giveness, that they now feel his anger is turned away, and that he has healed all their backslidings, and loves them freely! Oh, let the hearts of all such rejoice and be glad, and let their lips be ever ready to sound forth his praise. Often look back, my christian friends, on your past conduct and on your past wretchedness, when you took your journey as far as possible into the sad country of the enemies of your God and his Christ. Think how it was with you, when even the husks of the swine were refused you. Think how the world and Satan led you on almost to destruction of body and soul; and how they then gave you up to sink or swim, to live or die, to perish or not, without one atom of pity or concern for you, whether you went to heaven or hell. And then think of the tender mercies of that dear and blessed Lord, who regarded you in your low estate, who received you into his mercy, who admitted you into his presence, and who now loves you, and manifests himself to you. And let all your remaining days be given to him,

until he calls you into his kingdom, to live and reign with him for ever!

"How sad our state by nature is!
Our sin, how deep its stains!
And Satan binds our captive souls
Fast in his slavish chains.

"But there's a voice of sov'reign grace
Sounds from the sacred Word,
Oh! ye despairing sinners, come
And trust upon the Lord.

"Oh, may we hear th' Almighty call,
And run to this relief!

We would believe thy promise, Lord;
Oh, help our unbelief!

"To the blest fountain of thy blood
Teach us, O Lord, to fly;

There may we wash our spotted souls
From sins of deepest dye!

"Poor, guilty, weak, and helpless worms,
On thy kind arm we fall;

Be thou our strength and righteousness,
Our Jesus and our all!"

SERMON XXI.

THE DUTY AND NECESSITY OF WATCHFULNESS.

MARK XIII. 37.

"What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch."

In this chapter we find that our Lord had been foretelling the destruction of the temple, and the visitations of judgment that would overtake the Jews for their sins and unbelief; and that he then proceeded to point out the coming of that great day when all the world should be called, in an instant, to stand before the Judge of quick and dead. He then concluded with the words of the text, "What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." Applying this to the sure and certain fact, that those whom he then addressed would each and all be summoned into the Lord's presence by death,

and that as sure as the event would happen, so sure it was that the time was hidden from them all; and that unless they were constantly remembering and preparing for it, it might come upon them when they little expected, and when they were ill prepared for its arrival. Now as this is the case with us all, let us endeavour to improve our Lord's words as spoken to each of us. Every person readily allows the certainty of death. All men know that they must die; but no man knows when. The certainty of death, the uncertainty of its coming, and the awfully solemn consequences connected with that event, are the reasons why so many calls and warnings are mercifully repeated in the Word of God. The Lord would not have us called away in an unfit state; he would not have us hurried into eternity without our being put on our guard, without our having our having instruction, and warning how to flee from the wrath to come, and how to lay hold on eternal life. Now, as eternal wrath or eternal salvation is the lot of every man who

R

dies, and as the beginning of that wrath, or of that salvation, sets in the instant the soul quits the body, it is the grand business of every man's life to see that “death be gain" to him whenever, whereever, and however it overtakes him. In other words, the grand business of man in this world is to get well out of it, is so to watch, and act, and believe, as that death may find him prepared to go; so as that" whether his Lord comes at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning," he may be found with his lamp trimmed and his light burning. Now the way to watch and prepare so as to find a happy death by and bye, is to watch and pray against every thing that would be a hindrance to the soul's growth in grace on one hand, and to watch and pray for the help and advantage of every grace and assistance to further the Lord's work on the other. Hence, in considering our Lord's words, "What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch," we have to remember,