Where is faith evinced by the saving salutary fruits of righteousness? Is it where courtly moral preachers flatter and declaim? These only confirm men in ignorance and sin. It is the despised gospel preacher ; he who insists on the peculiar doctrines of salvation, whose labours are crowned with success. What is there in the manner of the first to cause the sinner to tremble? He speaks peace in soft tones and sweetly sounding strains. But the last declares in Jehovah's name, there is no peace to the wicked, but tribulation, wrath, and anguish, to every man who doeth evil. He challenges the hope of the ungodly, and bids him beware. What he What he says has weight; his words sink in the heart. ten are they forgotten! Alas, how of III. Felix, though he trembled, bid Paul go his way this time; adding, when he had a convenient season he would call for him. This season, as it respected his salvation, never came. His passions, momentarily restrained, resumed their power, and hurried him on to ruin. In his situation he met with hinderances. He was a governor. He was lying in sin. Authority and lust had charms too powerful to be resisted. Thus it is that awakened, alarmed sinners, put off repentance to a more convenient season. In some the charms of honour, in others of riches, in others of pleasures prevail. The great man cannot yet relinquish the advantages of his condition. By repenting he must forego many things, which by habit have become dear. Court chicanery—state policy, are inconsistent with faith in Jesus, To relinquish an honourable station, to abandon the road to preferment, are sacrifices too costly to be made for religion. The man of letters cannot consent to stop short in his pursuit after still greater attainments in knowledge. Curiosity and the love of fame operate as snares to quiet his conscience, and destroy the love of truth upon his heart. Thus also, riches alienate the affections from God and fix them on the creature. Their natural tendency, as well as that of worldly honours, is hostile to religion. The glare of worldly consequence is delightful to the human heart. It feeds our pride, it pampers our propensities, it makes a worm of earth think himself above his fellows. In this glare he finds something to quiet the alarms of his conscience, 49 VOL. I. and to ease his troubled soul. He thinks the preacher impertinent, perhaps, and thus rouses his angry passions, to divert his fears and his vexations; or he thinks him unnecessarily rigid, and soothes himself with the recollection, that others are more pliant; or, he adopts some plausible scheme of truth called Christian, but which, in reality, has nothing Christian in it, save only the name; or he thinks it will be time enough by and by to attend to this matter. In this, and a thousand other ways, he puts off real, genuine repentance, to a more convenient season. How many, like Felix, do we thus find among the great, the learned, and wealthy ones of this life! How many among those whose god is worldly pleasure! This syren seduces multitudes to her embrace, and ruins them. To the awakened sinner, she is especially dangerous. She lieth in wait to deceive. Her voice is addressed to the unwary: "Come crown yourselves with rose-buds, "let no flower of the spring pass away; eat, "drink, enjoy life." She leads her votaries through enchanting scenes; satiates the appetite with the fulness of her board; pleases the eye with the splendour of her equipage; gratifies the ear with the music of her strains ; thrills the senses with her exquisite delights. Under her magic influence the blood circulates fiercely; desires engender rapidly; carefulness is banished from the mind; seriousness is annihilated. The voice of the tabret and of the harp is in her feasts, but she regards not the work of the Lord, nor the operation of his hand. She adds tenfold strength to the violence of the passions. Unhappy Felix! pleasure, as well as honour and riches, kept off the convenient season for hearing Paul. Drusilla lay near to thy heart. Thou couldest not relinquish her. Unhappy sons and daughters of pleasure, who put off the time of repentance to a more convenient season! Their passions, with renewed gratification, acquire strength; ere long, like a torrent, they sweep away principle, integrity, and conscience. The young, especially, are the victims of pleasure. Her aspect is so beautiful, her address so bewitching, that resistance seems impossible. With her much fair speech she causes them to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forces them. Whilst young, we are forgetful of the past, and heedless of the future. The present moment is all that interests us. Our feelings are warm, our desires strong, our susceptibility of delight exquisite. This is the reason why pleasure has enticed so many youth. The preaching of the Gospel oft-times excites their alarms. They see their danger; they tremble. The deceiver lies in wait for them, and when no friendly voice is near, leads them captive. Oh, how careful ought parents, guardians, teachers, and pastors to be of the young! They are the hopes of State and Church. They may easily be imbued with the love of virtue, and more easily seduced into paths of error. In these ways, then, not to enlarge more, the convenient season is deferred by awakened sinners. The call of the Gospel has been carried home to them, but its energy has been destroyed by honours, learning, riches, or pleasures. These snares operate peculiarly upon a certain class in society, a class elevated above others in their external condition. Yet the lower classes have snares in their way equally destructive. Our common employments oft-times be |
