treason the most disastrous. Yet what else is the church doing, if she relinquish the sea-faring class to the influence of sin and to the will of the destroyer of souls? She would be proposing virtually a most ruinous truce with satan, when resigning these to his unresisted control, and offering to abandon to his keeping the keepers of the highways of the nations.

5. While humbled in the review of her past negligence, and in the sense of present deficiencies, as to her labors for the seaman, the church has yet cause for devout thankfulness in the much that has recently been done for the souls of those who go down to the sea in ships, and in the perceptible change that has already been wrought in the character of this long neglected class of our fellow-citizens and fellow-immortals. God has poured out his spirit even on the incipient and uncertain efforts of his people; and from many a cabin and forecastle the voice of prayer even now ascends, and on many a deck the words of this salvation are read. "Let us not be weary in welldoing."

6. And now, lastly, we ask each of you: In that day, when earth and sea shall meet heaven in the judgment, where do you propose to stand? Among the saved, or the lost-the holy, or the sinful-at the right hand of the Judge, or at his left? Purposes of partial reformation or of future repentance cannot save you. Christ is now waiting to be gracious. He who will at last appear as the Judge, now comes as the Redeemer. He is now an Advocate; soon he will be the Avenger. Heaven stoops to win you. Hell rises to allure and destroy you. Oh, yield not to satan. Reject not Christ; for the Judge is at the door. And not this soul only of yours, but this body also must live must live forever: and can you wish it to live in endless, hopeless misery? A throbbing brow, or an aching tooth, are now sufficient to embitter all the enjoyments of life. What will it be when the whole body is cast into torment? Can you desire to meet your impenitent friends, to spend an eternity together in growing hate and mutual recrimination-to face your pious friends, a godly father, or a praying mother, and catch your last glance of hope, your last sight of happiness, as you see them mounting to glory, whilst you sink yourselves into the sea of fire-the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone forever and ever?

SERMON CCCXLIV..

BY REV. BARON STOW,

PASTOR OF THE BALDWIN PLACE BAPTIST CHURCH, BOSTON.

RELIGION OUR LIFE.

"It is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life."-DEUT. xxxii. 47.

NOTHING is more common than for men to insist upon the superlative importance of their own particular theory, business, or profession. Whatsoever is connected with ourselves, we are very apt to overrate, while the interests and affairs of others, we are likely in the same proportion to undervalue. This is the spirit of the world; this is human Lature as it is.

In a great multitude of minds, this principle is made the basis of judgment respecting the work of the Christian minister. When we labor to dissuade our hearers from sinful deeds and pleasures, and urge the superior claims and comforts of religion, we are regarded as actuated by this common selfishness;-as attaching special importance to faith, repentance, hope, and a holy life, merely because, as professed disciples and teachers of Christianity, we feel in such subjects a peculiar interest. We are often considered as acting professionallyconsistently enough, perhaps and yet only professionally—and as, therefore, liable to over-estimate the value of our avowed object. Hence the stress which we lay upon the belief of gospel doctrine, and the practice of gospel precept, is frequently deemed to be disproportionate and extravagant, and many feel themselves at liberty to make such abatement from the pressing demands of our message, as may best suit their own convenience.

But, allowing that this professional ultraism is the common fault of selfish humanity, and allowing also that the occupants of the pulpit are personally the subjects of the universal frailty of our race-selfishness is it not possible that the religion which we recommend is exempt from the application of a rule which may belong to other cases, and that when we declare it to be above all things important,

we utter only the words of truth and soberness, from which no deduction is allowable? If the Bible be true-and it remains to be proved that it is not true-then personal religion is the one thing needful, and our reasonings, and pleadings, and beseechings, and warnings, come not under the head of overheated enthusiasm; and the strongest language we can utter, and the most vigorous action we can employ, are not only justified but imperiously demanded.

The passage before us will amply sustain me in my position, and bear me out in urging you, one and all, to seek FIRST the kingdom of God and his righteousness. It is the language of Moses, a man of extraordinary learning, experience, and practical wisdom; and it is the more worthy of consideration from the fact that it was uttered at the advanced age of one hundred and twenty years, and near the conclusion of a well-spent life. He had long been the guide and instructor of Israel; had participated in their joys and sorrows, their dangers and deliverances, and had officiated between them and Jehovah as a subordinate mediator, typical, in some respects, of the ONE MEDIATOR THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. Through him had the God of their fathers communicated his will to the people, and through him had the confessions and desires of the people been spread before God in the clouded mount. He has now arrived with his migratory host in the vicinity of the Promised Land, and he takes occasion to address the people most tenderly and faithfully upon subjects of the deepest interest to their future welfare. He speaks with a fervor and an unction that show how profoundly he feels his responsibleness to God, and how earnest is his solicitude for the spiritual good of his beloved charge. It was his farewell discourse; and no sooner was it concluded, than God commanded him to ascend mount Nebo, look at the long-sought Canaan, and die. He addressed his flock no more, except to impart his final blessing. This was soon done, and God took him to his reward.

This, therefore, is the language of a man who stood, and who knew that he stood on the border of two worlds. He understood and felt what he said. He spoke of the value of religion; and as he looked back on time, and forward into eternity, he testified to its importance as beyond all comparison :-It is not a vain thing for you, because it is YOUR LIFE.

I. It is NOT a vain thing. This it would be very easy to show, for its truth is confirmed by the testimony of all scripture and of all Christian experience. But the very terms of the negative imply a strong affirmation. If I say of a thing that it is not empty, I mean that it contains something. If I say that it is not worthless, I mean that it is valuable. And I use the negative form of expression to give the greater emphasis to an affirmative proposition. So when I say that to be a Christian is not a vain thing, I mean to be understood, and doubtless am understood as saying that it is positively excellent and desirable. To possess the Christian's heart and the Christian's hope

to love God supremely, and feel a spirit of charity towards all mankind, is not an imaginary, but a real good; not a shadow, but a substance; not an exterior show, but an internal solidity; not a matter of indifference, but of absolute necessity. No consideration in the universe is so important to you as the salvation of your soul. No question involves so much of your real interest, as this oft-repeated but grievously neglected one, Are you a Christian?

II. It is your life. Strong as is the implication of the negative, the affirmative is infinitely stronger. How significant and emphatic the expression-It is YOUR LIFE. The convalescent invalid says of a particular medicine, "It is my life,"-meaning that it has afforded essential relief, and is restoring his health. The literary man says of his books, "They are my life,"-implying that they are indispensable to his comfort, improvement, and usefulness. So when we affirm that the religion which we recommend, is your life, we use the words with a similar meaning, and yet with a meaning that is infinitely more accordant with truth. We would fain impress upon your minds the conviction, that to you this religion is more important than anything else within the range of human or superhuman conception. To your well-being, as a moral and an accountable agent, it is indispensable. It involves all that is really valuable in time and in eternity. It is your life. Measure the import of the expression-your life! Said satan and well he knew-All that a man hath will he give for HIS LIFE. The religion of Jesus Christ is your life, and when you come to view it as such, you will surrender everything else for its sake. What would not each of the ill-fated Lexington's company, or the Pulaski's, or the Albion's company, have given, in their fatal hour, for the means of escape from a watery grave-for something, no matter what, which they might have embraced as their life, and by the help of which they might have been restored to their homes and their kindred? And in the dread scene of the world's conflagration, or even in the hour of death, who of my impenitent hearers will not count the religion of the Bible as of infinite worth, and mourn that it cannot then be secured? Of the few that escaped from those wrecks, who did not value, as above all price, the means of preservation;who would have sold upon any terms the plank, the settee, the cotton bale, or the life-preserver, that buoyed him up, and bore him drifting away from the scene of ruin? "Part with this! It is my life! All earth can offer me no equivalent for it!" And where is the believer, as he considers what religion has done for him, and is now doing for him, and promises still to do for him both in time and in eternity, who would not feel that in relinquishing his hold upon the religion of Christ, he was letting go his all? It is not a vain thing for me, declares every Christian under the whole heaven, because it is MY LIFE. On this I lay my soul; I cling to it as a life-buoy. Part with this, and I am lost forever!

When, however, I assert, upon divine authority, that personal reli

gion is indispensable, I do not mean to say that you cannot disregard and neglect it. I know full well that you can, for, while I wonder how you can, I see that many of you do neglect it as if it were a vain thing, rather than your life. But I know also that you cannot neg lect it without displeasing God, and incurring to yourselves infinite damage. You may indeed dispense with faith, and prayer, and a holy life; but the results will be that you must dispense also with all the blessedness of present piety, and that God will surely dispense with your presence in heaven. You may, if you choose, despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance, not realizing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to that repentance which is unto salvation; but you cannot do it without treasuring unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Whether you shall or shall not embrace the great salvation, is not a question which you may decide either way with equal innocence or equal safety. The religion of the Lord Jesus is your life; irreligion is your death. The Great Alternative is, Repentance or Perdition. Welcome the Savior to your heart, and you are happy forever. Reject him, and it will cost you everlasting damnation.

When we say that personal religion is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life, we mean that it is essential

1. To your peace of mind.

Of the wicked, God himself has said, that to them there is no peace. True as are all his declarations, he has made no other statement that is sustained by so many corroborative facts. You who are impenitent have never enjoyed one half hour of true peace of mind such as you would venture to say upon a dying bed was happiness. Seldom, dur ing your waking hours;-never, except when your consciences are lulled into slumber by the stupefying influence of some narcotic error, or of sensual indulgence, or of absorbing worldliness-never are you free from uncomfortable apprehensions touching the soul's futurity. You may labor to disbelieve the Bible; but, even if you succeed, the difficulty is not remedied. Infidelity, in none of its forms, can furnish a substitute to pacify the restless spirit. Should you, blinded by the sophistry of the senses, persuade yourself that the word of God does not mean what it says with respect to the character and the end of the wicked, you gain nothing even on the score of genuine comfort. There is still in your bosom the worm that dieth not, the original and eternal cause of inquietude and wo. And just in proportion to your zeal and activity in defending such error, do we discover evidence of your inward restlessness and dissatisfaction. Through the very means by which you would convince us that you are happy, you betray the proofs of a misery that devours the heart with a vulture's appetite. A mind unreconciled to God is any where and every where a miserable mind. Engage in any pursuit, travel to any country, mingle in any society, the occasion of unhappiness remains. It is unpacified conscience-unrenewed moral nature-a part and parcel of yourself. One of your own number, more frank than his fellows, has confessed it :-