our transgressions, it is in these words that the "Spirit from above," the "holy Spirit "that worketh unto salvation," speaks unto us all. It says, "ARISE,"-arise at once from sin and from wretchedness ;-from a condition foreign to your nature, and destructive of your hopes;-from your slavery in "a far country," where there is only famine from Heaven, and cruelty from men. Return to the home in which you were born,-to that household where even the" hired servants of your father "have bread enough and to spare ;" and where, under his protecting arms, you may still return to peace, to usefulness, and to happiness.—

-What are the purposes of these moral punishments in the administration of the Almighty, and what are the promises which the Gospel gives to genuine penitence, we shall afterwards have an opportunity of considering. In the meantime,

my brethren, let us pause, with seriousness, upon the history which we have now reviewed. It is the history (in some degree or other), of every human soul. Whereever guilt begins, it begins like the young man in the parable, with the abuse of the goods which the wisdom of the great Father of the universe hath divided unto us; and whatever may be its course, it uniformly ends like his, in the consciousness of moral want, and in the feeling of religious wretchedness.

Let the young pause upon it; and while life is that "far country" into which they are so willing to travel, let them consider well the example which is here presented in mercy to their inexperienced eye. Let them learn what it is to conceive all the goods which Providence bestows upon them to be their own; and where it is to which the vain, and the arrogant, and the selfish mind

must come, when it forgets alike the paternal hand which gave, and the beneficent purposes for which they were given.

Let the gay, and the busy, and the active, pause in the midst of their career; and, in these hours at least, ask themselves whether their course resembles that which we have seen. If it does, if they too are wasting for their own base or selfish ends, the goods which were committed to their care, let them not hope that the laws of the Eternal will change for them. Let them believe that there is one process alone which can purify the waters which are hastening to eternity;—and let them consider that it is only while the mind retains its strength, and the soul its vigour, that the prodigal child of nature can arise from the dust into which he has fallen, and retrace the journey which has separated him from his Father.

Upon this, and upon every congre

gation who are met in these solemn hours in the name of Jesus Christ, may the spirit of genuine repentance descend" with "healing upon its wings!"-May seasons as they pass, tell us that they are passing; -and may we all so employ them, that they may become to us, "the appointed "time,”—that they may prove to us “the "day of salvation !"

SERMON XIX.

ON THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL

SON.

LUKE, XV. 11.

"And he said, A certain man had two

"sons."

WHEN HEN we were last assembled, my brethren, I submitted to you some observations upon the memorable parable of the Prodigal Son, which contains to every feeling bosom, lessons at once of humility, of hope, and of animation. In soliciting your attention to the history of the young