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nexion with eternity, as possessing an immortal soul, lost in sin but recoverable by faith, he has lived in vain. Not only has he lost his time and his labour, but he has spent his time in ruining himself. He has gone down to the grave rich; he has been the object of admiration and envy to multitudes but as to his soul, he has neglected his salvation, and ruined himself as an immortal creature. This is not all. Though he is congratulated as a successful man, as a wise man, he has acted as a madman; he has unmanned himself; he has acted below and against his reason; for reason would have taught him that the great end of life is to prepare men for eternity; and whatever a man gains, if he neglects religion he has lost his soul.

I infer, secondly, However early a person may go to the grave-whatever he may leave behind, yet, if he be a partaker of true religion, he has answered the great end of his existence. Oftentimes we see a youth, well-educated, amiable in disposition, of considerable acquirements, of splendid genius, the hope of his friends, the rich blossom of society, just when he is stepping into existence cut off by the stroke of death. "O," say multitudes, "he has lived in vain." No he lived long enough to be a Christian; he remembered his Creator in the days of his youth; he was a child of God: the end of his existence was answered.

Sometimes we see a lovely female, just placed at the head of a domestic establishment-the grace, the charm, the ornament of her circle, who, in that moment most interesting in female existence, gives life and loses her own. How many are ready to say, She has lived in vain." No : she feared God: she has gone away from much that was attractive; she has left behind much that tied her to life but she has gone to a richer possession beyond the grave: the end of life is answered.

Then here is a third case: A man who set out in life with fair prospects, with every hope that he would rise to prosperity. His industry fails; misfortune after misfortune overtakes him; he sits down amid the wreck of a broken fortune, and pours out the language of his heart in the language of Solomon, Vanity of vanities! all is vanity:" with a broken constitution he goes to the grave. Has he lived in vain? No: he was a Christian; amidst all he was the child of God; he had an interest in the blessings of salvation: the end of existence was answered.

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I take a fourth case. Here is a poor man, unknown to fortune and to fame : he spends his life in utter obscurity; he gets his bread by an occupation so insignificant as perpetually sawing pieces of wood, or smiting upon a piece of iron, or filing some other metal. Thus his life passes; he dies, and is forgotten. Has he lived in vain? No: for he was a child of God; he had religion; he sought "first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." Delightful! How it rescues the poor from insignificance! What dignity it attaches to them! They too can prepare for eternity; they too can have religion: the cottage is as friendly to piety as the mansion-perhaps more so. They lived not in vain ; they sought "first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."

I make a third inference. If this be true, then the greater part of mankind, as to the happiness of another world, the greater part of mankind are losing the great end of their existence. There is something in this more painful than language can describe. But is it not true? Look around you—you can tell.

Do the multitude make religion the supreme end of life? On the contrary, it is the least, the mere Sabbath-day's concern, having no connexion with the character, no connexion with the heart. Generation after generation is rising up and going off the stage of existence, without, so far as they are concerned, securing the great purpose of life-the salvation of the soul. What makes this the more melancholy is, that they have the Word of God in their hands, which all the while has been reminding them to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." And that which forms the very climax of this is, that they make the mistake irretrievably. Not one of all the multitudes that go out of existence in this way will be able to say, "I have made a mistake; I will go back and correct it: I will spend life in a different manner."

I conclude with addresses to different classes of characters.

First: young people. Life is before you; you are just setting out; you are laying your plans; selecting your pursuits, fixing upon your objects. For your soul's sake do not leave out religion. Begin life, writing, by the grace of God, upon your heart, the sentiment which has been the subject of the evening's discourse religion is the end of life. Take the preacher's advice, and see if, when the end of life is come- -whether early or late-you repent taking that advice.

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You who are engaged in the busy concerns of life, thinking highly of wealth, or fame, or the various objects which present themselves to your attention, remember, though careful and troubled about many things, one thing is needful. Aged people, whose days are almost spent, whose life is dwindled to a very narrow span-with whom it is the eleventh hour, and that eleventh hour half or three quarters gone; aged people, let me ask you for what end you live. Is it for religion? O," says an old grey-headed man, perhaps startled from his slumber to-night, amazed at the idea that three-score years and ten, or nearly four-score years have gone by, without his accomplishing the purpose for which they were given. “O," says such a man, "I am ruined, I am lost." Not yet, not yet: you may have lived in vain hitherto; but that quarter of an hour of the eleventh and last of thine existence, by the mercy of God, by the rich and sovereign grace of Jehovah, may be in thy case enough in death to secure the end of existence. Thou, thus late in the evening, thou, after this unprofitable day, thou art yet within the reach of mercy. God waits to be gracious; go to-night, with faith and repentance, to the foot of the cross; and then, in the righteousness of pardoned sin, a renewed heart, the hope of heaven, thou shalt close even thine existence with this delightful idea, "Life with me has not even yet been lost."

Christians, real Christians, I congratulate you on the blessings you have received. Blessed man! Child of God, heir of immortality, expectant of eternal life and glory, thou hast not lived in vain. God is thy God; Christ is thy Saviour; heaven is thy home. It matters little what awaits thee on earth. Be tranquil. Thou mayest lose thy property, and never recover it; thou mayest die soon; but the end of life is accomplished: by the grace of God thou hast secured the purpose of thine existence; and let death come when, how it may, thou mayest meet it as good old Simeon met the infant Saviour, and smilingly exclaim, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

THE LEPERS OF SAMARIA.

REV. J. SHERMAN,

POULTRY CHAPEL, MAY 7, 1835

"Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household."-2 KINGS, vii. 9.

THE circumstances which dictated this brief conversation were the following. Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, with a numerous army, had besieged Samaria, the capital of the kingdom of Israel. It appears that the siege was continued so long, and under such distressing circumstances, that the most awful consequences began to rage in the city. Such was the high price of all kinds of provisions, that as much as ten pounds were given for an ass's head, unwholesome, unsavoury food; and a pint of corn, taken from the crops of doves collected from the neighbouring country, was sold at the rate of twelve shillings a pint. Hunger had so blunted the sympathies of nature, that mothers had killed and eaten their own children; and the resources of the city were now in such a dreadfully exhausted state, that an entire surrender, or total destruction, must be the necessary sad consequences.

Jehoram, instead of reproving himself for his own wickedness, and confessing to himself privately that he was the great cause of all the miseries which Samaria was now enduring, laid the fault upon Elisha, the most patriotic friend the country had; and he determined therefore to kill him. For this purpose he went to his house; and previous to the execution of that purpose he determined to hear the prophet for himself. Uttering some impious, abominable, and blasphemous expression, he was induced to delay his design. till the next morning, on account of a prophecy which Elisha delivered, contained in the two first verses of this chapter. "Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flower be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof."

In the afternoon of the same day, four leprous men suggested to one another the expedient of going out to the camp of the Syrians, and seeing what had become of the army, or what was the state of the Syrian's force. They were

* Anniversary Sermon for the Home Missionary Society.

outcasts from society; they were devoured by the leprosy; they were under the ban and curse of God and man: and therefore any thing that happened to them, they thought could not make them worse. And, therefore," they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die." As soon as it began to grow dark they commenced their operations, proceeding on their journey; and, to their great astonishment, when they arrived at the camp, they found no man there: for the Lord had gone out before them, and caused the Syrians "to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said"—that is the Syrians—

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one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life." When they had satisfied themselves, by going to the extreme end of the camp, that it was not a stratagem of the enemy, they then went, first into one tent, and partook of the luxuries of life that the Syrians had left behind; and entered another, and took of the gold and silver, and concealed it in the earth. And after they had thus satisfied themselves, they began to think of their friends: "We have been into the Syrians' camp, and we have now got their money, and we have had their food; our spirits are refreshed, and our bodies are nourished, by that of which we have partaken; but there are our poor brethren in the city; there are our wives, and our children there, and there are vast numbers there dying of hunger. We do not well to sit here: this day is a day of good tidings; we have reaped the advantage of coming out; we have partaken of the bounty of God in this extraordinary way: if we tarry until the morning light, and be so ungrateful to divine Providence for the blessings that are conferred upon us, some mischief will befall us. Come, let us rise up and go into the city, and tell the king's household the good things of which we have partaken."

My Christian brethren, the present state of the world is, in a spiritual sense, somewhat similar to that in which Samaria was placed when these lepers uttered these words. The armies of Satan and of sin surround it; the people, by millions, are perishing for lack of knowledge: God has blessed a variety of individuals by his rich providence, with a foretaste of the rich provision of grace and mercy, which makes happiness abound on earth, and fits souls for everlasting glory. Thousands are every day perishing for lack of knowledge; and millions more must perish, if the bread of life be not sent. Now we, like the favoured lepers, have found out a plentiful supply to enrich ourselves, and feast the world. Thanks be to God that some few efforts have been made to supply the world with this provision! But their wants are infinitely beyond all the supplies we have sent them. Millions are crying, and are praying for this bread of life and not only millions of the heathen, whose case is constantly presented to our view, but millions of our own brethren, in villages, and hamlets, and towns of your own country, with your own blood running in their veins, where many of your relatives dwell; where some of you have friends, servants, children, relations residing. And these dark parts of the earth,

though not like the habitations of cruelty in the heathen world, are yet full of vice, and misery, and ignorance, to almost an unbounded extent: and the object of my standing before you this evening, is to "provoke you to love and to good works;" and to endeavour to "stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance," to exhort you to add to your faith virtue," and to your virtue still greater liberality than you have been accustomed to shew, to this great and necessitous cause which now presents its claims to your notice. And may I especially, in entering upon the subject this evening, beg the prayers of this congregation, that I may be so assisted in laying its claims before you, that your hearts may be opened and expanded, and Christ's name be honoured and glorified this evening.

The text, then, describes the times in which we live: "This day is a day of good tidings." The text reproves our indifference to the miseries of others: 'We do not well." The text pronounces our punishment if we delay to send them help. And the text suggests the method which we ought immediately to

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pursue.

First, then, the text describes, THE TIMES IN WHICH WE Live. day is a day of good tidings."

"This

And is it not, my dear brethren and sisters, a day of good tidings? What are the peculiarities of the day in which we are called to live? There are these four peculiarities in it; the first of which I will now mention :-that Jesus Christ has obtained a complete conquest over all our enemies. And this is the great and especial truth which is published in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin, and the world, and Satan, like a mighty army, with all their leagued friends, were arrayed against us. The justice of God which we had offended, appeared in dreadful majesty against us; and until satisfaction was made to divine justice, mercy itself could not spare or pardon. The wrath of God was revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men; and all our sad expectation consisted in tribulation and anguish, misery and woe, which were ready to fall upon our heads. Now we had to engage these hosts; we had to go out against them, these armies which surrounded us as they did Samaria. We had no champion, we had no individual who could protect our cause; no army went out against them. Like Samaria, beloved, when we beheld our condition, we were all alarm and all dismay: and, as in the case of Samaria, the victory was wholly of heaven, so it is in our case: Jesus, from the height of the throne of his majesty beheld us; pity moved him to compassionate our case; love, which had heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths, unknown, and which passeth knowledge, brought him from heaven to earth in our flesh. In that flesh he dwelt for thirty-three years in our world, in the form of a servant; and as the Captain of our salvation, single-handed and alone, he entered the bloody field; and sin and hell opposed all its force against him. The wrath of God seized and fell upon him, in all its awful majesty: justice demanded of him the debt which we had contracted; and the law poured forth all its curs s upon his head. He engaged in the mighty conflict: and, as smoke is driven away, so he drove them away. Our God arose, and he scattered all his enemies. It is true that Christ in this conflic died; but in dying he "destroyed death, and him that had the power of death, and delivered us, who through fear of death were

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