"whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do "count them but dung, that I may win. Christ, and "be found in him, not having mine own righteous66 ness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness "which is of God by faith."*

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3. But how far more numerous are those who presumptuously reject Jesus and his salvation. To invitations of mercy they turn a deaf ear; they make light of the gospel and its free and unlimited offers; they reject the counsel of God against themselves; they sport away their precious time; and if convictions of sin are ever wrought in their minds and no man is without these internal apprehensions-they figure to themselves an easy and goodnatured Being who will be their judge, and presume on finding a ready pardon. Should, however, their alarms continue, they procrastinate their amendment and their acceptance of the Redeemer; like the trembling Felix, their language is-at a more convenient season we will fulfil our purposes that season never arrives; the day of grace, like every other day, whether longer or shorter, has its conclusion; that terminated, a fatal blindness happens to them as to their real condition; like Dives in the gospel-they dine well, and they

* Philippians, iii. 4, 6—9.

dress well, they eat and drink, and to-morrow they die; they" die like lambs," like sheep they are laid in the grave, but Death shall feed upon them!

Finally. Although presumption has slain her thousands, despair has destroyed her ten thousands. Occasionally, instances are met with, when the desponding utter their fears, but the character of this fatal dejection is, "to sit silent in darkness." For this very reason, the numbers destroyed by this stratagem of our grand adversary, is exceedingly underrated. The secret source of much obstinate perseverance in evil courses is-there is no hope, I have loved idols, and after them I will go. The operative cause, why many never seek forgiveness is, they think they must perish.

"It is too late to pray

"In vain for mercy now they cry, "For they have lost the day."

On these subjects much is mercifully concealed from human view; otherwise, could the hearts of many who die impenitent be dissected and laid open, as they shall be in that day when the secrets of the hearts of all men shall be revealed; it would be found that unworthy and unfounded opinions of God's character and determinations in reference to his erring and sinful creatures; that gloomy and desponding estimates of their own offences, and a

kind of dark and miserable certainty that they must perish; have induced them to perseveré in sin, and abhor the thought of imploring remission.

Despair, founded on these apprehensions, was cherished in the bosom of the unprofitable servant; despair was at once the occasion, and the penalty of his crime.

It now lies within our province to notice,

II. The fearful destiny of such as reject our Savior; they shall be crushed, they shall be ground to powder.

This expression denotes,

Primarily. The incalculable, the inconceivable weight of Divine displeasure. No wrath is so terrible as the wrath of the Lamb. Angered and rejected love, becomes the fiercest indignation. Oil when inflamed admits of no extinction. Vengeance will, and often has pursued the guilty in this world; the Jews who rejected the Savior, were, and are now a fearful proof how terrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire. But the occurrences of futurity are the most awful illustrations of the threatening in our text. Carry your views forward to that day,

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when Jesus will come in the clouds and every eye shall see him; and they also who pierced him, even they shall wail because of him. Contemplate that angust and terrific scene as described by a prophetical eye-witness: " And I beheld when he had "opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sack"cloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and "the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is "shaken of a mighty wind: and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of "their places; and the kings of the earth, and the "great men, and the rich men, and the chief сар"tains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, "and every free man, hid themselves in the dens,

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and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to "the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us "from the face of him that sitteth on the throne,

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and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great

day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able "to stand ?" *

Secondly. The overthrow and destruction of all who reject Jesus, shall be inevitable,—none shall escape; as no grain of corn can avoid the

* Revelation, vi. 12—17.

pressure of the millstone. God, with whom judgment is strange work, when he is compelled to come out of his place to punish, will inflict woes which cannot be avoided. "Therefore thus saith "the Lord, Behold I will bring evil upon them "which they shall not be able to escape; and

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though they shall cry unto me, I will not hear"ken unto them."* "See that ye refuse not him "that speaketh: for if they escaped not who re"fused him that spake on earth, much more shall "not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.†

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Thirdly. The entire ruin of all who refuse the Redeemer, is forcibly taught us, by the term

grind him to powder." An historical fact will illustrate this expression. When Moses on coming down from the mount of God, found that the Israelites had corrupted themselves and were worshipping a golden calf, such was his extreme displeasure, "That it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh "unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the "dancing and Moses's anger waxed hot, and he "cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them "beneath the mount. And he took the calf which

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they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the

* Jeremiah, xi. 11.

† Hebrews, xii. 25.