living God; to you he will prove a consuming fire. Yes, he who now would rather that ye repent and live, he who would now shew mercy and forgiveness, will then swear in his wrath that ye shall not see the kingdom of heaven. Be assured that he who could and did save his praying disciples, can and will sink and destroy the impenitent, unbelieving, hardened, unclean sinner. Oh, then, while you have this hour given you to cry for mercy, cry aloud and cease not, "Lord Jesus, save, or I perish!" Delay not until to-morrow. Time is rolling on its full tide, and the stream will soon be out; and then eternity, boundless, endless, unfathomable eternity, will swallow you up. A moment only may remain for you to decide whether your soul shall be snatched as a brand from the eternal burnings of hell, and be redeemed through the atoning blood of the Lamb, or whether you shall sink into the bottomless pit for ever and for ever. May the Lord have mercy on you for Jesus Christ the Redeemer's sake. Amen.

"That man no guard or weapon needs, Whose heart the blood of Jesus knows; But safe may pass, if duty leads,

Through burning sands, or mountain snows.

"Releas'd from guilt, he feels no fear;
Redemption is his shield and tower;

He sees his Saviour always near,
To help in every trying hour.

"Though I am weak, and Satan strong,
And often to assault he tries,
When Jesus is shield and song,

my

Abash'd the wolf before me flies.

"His love possessing, I am blest, Secure whatever changes come;

Whether I go to east or west,

With him I still shall be at home.

"If plac'd beneath the northern pole,

Though winter reigns with rigour there; His gracious beams would cheer my soul, And make a spring throughout the year.

"Or if the desert's sun-burnt soil

My lonely dwelling e'er should prove, His presence would support my toil,

Whose smile is life, whose voice is love."

SERMON V.

THE BLESSING OF HUNGERING AND THIRSTING
AFTER RIGHTEOUNESSS.

MATTHEW v. 6.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled."

THESE words of our blessed Lord cannot be too deeply engraven on our hearts, or too frequently in our recollection. When the Lord Jesus came on earth to save and redeem souls from eternal death, there were two great things to be done by him, for man and in man, before the guilty sinner could depart hence, and enter the kingdom of heaven. The first was, to work out a meritorious obedience, and pay down the ransom for the poor captive slave of the Devil at the price of the sufferings and death of himself; the Son of God dying to redeem the son of

man; the holy, harmless, and undefiled Lamb of God, becoming a sacrifice for the unholy and rebellious sinner! When this was done, all the iniquities and all the transgressions wherein the offended had transgressed were blotted out of the Lord's book of remembrance; they were buried, as it were, in the depths of the sea, for all who repent and believe the Gospel. But as yet the soul was not in a state to go to heaven. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Heaven is altogether a holy kingdom, into which nothing can enter that defileth; man by nature is, however, altogether defiled. He is conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, and is by nature a child of wrath, one as well as another. And it must be particularly noticed, that the gracious act of Christ Jesus pardoning or redeeming a soul from the punishment due to past sins, does not renew or change the heart any more than a person paying for what he henceforth buys, pays off his past arrears of debt. To be an

honest man I must have an honest disposition. I must not only discharge old debts to escape punishment; but, from a love of upright dealings, I must pay for what I purchase in future. Many persons, in times of sickness, express themselves thus, "Oh, if the Lord would but pardon my sins, I should not care how soon I die." Now, for a certainty, no one can be fit to die until his sins are pardoned; but the mere pardon of sin is but one half of what must take place in the soul. What said the blessed Jesus, four times over, in his conversation with the Jewish ruler? Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John iii. 3, 4. Nicodemus knew very well, that unless a man's sins were pardoned, he could not enter into, or see that kingdom; but like multitudes of seamen and landsmen, like multitudes of rich men and of poor men now living, he knew nothing of the nature, or of the necessity of being born again. It has been said, that "heaven is a prepared

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