In conclusion,—We shall be led to ask, in the first place, whether we have accepted the invitations in the Gospel. That they are proclaimed aloud, no one can deny. That the plainest advice is given in sacred Scripture to persons under all circumstances and in every situation of life, is equally clear. The Lord God deals with us as with rational and accountable creatures, and to Him we must render an account of our stewardship. May we do it with joy, and not with grief!

We are led, by a careful perusal of our Bible, to see that there is a vast superiority and a real blessedness in true religious principle. It is not merely a giving up sins, and a resisting of temptation, and a denial of self, without any sound reason for such sacrifices. It is not negative, but actual positive good; but it is a taking of the good in place of the evil; it is rising in the scale of being; from the sensual, the profane, and the worldly, to the rational, the spiritual and the heavenly. It is, in fact, to regain, by the help of God, that which we had lost. It is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to accept the gift; the

free gift of God in Christ Jesus, which is eternal life. Upon this our own comfort and our happiness depend. For we may be assured that a good and holy God wishes his servants to be happy; otherwise it would not be said of Wisdom, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." In every festival of the Jewish church there was joy and gladness. Let it be so with the Christian, or the Jew will put the Christian to the blush. In every circumstance of the Jewish history, sin and rebellion brought misery and the heavy wrath of God. And in a history which should be better known to every one of us, in the little history of our own lives, the same truths are spoken, but in different language. Else why those mournings and lamentations of the royal prophet; My sins have taken such hold upon me that I am not able to look up;" why the catalogue of sins in Ezekiel's roll, written within and without with lamentation and mourning and woe? Whence St. Paul's exclamation, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Why these piteous complaints

Р

66

of God and holy men, but for the original and actual sin which pressed down the spirit? But to every one of these servants of God there was an offer of pardon and free forgiveness made, and doubtless they accepted it. If they experienced the weight of bondage, they knew the comfort of being brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. "Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and whose sin is covered: blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Such characters know the joyful sound of grace and goodness; they rejoice in the light of God's countenance. And if so in this world, how much more so in that which is to come! If it was a joyful sound when the tribes went up to worship in the earthly courts of Jerusalem; if they gave thanks unto the name of the Lord; what tongue will be able to express the joy and gladness of those who shall enter into the courts of Jerusalem which is above? The trumpet sounded at the jubilee at the giving of the law at the fall of Jericho. At the end of the world another trumpet shall sound; and the dead shall be raised, incorruptible. That awful

day of judgment will precede the everlasting salvation and glorification of the servants of God. Who can paint the utter confusion and dismay of such as shall have rejected the repeated offers of divine mercy? They shall call upon the mountains to fall on them, and on the hills to cover them. They shall be banished from the presence of the Lord. The same sound, we well know, even on earth can produce very different sensations in different persons in a different state of mind. And so will it be in the last great day to the impenitent and to the ungodly the voice of the archangel and the trump of God will speak endless misery. To the humble, faithful soul it will be but as the beginning of endless happiness. The righteous shall with awe and reverence hear it and be glad; they shall rejoice in the light of God's

countenance !

:

Let these awakening thoughts lead you, my brethren, to serious reflection. I ask but three things at your hands, and these three for your own endless comfort: prayer,―reflection,—reading. Think, O think, what is time to eternity!—a span,

a hand-breadth, compared to a space which shall know no end. Then in heaven, joyful sounds will yet be heard: harpers, harping with their harps. A song of saints and angels. And we ourselves invited to take part in it. Hosanna to the Son of David! Hallelujah." But there will be no peace, no joy, no joyful sound to the wicked. Their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. The smoke of their torment

will but proclaim their misery.

May God give us grace, by a timely preparation for eternity, to ensure these great blessings by fleeing to Christ Jesus. May the invitations of the Gospel be regarded and welcomed now: may the life of Christ be ours to imitate, and may the atoning blood of Christ purchase an entrance into that Heaven, for which the Holy Spirit of God shall have sanctified our corrupt natures! May we know these joyful sounds: may we rejoice in the light of God's countenance !