too soon. There is time enough left for preparation. I will begin to-morrow-or when my present urgent business is got out of handor when the pestilence has reached my own neighbourhood-or when I feel ill myself! I cannot prepare now. I should be laughed at by my companions if I were so soon afraid."

Oh! if you knew the blessedness of that man who has sought and found acceptance with his God, who has closed with the of fers of mercy by a Saviour-his 66 'peace that passeth all understanding," his joy unspeakable, his rich consolations, his immoveable confidence, his resignation in the concerns of this life, his calm and glorious hope for eternity-or if, on the other hand, you knew the terrors of that precipice over whose brink you are leaning, the horrors of the gulf which yawns below you, the real misery of being unreconciled to God, the emptiness of that world which is your chosen portion, the fierceness of the wrath you are treasuring up for yourself-if you knew these things, you would fly as on the wings of the wind to escape these dangers, and to secure those blessings.

Think not you will repent tomorrow. "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." If to-day is too soon, to-morrow may be too late. To-morrow you may be in eternity. "Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee," was the summons to one who counted on years of life and enjoyment. Who can say that you may not be the first victim of the dreaded invader?

In the day when you shall be effectually awakened from your lethargy, either by the fell gripe of the disease upon your vitals, or by the archangel's summons to judgment, you shall hear, in the wildness of your dismay, the withering 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." Oh! the unspeakable terrors of the vengeance of an insulted God!

The pious Baxter says, "It is the most pitiable sight this world affords, to see an ungodly person. dying, and to think of his soul and his hopes departing together. O that careless sinners would be awakened to think of this in time!"

Do you feel some feeble conviction of the danger of your state? Do you feel disposed to cry, "What shall I do to be saved?" The reply of the divine word is, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!" Hasten, then, to the mercy-seat of Christ; implore grace that you may feel your lost and helpless condition, and fly to him for refuge; pray for the enlightening and renewing influence of the holy spirit; search diligently the word of God, that you may learn the things connected with your peace. Let your first resource and your last, be prayer. This places you at once consciously in the presence of him with whom you have to do; and when the eye of his holiness rests upon you, how will your sight be purged from the films of sin! how will your stubborn pride be humbled! how will your fatal sloth be banished! how will your lusts be abashed and reproved! how will the vanity of earthly things be made apparent! how will the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, grow up in your heart! Then pray always." Thus resist the tempter. Thus improve to the utmost the portion of life that may be left you. Pray, God be merciful to me a sinner!" Pray, "So teach me to number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom!" May the Lord in his mercy thus dispose you! May he turn you and you shall be turned!

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May he pluck you as a brand from the burning!

TO THE PREPARED.

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Happy, thrice happy are you! In this life you have a happiness that the world knows not of a joy and peace in believing, for which no earthly pleasures could form an equivalent; but never does the blessedness of your state appear so conspicuous as when in the view of that which other men dread even to think of-death and eternity. Happy! for you are in the charge of the "Good Shepherd," and "none can pluck you out of his hand." Happy! for your" lamp is full of oil," and you are ready whenever the Bridegroom comes, though the cry should be made at midnight, " to go in with him to the marriage." Happy! for even when your frail bark is tossed on the billows of affliction, you possess that "hope which is an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, entering into that within the veil." Happy! for your house is "built upon a rock," and it shall not fall when the winds blow and the rain beats upon it. Happy! for nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord-neither death nor life, neither things present nor things to come." Happy! for "when flesh and heart fail, God shall be the strength of your heart and your portion for ever."

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Yet, whilst you inhabit a tabernacle of clay, you are subject to infirmities, to unbelief, to lukewarmness, to backsliding. You know too well that you are not delivered from the assaults of sin that there is" a law in your members warning against the law of your mind"-that your soul still cleaveth to dust, and needs to be quickened according to the divine word that you sometimes slacken in the race, and grow weary in the fight that the bright goal of

your hopes fades from your be dimmed or averted eyes-that you are therefore left to wander in darkness, to mourn for want of comfort and assurance, and to say, "I shall perish one day by the hand of the enemy."

Listen, then, to the voice of the Son of man, which you recognize in his chastisements and judg ments-"I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent." "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die." "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent." "He that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved." "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching."

Awake therefore, now, in godly fear, in self-revenge, in vehement desire and zeal; clear yourself from the impurities you have contracted; work a repentance not to be repented of; prepare anew for the heavenly warfare, and put on the whole armour of God. Live up to your privileges; let there be no doubt as to your state; adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things. Live as those who would glorify God in their lives, and attest his goodness in their death. Thus smooth your own dying pillow, not with the delusive comfort of self-righteousness, but with the "peace that passeth all understanding," arising from a strong and simple faith in the blood that cleanseth from all sin.

If the pestilence visit us, shall it not then be seen what Christian faith can do for its subjects? Will it not then become the Christian to set an example of calm courage, of mild resignation, of active selfdenying benevolence; and having

shown to others how a Christian should live, may he not teach them how a Christian can die?

But in the meanwhile, what is our duty toward the church of Christ, and toward them that are without? Surely to promote by all the means within our power the increased sanctification of the one, and the conversion of the other. Living then with death and eternity before our eyes, let us boldly invade the territories of Satan, that, by divine grace, we may rescue sinners from his bondage. In our dying hour, and at the day of judgment, we shall never think

that we have done too much for Christ and for the souls of men. Be this engraven on our hearts"He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." "They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." How infinite a reward for poor defective labours such as ours! How unspeakable a blessedness to be permitted to plant a single jewel in the diadem of that Redeemer who wore a crown of thorns for us!

We believe that no instance can be, mentioned in which the divine favour has been bestowed on men, in such a manner as not to have required human circumspection and exertion to prevent its abuse, and fully to realize its benefits. It appears to be the purpose of God, in all his merciful dispensations toward our fallen race, never to supersede the necessity of the vigorous action of our own powers, in order to avail ourselves extensively of the proffered good, and even to prevent what might have been good of the highest order, from becoming evil of the most Ch. Adv.-Vol. X.

malignant kind. Revivals of religion follow this general law of the divine benevolence. They are the production of the special influence of the Holy Spirit; and after the gift of the Saviour and the Bible, are the richest blessings that the Father of mercies confers on our sin-ruined race.

Yet these bless

ings may be so abused and perverted as to give rise to incalculable evil, and instead of continuing to promote the salvation of souls, may be the occasion of deceiving multitudes to their eternal undoing, and of originating prejudices against the gospel which shall create indifference to all religion, and even favour the cause of open and avowed infidelity-The corruption of the best things commonly produces the worst.

It seems to have been an error

into which many in past ages have fallen, and under the influence of which many still think and act, that in a work which is appropriately that of the Spirit of truth, no danger of abuse is to be apprehended-That without any care or vigilance on the part of those who are the favoured subiccts of the 2 Z

Spirit's operations, all will go right; that the blessed and almighty Agent will certainly and effectually keep them from error and mistake; and that all they have to do is to indulge their feelings, or yield to all the promptings of their minds, now supposed to be under an infallible guidance. It appears that an early example of this mistake occurred in the Christian church; and its correction by an inspired apostle was, doubtless, left on record, for an instructive warning to all succeeding ages. Gifts, strictly miraculous, were grossly abused in the primitive church of Corinth; and the apostle Paul, in rebuking and correcting the abuse, taught that men were to consult their "understanding," and not to act like "children" in the use of their spiritual gifts-that they were to be careful not to conduct their social exercises of religion so as to give occasion to "the unlearned and unbelievers" to say that "they were mad❞—that "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace"-that "women were to keep silence in the churches"and that "all things were to be done to edifying-to be done decently and in order." How lamentably the spirit and design of these inspired injunctions have been disregarded, and what shocking consequences have followed from disregarding them, at various periods of the church, is summarily stated by Dr. Miller, in one of the letters which compose the Appendix of the volume before us. He shows that in two memorable instances, our own country has heretofore partaken largely in the abuse of religious revivals, and in the deplorable effects of such abuse. Now, as it has pleased God recently, and in a remarkable manner, to favour the Presbyterian church in the United States, as well as some other churches, with revivals of religion; and as in cer

tain places and to a certain extent, the former abuses have begun to appear-for there is a wonderful similarity in the excesses that mark fanaticism on such occasions-it was a most laudable enterprise of the author of these lectures, to meet the evil at the threshold, and endeavour to arrest it, before it had reached an extent and acquired a force that might defy all counteraction.

But Dr. Sprague can best explain his own views, in the delivery and publication of his lectures and the accompanying appendix. He does this in his preface, which, as it is short, we shall give entire.

"The following Lectures were delivered during the preceding autumn and winter, to the congregation with which the author is connected, in the ordinary course of his publick ministrations. The grand object at which he has aimed has been, to vindicate and advance the cause of ge. nuine revivals of religion; and in doing this, he has endeavoured to distinguish between a genuine revival and a spurious the cavils of their opposers; to show the excitement; to defend revivals against causes which operate to prevent or retard them; to exhibit the agency of God, and the instrumentality of men, by which they are produced and sustained; to guide the convert; to guard against the abuses to inquiring sinner and establish the young which revivals are liable, and to anticipate the glorious results to which they must lead. In the hope that the Lectures may prove a seasonable offering to the Ameri can church, at an interesting and critical period, the author has concluded to send them forth through the press; and in doing this, it is a pleasure to him that he is complying with a request from the session and trustees of the church of which he is

pastor, as well as acting in accordance with the wishes of several respected and beloved brethren in the ministry, with whom he is more immediately associated.

"In the Appendix the reader will find a series of letters on the same subject, from a number of the most distinguished clergymen of our country, and from six diffe rent religious denominations. The object in requesting these letters has been twofold-First, to obtain an authentick history of our revivals, in which unhappily we have hitherto been greatly deficient; and, Se cond, to ascertain the manner in which re wisdom, experience, and standing in the vivals have been conducted by men whose church, must at least entitle their opinion