And is such the opinion of men competent to judge? Let me select an additional testimony, from our own times. The learned and pious biographer of Colonel Gardner, amongst other striking facts relates the following: "The Colonel was favoured with a felicity of constitution peculiar to few, and previous to his conversion, by a dreadful kind of compliment, was termed by his companions, the happy rake.' Upon one of these occasions, a dog crossing the room at the instant, he could not forbear inwardly groaning out a wish that he could change circumstances with the brute!"

From these statements it might appear, that were the text only "What is a man profitted if he should gain the whole world?" There could be but one correct answer-he is not profitted at all. "What then is a man profitted if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

II. The loss intimated: "His own soul!" "And what shall a. man give in exchange for his soul?" The soul is in itself of incomparable worth.

Its capacities prove it. It was the last and noblest work of the great Architect of the Universe; and it has been beautifully remarked, that "when the earth was to be fashioned, and the ocean poured into its appointed bed, when the firmament was to be expanded, and suns lighted up, God said, let them be,' and they were: but when man was to be made, the creating Power seemed to make a solemn pause. He retired within himself, and looked out for a model by which to form his exquisite piece of workmanship, and found it in his own nature: God said, let us make man in our image, and after our likeness.'"* Thus it stood at first among his works, the fairest resemblance of himself, and though fallen, is still more like its Maker than any of his creatures in this lower world. Its thoughts are illimitable, its sensibilities such as to communicate to inert, unfeeling matter, the most exquisite sensations; and its powers of improvement ever expanding. The bee has constructed its cell, and the bird its nest, upon the same principle from the earliest records of natural history; but during that period the human intellect has been constantly progressive, and its ultimate point of attainment lies far beyond the reach of imagination. It subjects nature to its scrutiny, ascertains its laws, analyses its parts, determines its powers; and, as if creation were too small for it, grasps at the infinite Creator.

Its redemption proves it. For it was "redeemed, not with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ;" and since nothing else could effect its salvation, God" spared not his own Son. Would you therefore appreciate the worth of your souls, go to Bethlehem, and read it in the

Hunter's Sac. Biog.

* 4 P2 *

imbecility and tears of Jehovah Jesus. Turn aside into Gethsemane, and behold it in his sweat of blood; ascend Mount Calvary, and see it displayed in the agonies of your dying Lord! Recollect the dignity of the sufferer-the Lord of angels-the Creator of the world" The brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person." And let it not be overlooked, that in the estimate of infinite love, your souls were preferred to his life. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Its immortality proves it-for the voice of every age and nation, the feelings of our nature, which make the soul shrink back upon itself, and startle at destruction; every thing we know of the nature of the human spirit; but, above all, the Scriptures of eternal truth, prove that the present is only the commencement of our being. The soul will survive in death, and exist in eternity, and through unending periods soar as high as the throne of God, or sink as low as the centre of hell; be filled with an infinity of love, or overwhelmed with unutterable vengeance! This raises its worth above all calculation. It is in consequence of this that it has been said, with justice, that "the salvation of a soul amounts to a greater sum of happiness, than the temporal deliverance of the largest empire for a thousand ages." By the same argument, the loss of one soul is a greater catastrophe, than the sum total of all the temporal misery endured upon the face of the globe, from the period of the fall to the general conflagration.

The loss of the soul is its being cast away; and includes the privation of all it was capable of enjoying, and the everlasting endurance of indescribable misery.

And this case is no imaginary one. You cannot gain the world, but you may lose your souls. What! do you suppose yourselves in no danger? And are not some of you thoughtless of your eternal interests? Are not others of you almost wholly engrosseed with the pursuits and amusements of the world? It is true you sometimes feel compunction; you occasionally tremble under our ministry; you cannot shroud yourselves from reflection; still you remain unconverted to God; and except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. You suppose yourselves in little or no danger-yet it is implied in our text, and facts prove it too true, that few men can gain much of the world, without running a dreadful risk of losing their souls; and the hazard is the greater, as few will believe it exists. Men and brethren, lay this to beart. As the Lord liveth, there is only a step between some of you and perdition. Nothing intervenes this moment between you and your eternal undoing, but the attenuated thread of life-the scythe of death hangs over itand if it be cut, you are dropped into the abyss of damnation.

I have said, the case is not imaginary; yet it is not easy to describe it. Let us picture to ourselves a sinner approaching his final hour. It is possible he may be in a state of careless insensibility; more probably he is filled with guilty alarm. The death of a medical student at one of our northern Universities, lately communicated to the publick, is unhappily, I fear, by no means singular. Stretched upon a sofa when a friend entered the room, he with difficulty fixed his eyes upon him, and with an agitated voice said, "Charles, my friend, eternity! eternity! Ah! whither shall I flee ?" His friend endeavoured to tranquillize his mind, by saying, he could have little to fear who possessed so many amiable qualities. With a look expressive of the greatest mental distress, he grasped the hand of Charles, and replied, "Is there not a righteous Judge, who has denounced eternal death upon every sinner who violates his holy law in a single instance, and is there a commandment which I have not broken? Whither can I flee from his anger!" He soon afterwards sunk down into a state of stupor, which in a few hours terminated in death!

It is still more an affecting account, which is given of the dying scene of the noble Altamont: "Hear me," said he; "this body is all weakness and pain, but my soul, as if strung up by torment to greater strength and spirit, is full powerful to reason, full mighty to suffer; and that which thus triumphs within the jaws of mortality is doubtless immortal. And as for a DEITY, nothing less than an Almighty could inflict what I feel.-Let me speak on. My soul, as my body lies in ruins, in scattered fragments of broken thought; remorse for the past throws my thoughts on the future; worse dread of the future, strikes it back upon the past: I turn, and turn, and find no ray. Didst thou feel half the mountain that is on me, thou wouldst struggle with the martyr for his stake, and bless heaven for the flames; that is not an everlasting flame, that is not an unquenchable fire. Oh! thou blasphemed, yet most indulgent LORD GOD, hell itself is a refuge, if it hides me from thy frowns!" He soon afterwards expired.

How differently does the good man die! It is only a few years since he who addresses you, was called to witness a very opposite scene to that which has just been delineated. A pious Chaistian,* in humble life, was breathing her last. I had scarcely seated myself at her bed-side, and begun to converse upon subjects dictated by the solemnity of the occasion, when the presence of God filled the room in an indescribable manner. The attendants wept aloud: I was insensibly led to place my hat before my face, and exclaim, "How dreadful is this place! it is none other than the gate of heaven;" the dying saint raised her emaciated arms, elevated her tremulous voice, and exclaimed, "Glory, glory, glory!"

* Mrs. C. Butler, of Dunnington, near York.

It was felt glory. We attempted to pray, but all was praise. I hope never to forget the parting. Pointing upwards, this saint, all but glorified, said, "Be faithful, be faithful." I feel the impression still. Ah! it is in presence of such scenes, sinners, for things appear more striking from contrast, that you properly estimate your loss. "Let me die the death of the righteous!”

But let us lift the curtain. It is pleasing to follow the good man into eternity; escorted by angels to the gates of Paradise, an entrance is administered to him abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: but O! what frightful horrors greet the departed sinner! Death consigns his body to putrefaction, and his soul to hell, where,

"Bound to the bottom of the flaming pool,
Though loth, and ever loud blasphemings, owns
"Tis justly doom'd to pour eternal groans;
To talk to fiery tempests, and implore,
The raging flame to give its fury o'er;
To writhe, to toss, to pant beneath its load,
And bear the weight of an offended God."

Every power and faculty is now expanded to be an instrument of
torture. The understanding to the dreadful perception of justice
that will not bend, of severity that knows not how to relax, of
vengeance that admits not of pity. The memory, roused by that
trumpet that wakes the dead, gives new form and substance to
the spectres of transgressions long since departed, and which were
vainly imagined to be laid in the grave for ever. Fear, too,
is launched forth into the boundless endless regions of futurity,
and rouses despair; and in the very abysses of burning hell,
shudders at the thought of a deeper gulph and hotter flame.'
"Who can dwell with devouring fire, who can endure everlasting
burning?" Add to this, that through all eternity, the extreme
actual suffering, will be augmented by the presence of forfeited
good: "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye
shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets,
in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out."

For if this loss be sustained, it will be irreparable; lose property, and it may be recovered; character, and it may be retrieved; friends, and they may be replaced; but a soul lost, is lost for ever! "The redemption of their soul is precious, and ceaseth for ever." "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." "Their worm dieth not; their fire is not quenched." There is no cessation of misery, no hope of happiness: but remaining, if not increasing crime: of course unmitigated, uninterrupted, unending punishment. Dream not of redemption from a state which lies so far beyond the precincts of our Almighty Redeemer.

* Dr. Hunter.

"Their torment shall transcend,

The reach of time, despair a distant end,
With dreadful growth, shoot forward and arise,

Where thought can't follow, and bold fancy dies."

O could we follow lost souls into the bosom of despair, witness their misery, and hear their wailings, what heart would not shudder. Methinks I hear one of them moaning to the tempest, can you bear to listen?

“O must I dwell in torturing despair
As many years as atoms in the air?
When these are done, as many to ensue,

As blades of grass on hills and dales that grew?
When these are past, as many thousands more,
As grains of sand upon the ocean's shore;
When these run out, as many millions more
As moments in the millions past before?
When all these doleful years are spent in pain,
And multiplied by millions yet again,
Till numbers drown the thought, could I suppose
That then my wretched years would have a close,
This would afford a hope-but, O! I shiver,
To ponder on that dreadful word-for ever!

Infinite years in torment must I spend ?

And never, never, NEVER have an end?"

"What" then, "is a man profitted, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

But your souls need not be lost; "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "He is able to save to the very uttermost all that come unto God by him." I do not state these pleasing truths to authorize security; for "thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways." "Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return_unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon." "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This is the great point; as poor sinners you must repose yourselves upon the merits of a crucified Redeemer. "He that believeth not shall be damned." In a word,

begin seriously to care for your souls; you care for your bodies; what anxiety about their health, what solicitude respecting their appearance, many of you daily manifest? And is it wise to be so much concerned about the decaying tabernacle, and neglect the imperishable inhabitant? "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." Finally, estimate the world in the light of eternity: look not at the things which are seen, but at those things which are not seen. do these things ye shall never fall."

"If ye

3