"You see now that you are a much greater sinner than you supposed?"

"Oh yes," replied the sick man," much-very much.”

"And that my representation of your character was not very much exaggerated ?"

"It was not at all exaggerated; all that you said of me was true."

"Your condition before God, then, is" The visitor paused at this word, as if to allow the invalid to finish the sentence according to his own feelings. The young man understood him, and promptly said, with a sad and solemn emphasis

"That of a great and wretched sinner. Oh, sir!" he added, after a period of silence apparently spent in realizing the awfulness of his position as now discerned, "is there hope for me?" "There is hope for all," said the visitor, energetically; ""God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Is this hope welcome and precious to you?"

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or

"Have I any other?" exclaimed the sick man, eagerly; ought I to wish for any other, when my offended God presents to me one so blessed and so glorious?"

“You can trust, then, in the name of Jesus?"

"Oh! not as I ought, or as I would; but I cannot wholly mistrust him—that would be an additional sin, would it not?

He said this with a degree of firmness by which his friend was gratified, and he said-" You believe in Christ as your Saviour, then, from choice, and not only from necessity?"

Invalid. "I ought to do so. How attractive a way of salvation ought to be to me, which at once glorifies God, and saves such a poor, lost sinner, as I am! Yet, I am ashamed to say, my proud heart hardly submits to it. Oh! to count all things but loss, that I may win Christ! Lord, help my unbelief!"

"He will help you," said the visitor, emphatically, and at the same moment kindly grasping his hand; "trust him, and do not be afraid. He is able to save even to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; and his own words are, 'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

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"You will pray with me, sir ?" said the invalid, who was now calm, but deeply serious.

"Surely," replied his friend; and after a brief but solemn prayer, in which he implored the aid of the Holy Spirit to teach the sufferer both the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the unsearchable riches of Christ, he left the invalid to his own thoughts.

AFTER nearly three thousand years, parts of the city of Nineveh have been disinterred. The great winged bulls, and the curiously sculptured slabs, now in the British Museum, give an insight into the manners, and customs, and social life of the ancient Assyrian people: they enable us to picture the great metropolis of the east as it was when the prophet Jonah visited it,with its broad halls, its palaces, temples, and houses, vast gardens, fields, and pasture lands; and with its streets, the thoroughfares for busy thousands-statesmen, merchants, and artificers passing to and fro; and armies, with their heavy tramp, marching along the immense highways.

That place was a scene of luxury and vice, of superstition and idolatry. It was crowded with men whose iniquities cried to Heaven for vengeance. But God, who saw more of its wickedness than man can imagine, looked on it in mercy, and sent Jonah to preach repentance to the people. It was not merely as mortals, but as immortals, that God contemplated them. They were not like the gourd-which came up in a night, and withered in a night-but they were beings to whom belonged an existence more enduring than the great works they had built up. It is an overpowering thought, as we look on any great city-on London, for example-to think that all the people who inhabit it are on their way to another world; and that, should it

become a heap of ruins like Nineveh, the beings now crowding its streets will still live. We are led to ask-What will become of them all?-In what world will they live?-For what world are they preparing? A striking instance of compassion was it when God sent a prophet to Nineveh to warn the people to flee from the wrath to come. Is not God's conduct towards the cities of our land in the present day even more compassionate? When we read of the vices and crimes of London, for example; when we think of the horrid deeds which are done, and the malignant and licentious passions cherished; and then think of the gospel message, amidst all this ungodliness-of the nature and design of this message; when we remember that it brings tidings from God to man, announcing salvation through Jesus Christ; when we remember that it points to that Divine and glorious Mediator who, unlike Jonah, pleased not himself, but freely gave up his very life for human redemption,-how great are God's mercy and love shown to be!

But

Jonah went through the streets, saying, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed." Wonderful was the impressiona moral miracle was wrought. The Hebrew messenger, by his simple denunciation, awes and subdues a whole city, and that, too, one, as is manifest from its recently discovered monuments, of the most proud, self-dependent, egotistical, and superstitious on the earth. There must have been Divine power working with the prophet, for the people "repented in dust and ashes;" and there was sincerity and earnestness in their fasting and prayers. Strangers entering the city, who had heard of its glory, must have been very much astonished. Ambassadors from other courts, who had seen it in the midst of its triumphs and revelries, might have thought it much degraded now. in the eye of God and holy beings the place had never looked so well before. A people humbled before the Almighty in confession and prayer, really present a more noble sight than all the spectacles of gaiety and grandeur in a joyous city. In our metropolis there are no scenes comparable to the hidden ones of souls in earnest supplication with God, seeking the pardon of their sins through Jesus Christ, and strength to help them to subdue evil in this evil world. And God despised not the prayer of the Ninevites. "He saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.' it displeased Jonah " that God spared Nineveh. The folly and the heartlessness of the prophet serve to exhibit the more strikingly the compassion and love of Him who sent him, What a contrast here, as in a multitude of cases, is there

But

THE MEN OF NINEVEH.

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ings of God towards them! "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord: for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,' Isa. lv. 7-9. Not a supplication can you breathe but it is heard-not a tear can you shed but it is seen. The prayer of the poor old man, and of the heart-broken widow, and of the anxious little child, who out of the depths of their sorrow cry, not only for peace, but for pardon-not only for comfort, but holiness is sure to be heard by the holy and merciful One.

The men of Nineveh did repent at the preaching of Jonah. The rough, earnest cry of the prophet did warn and alarm them. The change was held up by Christ as a warning to the men of his times: "The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here," Luke xi. 32. Is not this warning applicable to our times? Men favoured with greater advantages than the Ninevites abuse and dishonour them. There were multitudes who heard Christ, the Redeemer of the world, with less impression than the men of the Assyrian city heard the prophet-people now so hear the gospel of Christ. In the present day repentance is proclaimed, that radical change of heart required by God, and due from the sinner towards his offended Maker; to how many may it be said—perhaps to the reader of these lines-you do not repent. You hear of coming wrath, of a doom far worse than that which hung over Nineveh, of the hour when "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, 2 Thess. i. 7-9; yet you do not repent. It is not said, Forty days, and you shall be destroyed; you are told of the love of God, and that this is " a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;" yet you do not repent.

but

He

He who speaks in the gospel is the ever-living, present, and gracious Lord. Whenever Christ is preached it may be said"A greater than Jonah is here," even the Saviour himself. who came from heaven, who suffered on the tree, who paid the price of our redemption, is present by his Spirit; for he said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." He is near to you. He speaks touchingly and with tenderness.

unholy? Christ tells you that. Do you feel a shrinking and a fear as you look forward? It is Christ preaching to you the truth more solemnly than Jonah could which makes you feel so; yet you do not repent. Do you see that you may escapethat there is a Rock to which you can flee, and which the earthquake cannot move nor touch-that yonder there is an open gate which leads to a bright and beautiful paradise? Jesus Christ tells you that; yet you do not repent. That hoaryheaded Ninevite bows down like a child, and weeps and cries for mercy; but you do not. That Assyrian woman wrings her hands with anguish and implores deliverance; but you do not. That boy there, he too supplicates in sympathy with his parents, he prays the God of the Jewish prophet to have mercy; but you do not. The houses rang with earnest entreaties which went up to heaven after Jonah had preached. God saw there many a one mourning apart; but it is not so in your dwelling, and with your soul. A few days' preaching, perhaps a few hours', availed with those Ninevites; weeks of preaching, years of preaching, sermons without number, have not availed with you. What a marvellous change went through that old city all at once! No change is seen in you. The messengers of God come and go; but there is no change. They plead and pray; but there is no change they warn and invite; but there is no change. Providence has followed preaching. You have been smitten with breach on breach; losses, sickness, death, have torn away your earthly idols; God saying at the time, "Son, daughter, give me thine heart;" but there is no change. You have seen friends buried, and by the grave you have seemed to touch eternity; but there has been no change. Inward conviction there has been, solemn thought there has been, inquiry about religion there has been, dissatisfaction with your past course, desires for a something better, and perhaps resolves there have been; but no vital, radical, saving change-no change like that which our Lord describes, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven;" "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," Matt. xviii. 3; John iii. 3.

What will be the end? Will you leave the world without doing what the Ninevites did? Then the end is sure: "The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it." "It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment" than for you, Mark vi. 11. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip ;-how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" Heb. ii. 1—3.