To them, "hell hath no covering." The more any person advances in holiness, the more clearly he discovers the necessary connection between sin and misery, and feels the justness of that Divine law which appoints it; while to those who stand much nearer to the throne than mortals may, this subject must be open with the greatest distinctness and certainty. Angels understand well the object and the terms of that probation which God has, now the second time, granted to our race; while the elevation of their moral character teaches them how much, for us, depends upon our using the boon wisely for ourselves. And when they see a sinner repent, they must have a much better appreciation than even he in his happy consciousness can possess of the punishment he has escaped, and the rewards he has won. They see him turn, not only from the fears and worst sufferings of this life, but from the bitterness of the second death. They seem him not only become a conqueror of the enemies of God and of his own soul, but enter on an endless career of knowledge, and holiness, and happiness. They best know what riches of wisdom and of love are in reserve for him, and bow, these contrast with all the everwidening woes which wait on sin.

IV. The joy of the angels springs likewise from their interest in the welfare of the kingdom of Christ, their Lord, and from their labors for its success. However imperfectly we see the broad distinction between the kingdoms of light and darkness, to them that distinction is plain, and is paramount to all others. However different be the degrees of piety which Christians attain in this life, however much they may differ from each other in wisdom and charity, he that is least in the kingdom of God is plainly distinguished from an enemy, whoever that enemy may be. The humblest Christian, if he be such, is reckoned among the Lord's host. The setting up of the kingdom of Christ necessarily divides the inhabitants of this world into two classes, the friends of Christ, and the children of the Wicked One. Even as Christ has said: "He that is not for us is against us." The sinner's repentance is what distinguishes the one class from the other; or rather, it is the point where Christ receives the rebel and alien, and enrolls him as a faithful soldier and servant. Angels cannot be indifferent spectators of such a scene. They, more than the holiest saints on the earth, are committed to the cause of the Redeemer, to destroy the works of the Devil, and to destroy only by winning from him the souls whom he has long enslaved. They watch the progress of that cause of holiness and of mercy which they love; to which their Lord once gave his life in the flesh, and now gives his Spirit on the earth, and his intercessions in heaven. They feel the joy of victory when his power prevails

against the deceits of Satan, and they rejoice in the honor which each conquest brings to the Saviour of sinners.

"The Son with joy looks down and sees

The purchase of his agonies;

While saints and angels join to sing

The growing empire of their King."

We must consider their regard for the government of God. To beings who reject with contempt and disdain all sensible delights as the source of pleasure, to whom the contemplation of the Divine excellence, and the obedience of the Supreme Good, is the source of an ever-increasing and ineffable delight, nothing, beyond God himself, can be the spring of so much satisfaction as the recognition and love of his authority by others. Especially must this be the case, when the vain but guilty opposition which immortal beings have shown to his law, is exchanged for a deep repentance, and He who now rules their wills by his law becomes, as he desires, the chief object of their affections.

We have thus glanced at those things which give the angels joy when a sinner repents. We need not err on this subject, although it is one which belongs, in part, to a higher order of beings. God, who is infinitely above them as well as us, has taught us far more fully respecting His interest in such an event. And we only need to be informed that these, his sinless ministers, are cognizant of what takes place here below, to receive all, and more than all which I have now said. The language of Christ establishes the fact, that they rejoice over one sinner who repents. Mine is only a poor attempt to represent this touching fact to your minds and my own. My object will be gained, if the fact itself has arrested and impressed you. I will add but two remarks in conclusion.

1. The first is, that the subject teaches us how much we ought to be interested in the same thing for ourselves. It is not for themselves, but for us that the angels rejoice. Their happiness springs from the purity and intensity of their benevolence. But if beings of such a character are so deeply interested in the subject of our repentance, how far more does it concern us. We are the ones in whose hearts and consciousness this experience must be found. In our nature there are now, either, on the one hand, all the elements of that coming misery the angels deplore, or, on the other hand, that repentance which is the precursor of the immortal happiness they now enjoy. Can we then be indifferent to this subject? Is it possible, even in the impenitence which some of you, I fear, have long maintained against truth and conscience, to resist the appeal of this thought?

One of the most effectual means of moral improvement is the knowledge of the light in which our conduct is regarded by persons of great wisdom and goodness, especially when they evince a deep and undeserved solicitude for our welfare. Many even teach that there is no depravity which is proof against this love; that it is the grand means of all reformation; that it is the love of superior minds which kills the angry passions; and that it is only neglect or resistance which inflames them. However this may be, all know that there is great power in such appeals, and that no one's true self-respect was ever hurt by yielding to their influence; while to reject it, is universally deemed to be the mark of stupidity, ingratitude, or confirmed depravity. So Christ teaches us that beings of rank and power, and wisdom and benevolence, to which we can lay no claim, are regarding us with the liveliest interest. Before this cloud of illustrious witnesses all the actions and characters of men are displayed. And "are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation ?" The depravity which can feel no shame at rejecting the gospel of repentance in so august a presence, which can bid an impudent defiance to all their holy concern, is equalled only by that which is steeled against the dying love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I beseech you then, beloved, by the mercies of God, and of angels too, to take up this great subject of your "repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," at this point, and conscience and the gospel will reveal the whole to you. This is no fable; but it is fact. "Believest thou the Scriptures? I know that thou believest." Take then the standpoint of an angel's view, and judge yourself and your duty.

2. My second remark is, that we learn from this subject something of the value of repentance in the work of spiritual conversion. In the instance of the language of the text, as I said before, we cannot mistake what is meant. So that from the judg ment of all those who despise repentance, as the mark of weakness or fear, we make our appeal to a higher tribunal. We take the judgment, rather of these sons of God. We hear them waking the song they sung at creation, over one whose newborn hopes provoke only the contempt or the displeasure of his earthly superiors. And we ask with Paul: "Where then is the wise? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."

Hence, as the only means of the greatest good, we preach to you the gospel of repentance. We know that it is the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of all holy beings. And as such we

have seen the wisdom of all classes of men own it, in the honest hour of death. Soon each of you must own it, when, perhaps, it will be too late to bring you any joy.

We have seen the sinner die, lamenting, with his last breath, his folly, and shrinking from his fate. And we have seen the Christian die already reaping, in his foretastes of heaven, the solid fruits of the repentance he, long before, had exercised. We have stood in awe, as we have seen him exalted above the wise and the great of this world, and, as it were, trampling with disdain on the unbelief which would question his faith, and on the pride which would contemn that former birth-hour of his new existence. And we come with a deeper sense of the preciousness of the gospel, to beseech you to receive it. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

A SHORT SERMON.

BY THE EDITOR.

CHRISTIAN ACTIVITY.

ACTION is one of the fundamental laws of our physical and mental being. There is an imperative and deep-seated demand for it, which cannot be disregarded without serious loss and injury. Inactivity and indolence, the failing to exercise duly our bodily members and powers, will induce weakness or disease, disarrange the system, and bring on premature old age and death. The same is true of the mind. It must be exercisedtrained to think, reason, reflect-made to work and kept actively engaged, or its powers will never be fully developed; it will remain, at best, a weak and sickly thing. Hence, God has wisely and kindly provided for the due and healthful exercise both of the body and of the mind, and made obedience to this constitutional law of our being indispensable to success in life, and to rational happiness.

The same law holds good in spiritual things. The same necessity exists for activity. The demand for it is universal, and cannot be set aside. There must be ACTIVITY-the working of

the spiritual machinery of life-the exercise of the various graces of the Spirit--the doing of daily service for God-the putting forth of earnest effort in the field of self-culture and of Christian enterprise-meditation, prayer, the reading of the Word, the exercise of charity, the visiting of the sick, the poor, and the afflicted--the planning and the accomplishing of purposes for the salvation of souls, and the revival of religion, and the prosperity of the Church of God-there must be this as a daily habit of life, or there cannot be progress in the divine life, nor a healthy spiritual development, nor the enjoyment of religion. God has wisely ordered it, that if we will not work as spiritual beings, neither shall we eat; if we will not obey the laws and follow the impulses of Christian life and Christian duty, we shall have leanness of soul, and reap only sadness of spirit and disappointment of hope. And this is why so many Christians are weak in the faith; are but babes in Christ, when they ought to be strong men. They grope their way in the dark, instead of walking in the light of God's countenance; they are sad and gloomy, when they might be joyful and cheerful. They are at ease in Zion. They will not work. They do violence to the the laws of their own spiritual being, and to the laws of Christ's kingdom. They sleep when they should be awake; are inactive when a world of motives, and a world of obligations, and a world of perishing interests demand exertion-earnest, prayerful, whole-souled exertion, for the soul, for God, for mankind.

We live in a universe of wonderful activities. The Christian may sleep-may fold his arms and dream away his existence, and let his precious opportunities for self-improvement, and for doing good, which are never to return, pass away unimproved. But every thing around him rebukes such conduct and calls him to labor. The entire creation is in ceaseless motion--is ever busy; the vast systems which compose the material universe, present a scene of amazing and sublime activity; the thoughts and powers of angels, good and evil, are ever occupied; the infinite mind of God is always at work planning and executing. And the children of this world are any thing but idle; their minds and hands and resources are all worked to their utmost capacity; they drive the machinery of life with ceaseless and fearful rapidity; they run in the race for gain, for honor, for pleasure, for intellectual attainment, with all the might and energy of ambition and resolution. Intellect is taxed and tortured to bring forth new inventions; the muscular and mechanical power of the world is daily augmented, and never suffered to rest; the world is ransacked for new fields of enterprise; the face of the earth is made to put on beauty-vast wildernesses are reclaimed and put under culture. Towns and cities are made to spring up on every hand. Commerce pours its tide of activ