from sin, and to render them most anxious to "flee from the wrath to come."

O that we could cure unthinking sinners of their madness, that we could bring them to their reason, and shew them in what a state of delusion they are living! You are in the greatest danger, all you who are not prepared for death, and yet you say, "Peace, and all things are safe." It is a fatal tranquillity that you indulge.

I have endeavoured to exhibit some of "the terrors of the Lord," for the purpose of arousing you to a sense of danger. Fly for refuge from the coming tempest, while shelter is at hand; or else hereafter, when the Lord arriveth to "shake terribly the earth," you will wish in vain to "hide yourselves in the dens and caves of the earth." In vain will you "say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills cover us, and hide us from Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;" but no, the great day of His wrath" will then be "come," and "who shall be able to stand ?"

Who shall be able to stand? Those only who have prepared for the great day, by "all holy conversation and godliness," and by "being diligent that they might be found of Christ in peace, without spot, spot, and blameless;" they only, for the sake of their Saviour in whom they

trusted, and whom, having not seen, they loved; they only will be found "worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." They will have no cause for alarm, though the world should fall in ruins around them.

Comfort yourselves, and one another, my Christian friends, with these words, and knowing that this creation, the scene of your trials and sorrows, shall pass away, look with joy for "the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." What a happy abode, where sin, and pain, and death, shall never enter! If they had never entered into it, what better or more lovely could be desired than this very world which we now inhabit? But it is defiled; it is not clean in the sight of God; and it would remind us of our sins, and of the misery of mankind: therefore there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. May God of His infinite mercy prepare us, through sanctification of the Spirit, for the full enjoyment of that holy and happy world.

SERMON XXIII.

THE DYING CHRISTIAN.

ISAIAH XL. 1.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

In a late discourse I addressed myself to those, to whom, although they have great need of consolation, yet the comfort of the Gospel cannot safely be administered. In however unhappy and distressing a condition any one may be, whether in consequence of sickness, or of any other of the afflictions to which man is subject, it by no means follows, that he is immediately qualified for the reception of that sort of solace and support, which religion has to bestow; he may have no claim or title to it whatever.

If I were called to visit, on the bed of sickness, one, who had led altogether a thoughtless,

worldly, sinful life, who had been hitherto an utter stranger to religious sentiment, should I be warranted in unfolding to him at once all the mercies and privileges that are graciously promised to the sincere Christian? Could I begin by saying, "Friend, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee; take comfort therefore from the joyful hope you may reasonably indulge of a blessed resurrection to eternal life?" Would not this be a prostitution of the sacred word of God? Would it not be a flagrant departure from that fidelity, which is required of the stewards of the Gospel? Would it not be to betray an immortal soul to its ruin? "Is it peace?" the unhappy sinner might ask; and the answer would justly be such as Jehu returned to the messenger of Jehoram, "what hast thou to do with peace ?" In such a man's mind, peace can only be purchased by war; a storm must be raised, before a true and settled calm can be established; the agitation of fear must be experienced, before the tranquillity of Christian hope; the bitterness of remorse, before that sweet joy and peace in believing, which cannot exist without a well founded conviction of God's pardon and love. Most unhappy is it, that it should ever be necessary to torment and harass the soul under such circumstances; but as the