ling to grasp the ropes, (1.) and the Captain of salvation will do the rest.

Do they eagerly and joyfully embrace this last and only refuge? Alas, no! Strange to tell; while very many eagerly and gladly secure it, the great multitude treat the tender and compassionate messages and efforts of the Builder, through his son, with utter indifference. Their neglected Preserver mournfully expostulates,' Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die? Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life.'

Some when invited to take refuge in the Glad Tidings, reply, 'Not I! We must all go to the bottom of this sea which is not very deep, and fare alike. After a while the Builder will kindly draw us up again, and we shall be as well off as those who get into your craft; and we shall get into port as soon too, without troubling ourselves or working our passage. Good or bad, in the Life-boat or not, we shall have an equal and universal deliverance.' Hapless wretches! They sink to rise no more, except as corpses forever dead: they sink to rise no more, except to shame and everlasting contempt. (2.) Others who had got together a few broken oars, yards, and booms, are seen declining the same invitation with sweet smiles, and graceful gestures and polished speeches. The substance of their plea is this: 'I need not a Life-boat. See what a complete and sufficient raft I have of my own making. I shall float very pleasantly to yon beautiful white beach on this bundle of good deeds.' In vain they are assured that there is no other Life-boat under heaven whereby they must be saved: they hug their frail delusion till the rapids of death tear their raft to fragments, and they perish with their refuge of lies. If for no other reason, this were enough, it was not the Life-boat.

There were many who were swollen with pride, and fancied that they were safe, because they were puffed up. They talked of the dignity of their nature, and trusted in its power of selfexaltation to preserve them from drowning. They are too sensitive or too haughty to touch the rough ropes of repentance, humiliation, and self-denial. They spurn the fact that they are poor helpless things, dependent for deliverance on the power and merit of one whom they will not love. But the inflation cannot always last: they are pierced by a fragment of their own sad wreck; and, immediately collapsing, sink in hopeless despair!

(1.) Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Psal. 110: 3.

(2.) And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Dan, 12: 2.

1

Another, who was floating about on a figure-head richly carved and gilt, answers the summons from the Life-boat in language like this: 'It is pleasant to paddle about in these waters; though it may be as you say, that they are turbid, foul, and the treacherous snare which covers a liquid grave. There is time enough yet, there is time enough yet all my intimate companions are disporting here; wait till I am too old or too weak to swim any longer.' Alas for the votary of pleasure in an hour he thought not of, he is devoured by the shark, bred in the dark bosom of the waters he loves so well.

And there might be seen one, who is trembling on an old spirit-cask, and listening to the warnings from the Life-boat, and just on the point of grasping a proffered rope, when he hears the old Pirate and his crew deriding and mocking him. He cannot bear that: he is ashamed to be saved, he perishes. (1.)

Another excuses himself from laying hold on the hope set before him, on pretence that when the ship was wrecked his hands were numbed or perhaps cut off. He is told to seize the opportunity with his remaining members, with his teeth; but he protests that he has no power; he is very willing, but utterly unable to help himself in the least. He is asked if he means to reproach the Captain of the Glad Tidings with mocking his miseries, by offering relief on impossible terms? He only answers that he can do nothing; and it is in vain for him to try. Upon this, the Captain of salvation and his co-workers contrive to throw their bands of love 'around him, and tell him to act on his own principles; to lie still, and he shall soon be with them. But, strange as it may appear, he resists the means they are using. In vain they urge him to submit, and tell him that it requires no power to yield submissively. His terrible efforts to be free from the influences and attractions which he begins to feel are drawing him toward the boat, prove that it is not the want of power which is his ruin. His resistance convinces every one but himself, that so far from not having power enough to save himself, he has a great deal too much, since he misapplies it all to the accomplishment of his own destruction.

Here might be seen one just on the point of grasping at the proffered help from the ark of safety, when a gold-fish darts by. His eye is caught by the slippery splendor. He forgets for a moment his danger and relief. He dives for the glittering

(1.) Whosoever therefore, shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulturous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels. Mark 8: 38.

prize he never rises again: he is never seen pursuing salva tion more. (1.) He loses both his life and his prize.

You might see several drifting along on shattered spars, and delaying their rescue on a very strange pretence. They acknowledged that their case was most culpable and perilous; that the Life-boat was their only chance for deliverance; and that they must secure it soon or never: but they were waiting for a deeper conviction, a more distressing apprehension of the fact, that they were exposed to an awful death. Their plea was, 'We cannot consistently come on board till we are more sensible of the horrors of our condition;' O infatuation! O stupidity! Could waiting help thein? could bewildering fear and anguish make them, even if it should come in season, any riper for an escape? Could they thus be made any better; and so saved in part before seeking refuge in the ark? Were they not trusting in their own feelings, and making saviours of their expected convictions? Miserable dependence, on which to incur the risks of a moment's delay. And conviction came to them; but it came too late. It came while they were stifling, sinking and dying in the fathomless deeps, where mercy could not reach them.

Many were hailed from the Glad Tidings, and were lending an attentive ear, and beginning to turn a wishful look, when large bubbles rose upon the face of the waters. The bubbles had a most enticing look; they seemed filled with the very breath of fame, and oh ! for the name of possessing one of the beauteous trifles! They floated along just before their fascinated eyes, and either hid the vessel of hope entirely, or else made it appear very diminutive by transmitting a contracted image of it, just as if it were seen through the wrong end of a spy-glass. Here was one with a cutlass in his hand, who had striven so furiously to obtain one of these bubbles, that he had hastened the destruction of several of his competitors for it; and as he was in the very act of catching it, his own turn came, for a sword-fish ran him through. There was another who labored desperately for a similar prize, deeming that its buoyancy would enable him to float in a fancied immortality. But alas! it bursts in his grasp, and he goes despairing down.

There was no small number who rejected every invitation and entreaty from the Life-boat, on the ground that all who were, or pretended that they were on board, did not act consistently with their situation or professions. So they thought that

(1.) But they that will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 1 Tim. 6: 9.

there might be as good people and as happy out of it, as in it. They were told that these inconsistencies were more abhorred there than any where else, and saw abundant proofs of it: they were told that the hypocrisy they complained of was only a proof of the existence, and a tribute to the excellence of sincerity they were told, that let the fact in regard to their accusation be as it may, they are answerable for themselves only, and not for others. Yet they furnished too many proofs that it is in vain to argue against sinful prejudices.

Some were clinging to the keel of the capsized yawl and long-boat, who declined the help that came, saying, 'The Captain of salvation does not sail in that one Life-boat exclusively. He has many that are nearly as good, or rather better; and none at all is as good as any, if a man really think so. It is no matter where we are, if we are only sincere.' It did little good for the Captain and his chief officers to assure them that there is no other vessel given under heaven among men where by they must be saved, that he who does not trust in this only, must be lost, that sincerity in error and sin is the strongest proof of depravity. They, forsooth, were too high-minded and liberal to take up with such narrow notions. Many of these went down into the awful deeps to learn their delusion too late.

There was no small number who refused to take refuge in the Life-boat, because they disliked the Captain and crew; either deeming their discipline too strict, or else suspecting them of selfish motives. These people could not perceive the beauty of order and government, nor could they conceive of the possibility of acting on principles more pure and disinterested than their own. So that hostility and distrust caused their ruin.

Now and then there might be heard a discussion like this; the people in the Life-boat vehement and abrupt, but the mutineer affecting much calmness and philosophy:

Life-boat. How will you escape if you neglect so great salvation?

Mutineer. Before getting on board, I ought to know how I happened to need this salvation.

L-B. This is no time to settle that point. You are perishing. Come up hither.

Mut. One thing at a time. In order to get properly out of a difficulty we must know how we got in. Was my drowning condition owing to some secret plan of the Great Builder? (1.)

(1.) Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? Rom. 9: 19.

L-B. Why bring up such questions at a time like this! Flee to the strong-hold.

Mut. Well, then, explain if it was the old Pirate's fault. He tempted us you know.

L-B. O waste not the precious seconds with such quibbles. A moment more, and you may sink forever.

Mut. But say, if our Helinsman, to whose care the ship is confided, is to blame for my being here.

L-B. Make haste. Delay is danger.

(1.)

Mut. It is very hard that you will not begin with this important point. Does not every one want to know the way in, in order to know the way out? At least, tell me whether I came here while in a state of unconscious slumber.

L-B. Know that however it happened, you have nobody to blame for your guilt but yourself. Get into the ark while you may; and then you may talk about how you fell overboard as much as you please.

Another would be lingering along, swimming about the Life-boat, as if at the very point of embracing the hope set before him; yet waits, he knows not why. His feelings are much excited, or easily may be: he trembles as he sees his danger: he sees multitudes sinking in despair around him: he knows that the Life-boat is passing by' in one direction, while the current sweeps him in another. So on, perhaps, till, ere he is aware, he is cramped, or a whirlpool swallows him. And those on ship-board say,—'Ah there sank one who was almost persuaded. (2.)

It was not unusual to hear others who were wholly engrossed in looking up their drifting chests and sea-stores, reply to the urgency of their friends in the boat;-Go your way for this time, and come at a more convenient season.' (3.) But when the boat returned, they were gone. The waves of death were rolling over them, and the places which knew them once knew

them no more forever.

Many there were who were not saved, because they grasped at the ropes thrown for them with but one hand; while their other hand clenched some worthless fragment of the wreck. This was an effectual impediment; as they and their lumber could not be taken up together, because there was no room for

(1.) What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge? Ezek. 18: 2.

(2.) Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Acts 26: 28.

(3.) And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season I will call for thee. Acts 24: 25.