"to him all hearts are open, all desires known, and from him no secrets are hid." In vain, ye troublers of the world, would ye seek the shades of night to conceal your deeds of darkness, in vain would ye retire from the haunts of society to perpetrate your wickedness; with regard to the Almighty's perception, ye are in constant day, and to him your machinations are exposed in all their naked depravity. God looks unto the seed as well as to the fruit of evil, and duly appreciates the endeavours to eradicate and the desire to retain them. No victory over the passions, no contest with the instigations of Satan, which pass within the deep recesses of the mind, are unobserved or unrecorded by him. Every instance of self-denial, every sacrifice performed for the sake of conscience, every trial undergone in the cause of religion, every pleasure relinquished for the cross of Christ, are written in the Book of Heaven, in the ineffacable characters of life and light; while every vicious emotion yielded to, and every bad intention formed, and every sinful concupiscence indulged, will find a potent tongue of accusation to implead the wretched criminal at that last Assize, where Jesus has resumed his Godhead, and the Saviour has become the Judge.

III. I would offer some remarks on the promises of God to them who seek him, and his threats to them who forsake him.

Here, with what a heavenly emphasis does the admonition of David again recur. "If thou seek

him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever." The prudent son neglected not the advice of his Royal Parent; we read, that he sought wisdom and the knowledge of God, above all the treasures of the earth; he acquired that knowledge, and the treasures were added also. But how are we to seek God? Not by directing the search of impious enquiry into mysteries which he has pronounced to be concealed. Not by questioning the equity of his ways, and cavilling at every dispensation of his providence: not by elevating ourselves to the seat of judgment, and by degrading him before the bar of sophistry and error. Not through the blood of goats or bulls, the burnt offering and incense-breathing sacrifice not through the intercession of departed saints and mediating Angels, but with a changed and contrite heart; with a soul desirous to be saved alive, and panting for a more intimate communion with its Lord; with passions conquered, feelings chastened, love fixed on its worthiest object; and with a faith, animated and practical, confidently though humbly leaning on the bosom, and trusting to the atonement of our Redeemer. Our search for God can never be in vain. If his person be invisible, his attributes are every where manifested. On every stage

and path of life are showered his gratuitous blessings. On every object that presents itself to the sense, the eye, the conception, we may discern the impress of divinity. It is stamped upon the earth, it is sealed upon the deep; it is emblazoned in the Heavens; it is engraven on the heart of man. The gods of the heathen are departed from their shrines, Jupiter has left the Capitol, and the falling columns of the Grecian deities strew the land they were unable to defend. Where are the idols that surrounded Israel? Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad ? Where the gods of Hena, and of Ivah, and Sepharvaim? They lie rotting with their senseless worshippers in the dust, but thou, Lord, hast "suddenly come to thy temple," and "with a strong hand and an outstretched arm hast thou redeemed thy people." The world was "dead in trespass and in sins," it became like the valley of the Prophet, till thy eternal Son did breathe upon it, and bade those "dead bones live." Thus then, will we bow before thee; and seek thee in the multitude of thy mercies, and in the congregation of thy people; thus, will we acknowledge thee, praise thee, and bless thee; thus, O God of our salvation, will we confess thy power, and "all the earth shall worship thee the everlasting Father!" My Brethren, in bringing this discourse to a close, I must advert to the dreadful threat denounced against those who forsake their God. Alas! he

will" cast them off for ever!" Oh! ye, who now in thoughtless levity tread on the very brink of this tremendous precipice; ye, who in the giddiness of youth, the worldliness of manhood, or the apathy of age, pass on your useless, dangerous existence, in negligence or defiance of your heavenly Father, pause, I implore you, and ponder on this decisive sentence. If the simple appeal, if the touching generosity and obvious justice of my text, make no impression on your hopes or fears, vain will be all human preaching, and vain, I fear, your listening to human argument. I know, I feel that the words of this text are far beyond my power to illustrate. Their sense, however, is deep, and solemn, and intelligible. Art cannot embellish, elocution cannot heighten it. This is no theme for idle declamation, to while away a leisure hour, and then to perish from remembrance; this is no subject of mere speculative curiosity, but a matter of the first and last importance to your mortal and immortal lives; to your dearest interests temporal and eternal. As such, My Brethren, I again present it to you, and earnestly and affectionately I put it to you, whether it be better to know the God of your fathers, and to serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind," or to forsake in him the only prospect of Salvation, and to be "cast off" with the wicked" for ever."

SERMON V.

ON THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

LUKE X. 36, 37.

Which now of these thinkest thou was neighbour to him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go and do thou likewise.

THE first of these verses concludes one of those excellent parables in which our Saviour frequently communicated instruction to his disciples; it contains a question which compels from his hearers the moral truth of their reply, and he dismisses them, fraught with this conviction, with the solemn injunction, to put it into immediate practice.

The parable, as you well know, relates the accident of a certain Jew on his road to Jericho falling among thieves; who, having robbed and maltreated him, leave him half dead; in this dismal situation he is first perceived by a Priest of his own faith and his own country, who, instead of tarrying to relieve, avoids him; a Levite also, who was bound to him by every tie of law

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