ferent degrees of honor and felicity in the heavenly world, is clearly a doctrine of Scripture, and it is proposed there as an incentive to seek after high attainments in godliness. Our future happiness or misery, though the former is strictly a gift of grace, and the other an award of justice, will unquestionably spring out of the character we attain to in this world. A very large proportion of both heaven and hell will consist of something within us; will arise from what we are; in one case from perfect holiness, and in the other from absolutely matured sin. There will be, of course, external objects that will contribute to the exercises of these different states of mind; but the states of mind themselves will be the seat of misery or bliss. Hence then it is evident we are now continually meetening for one or other of these conditions; and so close is the connection between grace and glory, that it is probable that not a single act of true piety, not an effort, not a motive, not a feeling, is without its influence upon our eternal state. Every holy desire, volition, word, purpose, and action, is something carried to the formation of the eternal character; just as every little dot of the painter's pencil is something contributed to the completeness of the picture. So, on the

contrary, every single sin on earth is an addition to the character and torment of a damned spirit in hell. What a motive, then, is this consideration to exalted piety, to high degrees of religion! All you acquire in this world is an accumulation going on for the next. This is laying up treasures in heaven, growing rich towards God, and becoming affluent for eternity. The eminent Christian is preparing for some high post in the kingdom of God, and for a station of double honor in the realms of immortality.

possess.

O professors! let me, with all the earnestness of which I am capable, or which I am able to express, exhort and entreat you to seek after higher attainments in piety than you You are living too low, far too low; beneath, much beneath your duty, your privilege, your principles, and your profession. Your religion is too much a religion of mere opinions, and forms, and ceremonies; of mere abstinence from gross immorality, coupled with an attendance upon an evangelical ministry. Where, O where, I ask again, as I have done before, do we see the life of God in the soul, the heavenly mind, the work of faith, the tender conscience, the image of God, the mind of Christ, the impress of eternity? Who have conquered the world by

faith? Who have set their affections on things above? Who are making it their great business to prepare for the coming of Christ, and their blessed hope to look for his arrival? Where are the epistles of Christ known and read of all men? Where are the peculiar people? Where the witnesses for God? Where are they to whom we can point and say, "Behold the men and women who look not at things seen and temporal, but at things not seen and eternal?" Awake, arise, shine; listen to the fearful language of Christ to a Christian church of antiquity: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert either cold or hot. So, then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." (Rev. iii. 16.) Tremble at this denunciation, lest it should come upon you.

Begin, from the perusal of these pages, to seek after higher degrees of personal religion. Be not satisfied with present attainments. Even the apostle Paul resolved to forget the things that were behind, in a desire to press on to greater excellence. And can you be satisfied? Beware of making the perilous yet frequent experiment of ascertaining with how little piety you can reach heaven. They who

are seeking just enough religion for this purpose, will find out, to their eternal confusion, that they had not enough. The love of God, like the love of money, is never satisfied with its possession. Real grace in the soul is ever seeking after increase, and any approach to contentment with what you have is a proof you have none. You must grow. It is your solemn duty. God demands it; your happiness and your safety require it. It is as much your duty to be eminent Christians as it is that of others. No reason for this applies to them which does not equally apply to you. A higher degree of holiness is attainable by you. The grace that is necessary for this is within your reach. You are not to imagine that there is any peculiarity in your case which forbids the hope of improvement. God's grace is all-sufficient; the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. You are commanded as a matter of duty, invited as a matter of privilege, to be eminent in religion. O take up the wish, the purpose, the determination. Make it an object that you must accomplish, an attainment you must secure. Set about it in earnest. Give yourself to reading, to meditation and prayer. Set apart time, sufficient time, for all the purposes of private devotion; for communion with your own

heart, and for communion with God. Resist the encroaching, absorbing, destructive influence of the world in any form. Consider you have a soul to be saved, a hell to avoid, a heaven to obtain. Your profession cannot do this for you; rely not upon that; feel as if the work were all to be begun; let there be the same earnestness, the same diligence, the same solicitude, as there were when you commenced the pursuit of eternal life. Adopt the Bible afresh as the Book of books; let nothing supplant this precious volume. One great cause why the piety of this age is so feeble and so languid, is because the Bible has in many cases heen swept away by a flood of uninspired publications. The pure milk of the word has been neglected, or has been so diluted, as to leave but little nourishment in the mixture; and the new-born babe, as matter of course, has remained dwarfish and sickly. Even the biography of the most distinguished saints, which ought to form a part of the Christian's reading, and is eminently calculated to fan the flame of devotion in the soul, ought not to be allowed to displace the word of God. Again, I say, professors, awake, arise, shine. "To be carnally minded is death; to be spiritually minded is life and peace. If ye be risen