strong, when he shall deal with thee? How much better to be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live! Then will his repentings be kindled together. Then will he say, "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented: and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." There is another extreme. Instead of despising, perhaps you are fainting. You are desponding. You are at your wits' end. You are tempted to curse the day of your birth. Life has lost all its charm-it is a burden too heavy for you to bear. You turn to solitude; but there grief preys upon itself. You think of intoxication; this is drowning misery in madness. You glance at infidelity; but annihilation may be a fiction, and the present only the beginning of sorrows. You resolve on suicide; but you cannot destroy yourself. You take the pistol, and shatter to pieces the tabernacle, and your friends are aghast at the ruins; but the inhabitant has escaped, and the spirit feels itself still in the grasp of God. I am far from insulting your grief. I sympathize with you; and rejoice that I can show unto you a more excellent way. "There is One standing among you, whom ye know not." Let me introduce him in all the fulness of his pity and power. He is equally able and willing to relieve you. He is the enemy of sin, but he is the friend of sinners. Cast thy burden upon the Lord: and say, Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. He will not, he cannot refuse thy application. For he has said, and is now saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." See Manasseh. He was stripped of all, and carried away captive. But his salvation sprang not from his prosperity, but his adversity. "When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." Think of the Prodigal. Plenty had ruined him. The famine, and the husks which the swine did eat, made him think of home-"How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise, and go to my father." And that father, while he was yet "a great way off, saw him, and had compassion upon him, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him;" and not only clothed and fed, but adorned and feasted him and said, "Let us eat and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." Despair not, but follow these examples, and you will be able to say, with the famous Athenian, "I should have been lost, had I not been lost:" and to sin with many a sufferer before you, LECTURE VIII.. THE CHRISTIAN, IN HIS SPIRITUAL SORROWS. We hanged our harps upon the willows, in the midst thereof."-Psalm cxxxvii. 2. We now pass from the condition of the Christian, to his experience. We have contemplated the changes that may take place in his outward circumstances. We have viewed him in his prosperity and in his adversity; and have seen him carrying his religion along with him through all the varying scenes of human life. At one But there are similar variations in "the inward man," "the hidden man of the heart." And these changes are no inconsiderable evidences of the reality of a work of grace, in distinction from religious pretensions. The picture of a tree is invariable; but the tree itself has its seasons. time it is leafless, and the sap, though not destroyed, retires into the roots. At another, it revives, and buds, and blossoms, and is filled with fruitfulness. I walk in my garden, and see the stones arranged there, always the same. But it is otherwise with the flowers and plants. And the reason is, because the former are dead, while the latter have in them a principle of life. And such is the difference between the form of godliness, and the power: between a man alive to God, and one that hath a name that he liveth, but is dead. Let us proceed to the part of the Christian's experience which we are pledged to consider this morning. And here, I can easily imagine, that the subject itself will hardly appear necessary to some. They are rather surprised by the very fact, we have assumed, as a clear and common verity. Young converts often wonder to hear of the believer's sadness. They are often indulged with a peculiar kind and degree of consolation to allure them on, till, whatever difficulties they meet with, they feel themselves too much interested, and too far advanced, to think of retreating. Because, from a regard to their weakness, their enemies are restrained, they seem to conclude that they are destroyed; and because, in the novelty of their views and the liveliness of their feelings, their corruptions are but little noticed, they hope to be vexed with them no more. They therefore wonder to hear older Christians complaining of distraction in duty, and languor of zeal, and weakness of hope, and conflicts with doubts and fears. Thus it was with Israel" in the kindness of their youth." See them on the shore of the Red Sea. They rejoiced in the Lord, and sang his praise, and thought they had only to go forward and possess the pleasant land-ignorant of the wilderness between; and having no foreboding of the drought, and the bitter waters, and the fiery serpents, and the Amalekites and Moabites, and their long detentions, and their being led about, and their being turned back-by all of which the souls of the people were much discouraged because of the way. But if there are some to whom the intimation of these sorrows is surprising, there are others to whom it will be relieving, if not delightful. For there are some who are distressed and perplexed, owing to apprehensions that their experience is peculiar. They think none ever had such vain thoughts, such dull frames, such woful depressions, as they often mourn over. Therefore, in their communings with their own hearts, they are led to ask, "If I am his, why am I thus ?" and anxiously turning to others, in whom they repose more confidence than they can place in themselves, say, "Ye that love the Lord indeed, The first source is PHYSICAL. Now these will not rejoice in the deficiencies and distresses of others; but it yields them encouragement to learn, that there are some who can sym- There are some who understand very little of pathize with them; and that what they feel, is not, this. They are blessed with a favored constitution: though grievous, incompatible, with a state of and can hardly enter into the feelings of those who grace; since others, and even those who are far supe- pass much of their time under the dominion of a rior to themselves, utter the same sighs and groans. gloomy and depressive temperament that leads them To return. The Psalm from which the words to view every thing through an alarming and disof our text are taken, is universally admired. In- maying medium; and to draw towards themselves deed nothing can be more exquisitely beautiful. It all that is awful and distressing. How affecting is is written in a strain of sensibility that must touch it to hear a man of genius and piety complaining, every soul that is capable of feeling. It is remark- that in one day, in one hour, he who was such an able that Dr. Watts, in his excellent versification, enthusiastical admirer of the works of nature, had has omitted it. He has indeed some verses upon it presented to him an universal blank; so that noin his Lyrics; and many others have written on the thing after, could ever charm him again. We adsame. We have seen more than ten productions mit that the case of Cowper was extraordinary: but of this kind. . . . . . But who is satisfied with any it was so in the degree, rather than in the quality. of these attempts?—Thus it begins: "By the rivers Others are subject to a measure of the same influof Babylon, there, we sat down, yea, we wept when ence; and while the increased prevalence of this we remembered Zion." These rivers were proba-morbid affection produces fixed melancholy, the bly some of the streams branching off from the slighter diffusion of it may be attended with the Euphrates and Tigris. Here it is commonly sup- most trying irritation and depression. We often posed these captive Jews were placed by their task- censure, where, if we knew all, we should only pity. masters, to preserve or repair the water-works. But What a conflict have some Christians even in is it improper to conjecture that the Psalmist refers wrestling with flesh and blood. We are fearfully to their being here-not constantly, but occasionally; and wonderfully made. We know little of the menot by compulsion, but choice? Hither I imagine chanism of the body: but we know much less of the them retiring to unbend their oppressed minds in chemistry. Who can tell how the nervous juices solitude. "Come," said one of these pious Jews to and the animal spirits are secreted? Who can exanother, "Come, let us for a while go forth from plain how the fluids blend and temper each other? this vanity and vileness. Let us assemble together | Who knows how it is that when a particular humor by ourselves under the refreshing shade of the wil- predominates unequally, such a change is resistlesslows by the water-courses. And let us take our ly produced in our mass of apprehensions and feelharps with us, and solace ourselves with some of ings? Yet we know the fact. We know that exthe songs of Zion." But as soon as they arrive, ternal things affect the body. We know that the and begin to touch the chords, the notes-such is body affects the mind. We know that we are the the power of association-awaken the memory of creatures of the season and of the sky. We know their former privileges and pleasures. And over- that we are not the same in a foggy day, as in a whelmed with grief, they sit down on the grass; clear one. We know that if there be a suffusion of and weep when they remember Zion; their deject- bile, the world, and the church, and the family, are ed looks, averted from each other, seeming to say, not governed so well now, as they were yesterday. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand Nothing is so agreeable in our condition. Our very forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, religion is doubtful; and God is not the same. let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; ii Í prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." But what do they with their harps? The voice of mirth is heard no more; and all the daughters of music are brought low. Melody is not in season to a distressed spirit. "Is any afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms." "As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a It is not necessary for a Christian to be a physi -heavy heart."-They did not, however, break them cian; but it is desirable for him to be able to distinto pieces, or throw them into the stream-but hang-guish between influences purely bodily, and the ed them up only. They hoped that what they could not use at present they might be able to resume at some happier period. To be cast down is not to be destroyed. Distress is not despondency. "Beware of desperate steps; the darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.”. "We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." Let us pass from the Jew to the Christian; and let us survey the Christian, In his SPIRITUAL SORROWS. He who would preach well, says Luther, must distinguish well. It is peculiarly necessary to discriminate, when we enter upon the present subject. For all the sorrows of the Christian are not of the same kind or descent. Let us consider four sources I. Will be PHYSICAL, Several things result from this reasoning. Is it not astonishing that many Christians will ascribe every animal variation and effect to the agency of Satan! Especially when they know how often, by the aid of a little medicine, all these supposed temptations have been chased away, and every thing restored to its proper hues and attractions again! principles, disposition, and state of his mind. It is difficult to reason with people in this frame, or under this tendency; otherwise we should be amazed at the perplexity and disconsolateness of some excellent characters, and the readiness with which they refuse to be comforted. We have known persons, poor in spirit, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, glorying only in the cross of Christ, and cheerfully going forth to him w thout the camp, bearing his reproach-yet gloomily concluding that they have no part nor lot in the matter, and that their heart is not right in the sight of God. And wherefore do they write these bitter things against themselves? There is no reason why they should; but the cause why they do, is to be found in something beyond the preacher's province. And till there is a change in the physical economy, all the succors of religion will be urged in vain. Good men should also learn from hence to be at tentive to their health, and keep the body as much as possible the fit medium of the mind. A man may be a good performer; but what can he do with a disordered instrument? The inhabitant may have good eyes; but how can he see accurately through not informed of the sufferings that would still rea soiled window? Keep therefore the glass clean; sult from his guilt? Did he not continue to confess, and the organ in tune. We do not wish you to be "my sin is ever before me ?" If not bruised and finical and fanciful; to live in the shop of an apo- fractured by his fall, why does he pray, "Make me thecary; or have a medical attendant always dan-to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou gling at your heels. But be soberly and prudently hast broken may rejoice!" If not filled with a dread attentive to the body. Rise early. Take proper of divine abandonment, why does he say, "Cast me exercise. Beware of sloth. Observe and avoid not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy whatever disagrees with your system. Never over- Spirit from me?" If he had not been deprived of burden nature. Be moderate in your table indulg- the consolation, why does he say, "Restore unto me ences. Let not appetite bemire and clog the mind. the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy Medical authority will tell you, that where one free Spirit?" If he had not been struck dum5, why disorder arises from deficiency, a thousand spring does he pray, "Open thou my lips, that my mouth from repletion; and that the Board slays far more may show forth thy praise?" If he had not impairthan the Sword.-The ed the cause of God, why does he pray, "Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem?" Second source is CRIMINAL. It will be allowed that they who cannot apostatize with regard to some professors of religion, is their Upon this principle, the chief hope I entertain may backslide; and we know who hath said, "The uncomfortableness. For it would be a sad symptom backslider in heart shall be filled with his own in their case, if they were tranquil, and cheerful, ways." "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee; and rejoicing in Christ, while they are indifferent to and thy backsliding shall reprove thee: know there- the means of grace, and mind earthly things, and fore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter display such a worldly conversation and spirit. For that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God." Ob- I am sure of this, that if they really belong to God, serve: it is both evil and bitter; evil in its nature, he will rebuke them, and make them look back, and bitter in its consequences. And these bitter ef- with the exclamation, "O! that it was with me as fects take in, not only outward troubles, but inward in months past, when the candle of the Lord shone distresses; the corrosions of fretfulness under a feeling of guilt; the reproaches of conscience awak- upon my head, and when by his light I walked ened from its slumbers, and ashamed of its negli- with me." The way to see and enjoy God is to live through darkness; while as yet the Almighty was gence; the perplexities arising from the doubtfulness of our condition: the loss of peace, and a sense him. The first Christians "walked in the fear of near him, and to be always endeavoring to please of God's favor. What was said of Israel as a peo-the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost." ple, will apply here to individual experience. "These are inseparable; and all pretensions to the that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments; latter without the former, are nothing but delusion. then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righte- Let me, therefore, if the consolations of God are ousness like the waves of the sea." You hear much small with thee, ask, "Is there any secret thing of the hidings of God's face. The expression is per- with thee?" Thy gourd withers: Is there any fectly Scriptural. "Make thy face," says David, worm at the root? You are repulsed, and turn your "to shine upon thy servant." His face signifies his back on your enemies: Is there any accursed thing favorable regard. This can never be a matter of in the camp? "Let us search and try our ways; indifference to the Christian, whether we consider and turn again unto the Lord." Let us do more.his supreme love to God, or his entire dependence Let us fall upon our knees, and pray for divine exaupon him. He must be miserable under the loss of mination. "Search me, O God, and know my heart, God's smiles. And as Absalom said, "What do I here in Geshur, unless I see the king's face?" So try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be says the believer-What do I in the closet, or in the any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."-The Third source is INTELLECTUAL. house of God, or at his table without him? I cannot improve a providence or an ordinance; I cannot enjoy my friends or myself, without my God. So it was with David. "Thou didst hide thy face, and Ition or a groundless persuasion, endangered by in was troubled." There are some who say-quoting the words of Scripture, but mistaking their design-God sees "no iniquity in Jacob, and beholds no perverseness in Israel." Yet we read of "the provoking of his sons and of his daughters." Yet "the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." And no importunity could obtain a relaxation of the sentence. Sin never hurts a believer!" "He never need be afraid of sin!" And whose inspiration is this language? Where do we learn this doctrine? Did David believe it, after his transgression? Along with the very announcement of his pardon, was he For the joy of a Christian is not a vain imagina quiry-it flows from knowledge; and the possessor is able to give a reason of the hope that is in him. Hence it will follow, that though a Christian's safety does not depend upon the extent and the degree of his religious information, his comfort will be very much affected by it. Now there are some who are very defective in their acquaintance with the gospel; and these, like persons walking in darkness, or at least twilight, are afraid to tread firmly, and are liable to convert harmless objects into spectres of terror. Owing to a want of evangelical instruction from books or teachers, there is in them prevalence of legality that leads them to look after something in themselves wherein they may glory, or which shall entitle them to pardon and acceptance. Instead of resting in a mediator between God and them, they seek after something mediatorial, between Christ and them; and thus not coming to him, as they are, they wait till they shall possess certain qualifications, or perform certain conditions. Thus they labor in the fire, and weary themselves for very vanity-for "If we tarry till we're better, They set themselves a mark of attainment; and not | ward-and around him: and at each look he being able to reach it, they are cast down. They weeps. mistake the degree of their experience for the ground of their hope; and their confidence varies with their frames. And as to their perseverance and final victory, their own vigilance and fidelity usurp their dependence, instead of the everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure. In the Lord they have righteousness and strength. His grace is sufficient for them; and were they to be only and always looking unto Jesus, their joy might be full and constant; but now they often go mourning all the day. First. He looks backward, and weeps as he reviews the past. Some never review life; we mean, that they never review it for a religious purpose. They may look back occasionally and frequently, to see how they have missed their opportunity for securing some earthly advantage, or how they have been overreached by their fellow-creatures, in order to act a shrewder part in future: but not to become acquainted with their depravity; not to mark how long and how much they lived without God with them in the world. It is therefore of great importance to have the But grace leads a man to reflect upon his former understanding well informed in "the way of salva- character and conduct; and to reflect properly. tion," that we "may know the things that are freely We say properly: for we have heard some progiven to us of God." For as the gospel is glad tid- fessors of religion talk of their former wickedness ings; and all its doctrines are truths and facts; the with no very sorrowful emotions; yea, with a kind more distinctly we hear the one, and the more clear- of complacency, as if they were relating some ly we discern the other, the more effectual will be remarkable exploits. But how is the Christian afour relief, and the full assurance of our hope.- fected with the retrospect? "Surely," says God, Peter admonishes Christians to grow in grace, and “I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thusin the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, like a Christ; and we may consider the latter part of the bullock unaccustomed to the yoke-I was ashamed, injunction not only as additional to the former, but yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reas explanatory of its import, and subservient to its proach of my youth." How often did Paul, after performance. The one is necessary to the other.— his conversion, think of his previous state; and We never shall grow in grace, but as we grow in with what deep humiliation does he acknowledge knowledge, and in the knowledge of the Saviour.- his guilt. "When the blood of thy martyr Stephen We are well aware that there may be speculative was shed, I was standing by, and consented unto knowledge without practical; but there cannot be his death, and I kept the raiment of them that slew practical without speculative. Every thing in re-him-I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and inligion is produced and supported and influenced by jurious-I am not worthy to be called an apostle, just views of things. And this is peculiarly the case because I persecuted the church of God." "When," with the consolation of the Spirit. Hence it is said, says Baxter, "I reflect on my sins, I find it much "They that know thy name, will put their trust in easier to believe that God will forgive me, than I thee." Hence, "Blessed is the people that know the can forgive myself." joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance: in thy name shall they rejoice all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted." Hence also our Lord said to his disciples, "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace." And again, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." Seek therefore "the riches of the full assurance of understanding." Gain clear and enlarged views of the nature and provisions of the glorious gospel; of the warrant and command we have to believe on the name of the Son of God; of the ground of our acceptance through the sacrifice and obedience of the Surety of the new covenant; of his ability to save to the uttermost; of the efficacy of his blood to cleanse from all sin; of the perfection of his righteousness to justify the ungodly, and give them a title to endless life; of the prevalency of his intercession within the veil; his changeless heart; his constant presence; his infinite fulness of grace; and our being blessed in him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Where shall I end? To be led into all this truth, is to be made to ie down in green pastures, and to be fed beside the still waters-to know all this love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, is to be filled with all the fulness of God. Thus far, the sorrows which have been spoken of, we have been constrained to pity, or censure, or excuse. They have arisen from constitution, or moral infirmity, or ignorance.-But there are sorrows, which, Fourthly, Have a PIOUS source. These are only experienced by those who are called a peculiar people. But they are familiar with them: and they feel them on various accounts. Let us view the Christian taking a four-fold prospect. He looks backward-and inward-and for I enter a Christian's retirement. His eyes have been pouring out tears unto God. I ask him, "Why weepest thou?" "I have been taking a retrospect of the past. I have been examining my former years morally; and every view I take is humiliating and distressing. Time wasted-means neglectedfaculties misimproved-injuries done to others by my advice, or example, or influence; and where in many cases the mischief cannot be repaired! I passed by the cross; and that which angels desire to look into, was nothing to me. He wooed and awed; blessed and chastised; and I set at nought all his counsel, and would none of his reproof-I violated a thousand resolutions. I resisted and conquered the most powerful conviction. I trampled under foot the Son of God, and did despite unto the Spirit of grace. For these things I weep." The Secondly. He looks within, and weeps as he examines the present. Let it be at once conceded, that grace makes the Christian to differ from his fellow-creatures, and from himself. It delivers him from the spirit of the world, and possesses him with the spirit which is of God. It calls him out of darkness into his marvellous light. It turns him from idols to serve the living God, and to wait for his Son from heaven. He is a new creature. Old things are passed away; and all things are become new. But though he is really sanctified in every. part, he is completely renovated in none. good work is begun; but a thousand deficiencies urge him to pray, "Perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands." Ask him now why he weeps. And you will hear him say, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that I cannot do the thing that I would. For what I would that I do not; but what I hate that I do. For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death !" Instead of advancing, I seem to be stationary-yea, going back in the heavenly life. What ingratitude under benefits! What incorrigibleness under rebukes! What unprofitableness under ordinances! My soul cleaveth unto the dust! What dullness, deadness, distractions, in attending upon the Lord! What little enjoyment in the things of God! The Sabbath returns, and leaves me as it finds me. I hear; but it is almost, if not altogether, in vain. I pray; but often seem at the throne of grace to forget my errand, and sometimes fall asleep there. I have promises that I cannot believe, and a God I cannot trust. He deserves all the confidence of my heart, and I treat him with the most unworthy suspicions "Sure, were not I most vile and base, I could not thus my friend requite: And were not he the God of grace, He'd frown and spurn me from his sight." -How mistaken are the people of the world. They often charge the Christian with antinomianism: they suppose that he embraces doctrines which favor licentiousness; and that he loves sin-when, could they witness him alone, where no one sees him and hears him but God, they would find him bewailing evils which are beneath their notice, and even infirmities which never strike their minds, for want of a holy susceptibility. But his conscience is so tender, that it resembles the eye, which is offended even with a mote. For a Christian feels all the remains of the sin that dwelleth in him. His new principles render it unavoidable. He who longs to advance, groans at every detention and delay; he who pants to excel, is mortified at little deficiencies; he who delights in purity, is offended with the least stain. It may be supposed, that under a perception of his failings, he will be unconcerned, if at the same time he is assured of his safety, and can repose on the certainty and permanency of the Saviour's love. But nothing can be more remote from the truth than this supposition: for it is then the Christian feels his imperfections the most painfully. The more he sees of the excellency and goodness of his Benefactor and Friend, the more he laments that he loves him no more, and serves him no better. This is godly sorrow. Thus a good man dying, when observed to weep profusely, said, "I weep not that my sins may be pardoned, but because I know they are pardoned." This accords with the promise: "I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." Thirdly. He looks forward, and weeps as he surveys the future. Not that he is miserable because God does not admit him into the secrets of his providence, but keeps him ignorant of what a day may bring forth. He knows that all his times are in God's hands, and there he is willing to leave them. But there are moral hazards sufficient to induce him to pass the time of his sojourning here in fear -not the fear of diffidence as to the truth of God's promises, or of uncertainty as to his final salvation; but a fear of moral circumspection and vigilance. Is there not enough to make him tremble as he moves on, lest he should enter into temptation? Is there not enough to make him apprehensive, that he has to pass through an enemy's country, and that snares are every where laid for his feet? Does he not know that he carries within him the remains of unmortified passions-so that every thing he meets with from without may draw him aside ? That even things harmless in themselves may occasion his falling? That characters far superior to himself have yielded in the hour of danger-and when no danger has been suspected? Is it not painful to think-that by one wrong step he may lose his evidences of heaven, distress and injure his brethren, and cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of; and induce the adversaries of the Lord to blaspheme? Is it not painful to think-that after all his professions of attachment, he may yet by his sin pierce the dear bosom on which his soul leans, and grieve the Holy Spirit by which he is sealed unto the day of redemption? Is it not enough to make him sigh-to think that as long as he remains here, he will never appear before One he infinitely loves, without carrying into his presence so much of that which he infinitely hates ? Is it not enough to make him groan-being burdened to think that the leprosy is so inherent and be pulled down and lie under ground for ages, beinseparable, that the walls of the house itself must fore it can be re-edified, and become an habitation for God through the Spirit? Fourthly. He looks around him, and weeps as he beholds others. Fools make a mock at sin; but they that are wise know that it is exceeding sinful, and say, with David, "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved." Is he a citizen? He is a patriot. He sighs and cries for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the land. For he knows that righteousness exalteth a nation, and that sin is the reproach of any people. Is he a minister? O, how distressing is it to look down upon those who, after the labor of twenty years, remain the same; yea, who wax worse and worse; to know that he is only preaching them blind, and deaf, and impenitent: and to think that he is destined to be a swift witness against many that he would gladly save. "I have told you often," says Paul," and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things." "Give glory to the Lord your God," says Jeremiah, "before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains; and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye will not hear, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive." Is he a member of a church? "He is sorrowful for the solemn assembly, and the reproach of it is his burden." Is he a relation? " How," says he, with Esther, "can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" Of those living in the same house, sitting at the same table, endeared by all the impressions and attractions of breeding and of birth? Can a wife, without anxiety and anguish, see a husband, otherwise amiable and kind, refusing to hear the word of life, and resolved not to receive the love of the truth, that he might be saved? Can a parent, with unbroken heart, see a child in the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death? We sympathize with bereaved fathers and mothers. Yet we ought even to hail those who have buried early hopes, compared with those whose offspring are |