sufficiently been made to appear that to man, who is addressed in the Scriptures as a sinner, God is represented as a kind and gracious Father, continually extending offers of pardon and restoration, the considerations which follow are in the highest degree important.

That there should be a permanent communion between that which is sinful and that which is pure, while each.is allowed to retain its character and quality, is, in the nature of things, entirely impossible; and even their very coming together can be only conventional, and with a view to a change on the one part or the other.

The good man may entertain the society of the bad, and may even resort to his company, in order to benefit and reclaim him; but to live with him in bonds of fellowship and love, would be not merely to expose, but to bring in question, his own virtue. A king armed with power and right may condescend to hold a parley with his treasonable and rebellious subjects, and may pardon them even while he acknowledges them to be in rebellion, in order to bring them back to duty and obedience; but to continue his condescension and favour, if still they remain traitors and rebellious, would be to sanction crime, and make war against his own authority. God himself, my brethren, may stoop to earth, and hold converse with the creatures who have revolted against his authority; and his only-begotten Son

may

visit and dwell with the sinners whom he has redeemed, in order to purify, exalt, and save them; but if they remain opposed to his will, and hold out against his intentions of mercy, and his calls to reformation, they must cease to be the subjects of his regard, or he must cease to maintain the holiness of his character.

Such is the relation, my brethren, in which we now stand to God. His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, are intended to lead us to repentance; his offers of mercy and pardon, to produce that faith which shall work by love and purify our hearts; the dealings of his providence, and especially his chastening and correction, that we may be partakers of his holiness. We are in truth rebellious subjects, with whom our rightful Lord is holding a parley to bring us back to his authority. There is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared. His offers are free, sincere, and universal; and his rewards to all who submit to his authority, certain, exalted, and equal to our largest desires.

My brethren, when God calls us as a Father his own children; when, laying aside the terrors of his majesty, and the just requirements of his holiness, he comes to meet our returning steps; when he is willing to receive and acknowledge us as we are, sinners, exposed, helpless, and unworthy,, upon our mere disposition to reform; when he offers, by his Spirit, to renew us in his

own image, to put off from us these garments of corruption and sin, and to create us anew in righteousness and true holiness; with what gladness should we devote ourselves to his service, and say, in the words before us, "I will arise and go to my Father."

Have

My brethren, do we realize this most gracious relation in which God reveals himsslf to our miserable race? Do we believe, that like as a father pitieth his own children, even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him? we read in the parable from which these words are taken, that representation which our Saviour has so finely drawn of a parent's tenderness and love? Have we recalled to mind the affection of our own parents towards us? Or have we known ourselves a parent's solicitude and love? Then we may perceive something of that love of God which does not wait coldly to receive the submission of a penitent child; but which anxiously desires its return, watches the first relentings of the erring heart, regards the slightest indications of a better disposition, melts with compassion, and runs and falls on the neck of the humbled sufferer, embraces and welcomes him with joy, arrays him in the best robe, and celebrates his return with feasting and gladness.

Such, my brethron, is the mercy and goodness of our heavenly Father. He sent his only-begotten Son into our world to seek and to save

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that which was lost. And this is his language respecting those who are willing to renounce their sins and be saved, "I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over "one sinner that repenteth." But shall all this disclosure of God's kindness pass for naught? Shall we hear it, nay, believe it, and keep far from him in indifference or in sin? Shall we, like base and ungrateful children, mock at the goodness, and disregard the wishes, of an anxious parent, by turning our backs upon him? And shall we remain at a distance, or even wander farther and farther from him, in the ways of disobedience and error? I pray God it may not be. Reflect, my brethren, upon the greatness of that mercy which purchased your redemption, and the price of blood at which it was bought. Remember it is at your greatest peril, at your hazard of all that for eternity is valuable, that you tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant wherewith you are sanctified an unholy thing. Come, then, let better resolutions possess your spirit. Come and resolve, while you may, to draw nigh to God, to profit by a Father's offers, and to secure for ever his protection and his love.

Ye, especially, who have wandered long and at a distance from your Father's home; ye who have fed upon the husks of worldly vanities, who have spent all your patrimony in sin, who have been

straying into a far country; God calls you to re turn. Despair not because of the degradation to which your sins have reduced you, or the defilement and guilt which they have involved. Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Turn your eyes from yourselves to your Saviour, for he has redeemed you, and washed you from your sins in his own blood. Be assured the past he will pardon; and for the future he will give you grace to help in time of need. Trusting then in his righteousness and intercession, let this be the language of your heart, "I will arise and go to my Father."

Ye, too, who have heard with indifference the declarations of his word, who have listened unthankfully to the offers of his grace, who, content with temporal and transient advantages, have never aspired to be united with your God in acts of obedience, faith, and sacred communion; ye who, devoted to him in baptism, and made thereby children of his kingdom, have never walked conformably to your duty, nor worthy of your high vocation, and who have never celebrated the mercy of your Saviour in those emblems which he has enjoined; do ye also reflect upon your privileges and upon your ungrateful neglect of them; be touched with a sense of shame for so much goodness requited with unkindness; and resolving, in all the ways of his appointment, to seek to recover the favour of your God,