you as a Teacher and a Sanctifier; and lo! you grieve Him by every year's delay,-nay, by every fresh repulse, when He stirs your consciences for a moment, and you settle down again into coldness and indifference. For this, in plain language, you must become a new man, a converted man, one who makes it his business to crucify the flesh, and walk strictly by Christ's rule, and attain to a spirit utterly unlike that which rules the world at large. But the longer you live in unbelief, the more certain is it that you will get at last to think that a spiritual change of this sort may be dispensed with, and that a baptized person, unconvicted of any moral delinquency, may go to heaven without it. Is not all this unreasonable? Are you not, as it were, hiring strong men to hold you back from the point you say you aim at? Will you go and do this with your eyes open? Will you repeat it to-morrow, after the warning of to-day? God forbid, my brethren.

Secondly, let me tell you, there is something very ungenerous in conduct of this sort. Who must be your Friend and Deliverer, at last? To whom will you owe your soul, if it be saved as you hope it shall be? It is "the death of the righteous" that you wish to die. Now the righteous die not all alike, but under varying circumstances of many kinds. Some live on to a good old age, and then gently fall asleep in Jesus. Some are wasted by disease, and pray for death many a time before it comes to set them free;-others fall in the vigour

of early manhood after a short sharp struggle with the last enemy. Some are gathered in, as saints fully ripe, to the Lord's garner after a life-long course of consistent piety;-others are brought suddenly to God, and translated rapidly to heaven, before the good fight of faith was well begun. Some perish out of sight, leaving few to mourn for them but the little company of home friends whom their example has gladdened and edified;-others first witness for God on some public stage, and then fall amid the tears and regrets of those who admired their virtues. But, amid all their differences, in one point they are agreed. Living and dying, their eye is on the Cross. In the long conflict with their own corruptions and the world's temptations, and in the last peaceful stage when they lay them down, like tired soldiers, to sleep, Christ, "the Chief among ten thousand," is their Hope and Joy and Crown. He must be your Redeemer, too. "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved." You know of no other. You do not hope for any other. Will you slight Him now, forget His claims, put away His loving invitation, take bribes, like Balaam, and listen to seducers, and then hope that the dregs of life may still be left as an offering to Him who would love you with a Friend's love, and guide you with a Shepherd's care, all your life through? O beware of delays, which are really oft-repeated denials. Let not good wishes stand for faith and truth.

Let Him

have your hearts at once to whom you hope to give them one day. Else you will "behold" your Lord, "but not nigh,"-far off on the throne of Judgment, not close at hand to help and save you. Be yours and mine, dear friends, the happier lot to live with the righteous, and die with the righteous, and reign with them in everlasting glory!

SERMON VIII.

THE WARRIOR, IN PURSUIT, AND AT REST.

JOSHUA X. 40.

“So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded."

Also JOSHUA Xxiii. 14.

And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof."

(First Sunday after Trinity.—Morning or Evening.)

THESE two passages bring before us one of the famous Old Testament saints, first of all, in the vigour of his manhood, and, secondly, in the last stage of a life spent in the service of God. Both are brought before us in the course of the services of the day, and there will be some advantage in looking at them together. We like to see how

men demean themselves in widely different situations, to mark them successively in action and in repose,―to watch how their spirit proves equal to the two extremes of fortune, and how far they are preserved by principle from temptations of rather an opposite kind. So we will take Joshua for our subject to-day, and will offer some remarks both on the deeds of the victorious general, and on the words of the dying saint, trying to get some instruction and encouragement for ourselves from what we find recorded concerning him in both characters.

I. It is impossible, I think, to read the first of these two chapters without being struck with the picture of active, untiring energy which it brings before us. No time is lost; no pains are spared; there is neither rest nor pause in the war, till every opposing power is utterly destroyed. We hear, in the opening verses, of the new allies of Israel, the Gibeonites, appealing to Joshua for protection against five kings of Canaan who had combined to destroy their city. The camp of Israel was presently astir; a rapid night march brought them up to the enemy; the conflict was short, apparently, and the issue decisive. Many fell in the battle, and numbers more in the pursuit. The arrows of the Almighty,-"great hailstones from heaven,❞— made more havoc among the flying host than the sword of Israel, and to render the work of destruction yet more complete, the day was preternaturally