You think you shall be able to do without religion for the present; you therefore make excuses, as those did who were invited to the feast: "I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it I pray thee have me excused :" or, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them :" or, "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Thus you have your urgent business, or your intoxicating pleasure, which induces you to put off religion and the salvation of your soul to a more convenient season. It is a presumptuous sin to neglect the great salvation of God. There is guilt charged upon those who omit to perform the commandments of God, as well as upon those who break the positive precepts of God's law. that observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercies." You cannot indeed be too careful in consulting your own interests. Solomon gives to each of you this important assurance-" If thou be

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wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it." Be careful to learn what is your true interest. Surely it is the true interest of every one, to have the love of God, and the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, as his portion now; and, in the world to come, everlasting life."

If you neglect this, your true interest, you are foolish and disobedient. Let those who have entered upon the period of life, when the body has attained its full strength, and the faculties of the soul have become vigorous, beware, that they do not attempt to sail over the stormy sea of life in any other vessel, "than the ark of Christ's church," lest they make shipwreck, and lose their all. Probably there were many who had boats and rafts, when God sent a flood of waters upon the earth, yet these did not secure them from the waters above, and the floods below; they were all drowned,

only Noah and his family were saved in the ark from perishing by water. Through their neglect of Noah's preaching, they perished, and their spirits are now in prison. They lost their lives in this world, and the favour of God for ever. You are in danger of doing the same. Now the tide of health flows high, but soon it may ebb out into sickness and mortal disease.

Take warning, if you are tempted to go on in life without religion. "The way of transgressors is hard." You will do yourselves harm-you will not attain happiness, by refusing to obey the ministers of Christ, the gospel of Christ, and the Spirit of God. "The Spirit, and the bride say, come-and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the waters of life freely." "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh."

Let the voice of experience be heard; take warning by those, who were once like you, but are now advanced to riper years. They began by "making provi

sion for the flesh to fulfil the lust thereof:" they anxiously inquired, "What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?" They promised to themselves a perpetuity of the means of enjoyment; "To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant;"" the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," allured their senses, filled their hearts, and blinded their minds, so that they were led captive by Satan at his will." Poverty, as an armed man, has overtaken some of these; the streams of luxury have failed like the waters from the summer's brook: they pine in want of many of the comforts, and some of the necessaries of life. Not a few have lost their health, after wasting their substance in riotous living. Some are twice dead, their consciences seem to be seared as with a hot iron. Some are haters of God, who "live in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another."

Learn of those who sought not the Lord in the early part of manhood. These were once like many of you, unmarried, and unfettered with children, but they ventured to form connexions in life, without acknowledging God in all their ways. They have, however, at leng h begun to seek the Lord; they have found a place of repentance-they ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward-they come with weeping and with supplication to the throne of grace, and to the assembly of God's saints-they long to appear before the Lord, as his long-tried servants dothey are ready to say with Job, "O that I knew where I might find him, that I might come, even unto his seat; then would I order my cause before him, I would fill my mouth with arguments."

Do you suppose that these persons who neglected religion in early life, though they now possess a good hope of obtaining salvation, through Jesus Christ, have lost nothing by delaying their repent