happen to hear a discourse of this kind, are very apt to treat it with levity, and perhaps openly deride it. This, however, is all pretence: such men do violence to their feelings. I am well convinced, that there is so much obvious reason in the statement laid before you to-day, that no man on earth, of that class, can sit easy under such a representation of so momentous a subject. Shall we

suppose him to be, for example, thirty years of age? or fifty? or seventy? it is no great matter-I ask the question distinctly, and I press it home upon his conscience, "What kind of self-examination are you in the habit of using? Are you in the first stage? or are you advanced to the second, or the third?" Such inquiries, one would think, cannot fail to make at least a transitory impression on any attentive mind: I pray God to grant a sanctified issue!

Further. Brethren, when I look on a congregation of such magnitude as this, and consider that in a very few years every one of us will be in eternity, I confess that I feel my mind deeply affected with thoughts of the invisible world, and the importance of spiritual things. The dismal sound of numberless passing-bells, announcing

the departure of many from this world; the melancholy sight of graves and coffins; with "Earth to earth! ashes to ashes! dust to dust!"-these things to the eye of wisdom appear, as they are, not imaginations, but realities: in spite of the world and its delusions, they demand attention, they arrest the judgment, and, for a moment at least, they moderate the passions. Yet what is there in all this affecting scenery, thus denoting the extinction of the body; what is there in the loss of friends, of health and beauty, and of all that is pleasant to the eye or that belongs to the pride of life, which ought to be compared with the loss of the soul in hell? "There the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

Brethren, it is exceedingly useful to bring these realities often into the contemplation of our minds. For example, if both the preacher and his hearers would endeavour, this morning, to view their prospects of life in this world, and of eternity in the next, with the same seriousness with which we certainly shall view them at the Day of Judgment, there could be little doubt but that, on the one hand, I as a preacher of the everlasting Gospel should solemnly disclose to you

the whole counsel of God: I should earnestly exhort you to "examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith;" I should warn you against all such subterfuges and deceits as might prove your ruin; I should dare to keep back from you no good advice, however disagreeable to your feelings, or however liable to give offence. On the other hand, brethren, would you but realize to yourselves that great change, which is even at the door; would you preserve on your minds the impression of an eternal and immutable sentence just going to be passed; you would take no offence at the severe or harsh representations of the preachernay, even your curiosity would be repressed, so as to think little about the person who has exhorted you to self-examination: you would not be contented with loose conversations about him, or the truths he has delivered ;—in a word, your attention would be mightily drawn to the consideration of your own state and condition before God; you would be apt to reflect that much may depend upon the use you shall make of the few inestimable moments that are left On the score

you.

of Gospel advantages, it cannot be but that many who now hear me must be conscious of

the great privileges they enjoy, and have long enjoyed; and it is my duty to put them in mind that they serve a Master who will expect an account to be given of the talents and opportunities entrusted to their care and management.

To conclude. If you act fairly and honestly,' and with seriousness, on the views and principles that have been explained to-day, you may firmly expect a blessing on the truths delivered from the pulpit, and on your own earnest endeavours in a course of self-examination. The Holy Spirit of God will assuredly attend on his own service and ordinance. He will instruct the judgment, and warm the hearts of the hearers. He will separate what is erroneously stated by the preacher, or imperfectly understood by the hearer, from what is perfectly agreeable to his own will. He will pass from heart to heart with his sanctifying operation." You and I shall remember, with a sacred thankfulness and gratitude, that we spent together the present hour; and at the Last Day we shall meet again with mutual joy and congratulation,

137

SERMON XVII,

ROMANS vii. 18.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not,

ALMOST ever since I studied the word of God with any considerable degree of seriousness, I have looked on this declaration of the Apostle Paul as containing one of the most decisive and irrefragable proofs of the Scripture doctrine of the depravity of human nature: there are, however, many others. The penitent Psalmist tells us in the most pathetic terms, that he was shapen in iniquity, and that in sin his mother had conceived him; and he prays that God would be pleased to create in him a clean heart, and renew a right