not. You have a throne of grace, and a God of grace, to apply to, more ready to hear than you are to pray. Why then will ye not ask him to give you repentance and faith? None are out of the reach of his almighty arm. Ask, and ye shall have. Attend and wait upon him constantly in his courts. It may not at first, perhaps, be so pleasant to flesh and blood, as your ordinary occupations or pleasures on the week-days; because you see the worldly profit or amusement of them; but believe it, there is no comparison between heavenly and earthly joys: the former are exquisite and eternal; the latter unsatisfactory and transient. But a little use will render attending on God in his own house, on his own appointed day, if done only from a sense of duty, as satisfactory to your consciences as the obscene talk of drunken or depraved associates. It was in the Lord's house that Lydia's heart was opened to believe. You have not, it is true, a Paul to preach to you; but

you have one who is exceedingly anxious for the salvation of your souls; and you have the same God and the same Holy Ghost, to render his weak words powerful, that Paul had to apply what he spoke to the woman of Thyatira. Endeavour then at least to be punctual in your attendance at church for a few Sundays; and who can tell but the word may drop as dew, and distil as refreshing showers upon your heart? It will not then repent you, that you were found in the way of duty. On the contrary, you will know assuredly that religion's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace: you will experience a joy and peace in believing, which the world can neither give nor take away.

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1ST EPISTLE OF JOHN, III. 8. He that committeth sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning: for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

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'THE whole world lieth in wickedness all we, like sheep, have gone astray; there is no health in us; every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is evil, and that continually; the heart is deceit ful and desperately wicked; from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no soundness in us." These passages speak in language too plain, to be misunderstood, the deplorably sinful state of mankind; to which all who allow the Scriptures to be the word of God, must give their full assent. Man

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is totally depraved and corrupt by nature. We acknowledge this truth; but does our experience go hand in hand with our acknowledgment? Do we really feel ourselves to be as wretched and wicked as the Scriptures represent us to be? If not, our confession is of very little consequence; and no lasting good is likely to accrue from such an acknowledgment. It is no trifling matter, believe me, feelingly to be aware of our entire sinfulness by nature and practice; it is, on the contrary, a thing of the greatest importance: it is the hinge, as it were, upon which the whole of religion turns. If a man be unacquainted with this, he knows very little, I would rather say, nothing at all. He does not comprehend the doctrine of original sin, the foundation upon which the super structure of grace and mercy is erected, If a man does not thoroughly under stand and feel his sinfulness, both by nature and practice, he will never be able, either to receive duly or justly, to

appreciate the blessing of a full and free salvation wrought out for sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ: he will be either totally ignorant of a gracious Redeemer, or sully his complete work by the base alloy of some human merit. All are sinners! would to God all felt themselves such! There is not a single exception to be drawn out of the whole mass. of mankind. "There is none righteous, no not one; every mouth must be stopped, and all the world must become guilty before God.”

Whence comes sin, this wide-spreading, this universal malady? From God?: Away for ever from our minds such horrid blasphemy! God is infinitely pure, infinitely holy in his nature. He is the holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. From him, indeed, is every good and perfect gift; and, therefore, unless, which is impossible, contrary attributes can centre in him, nothing that is bad or imperfect can proceed from: kim. God can in no sense be the author