ioss of the soul may yet be averted, and this salvation secured. It were perfectly useless to talk to men of miseries which cannot be remedied, or excite them to the pursuit of benefits which never can be obtained. If it were possible to visit the lost souls in prison, humanity would require that we should never put there such a question as this-" What shall I do to be saved?"—because their salvation is impossible. To sound salvation in the ear of a lost soul, is adding venom to its misery; it is giving an additional sting to its punishment; the very sound is torment to the man who had never obtained this blessing. But this is not your case; you are not in the situation of the man sinking in the water after the vessel has foundered, who rises on the waves, and feels a consciousness, that if he is not submerged by that, another, and another, and millions more in endless succession, are following him, and therefore in hopeless despair gives himself up to his fate without a struggle. You are in that world where mercy reigns; you are in that world where all the opportunities of salvation, and the means of grace are continued. God waits to be gracious: a beseeching, loving, Saviour still throws open the arms of his affection, and invites you to hide there; the Holy Spirit still offers his gracious and efficient energies for the illumination of your mind, the renovation of your heart, the sanctification of your life. Every thing that constitutes salvation is placed within your reach : and it is the preacher's delightful business to-night, though he has talked of the loss of the soul, to tell you that salvation is still to be obtained. You ask the question, "What shall I do to be saved?" And I am commissioned to reply in the language of the Apostle, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Would I talk to you of salvation, as I have already hinted, if salvation were not to be obtained? Would I come here to torment you before your time? If I could not tell you of the means of averting that damnation which is unto eternity, I would let you go quietly to perdition; I would rather utter dulcet sounds that should soothe you during the few fleeting years that you have yet to endure, all the comfort that you would ever enjoy. But, when I know that there is salvation in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory for all who ask it; oh, when I see the page of the Gospel open before me, where I am actually commissioned to tell you that the blood of Christ will cleanse from all sin, that his righteousness will justify the greatest sinners in this assembly; when I see the gates of heaven rolled back upon their everlasting hinges, and hear voices coming down from the celestial world, from redeemed spirits, saying to you, "Come up hither;" oh, should I not be a wretch that deserved to be banished from the pulpit, and cast out of your assembly, if I did not do all that mortal mind, and heart, and language can do, to impress you with the idea of the dreadfulness of the loss of the soul, and the greatness of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus?

My brethren in human nature (for you are all my brethren in this respect: would God, as I hope that I am a Christian, that you were all my brethren in Christ) I invite you to this privilege, this blessing. Do take up to-night the question, "What shall I do to be saved?" For there is salvation for you in Christ Jesus: and if you die thus, it will not be because there is no Saviour, but because you do not seek him. Come to him to-night: he stretches wide the arms of his affection; waits-more than waits-entreats, beseeches; for the Apostle speaks of his entreating and beseeching in Christ's stead. Oh, this mercy-this infinite mercy! That the infinite should entreat the finite! That

the divine should beseech the human! That the holy Saviour should thus bow himself down, and beseech thee, sinful mortal, to come to him and be saved! Is there any enthusiasm, then, in a man's being all anxious about the salvation of his soul? Is there anything irrational? Does not th irrationality lie on his part who careth not for these things?

To come to the conclusion, I would first take up the subject by way of examination. How many of my hearers are there, who from the dawn of reason up to the present moment, have never once, with seriousness and solemnity, taken up the question, "What must I do to be saved?" Do not many of you know that this is your state? The question on almost every other subject has escaped your lips, and meditations on every other theme have been in your mind; you have said, "What shall I eat? what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed? What connexions shall I form? Where shall I reside? What business or profession shall I choose?" But your anxiety never perhaps has travelled on from these things that are seen and temporal to the things which are unseen and eternal. And up to the present hour, is there a human being that can testify that he hath ever seen you with the impressions of holy seriousness upon your countenance, or ever heard you give utterance to holy expressions from your lips, similar to that in our text? Nay, has the Omnipotent and Omniscient God ever seen any such anxiety in your mind? What! a rational being, that admits he is immortal, that confesses he is going on to eternity, that does not know he has another hour to live, who may be the next morning found a corpse-what! such a man forgetting his immortality, caring nothing about salvation, never inquiring what he is to do to be saved? Oh, as Baxter said, "Can he be a man or a brute?" And yet we know him to be such: if he were a brute it would be better for him, for he would be without responsibility; but it is his being a man, that makes his case fearful; for it is that very rationality that constitutes his responsibility.

Now, my dear hearers, is not this the case with you? May I not be speaking to many to-night who have been recently at missionary meetings, professedly to seek the conversion of the heathen, the salvation of distant nations, who have never cared about their own souls? May I not be speaking to many missionary collectors, that go from house to house to gather the humble offerings of the poor, or the more munificent ones of the rich, who are giving themselves all this trouble, but have never yet been brought to conviction of sin, to faith in Christ, to true repentance and conversion? Now let conscience speak, my brethren, I could have chosen other subjects, but God is witness, that thus far the preacher has striven to select a subject by which he could hope to do good; and therefore I do entreat you, go with me into this interrogation. I beseech you,

enter into the design of him who speaks to you to-night, and who is anxious to make your conscience the preacher, and anxious to make that inward monitor respond to the words spoken from without. Is it not the case, that you have neglected the salvation of your souls? I do not ask if you have never repeated the words; I do not ask if you have never had some passing ideas in your breast; but have you ever seriously taken up the question, "What shall I do to be saved?" You know you have not.

Let me then expostulate with you, in the language of St. Paul, when he says,

"How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" Neglect! you may not probably be aware of the sin of neglect; you have not opposed this salvation, probably, by a vicious life, by the blasphemies of infidelity; but you have neglected salvation. This is the question. "How shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation?" Consider the sin there is in this neglect. It is an insult to all the attributes of God, that are manifest in this salvation. It is rebellion against the authority of Jehovah, who has stepped in, and, unwilling that you should perish, made it even your duty to believe and to be saved. It is an insult to the mediatorial character and office of Christ. It is ingratitude for the favours, not merely of nature and Providence, but of grace; the vilest ingratitude that can be committed by earth or by hell. It is a reckless indifference to your own welfare; it is being guilty of the worst and most guilty of all suicidal acts; and all this for those perishing possessions and evanescent pleasures, which you know not but may be taken from you the next moment. See the sin of neglecting salvation. How shall we escape? The Apostle does not answer the question; he could not; it was not given him to answer. The silence which seems to follow, fills my imagination with more terror, as to the doom of the impenitent and unbelieving, than the most lengthened and impassioned description of their torments. How shall we escape? A question which implies, that the punishment of unbelief is indescribable, unavoidable, eternal! Let me, then, now entreat you my hearers, again to ask whether the sin of this neglect does not lie at your door? Let me ask, whether it shall lie there any longer. Oh, to-night, to-night, take up the question, carry it away with you, "What shall I do to be saved?" Carry it in silence to your own habitation; let no conversation by the way divert your attention from it. Find your way to your closet, open your Bibles, throw yourself upon your knees, and if you have not prayed before, let the voice which welcomed the supplications of the murderous Saul of Tarsus to heaven, be heard welcoming yours, and saying, "Behold, he prayeth." God dispose your hearts to this, and for your encouragement know, that no prayer of the penitent, no prayer of faith, was ever rejected by God. If he could not listen at the same moment to the concert of redeemed spirits in heaven, and the prayer of the penitent on earth, he would hush every harp in glory for a season, that he might let the cry of mercy come up into his ear. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

THE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY TO IMPROVE THE TEMPORAL

CONDITION OF A PEOPLE.

REV. H. MELVILL, A. M.

ALL SOULS' CHURCH, LANGHAM PLACE, JUNE 15, 1834*.

"Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."-PROVERBS, xiv. 34.

It is our wish, on the present occasion, and as introductory to an appeal on behalf of the National Schools of this District, to set before you the power of Christianity to improve the temporal condition of a people. We are quite aware that this is not the most commanding point of view under which Christianity can be surveyed, seeing that it is as the alone guide to immortality, that the religion of Jesus appears most illustrious. But if it be true, that "righteousness exalteth a nation," so that a thoroughly evangelized community occupies on account of its piety a more dignified station than the ignorant and irreligious, Christianity stands commended to every class in society; and the Scriptural education of the poor proves itself worthy the support of all who call themselves philanthropists.

We are far from sure, that the present advantages conferred by Christianity on a nation obtain their due share of notice; or rather, we fear that they are for the most part overlooked. It certainly follows, from such assertions as this of our text, that thoroughly to Christianize a community would be to cover the land with contented, yea, and in a moral sense, honourable families. If there be an exalting power in righteousness, it cannot be denied that we have in Christianity such an engine for the amelioration of the human condition, as is just fitted to exchange the present fearful mass of wretchedness for the beauteous spectacle of virtuous and well conditioned households. Such an exchange is in no sense visionary; but we are sure it will never be brought round, and we shall make none but the most inconsiderable advances towards that condition, so long as we try any method but that of impregnating our people with the religion of the Gospel. It may be an applauded theory, that religion should be dissociated from legislation; as though it were beneath statesmen to take lessons from the Bible: but never would a country be so near the summit of greatness, and never would its families be so approaching that high standard of respectability and sufficiency, as when ruled in the fear of God, and on the simple principle, that the effective power for making men sober, and industrious, and honest, is to make them zealous for the salvation of the soul.

We shall endeavour, in the first place, to demonstrate, the existence of that power, which Solomon, in our text, has ascribed to righteousness: in the On behalf of the District National Schools.

second place we will meet the objection which seems to lie against his statement, drawn from the discord to which Christianity has given rise. The whole subject will apply itself to the charitable cause which solicits your support; for if we shall prove that Christianity heightens the condition of the lower orders, who will refuse to aid the Christian education of the poor?

In the first place, then, we are to advance certain general considerations which shall shew THE BENEFICIAL POWER of RighteousnESS; rightcousness being regarded as the produce of Christianity. We desire to prove of our religion, that it vastly elevates the condition, and augments the present happiness of mankind: and if you will give your attention to the influence which Christianity exerts, first on the duties, and secondly on the trials of life, you will admit this, and assent readily to the proposition, that it is righteousness which exalteth a nation.

Now if you know any thing of the precepts of the Bible, you must be aware, that if these precepts were acted out by the members of a community, there would be banished from the circle of this community whatever tends to produce discord and strife, and that nothing would be more observable than the anxiety and the endeavour to uphold order, and promote the general happiness. If a man be imbued with the fear of God, he has a principle which must accompany him into all the intercourse of life, and exert an influence over each portion of his conduct. Teaching us that to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world; that we obey magistrates; that we render to all their due; custom to whom custom is due, tribute to whom tribute, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour; is it not evident that the Gospel, if cordially received would turn the refractory into the orderly, the dissolute into the virtuous; and that just in the degree in which it made way in a nation, the institutions of that nation would be consolidated, its strength increased, and its prosperity augmented? Let the Gospel of Christ find its way into a cottage where there is a thief or a drunkard, and it presently plies this unhappy man with engines peculiarly its own It does not enlarge, as might philosophical treatises on morality, on the comforts of sobriety, and the advantages which result to society from holding sacred the rights of property: it assumes at once higher ground; it tells the man of his deathlessness; it pours out against him the denunciations of his Maker; it declares that the practices of his life are making sure to him an eternity of torment: and when the man stands aghast at the spectacle of his condition, filled with dread at the consequences of his actions, and yet feeling himself so hampered by evil habits, that he can scarcely form resolution to amend, then the Gospel comes in with encouragement it speaks to him of a Surety who has died in his stead; of a sanctifying agency which is ready to make his own breast the scene of its operations; and thus assuring him, that he has not sinned beyond the reach of mercy, and that he may obtain superhuman help in wrestling with the corruptions of nature; it animates him to the work of renovation, and moulds him into the orderly subject, the respected and trust-worthy neighbour. Or if again, we take one of those poor children for whom we are this day to plead, we say of him, that through receiving into his heart the truths of the Bible, ne will learn to be obedient to his parents, and content with such pittance as their condition affords him: and as he grows up,