an engaged Christian, when they come so far short of the Christian life? If a man would feel lively and interested in the cause of God, he must be a laborer in his vineyard-he must lead a watchful and prayerful life-he must husband his resources and diligently cultivate all the fruits of righteousness. While he folds his arms and sleeps upon the bed of sloth; while he squanders and idles away his invaluable moments; while he neglects year after year known and manifest duty, he cannot feel the love and peace of God flowing through his soul, or the word of God like fire shut up in his bones. O, idle professors, up! get ye out of this place, and bestir yourselves in the vineyard of God. Shake off sloth and stupudity, and you will soon begin to feel both the relish and enjoyment of spiritual things.

In the conclusion of my discourse, permit me to enforce this question: Why stand ye here all the day idle? Is it because you have no work to do? Have you no sins to forsake, no vicious habits to renounce, no evil temper to subdue? Have you repented of all your sins, and washed away its guilty stains in the Redeemer's blood? Have you put off the old man with his deeds, and crucified the flesh with its lusts? Have you adorned the soul with the graces of the gospel, and kindled up the undying fire of love and zeal upon the altar of a frozen heart? Have you obtained a meetness for an inheritance among the saints in light? Have you provided for yourselves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that fadeth not away? O, sinner, why stand ye here all the day idle, while you have a heart to renew, and a soul to save? while there is a hell to shun, a heaven to win, and a God to serve?

Why stand ye here all the day idle? Here upon earth, a stage for action, a field for labor! Here is the vineyard, and now is the time, the only time for labor. You have no time to waste in idleness, or to consume in sleep. While you sleep, the enemy of your soul is sowing tares; while you are standing idle, your poverty is coming like one that travelleth, and your want as an armed man. Your poverty and want, like an armed traveller, are making sure steps, every hour coming nearer and nearer to the door, to effect your total destruction; and you are standing idle! Why stand ye here all the day idle?

I have come by the authority of my Master, to employ laborers for his vineyard. And shall I first engage those of you who are in the morning of life? The householder first went out, early in the morning, to hire laborers into his vineyard. God is delighted with the services of the young mind; he is pleased with the devotion of a youthful heart. He says, I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me. Some of the youth who hear me, have already entered into the vineyard, have already engaged in the service of God. They find the ways of wisdom to be pleasantness, and all her paths to be peace-they find the yoke of Christ to be easy, and his burden to be light. They have gamboled with

you upon the plains of pleasure, and sported with you upon the hills of delight. They have gone with you to pluck the flowers of sin, and to gather the blossoms of pleasure. O now come, and go with them into the vineyard of God; O, travel with them up the hill of Zion-for there grows the tree of life, and there is the paradise of God. Here the plants are clothed with verdure, ever fresh and ever green-here the flowers never wither, here the blossoms never die.

Young man, my Master needs your services in his vineyard. You who are strong to labor, you who are full of health and vigor, come and enter into his vineyard, and spend the flower of your days in his service, the prime of your years to his glory and honor. While you live on earth, live to some valuable purpose and to some noble end. By entering into the vineyard now, you may not only secure the reward of grace, a crown of glory that shall never fade away, but you may be the means of enlisting many others in the same cause, of inducing many of your associates and companions to enter into the same vineyard. Young woman, my Master needs your services, and to-day he calls you to enter into his vineyard. Many of you have left a father's house, a mother's home, to seek employment in this village. and here my Master has sent his servant to hire laborers into his vineyard. As an encouragement to engage in his service, he offers you the gift of eternal life; he offers you a seat at his right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore. Come and enter into his vineyard to-day, and he will clothe you with a robe as white as the lily and as pure as the light; he will beautify you with salvation; he will give you the ornaments of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price. If you are thrown an orphan upon the world, he will be your father; if the afflictions of life press heavily, he will assist in carrying your burden, and he will never leave you nor forsake you.

This householder also went out at the sixth and the ninth hour, to hire laborers into his vineyard. By this metaphorical language, we are to understand the call of the gospel to those, who are in the middle and the decline of life. With you, my friends, the spring of life has passed away, and all the flowers of youth have dropped off. You are now going down the declivity of time; and the winter of old age, which must chill all the streams of life to the very fountain, is rapidly approaching you. Often did you say, in your youthful days, when I become settled in life, then will I seek the Lord; when I have made provisions for time, then will I lay up treasures in heaven. These days are past, and you are still in the eddy of folly, you are still in the whirl of sin. Like the sluggard, you are saying a little more sleep, a little more slumber. How long will you be deceived by the intoxicating pleasures of sin? how long will you be allured by the enchanting paths of vice? Shall the flesh reign till the very day the soul is summoned before the tribunal of God? Shall it be surrendered up all stained with crimes,

all polluted with sin? Have you not neglected your souls, and robbed God long enough? Have you not made vows and promises enough? Ŏ, then, to-day enter into his vineyard; to-day close in with the overtures of mercy; to-day wash out the guilty stains of sin with the atoning blood of the Lamb.

Finally, he went out about the eleventh hour, and found others standing idle; he saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? It is the eleventh hour, the day is nearly closed, the sun is just ready to sink behind the western hills. Venerable fathers and mothers, to-day you have one more gospel call, you have one more offer of mercy. It is your last, your only opportunity of securing a saving interest in Christ. The dark clouds of death are now floating over your heads; the quicksands of life are giving way under your feet. Soon, the curtains of life will be drawn; soon, you will be shrouded in the dark mantle of death. If you ever enter into the vineyard, you must enter it without delay. Now is no time to meditate, no time to consider; you must act, and you must act immediately, if you would be saved. After so long a time as to-day, and the last hour of the day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. How awful would be the sight, to see a sinner accursed, an hundred years old. But if he were a thousand, and lived and died in sin, he would be banished from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.

But, alas, why do I speak to the man of grey hairs, to the man with trembling limbs? for who can tell, among all who are numbered in this assembly, the heart in which the first shaft of death will be transfixed? In all this assembly, who can decipher the individual that will be first laid away in the cold grave? God has whet his glittering sword, his uplifted arm is stretched out over us, and he will soon strike the fatal blow: but who is first to fall by it is a question we cannot answer? It may be that wicked young man! It may be that gay and thoughtless young woman! God, for wise purposes, has hid the future from us! He has assured us that we must all die, but has reserved the times and seasons to himself. We should all, therefore, have our lamps trimmed and burning, and be as servants waiting for the coming of their Lord.

DISCOURSE XVIII.

On Spiritual Declension.

"Peter followed afar off."-Luke xxii., 54.

WHAT! Peter, the courageous, the zealous Peter, who had made such a noble confession of his Lord-who had always been so prompt and indefatigable in his cause-who had declared himself ready to die for his sake-does he begin to waver? does he follow his Lord afar off, like one ashamed to desert him, and yet afraid to stand by him? Yes, that man who appeared so ardent, so confident, so heroic, now acts the part of a hesitating coward, and follows his Saviour afar off. The language of the text not only describes the literal distance of his person from Christ, but indicates the state of his mind. His heart was distanced from him; hence, although he did not totally forsake him, yet he followed with faint and faltering steps.

But Peter has many imitators in the present day, of whom it may be said with equal propriety, they follow Jesus afar off. The time once was when they followed hard after him, and beheld his glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; but now to them Jesus has lost his charms; he is like a root out of dry ground; there is no form nor comeliness in him that they should desire him-the gold has become dim, and the most fine gold is changed. They are no longer delighted in the service of God, for to them his yoke is hard, and his burden is heavy.

I. In addressing you from the words of the text, we shall consider, in the first place, what is implied in following Christ. The apostles followed Christ, both literally and morally, as his personal attendants and approved disciples. They gladly received his word, acknowledged his Messiahship, and obeyed his injunctions. In these respects we ought to be followers of God as dear children.

1. We should follow Christ as our Teacher, to instruct us. Jesus Christ is a Teacher come from God to instruct us. He left the bosom of the Father, and came down from heaven to earth to declare him to us, to make known his perfections, and to reveal his mind and will concerning man. In particular, he has come to inform us what plan his heavenly Father has devised for the restoration of a guilty world to his favor; and in what way they must walk so as to please and honor him. He directs us to come to him with the docility of little children, and receive instruction from his lips: Learn of me, says he, for I am meek and lowly in heart; that is, for I can bear with your infirmities, and will carefully convey instruction to you, as you are able to receive it. It was in this way that Mary sat at his feet, whilst her more worldly-minded sis

ter Martha was deeply interested to provide for the guests she was about to entertain, a, rich and sumptuous repast; and this was the good part which Mary chose, and which our Lord assured her should never be taken from her. To inculcate this lesson, and to induce this habit, was the real scope of our Lord's address to the rich youth, who desired to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Our Lord told him he must keep the commandments. And when the young man, ignorant of their spiritual import, affirmed that he had kept them all from his youth up, our Lord said to him, Go and sell all thou hast vnd come and follow me, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; by which he meant, not that the sacrifice of earthly treasures would purchase those which are eternal, but that, by disincumbering his mind of earthly cares, and attending diligently to the instructions that should be given him, he should gradually be guided into all truth, and finally attain that eternal life about which he had professed so much concern. This is what our Lord requires at our hands also; and not merely at the commencement of our Christian course, but throughout our whole lives. After he had taught his disciples during the whole of his ministerial life, even after he was risen again from the dead, he both expounded to them out of the prophets all that related to himself, and opened their understandings, that they might understand the Scriptures; and in like manner must we, to the latest hour of our lives, come to him for the illumination of our minds by his word and Spirit. We shall still need the same teaching as at first, and must come to him for that spiritual eye-salve which he alone can give.

We

2. It is not sufficient, however, that we follow him as our Teacher; we must, also, follow him as our Master, to rule over us. call him Lord and Master, and we say well; for so he is. But to what purpose shall we call him Lord, Lord, if we do not the things he says? His word must be a law to us at all times, and under all circumstances. There is no authority whatever that is to be regarded in comparison as his. When the apostles were forbidden to preach in his name, they made this appeal to their rulers : Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. No menaces should ever intimidate or deter us from the path of duty; we must say with St. Paul, None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto me, so that I may discharge the duty that I owe unto my Lord, and approve myself to him as a faithful servant.

3. We must, furthermore, follow him as our Saviour, to save us. There is no other Saviour, no other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved. It is he, and he only, who has power to deliver us from the dominion of sin, and impart to us that holiness and purity by which we can be admitted into the presence of God. Through him we must be reconciled to the Father; and by him we may be justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. Hence he says, look unto me,