishment. Consider how he has expressed his holy displeasure at sin, and exhibited his justice in the punishment of the transgressors. See him hurling the angels, that kept not their first estate, from their celestial seats at the very first outbreak of rebellion, and confining them in everlasting chains under darkness! See him dooming our first parents and all their posterity to sickness, and sin, and pain, and death, as the penalty of a single act of disobedience! See him washing out all the sins of the old world with a flood that covered the highest mountains and cleansed the darkest corners of pollution on the face of the whole earth! See him burning out the deepest stains of uncleanness from Sodom and Gomorrah, raining fire and brimstone from heaven upon the devoted cities, and