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him in his Christian duty, who is unwilling to think of the infirmity of his nature,-who has no hearty desire to perform his duty, and who is conscious that he does not pray for that help of the Holy Spirit which is bestowed only on those who do pray for it, and is withdrawn from those that neglect it? The doctrine of a future and never ending life beyond the grave is, indeed, a most comforting one to him who sees and estimates rightly the littleness of this world's goods, and the shortness of their continuance, and who will not suffer his heart to be wedded to any thing in this life, but strives earnestly day by day to lay up treasure in heaven, and to prepare himself for the coming glories of Christ's triumphant kingdom. But the very same doctrine is full of discomfort and dismay to one whose thoughts are fixed on this world,-who does not like to think of the end that must be put to all the pursuits to which he has chiefly devoted himself; and who has no relish nor care for heavenly happiness, and knows that he is not going the way to attain it. And even thus may one man hear an odious, and the other an acceptable doctrine, in the same discourse, according

as each is in his own mind predisposed to reject or to receive the doctrines of the Gospel. It is like the cloudy pillar which stood between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; which "was a cloud and darkness to them, but gave light by night to these." Even thus Paul found the Gospel of" Christ crucified," was "to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness," but to his converts, "the wisdom of God, and the power of God."

If it were left to the choice and judgment of each one of us, what we should preach, and to whom, we might perhaps be inclined, and allowed, to accommodate our doctrine, in some degree, to the wishes of our hearers; and to teach them, if not the best lessons, at least the best they were willing to receive. But, like Micaiah the prophet, we are but the bearers of God's message; we dare not "go beyond the word of the Lord, to speak good or evil, of our own mind.” If we do not set before men strongly, not only the importance of saving their souls, but the conditions on which they must be saved, we are deceiving them, not only to their own ruin, but to ours. God will require, at our hands, the

blood of those whom we have not taught and warned to the utmost of our power, by declaring to them the Gospel, just as it was delivered to us.

own.

Consider, therefore, I beseech you, if we are under such a responsibility, what must be your A day will come when we shall surely, both of us, think much and seriously on all that has passed here: but on that day it will be too late to alter it. We must then give an account of all that we have done, and of all that we have left undone; and you also will have to render an account of the manner in which you have profited by it. "The word that I have spoken," says our Saviour, "the same shall judge him at the last day;" and that which is said by Christian ministers in his name, and is agreeable to his written word, is, in fact, spoken by Himself. If on that day we shall be convicted of having altered, or perverted, or kept back, any part of the Gospel delivered to us by Christ, it will not be allowed us to plead that we feared to give offence;-that we were considering what you would think of us, rather than what God would think of us;—and that we sought your present

gratification at the expense of your eternal welfare. And if any one of you be found guilty of turning a deaf ear to the Gospel truth which he has heard, or might have heard; or of considering what gave him pleasure or pain, rather than what was true or false, he will not be permitted to urge that he liked or disliked this or that doctrine; but will be told, that when truth was set before him, he chose to listen to the " lying spirit," which has succeeded in persuading him to go and perish in his own way.

SERMON XIII.

MATT. V. 13.

Ye are the salt of the earth.

THAT one man's eternal salvation should be suffered to depend, in any degree, on the conduct of another, is a most awful mystery. That our diligent exertions, or remissness-our good or bad example, the wise or unwise measures we adopt, should in any case make the possible difference of eternal life or ruin, to our children and other dependents-to many of our neighbours, and of our other countrymen-nay, perhaps even to the inhabitants of the remotest regions of the earth, is one of those dispensations of Providence which we cannot explainwhich perplexes us, whenever we reflect upon

it,

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