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pray and faint not, the same God, who listened to his servants in the times of old, who heard even Manasseh's request, will accept the incense of your sacrifice, and shed the dews of his blessing upon your heads.

SERMON XIII.

1 JOHN IV, PART OF 17 VERSE.

Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.

THERE can be, I think, no reasonable doubt, that one great cause, which prevents men from being anxious to become the followers of Christ, is, the privations and self-denial to which every sincere believer is bound to submit, and which appear so painful to the carnal and worldly-minded. In the days when persecution deluged our land with blood, many were turned aside from the faith, by their dread of those tortures which were employed to try the fortitude and piety of its chosen champions. These times of woe and desolation are passed away, we trust never to return. And yet we shall not find, I fear, if we examine closely and impartially, that the absence of all apprehension of personal danger, contributes materially to swell the number of real and

zealous Christians. For we must ever bear in mind, that though we call ourselves after the name of Christ, yet if the Spirit of Christ dwell not in us, such an empty profession will avail us nothing in that day, when we shall flee to it as our last hope of deliverance from the bitterness of eternal death. But although by God's blessing, the rack and the stake are no longer permitted to fill our plains with mourning and misery; although these mighty engines of Satan's power have crumbled into dust before the sun-beams of the Gospel; yet are fear and the want of fortitude, still powerful engines in the hands of the great deceiver, to tempt men away from God, or prevent them from entering his service. They who are his servants, must keep themselves unspotted from the world; must renounce its pomps and pleasures, its friendships and alliances; must refuse to allow its pursuits to take possession of their hearts, and fill them with the lust of power or of wealth, instead of hunger and thirst after righteousness. To practise duties such as these, demands, from the holiest temper, many an anxious struggle, many a painful sacrifice. The flesh will ever lust against the Spirit, whilst it is enshrouded in its present tabernacle of corruption; and the contest with the powers of darkness can only be successfully maintained, by continual watchfulness and untiring zeal. The Scriptures

too, every where represent the life of the Christian as a toilsome pilgrimage; a race of doubt and difficulty; a war of danger and unceasing vigilance. Assuredly to the worldly minded, the Gospel of Jesus presents but few attractions. It condemns their pursuits as sinful; it denounces the idol of their worship as an agent of the archspirit of evil; a deadly foe, which must be withstood and conquered. By them, therefore, so long as they cling to follies and pleasures, thus at variance with the precepts of the gospel, we can never hope to see those precepts obeyed. It is when men forsake the world; when they begin to see the vanity and vexation of mortal cares and anxieties; when they become sensible of their own wants and imperfections; that they take their cross and follow their Saviour's steps. But though the true believer must expect to undergo many dangers, to be exposed to many trials, yet we shall err greatly, if we imagine that there are no comforts promised, no joys held out, to reward his faith and obedience. True it is, that the gospel does not say to the sick, ye shall be restored to health; it does not say to the poor, ye shall be made rich; it speaks not to any of perfect rest, or peace, or happiness, in this world. Its comforts, its promises, its rewards, are to be enjoyed in fulness in another state alone; and though they do, even amid all the changes and vi

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cissitudes of life, shed a calm upon the spirit, which no other power can give, yet they will not bestow their most perfect serenity and bliss, until our tabernacle of mortality has been dissolved. And this indeed, my brethren, is the period when the soul stands most in need of consolation. Great and many as the sorrows of life may be; heavily as the afflictions which beset us here may press upon us; yet what are they, compared to that fearful state of woe and misery, which must be the portion of the departed spirit, that stands before its Maker's bar of judgment, with no friend to cheer, no arm to succour it. But to this fearful ordeal, few of us, unhappily, often direct our thoughts. Whilst the blessings of health are shed upon our heads; whilst the blandishments of life pour their palsying influence upon our senses; we seem to act as though we expected our days to be without number, our pleasures without end or change. The thoughts of death and judgment, are thoughts which either seldom recur, or if they do intrude themselves upon our hours of mirth and merriment, are rarely or never permitted to dwell upon our minds, and temper the unholy excitement, which the vanities of the world never fail to kindle. Yet though we strive to banish these unwelcome visitors from our remembrance; though we drown in excess and frivolity, the solemn voice of conscience which

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