majority of those, who ever become pious become so early in life. To the young, therefore, let me say, if you ever expect to be saved, you must improve the present period, and make sure of heaven now, before the cares of the world occupy your thoughts. They that seek me early, God hath said, shall find me.

It is not the fact, that Christians are less happy in this world than the unrenewed. It is true they do not give themselves up to all the pleasures and amusements, which are sought with so much eagerness and valued so high by the thoughtless, gay and fashionable. The enjoyments of Christians are reasonable and lawful. They leave no sting. It is not thus with the amusements, which are most admired. They commence, when he Christian is offering to God his evening sacrifice, and end when his first thoughts in the morning watch are ascending to his kind and heavenly Preserver. They are productive of innumerable diseases, and hurry many to the grave before they have lived out half their days. The joy of the Christian is concealed from the world. His life is hid with Christ in God. It is not then strange that the unrenewed imagine that Christians are cut off from all sources of enjoyment. The tears they shed on account of the unhappy condition of those, who remain in sin, are thought to be proofs that they themselves are miserable. But what is their testimony?—the testimony of every true convert? They are ready to declare, a day spent in the service of God is better than a thousand spent elsewhere-they had rather be doorkeepers in the house of their God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. The happinesss of the Christian is far more excellent than that of the man of the

world. The enjoyments of the world never satisfy-they are hardly tasted before they are gone and leave an aching void—a craving for something else. Indeed worldly men are always seeking something new, something they never have possessed, still hoping to find the thing desired. They continue the pursuit till death, and are at last convinced, when it is too late, that they have been deceived-and have been following shadows all their days. They die without any hope beyond the grave.

It is not so with the Christian. When he finds Christ he finds a true friend, one in whom he can trust, one, in whom there is an infinite fulness of all good. True religion satisfies the soul. It is impossible to describe the joy experienced by the new convert. It far exceeds all the descriptions he ever read. He is ready to acknowledge that the hundredth part was never told him by the most pious and eloquent preacher. He finds it different from any thing of which he had before any conception. Now can you not believe the testimony of all Christians? What motive can they have to deceive? Be convinced, should you my young friends, become Christians, you will be happy for time and for eternity; incomparably more happy, should you dwell in a humble cottage, than could you be without religion should you occupy a palace, and possess the treasures of the world. I see you now standing on slippery places, liable every moment to fall into the abyss of woe. I see God angry with you because you do not love and serve him—and because you remain with his enemies-I see Jesus, who has a perfect knowledge of his Father's wrath, and of your guilt and danger-I see him near you

weeping over you, and hear him, with the most tender feelings of compassion inviting you to come to him. Will you not give him your heart? He now waits for your decision? Can you, dare you say to him, go thy way for this time-when I have a convenient season I will call for thee? Will not such treatment grieve and offend him? Should he once turn his back upon you, he may never again visit you. He may leave you to fill up the measure of your iniquities. Instead of his kind invitations, you may hear him thus address you. Because I have called and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand and ye have not regarded it. But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would have none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then you will call upon me but I will not answer; you will seek me early, or earnestly, but you shall not find me; for that you hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, you would none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore shall you eat of the fruit of your own way, and be filled with your own devices.

Before I close I must not forget those, who have passed the period of youth and are still unreconciled to God. Your prospect of future happiness is becoming darker and darker every day. You are becoming more and more closely wedded to the world. If heads of families, your cares are many, and you have less leisure than formerly for retirement, meditation and

prayer. May I ask, do you daily pray to God-daily search the scriptures? Do you care as much for your soul as for your body? Have there not been times, when the Holy Spirit was striving with you? You resisted and grieved that Holy Person who sought your salvation. Do you not find that you feel less and less anxious respecting your future condition, and that you find it more and more difficult to fix your mind on the most important subjects? And are you not alarmed? Day after day is hurrying you on to the grave and to the judgment, and you are not prepared to meet your God.

How would you feel, if cast upon a desolate island, without food; should day after day pass affording you no relief? Would not your anxiety and distress increase with the delay of help? Have you not reason to fear that you belong to that class, whom God has not chosen to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth? You have seen others) taken while you have been passed by and left. All that were given to Christ in the covenant of redemption, we are assured, shall come to him. God is now gathering in his elect and making preparations for the future judgment, when it will appear that all his purposes have been accomplished. Where will you then stand-on the right hand, or left hand, of the Judge? Will he say to you come, ye blessed, or depart ye cursed?

You have one more call, and may God make it effectual. What you do must be done soon. The day with some of you is far spent, and the night is approaching. Defer, I pray you, no longer that

business, which requires immediate attention. Give yourselves no peace till your peace is made with God. Rest not, till you have a good hope of an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away. Amen.

DISCOURSE IV.

THE NEW CREATION.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.-2. COR. v. 17.

THE Apostle made known in the text the fact, that the distinction, which for many generations had been maintained between Jews and Gentiles, ceased to exist after the commencement of the Christian dispensation, and that salvation was freely offered to all men of every grade and of every nation on the same terms. All mankind are found to be by nature in the same state-condemned by the same law, in need of the same Savior and the same radical change. The plan devised and adopted by infinite wisdom and benevolence for the redemption of man is suited to every variety of case. But if any man of any nation, whether Jew or Gentile, whether bond or free, whether