the human race; I can fancy generations yet unborn, rising to prove and to hail her worth; and I adore that God, who can destine a SINGLE HUMAN CREATURE to be the stem of such extended and incalculable benefit to the world. Kirwan.

Christ our Consolation and Relief, under the apprehension of being Separated by Death from those ne Love.

Jesus Christ gives us the victory over death, by yielding us consolation and relief, under the fears that arise in the mind, upon the awful transition from this world to the next.

Who ever left the precincts of mortality, without casting a wishful look on what he left behind, and, a trembling eye on the scene that is before him? Being formed by our Creator for enjoyments even in this life, we are endowed with a sensibility to the objects around us. We have affections, and we delight to indulge them: we have hearts, and we want to bestow them. Bad as the world is, we find in it objects of affection and attachment. Even in this waste and howling wilderness, there are spots of verdure and beauty, of power to charm the mind, and make us cry out, "it is good for us to be here." When, after the observation and experience of years, we have found out the objects of the soul, and met with minds congenial to our own, what pangs must it give to the heart, to think of parting for ever? We even contract an attachment to inanimate objects. The tree under whose shadow we have often sat; the fields where we have frequently strayed; the hill, the scene of contemplation, or the haunt of friendship, become objects of passion to the mind, and, upon our leaving them, excite a temporary sorrow and regret. If these things can affect us with uneasiness, how great must be the affliction, when stretched upon that bed, from which we shall rise no more, and looking about for the last time on the sad circle of our weeping friends, -how great must be the affliction, to dissolve at once all the attachments of life; to bid an eternal adieu to the friends whom we have long loved, and to part for

But let not

* ever with all that is dear below the sun! the Christian be disconsolate. He parts with the objects of his affection, to meet them again; to meet them in a better world, where change never enters, and from whose blissful mansions sorrow flies away. At the resurrection of the just-in the great assembly of the sons of God, when all the family of heaven are gathered together-not one person shall be missing, that was worthy of thy affection or esteem. And if, among imperfect creatures, and in a troubled world, the kind, the tender, and the generous affections, have such power to charm the heart, that even the tears which they occasion, delight us, what joy unspeakable and glorious will they produce, when they exist in perfect minds, and are improved by the purity of the heavens. Logan. Infatuation of Mankind, with regard to the Things

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of Time.

But if no danger is to be apprehended while the thunder of heaven rolls at a distance, believe me, when it collects over our heads, we may be fatally convinced, that a well-spent life is the only conductor that can avert the bolt. Let us reflect, that time waits for no man. Sleeping or waking, our days are on the wing. If we look to those that are past, they are but as a point. When I compare the present aspect of this city, with that which it exhibited within the short space of my own residence, what does the result present, but the most melancholy proof of human instability? New characters in every scene, new events, new principles, new passions, a new creation insensibly arisen from the ashes of the old; which side soever I look, the ravage of death has nearly renovated all. Scarcely do we look around us in life, when our children are matured, and remind us of the grave; the great feature of all nature, is rapidity of growth and declension. Ages are renewed, but the figure of the world passeth away. God only remains the same. The torrent that sweeps by, runs at the base of his immutability; and he sees, with indignation, wretched mortals, as they pass along, in

H

sulting him by the visionary hope of sharing that at tribute, which belongs to HIM alone.

It is to the incomprehensible oblivion of our mortality, that the world owes all its fascination. Observe for what man toils. Observe what it often costs him to become rich and great-dismal vicissitudes of hope and disappointment-often all that can degrade the dignity of his nature, and offend his God! Study the matter of the pedestal, and the instability of the sta tue. Scarce is it erected-scarce presented to the stare of the multitude-when death, starting like a massy fragment from the summit of a mountain, dashes the proud colossus into dust! Where, then, is the promised fruit of all his toil? Where the wretched and deluded being, who fondly promised himself that. he had laid up much goods for many years? Gone, my brethren, to his account, a naked victim, trembling in the hands of the living God! Yes, my brethren, the final catastrophe of all human passions, is rapid as it is awful. Fancy yourselves on that bed from which you never shall arise, and the reflection will exhibit, like a true and faithful mirror, what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue. Happy they who meet that great, inevitable transition, full of days! Unhappy they who meet it but to tremble and despair! Then it is that man learns wisdom, when too late; then it is that every thing will forsake him, but his virtues or his crimes. To him the world is past; dignities, honours, pleasure, glory; past like the cloud of the morning! nor could all that the great globe inherits, afford him, at that tremendous hour, as much. consolation, as the recollection of having given but one cup of cold water to a child of wretchedness, in the name of Christ Jesus! Kirwan.

Danger of Delay, in Matters of Religion.

By long delaying, your conversion may become altogether impossible.

Habit, says the proverb, is a second nature; and indeed it is stronger than the first. At first, we easily take the bend, and are moulded by the hands of the

master; but this nature of our own making is proof against alteration. The Ethiopian may as soon change his skin, and the leopard his spots; the tormented in hell may as soon revisit the earth; as those who have been long accustomed to do evil, may learn to do well. Such is the wise appointment of Heaven, to deter sinners from delaying their repentance. When the evil principle hath corrupted the whole capacity of the mind; when sin, by its frequency and its duration, is woven into the very essence of the soul, and is be come part of ourselves; when the sense of moral good and evil is almost totally extinct; when conscience is seared, as with a hot iron; when the heart is so hard, that the arrows of the Almighty cannot pierce it; and when, by a long course of crimes, we have become what the Scripture most emphatically calls, " vessels of wrath fitted for destruction :"-then we have filled up the measure of our sins; then Almighty God swears in his wrath that we shall not enter into his rest; then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of wrath, and indignation which shall devour the adversary. Almighty God, weary of bearing with the sins of men, delivers them over to a reprobate mind; when, like Pharaoh, they survive only as monuments of wrath; when, like Esau, they cannot find a place for repentance, although they seek it carefully with tears; when, like the foolish virgins, they come knocking-but the door of mercy is shut for ever.

Further, let me remind you, my brethren, that if you repent not now, perhaps you will not have another opportunity. You say you will repent in some future period of time; but are you sure of arriving at that period of time? Have you one hour in your hand? Have you one minute at your disposal? Boast not thyself of to-morrow. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Before to-morrow, multitudes shall be in another world. Art thou sure that thou art not of the number? Man knoweth not his time. As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil hour. Can you recall to mind none of your companions, none of the partners

of your follies and your sins, cut off in an unconverted state-cut off perhaps in the midst of an unfinished debauch, and hurried, with all their transgressions on their head, to give in their account to God the Judge of all? Could I show you the state in which they are now; could an angel from heaven unbar the gates of the everlasting prison; could you discern the late companions of your wanton hours, overwhelmed with torment and despair; could you hear the cry of their torment which ascendeth up for ever and ever; could you hear them upbraiding you as the partners of their crimes, and accusing you as in some measure the cause of their damnation !-Great God! how would your hair stand on end! how would your heart die within you! how would conscience fix all her stings! and remorse, awaking a new hell within you, torment you before the time! Had a like untimely fate snatched you 'away then, where had you been now? And is this the improvement which you make of that longer day of grace with which Heaven has been pleased to favour you? Is this the return you make to the Divine goodness, for prolonging your lives, and indulging you with a longer day of repentance? Have you in good earnest determined within yourself, that you will weary out the long-suffering of God, and force destruction from his reluctant hand?

I beseech, I implore you, my brethren, in the bonds of friendship, and in the bowels of the Lord; by the tender mercies of the God of Peace; by the dying love of a crucified Redeemer; by the precious promises and awful threatenings of the gospel; by all your hopes of heaven and fears of hell; by the worth of your immortal souls; and by all that is dear to men ; I conjure you to accept of the offers of mercy, and fly from the wrath to come." Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation." All the treasures of heaven are now opening to you; the blood of Christ is now speaking for the remission of your sins; the church on earth stretches out its arms to receive you; the spirits of just men made perfect are eager to enrol you amongst the number of the blessed; the angels and archangels are waiting to