can never be justified; but faithfulness may be made more comforting than flattery or indifference. But, should the case be desperate, humanity itself might ask, whether it would not be better for the sufferer to feel his danger for a moment, than for him to endure everlasting burnings? If thou warn him not, his affliction proves, that the wicked man will soon die in his iniquity. Secondly. In the correction of youth, severity, as well as warning, is often needful. When demanded from parents and friends its infliction is painful. This will add to the force of every other inducement to unfaithful compromise. At such a time this dreadful requisition should lie upon the heart. Consider the result to which this levity may lead. If that unchastised child should die in his iniquity, what will his faithless parent feel when God shall, frowning on his spirit, say, "His blood will I require at thine hand." Thirdly. In dealing with distressed inquirers fidelity is needful. For much of the anguish connected with the new birth arises from the love of sin and an unwillingness to submit to the "righteousness of God." All this must be resigned. Before a sinner can find peace, he must rest on Christ alone. The presumption of nature must be dislodged, or the man will die in his iniquity. Painful as it must be, to make the grief more pungent, the warning voice must not be withheld. A dreadful curse is denounced against that false physician who healed the daughter of his people slightly, crying, "Peace, peace, when there was no peace." God will have the heart before he saves the soul. Humanity itself, therefore, should make us tremble over every imperfection in the work of grace. Fourthly. In reproving flagrant and hardened sinners. Disgust, the fear of insult, and a dread of failure, will often tempt a Christian to let them alone; but success has often attended the most discouraging attempts. This, however, is not all. If they will not hear the admonition, mercy is magnified. Paul was thus free from the blood of all men. By this he obtained a great advantage, both in time and eternity. His peace was made more permanent, and in E the final judgment it will be with vastly different feelings that men will witness the condemnation of those who rejected their reproof, and those whom they neglected to admonish. If Paul could rise again, and, standing amidst the ruins of Athens, view the long train of judgments that have reduced it to its present desolation, he would feel a holy satisfaction in knowing, that when he before stood on Mars' hill, he did what he could for its reformation and deliverance. But, if he had then neglected their reproof, the scattered fragments of its former greatness, which are treasured up by all the civilized nations of Europe, would every where cry out against him for his infidelity. Lastly. In improving unexpected opportunities for useful labour. These demand promptness and vigorous prudence; for they often pass away before they are discovered, and leave us no room to expect their repetition. I will just illustrate this particular by stating a fact. Some years since, when residing in a village many miles from London, I was one morning called very early to converse with a dying fe male. The person I had seen before, and made what effort I could to direct her thoughts to the Redeemer, but without any effect. I was now putting on my clothes to sit down to my studies. As I was not dressed for the day, I thought I might take the time necessary for completing that process. It might have been fifteen minutes before I reached the house. She died as I entered the door. As I fixed my eye on the corpse, which still seemed to breathe, and on which a most awful expression of solicitude was left, this passage came upon my mind, "The door was shut." At that moment, I would have given all the world contained if I could have recalled those fifteen minutes, which might have been spent in prayer by her side. Oh, sirs! I desire never to feel that emotion again, and should rejoice if its influence could be done away for ever, excepting as its painful recollection may form an incentive to augmented fidelity and zeal. THE SOCIAL CONFLICT. CHAPTER III. ON THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN MAKING IS SEEN IN THE PRINCIPLES WHICH REGU- "Return to thine own house, and show how great things the Lord hath done for thee."-LUKE viii. 38, 39. How natural is the desire expressed by this poor man, when delivered from the power of Satan. His captivity was full of misery, and marked with the deepest degradation: but a few hours before, possessed by many devils, he raged with madness, writhed with suffering, shrunk from society, and lived in the tombs among the bodies of the dead: he was now |