Do not some here deem themselves safe, because (as they say) they have done no harm? Have not persons present, when urged to become new men, had it in their hearts to answer Whom have I defrauded? When have I been dishonest? What crime can be charged against me? My hearer, it needs not crime-what men call crime-to condemn your soul: "Depart" is to be the doom to men against whom no flagrant immorality, nothing enormous or atrocious, can be charged. Have you done good, as well as avoided crime? Have you

been merciful, as well as just? Have you cherished Christ's people-had sympathy with the Saviour's sheep-counted the pious your brethren? If not, it may be said in reference to you "I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:" to you may be addressed the doom "Depart:" your portion may be everlasting exclusion from the presence of the Lord.

Hearers who are not religious! let me, in concluding this exposition of Christ's great pro

phecy concerning his return to earth, put to you a solemn question. Respectfully, affectionately, yearningly, it is urged: Oh that it may be pondered! ARE THESE THINGS TRUE? If the warning is true--not an imposture, why act you not upon the truth? Why fail your souls to prepare for the great meeting between you and your Judge? Do you say The time is yet far off? This is more than you know: "The day cometh as a thief in the night:" "When they shall say Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." "The men of the days of Noah knew not until the flood came and took them all away: so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be."-Do you say The Lord will relent-He may be milder than he has led us to believe? Then, the Lord will be untrue to his word: then, the holy must cease to put full confidence in his promises— the angels who surround him, may hide their heads in shame-the fiends may exult, may cry in triumph, He hath said it, yet hath he not done it!

Tell me-no, tell not me, tell your own bosom-what is your reliance? wherein is your safety? what the foothold for your soul?-Is there any foothold? Is not your hope built upon emptiness?

APPENDIX.

THE word yɛvɛa, at Matth. xxiv, 34, translated "generation," is derived from the obsolete γενώ, "I generate;" and (like most substantives ending in a, Buttmann's Gr. Gram. by Robinson, § 119, 7) signifies properly the act of the verb, a generating or begetting. Donnegan's Lexicon.

As its secondary signification, the word γενεα has the meaning a race, the offspring generated or begotten. In this sense- -which among native Greek writers seems to have been the PREVAILING one(Krebs. Annotationes e Josepho. in Matth. i, 17: Læsner. Annotationes e Philone. in Matth. i, 17: Winer's Idioms of the New Testament, p. 24)-the expression occurs in passages quoted by Donnegan, Parkhurst, (Rose's ed.,) Robinson, and Schleusner.

γενεα

Repeatedly-times without number-does yɛvea in the sense "race" occur in the Septuagint-Psalms xii, 7; xiv, 5; xxiv, 6; lxxiii, 15; cxii, 2-in most of

which places the term is used of the righteous, such as are born of God, the race of the godly; in the last of them it is the synonyme of "seed" in the corresponding clause. So in a variety of other placesEsther ix, 28, for y seed; Num. xiii, 23, 29, for offspring; Gen. xxxi, 3; xliii, 7; Num. x, 30,

for

kindred; Lev. xxv, 41; Jerem. viii, 3, for no family; Lev. xx, 18, for by people.

As New Testament examples of the same meaning in the word, the passages Matth. xvii, 17; Luke xi, 50, 51; xvi, 8; xvii, 25; Acts ii, 40; Philippians ii, 15, may be mentioned; for though in these passages (except perhaps the last) the sense "race" is not absolutely necessary, it best accords with the connection. At Philippians ii, 15, the English Bible has "nation:" had it given the same rendering to yɛvɛa at Matth. xxiv, 34, many difficulties would have been obviated to common readers.