and perverted indeed who discerns and owns not the fact, and whose ambition is not stirred within him to become united with their assembly, and at length to be crowned with their reward.

It becomes you truly to tremble, lest you should at last be found without an interest in the work of the Redeemer for yourselves. Some may attempt to lull you into slumber and fatal peace, by denying that there is a peril to the soul: but O, there is reason for the sinner's alarm! If you have no part in the Redeemer, you can possess no antidote for the sharp stings and sorrows of earthly distress; if you have no part in the Redeemer, you can possess no gleam of comfort to cheer the last fainting hours of mortality; if you have no part in the Redeemer, you can possess no hope of acceptance, and no possibility of escape, when the great day of wrath shall come. Reject him, you close against yourselves the gates of heaven, and bid the portals of Tophet to open wide that you may enter. Yea, I tell you, by the authority of that Being before whose tribunal you must appear, that if you flee not to him who saves sinners by his blood, those immortal spirits of yours will become the hopeless victims of infinite and eternal agony! You shall hear the blast of the trumpet, and you shall arise; but you shall arise only to gaze on a Being surrounded with terrors and vengeance, and before the thunder of his curse you shall

sink down to the sepulchre of the second death, where" the worm dieth not,"-having but that tremendous inheritance-" the RESURRECTION OF DAMNATION!" Tremble, then, sinner, tremble! Flee from the wrath to come: while life is spared, and while an atonement is open,-flee! Repent and believe, and Jesus will be thy Redeemer too: and thou shalt depart in peace; and thou shalt be numbered among the dead that shall rise the first; and thou shalt see God; and thou shalt be the inhabitant of heaven!— Wilt thou refuse ?-I charge thee to answer this appeal, when the archangel shall have roused thee, and when thou shalt stand before the bar of thine Eternal Judge!

SERMON XV.*

1 CHRON. xxix. 5.

And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?

THIS is an inquiry which surely cannot fail to arrest the attention as soon as it is uttered. It carries an unction along with it. It bears such a character of weight, and urgency, and solemnity, that to hear it altogether without emotion, appears to be impossible. I do not know a question in the sacred volume more full of import, or more adapted to press upon the heart. ---It is put forth for the consideration of those to whom this address is to be particularly devoted; and it is selected, that there may be every thing of point and personal pressure, that there may be no diversion of regard to matters of secondary interest, and that we may be allowed that mode of appeal which may be best adapted to secure upon our present engagements the blessing of the eternal God.

The circumstances under which this question was at first proposed, may need a brief explanation. It was ordained that Solomon the son of David, when he came to the throne of Israel,

*Preached to the young.

should build the temple of Jehovah. As David approached the close of his own reign and life, he summoned together the princes, and the captains, and the mighty and valiant men, to Jerusalem, that he might speak concerning the great work which was soon to be commenced. The aged monarch told of his desire to superintend that work personally, and of the manner in which, by divine command, he had been prevented, that it might be postponed, till his son should sway the sceptre in his stead. He addressed the young prince, who was then before him, in the memorable words, and these may come with much power to persons who are now rising into life," And thou Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it."* He then gave to him the patternaccording to which the habitation of the Most High was to be erected, mentioned the preparation he had made for the adequate prosecution of the labour, and stated the testimony he had rendered of his own affection for the house of his God, in the amount of his "own proper good" which he had dedicated and bequeathed. * Chap. xxviii. 9, 10.

Then came the challenge addressed to the assembly," And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?"

To this inquiry we shall now assign a general application, and view it as comprehending the entire moral relationships of man. In presenting it especially to the consideration of those whose years are yet few, I am aware that it may seem to want, in our case, some of the imposing circumstances which attended its original proposal. You are not addressed by the voice of years; there are not before you the insignia of royalty, and the emblems of high civil authority and yet there are contemplations which ought to awe you into a deep and profound respect—a greater than the temple is here, and a greater than Solomon is here, and a greater than David is here. God speaks to you by the word of his truth, as that truth appears in the majesty of perfected revelation, attended by all that is adapted to arrest and command; it is thus the question is presented and pressed, -And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?

I. We shall EXPLAIN WHAT WE REGARD AS

THE CONSECRATION OF SERVICE TO GOD.

Although the rendering of personal exertion and of property, to assist in building the Jewish temple, was more immediately referred to by David,