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would not willingly incur the dislike of the brute animal, much less yours: but I will not, with a mistaken feeling for your happiness, and in disregard to the express will of God, trifle with those truths which may, if God bless them, make you wise unto salvation. He has virtually said to every minister, what he said to Ezekiel-" Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from When I shall say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand." Am I pure from your blood? Have I ventured to excite these most painful emotions in the minds of many? Have I encountered it that I might bring you to flee from the wrath to come?

me.

But some of you may say, "This does for the vile, for the profligate, for the worst of our race; but not for us; we can only be accused of yielding to the common frailties of our nature: not for us, who only sin with myriads more, who are fulfilling all the social relations of life: not for us, who cast ourselves on the mercy of God, who are sure he will eventually bless and receive us." And is it thus you meet the awful declarations of God's Word? You say there are numbers more ungodly than you are; I believe it, brethren: but the very fact that you are associated with numbers, rather, according to the statement of Scripture, marks you out for the anger of God, than exempts you from it. What did the Redeemer say? "Wide is the gate, and broad is the leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait way, that is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Do not be of the many: in God's name, be of the few. "For many are called," said the Redeemer more than once, "but few are chosen." Seek to be selected from the multitude. Seek to have the blessing of God amongst those few who tread the narrow, difficult, solitary path to heaven, in the midst of blame, misrepresentation, and ridicule. Dare to join them, and pursue your way to heaven through good report, and through evil report.

But you trust to your frailties: you say you are so frail. I am afraid you are miserable then. You cannot probably have a stronger idea of that frailty than he who speaks to you: but what is that frailty? It is the frailty of ungodliness and depravity. It consists in an inclination to evil against reason, against light, against example, against every thing that ought to subdue your heart. It is the frailty of a soul that will be wicked, and therefore must be miserable. Is that your hope? Banish the miserable anticipation for ever. Cast away all excuses at once; and seek that you may find a shelter in your Maker's favour. But you say, you do cast yourselves on his mercy; that that is your shelter. The mercy of God sent you Christ; why do you refuse him? God offers you the aids of his Spirit; why do you reject them? God promises you happiness in holiness; why do you neglect it? You are rejecting mercy when the Lord has offered you mercy consistently with all his resplendent attributes. I tell you, brethren, that dying as you are, without any change for the worst-dying as you are, but rejecting Christ-with whatever amiable qualities that rejection may be associated-you never can look on the countenance of Christ with peace, never wake up with the redeemed of Christ in glory never, never can you be happy.

The mercy of
The mercy of

But you say, the passages to which we have referred, do not mean all that is said. Now, let what I say sink into your souls. You may, if you please, compel them to mean less; you may by some ingenuity make them mean something else. But looking at passage after passage, comparing one with another, and all with the known attributes of God, can you prove that they mean less? Can you make it probable that they mean less? I do entreat you, my dear brethren, never to venture to find out in your experience, what these passages mean. I beseech you in the name of Christ, go not into the eternal world to learn there, in your own miserable experience, what it is to be plunged into the lake of fire; to be sentenced to everlasting destruction; to depart accursed from the Saviour; to be Anathema Maran-atha; to be ground to powder under the vengeance of the Saviour. Whatever the meaning of these passages, they mean that which the common understanding God has given you, and the conscience he has implanted in your spirit, ought not to permit you to misinterpret.

Perhaps there are some who begin to repent of their ungodliness. May those blessed feelings, kindled, perhaps, for the first time in your soul, be increased by the God of mercy to your eternal peace! But you say, you cannot so change all your most favourite habits; you cannot give up the world that is so dear; you cannot expose yourself to ridicule so painful: the moral courage your soul feels this moment, may be gone to-morrow; and though you may be courageous in other matters, you feel cowards here. Did you ever ponder that saying of the Saviour "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" What if, by rejecting Christ, you have a little more of present enjoyment; if you can pursue your own wishes a little further; if you can live as you will a little more; if you can secure more of the gains, and more of the objects which dazzle the ambition of ordinary men; if life does seem brighter; still what are you advantaged if you gain the whole world, and lose your soul? The loss of the soul, brethren, is a catastrophe which no language can describe. If this planetary world were, by some new force in creation, driven from its orbit, urged forward through space, passing suns and systems, into utter night, and there should be a blank, dead, silent, inert thing, with the corpses of its inhabitants strewed on its surface thick as the leaves in autumn; that miserable spectacle, could it be gazed on, would be but a very feeble description of the lost soul driven out from the beatific presence of God, the sun of our happiness; driven out to dwell among the damned in outer darkness.

But you are willing to become the servants of God, only not now. You defer it for a little time; you cannot make up your minds to become at once the resolved servants of God, and receiving Christ Jesus in sincerity and love, to follow his footsteps till the end of your life. You will do it, but not now. Not now? When will a better moment come? Possibly there are some of you who, at this moment, feel more the necessity of your eternal salvation, than you have done for a length of time; perhaps more than you ever felt: and if you will not resolve now, if you do not turn now, tell me when will a more favourable moment come? I do believe that the lost company which inhabit that bed of misery, have been destroyed by this very resolution, by this very thought"only not now." They felt the necessity of giving themselves up to God, only not now and that time never came to them, and may never come to you. If

you pass by this very moment, it is possible that every subsequent time, when attention to the concerns of your soul may be urged upon you, your resolution will be less powerful than it is now. Meantime habits are every day acquired and strengthened; time is wearing away; a thousand accidents may deprive you of your pleasures; or your last sickness may come; delirium, with the necessary care of the sickening body, may come, and leave you no leisure to prepare for that awful eternity into which you are hurrying.

Do not then, my beloved friends, delay another moment. Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation. O, if you knew what blessings were in reserve for you, if you did now only change your case. Give up your backwardness and indecision; and give yourselves up with all your heart and soul, a reasonable service to your Maker through Christ. O, if you would count the cost, consider what you are, and what you have given up; you would find that, in making a choice which would secure your happiness for eternity, you would not have made a bad choice for life. Look around you: do but observe any one who is an honest and habitual servant of God, and see whether there is not a joyousness in him, a superiority to the trials of life, and a blessed anticipation of immortality.

What I would counsel every one, then, is, that you would now earnestly set about your salvation. Set your heart upon being saved. Go to the Word of God to learn every step you must take. Depend exclusively on the merits of the Redeemer for your acceptance with God, and for the supplies of spiritual strength and courage which you need. Seek at the throne of grace for that assistance. Cast yourself at once on the boundless mercy of Jehovah. Never distrust him: you honour him most, when you trust him most. Believe, that though he cannot and will not dishonour himself, he waits to be gracious and delights to save. Bless him that you are not at this time in hell. Never despair, but give yourselves into the hands of that sovereign Lord and Father who will make you eternally happy among his children.

And you, my dear friends, who are parents, remember it is essential to your own welfare, that you should endeavour to be useful to your children. May nothing appear to you, in this world, comparable to their eternal well-being. Bring them to Him who is so ready to hold them in his arms, and protect them from every harm. And then, whenever the summons comes to you, you shall not leave them friendless in the desert world; for the everlasting arms will be under them; and they shall meet you in glory.

Christian friends, considering the awful end of those who die unrighteous, let me entreat you that you would look on all around you hurrying into eternity, exposed to the indignation of God; and to do what lies in you to pluck them from their danger. Never despair of success: never forget that they may be saved with the grace that has saved you. Pity them; pray for them; love them, though they may repel your kindness; and continually solicit at the throne of grace, that you may be successful as instruments to their everlasting glory. If your own crown is secured, you may in heaven look on those who would have been lost souls, but are brought to glory through your instrumentality. This will give greater weight to that welcome, which, I trust, many of you will receive : "Well done good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful in a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

THE REPEATED INVITATIONS OF THE GOSPEL.

REV. A. REED, d.D.,

WYCLIFF CHAPEL, MILE-END ROAD, APRIL 12, 1835.

Then said he to his servants, the wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye, therefore, into the highways, and, as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.”— MATTHEW, xxii. 8-10.

"So that servant came and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."-LUKE, xiv. 21-23.

THE greatest act of mercy with which we are acquainted on the part of the Lord is, that he has condescended to present to us the way of our redemption. The declaration and expression of his mercy in reference to this manifestation of his grace is, that he not only reveals our salvation as matter of record and of truth, but that he connects with that revelation of his mercy, a gracious and manifold invitation to come and be with him. The highest and most remarkable proof of his mercy is to be found, not merely in the proposition of mercy to sinners, as such: not merely in the circumstance of its being presented to us by manifold invitations; but yet more, in the circumstance, that after the invitations have been given, and after they have been perversely refused, they are still repeated, still renewed, and still pressed on our serious attention. The Scriptures abound, also, in these instances of the divine mercy; and they are all a paraphrase upon that one declaration, with which God has indulged us, that he has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but rather that he should be converted, and turned from the error of his way, and live; that his delight is in mercy; that his delight is in presenting that mercy to us, in its manifold and touching forms; and in calling up and awakening our attention, if by any means we may enter into the rest which he has prepared for his people.

It is just in this way the portion of the parable on which we are about to observe, comes under our attention. We have seen that God has made an abundant provision for our necessities as sinful and depraved creatures: we have seen that, in doing so, he designs to confer great honour upon his Son as our Saviour. These provisions, as they are abundant, so they are freely exposed to our attention; and we are freely and repeatedly encouraged to come and to

participate. We have seen that the invitations thus presented to us in God's word and in God's name, and through the ministry of his servants, is frequently rejected. And we have seen that those who continue to trifle and to make light of the message, and to put it away from them in scorn, are at last frequently given up to their own course, to their own worldly will, to their own worldly idolatry; and they are no more addressed, and they are not saved.

We are now to observe, that notwithstanding many refuse this invitation of mercy, and make awfully light of it, that it is still repeated, and it is eventually successful in the salvation of a multitude. It is, therefore, to this renewed invitation that we are to call your attentive and prayerful regard this morning. "Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests."

Let us consider, then, in the first place, in reference to this renewed invitation of the divine mercy, the persons who are invited; the encouragement proposed to accept this invitation; and the necessity of the acceptance of it immediately and without delay.

We are to observe, as directed by the course of the parable from the lips of our Lord, in the first place, THE PERSONS WHO ARE INVITED BY THESE RENEWED INVITATIONS OF OUR LORD. They are represented as of a different class, as placed under different circumstances, and as giving to the message a different reception. And hence our Lord commands that his servants should go forth, and invite what is denominated by Luke, "the maimed and the halt, the poor and the blind," to come and participate of these rich and gracious privileges. And we are then assured, in connexion with this, that they do not continue to refuse, that they thankfully accept, that they are received on accepting, and that they are encircled with the bounty of their Lord and Saviour.

The Redeemer, certainly, in this parable, has in the first instance respect to the Jews. He regards them as first invited, as in fact they were. Their's were the oracles; their's were the prophecies; and, in the order of things, their's was first the gospel testimony; for it was first presented to their attention. And when those who were pharisaicai and proud continued to reject it, the Redeemer still said, "My commission is limited to this people, although it be to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He wandered after those who had wandered he had compassion upon those who were out of the way: and he endeavoured to continue to win those people to the last to their interests, and their visitation. And the invitation which is thus renewed, and renewed to other persons, is ultimately meant to apply itself to the Gentiles: these are represented as "poor" and "halt," as "lame" and as "blind," and as those in the highways, in the streets and lanes; they were not in circumstances like those of Israel, not privileged like the people of Israel were; far from the covenant of peace, they were ignorant of the way of salvation. And, if it had been propounded that mercy was to come to any, it would have been said at once that that mercy was not to visit the Gentiles, as they then lay wrapped in ignorance, in darkness, and in idolatry.

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