explanation of his meaning: "Those by the wayside are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."-Several important truths are here touched upon.

1. The Design intended in God's ordinance of preaching — what is it? We answer, Your salvation. This word implies, that you are not naturally in a safe state. But the object of preaching is, to make known the danger in which you are placed, and to recommend to you the only Deliverer. It is to tell you, again and again, (for the human heart is slow to hear,) that you are at enmity with God by sin-that he cannot overlook your wickedness that must forsake it-that he has found a method for honourably pardoning it-that the Redeemer is his own dear Son-and that, if you can gain an interest in his intercession, he will be your Friend and Saviour for ever. -Further,

you

2. The Means of becoming interested in this salvation are also here declared. "Lest they should believe," says the parable, " and be saved." The point, then, on which salvation hinges, is Faith-believing God's word, that is, "the record which he hath given of his Son." If you believe that record—taking it home to your heart and affections-accepting it with the fervour and confidence of one who feels that there is no other hope for him, but that this will support him, sin

ner as he is, in life, in death, and to all eternity; then you are saved-saved through Christ for ever.' You are brought into the number of those whom he will guide, and instruct, and try, and humble, and sanctify-but whom he will "preserve unto his heavenly kingdom." God grant that you may all be hearers of this kind!-But, alas, it is not so; for, thirdly,

3. A Hindrance, with many, occurs at the very outset. No sooner is the word of life spoken to them, than" then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."- Howsoever men may dispute respecting the terms of salvation under the Gospel, that great enemy of our souls, you observe, knows them well enough. As God designs that we should be saved by believing, Satan labours to prevent our believing: and therefore he is ready, whenever the word is being preached, to catch it away before it is believed. See on how critical a turn, my friends, your salvation may depend! We are now" declaring to you glad tidings," "that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." You may possibly never have this blessed news so clearly set before you again. But there is an enemy at your ear, watching his opportunity to undo whatever impression the truth may be likely to make upon your mind. Do not ask me how he will effect his evil purpose. Jesus Christ tells you, that he often does effect it;

and therefore my business is, to sound the alarm in your ears, and cry, " Awake, thou that sleepest! Watch and pray, lest the devil hinder that salvation, which the Gospel offers thee-and offers thee now. For you must observe, that,

4. The Success or Failure of this hindrance will be owing, not to Satan-though his power is fearfully great-but to yourselves. The fowls of the air cannot snatch away that seed, which the soft soil has received into its bosom, and covered. But if the ground be hard on the surface, trodden down by every passenger-there lies the seed, ready to be devoured, or bruised, or blown away by every wind! And such, our Lord tells us, is the condition of many a hearer of the word. His mind is shut against its admission, by prejudice, by thoughtlessness, by drowsy slumber, by vain imaginations. His heart is common ground to every other visitor-and he will let them follow him, even within these sacred walls: what wonder if, while he is attending to them, his great enemy succeeds in "taking away from his heart the word by which he might have been saved?

Is there not too much reason to fear, that a large proportion of our congregations, even where the ministration of the word is most faithful, consists of these way-side hearers? May God awaken, convert, and soften them, ere that Gospel, which should have been "for their health," prove the occasion of their fall into irrecoverable destruction!

But methinks I hear you say, 'I am an exception from the class that has been described. I listen to the word which is preached; nay more, admit its truth, I approve and admire it?' Let me then apply to you the touchstone of our Lord's second description.

II." SOME [SEED] FELL UPON A ROCK; and as soon as it was sprung up, it lacked moisture."

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it withered away, because They on the rock," saith our Saviour," are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy: and these have no root; which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away."

It is a class of hearers, you observe, in whom there is some appearance of believing the Gospel. They receive the word;" their attention follows the Preacher-their mental faculties are in exercise-their judgment assents to the doctrine which is delivered, and to the course of life which is inculcated. Further, their assent is not a cold and involuntary, but a warm and lively, approbation. "They receive the word with joy." It yields them pleasure—and such pleasure, that they come with eagerness to hear it again. And can all this be still defective and fallacious? Our Lord tells us that it may;-and it will be for you to consider whether it is actually so, in your own individual There may still be no root, no moisture, no real faith, and therefore no salvation hereafter.

case.

In our day, my brethren, the faithful and energetic preaching of the Gospel has come to be regarded as one means of intellectual gratification, on the part of many who frequent it. Nay, why should I limit the remark to our own times, when we have on record a similar description, and that of so old a date as the captivity in Babylon? To attend upon the stern Reprover, sometimes opposing, sometimes applauding his language, but never heeding his reproofs or his counsels, was with fallen Israel a fashionable entertainment. "Lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well upon an instrument; for they hear thy words, -but they do them not." Was this the fault of Ezekiel? Did he deliver his message unfaithfully? No-but it was an awful effect of the nation's unbelief. And if we, my brethren, shall be found to resemble them in this trifling with holy things-if it be human talent that we admire, and not God's truth as delivered by his frail and worthless messenger-if to be pleased is our object, rather than to be awakened, humbled, comforted, saved; then may Israel's fate become ours, sooner than we expect: and the Lord may make us to know, not by the breaking of our bondage, but by the multiplication of our sorrows, "that there hath been a prophet among (Ezekiel xxxiii. 30-33).

But is it not uncharitable to suppose, that,