enabled early to dedicate ourselves unto God; and we have found his yoke easy and his burden light. We have found his ways pleasantness and peace. We have found "godliness profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." And, next to the salvation of our souls, we daily praise him for an early conversion. "I bless thee, O God, for many things," says Beza in his will and testament, "but especially that I gave up myself to thee at the early age of sixteen."

Wait then no longer. Be encouraged by the assurance, "I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me." If the flower be not blown, offer the bud—

"The flower, when offered in the bud,

"Is no mean sacrifice"

in his account.

And through all the changes of life, and from the borders of the grave, he will honour this surrender, and say, "I remember thee the kindness of thy youth."

Secondly, we see that while Christianity expects us to enter the Church, it does not leave us to ourselves in it, but accompanies us with its social obligations, and requires us to be found in the performance of every part of relative duty. Unless you cultivate the principles and dispositions pertaining to the condition, you have no right to its benefits. Unless you

bring forth fruit in the vineyard, you are cumberers of the ground. If in the master's house, you are unprofitable, you are wicked servants. Here, as every where else in religion, privilege and duty go together. You had therefore better resign your connection with the Church, if you are blanks in it. How much more if you are blots!

Your relation to

you

the body of Christ stamps upon you a sacred character. It produces a responsibility peculiarly awful. As professors of his religion, you are witnesses for God and you depose by your actions, as well as by your words and will you bear a false or a defective testimony? You are charged individually with a portion of the glory of the Redeemer; and will you not be concerned to carry it unsullied to the grave? Beware, therefore, lest by any temper or carriage should cause the adversaries of the Lord to blaspheme, and the way of truth to be evil spoken of. Do not sadden the heart, and slacken the hands of your minister. Do not prove a grief to the strong, and a stumbling-block to the weak among your brethren: but "make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed." "Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evilspeaking, be put away from you, with all malice." Thus you will be harmless and blameless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.

Even then, you may not escape censure and reproach. But you will not be buffetted for your faults; and therefore may take it patiently. They

will find nothing whereof to accuse you, but in the law of your God. You will suffer for righteousness' sake, for well-doing, as Christians: and then you need not be ashamed, but rejoice that you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye also may rejoice with exceeding joy.

Thirdly, we may learn that while we are under obligation to make a profession of religion, and come to the table of communion, the Lord's Supper is not a passport to heaven; and a connexion with a visible Church does not prove our belonging to the invisible. The form of godliness is becoming, and useful, and necessary, as the dress of godliness: but it is nothing, it is worse than nothing, as a substitute for the reality. For, in this case, there is the utmost familiarity with divine things; and this prevents, this destroys their impressiveness. The very position of the man screens conscience from alarm, while the terrors of the Lord are addressed to those that are without: and as, by his assumption of the character, he passes for a Christian, and is so treated by the world and by his brethren, and is so addressed and encouraged and comforted by the minister, he is in danger of taking it for granted that he is such-when the end of these things is death. "For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?" He may be discovered and exposed in life; and if not, his name and his place in the Church will soon avail him nothing. The privileges he has enjoyed, instead of affording him any security, will aggravate the awfulness of his condemnation. He not only perishes "from the way," but from the holy hill of Zion-from the sanctuary of God. He falls, at the foot of the altar. He drops into hell,

from the table of the Lord, and with the sacred symbols of his body and his blood in his hand and in his mouth. The house of God, in which he pretended to worship; the pew in which he trifled so many hours away, in hearing the word only; the pulpit, and the form of the man of God exerting himself in it; the chalice that never trembled in his unworthy hand-these will be the most dreadful images that will present themselves to the eye of his lost mind. The truths he professed to believe and recommend ; the sacred exercises in which he engaged, with those who call on the name of the Lord; his favourite psalms and hymns in which he so often mocked him with "a solemn sound upon a thoughtless tongue;" his sitting to hear, and to judge of the qualification of candidates; his joining with the Church in reproving, suspending, excommunicating other members with all the grimace of feigned sanctity and zeal→→→ this will be the food of the worm that never dies, and the fire that never shall be quenched.

Yet in some cases, it would appear that the extent and the continuance of religious delusion may be as wonderful, as the detection will be tremendous. "When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know ye not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say"-Not know us? Why, "We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and

Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last."

"But, beloved, we hope better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." You are poor in spirit. You mourn for sin. You hunger and thirst after righteousness. You love his salyation, and you love his service. You glory in his cross, and you admire his character, and long to bear the image of the heavenly. Yet you are often ready to shrink back: you often, you always pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Well, be assured of this, that you are more welcome to his house, than you ever feel yourselves to be unworthy. He himself rises up, and in all the freeness and tenderness of his love, invites you to his table; and cries, "Eat, O friends; drink you, drink abundantly, O beloved!"

And we, fourthly, conclude by hailing those who are not only members of a Christian Church, but are joined to the Lord, and are of one spirit with him. Not resting in the outward and visible sign, you realize the inward and spiritual grace. You discern the Lord's body; and, by the exercise of faith on the Sacrifice of the cross, your experience tells you that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed. You have a joy in divine things which mere professors and formalists know nothing of. How often, in his word and ordinances, do you sit under