ween your souls and your Maker. nto that account must come all he transactions of the past year and of your past lives. If, in any nstances, you have done those things which were commanded you; in so doing you were but unprofitable servants, doing only your duty, and not bringing God at all in debt; while, on the other hand, for all the duties you have neglected and sins you have committed, you stand indebted to Divine justice, and have nothing to pay. Have you felt the poverty and wretchedness of your condition, and made application to the great Surety of insolvent men. With a heart reconciled to the justice of God in your condemnation,have you desired and prayed to be justified by his grace, through the redemp tion that is in Christ Jesus? This is the last day of the year: suppose it were to prove the last day of your lives: are your spiritual concerns so well settled: are your houses and souls in such order, that you are prepared to meet your God? We can look back upon the year that is past, and review its cares and labours, its joys and sorrows, its mercies, and afflictions: but what eye can penetrate the dark veil that shrouds the future? None but that of the Omniscient. He sees the end from the beginning. He knows as well what will take place the year to come, as what has taken place the year past. But we know not what even a day may bring forth, any further than He sees fit to inform us. If we are permitted to hail the commencement of the new year, we may not see the close of it: If our lives should be spared, we may be visited with sickness: If our health should be spared, our friends may sicken and die: If our friends should be continued to is, our earthly possessions and comforts, our civil and religious privileges may be taken from us. Who can tell what changes will pass over the world, and over us and ours, the coming year? It is not for us to know the times and the seasons, which our Heavenly. Father keeps in his own power.' Be exhorted, then, my hearers, 1. To beware of the presumption of boasting of to-morrow.Ever keep in view the uncertainty which rests upon the future. Form and execute all your designs, under a feeling sense of your dependance upon God, and with unconditional submission to his holy will. Trust him in all your ways, and implore his blessing upon all your undertakings. It is folly in man, whose breath is in his nostrils, to say, "to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.". Weigh well the words of James, "Go to now, ye that say, Today, or to-morrow, we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow: For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that." 2. Sit down, this evening, and seriously enquire, what duties will devolve on you, what the Lord requires you to do, to advance his kingdom, to promote the welfare of your fellow-creatures, and to secure the salvation of your own souls. To remain in voluntary ignorance of your duty, will not excuse you from the performance of it. be in 3. Let saints resolve that they will, and pray that they may clined, the coming year, to do their duty more faithfully, than they have the closing year. They know their Master's will, and have promised to do it. Let them repent of past neglect, and redeem the time, because the days are evil. | It is high time for them to awake out of sleep, and be about their master's business; for the day of grace is far spent, and the night of death is at hand, in which no man can work. 4. Let sinners be exhorted to repent and believe the gospel, and thus to begin the new year with newness of life. Let the past time of your lives suffice you, to have sinned against light and love, and neglected the one thing needful. How much precious, probationary time, you have already lost! And will you still presume upon the patience of God? O let his goodness, which you experience every moment, lead you to repentance: then there will be joy on earth and joy in heaven; and whether you live or die, you will have a happy new year. AMEN. From the Utica Christian Repository. DUTIES THE RESULT OF DOC- gospel are dependant on the doctrines of the gospel; so that if any doctrine can be proved untrue, the corresponding duty ceases to be a duty and becomes a sin. It is an excellence of the duties of the gospel that they are all of the same nature, being only various modifications of love; so that the doctrines which go to teach and enforce one, do also teach and enforce all. And it is also an excellence of the doctrines of the gospel, that they imply each other, as parts of one system, and operate as a whole to teach and enforce every duty. But still, near It is admitted that practical religion is the only religion that is valuable, and that doctrines are of no further use than they lead to practical results. It is admitted, also, that if the doctrines of the gospel, were matters of mere speculation, it would be of no importance whether men embraced them or not. And it must be admitted, on the other hand, that if the doctrines of the gospel are so connected with practical religion that they cannot be destroyed without destroying all true prac-ly every particular duty can be tical religion, then they are matters of essential importance.True practical religion is the performance of the duties which the gospel enjoins. The practice of any thing different, under the name of religion, is the practice of a false religion. We must perform the duties which the gospel enjoins, or we cannot meet the approbation of God, and be made heirs of his heavenly kingdom.But we shall not perform the duties which the gospel enjoins, any further than we embrace the doctrines which the gospel teaches; for the duties of the gospel are only the practical results of the doctrines of the gospel. The duties of the traced to some one or more particular doctrine or doctrines, of which it is the practical result, and by which it is particularly enforced. The first grand duty enjoined in the gospel, is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart. The performance of this duty includes the love of benevolence towards God, a supreme regard for his happiness, and also the love of esteem, or entire pleasedness with his whole character. This duty, in both branches of it, is the practical result of the doctrine of God's being and perfections, as taught in the scriptures. The duty of supreme regard for his happiness grows out of the doctrine that he Is the greatest of all beings, capable of enjoying more than any other being, or than all other beings, from which it results that his happiness is of more importance thau that of all other beings. The duty of loving God with the love of esteem, grows out of the doctrine that he is a being of perfect moral rectitude. Let these doctrines be proved untrue, and these duties cease to be obligatory. Let it be proved that God is no greater than his creatures, and it becomes wrong to value his happiness any more than theirs. Let it be proved that he is not a being of moral rectitude, and it becomes wrong to love him with the love of esteem. Let it be proved that he is a being of the same moral character with Satan, and it becomes a sin to feel any more complacency in his character, and a duty to abhor him with the whole heart. The expression of right affections towards God in the language of prayer and praise-constitutes the worship of God. It is a duty to worship God, and it is wrong to worship a creature. The duty of worshipping one God depends on the doctrine that there is but one God. If there are more gods than one, then it is wrong to confine our worship to one only. If the One God subsists in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, then it is a duty to worship him as a Trinity in Unity. If Christ is not God, then it is a sin to worship him as God. If the Holy Ghost is not God, it is a sin to worship him as God. The duty in each case depends upon the doctrine. Let the doctrine be proved untrue, and the duty ceases to be a duty, and becomes a sin. Or, in other words, what is a du ty if the doctrine is true, is a sin if the doctrine is untrue. Repentance is another duty enjoined in the gospel. But this duty is the practical result of the doctrine of human depravity. If men were not subjects of moral depravity, it could not be their duty to repent of sin. And the nature and extent of the duty depend upon the nature and extent of the doctrine. If the doctrine of partial depravity is true, then it is duty to repent only of a part of our actions; but if the doctrine is true that men before regeneration are totally depraved, then it is their duty to repent of all they have done to that time. Faith in Christ is a duty enjoined in the gospel. But this duty is the practical result of the doctrine of atonement. Let it be proved that Christ did not make atonement by his death for the sins of the world, and it would be wrong for us to trust in his atoning blood for the pardon of our sins. Let it be proved that he was only a man, like Paul, that he was no greater teacher than Paul, and that his death was only that of a martyr, like Paul's, and it would be wrong to consider him as the Saviour of the world, any more than Paul. It is the duty of guilty men to love God, repent of sin, and believe in Christ, without any delay. But this duty is the practical result of the doctrine of human ability. If the unregenerate are the subjects of a natural inability to love God, repent of sin, and believe in Christ, such an inability as they are under to create world, then it cannot be their present duty to do these things, any more than it can be their duty to create a world. a Self-denial is a duty enjoined in the gospel. But this duty is the practical result of the doctrine of disinterested benevolence.This doctrine teaches that the intrinsic worth of things is the proper measure of our regard; that my own happiness is no more valuable for being mine, nor my neighbour's any less valuable for not being mine; and that it is wrong for me to prefer a less good of my own to a greater good of my neighbour. If this doctrine should be proved untrue, and it should be proved that the proper measure of our regard is to put our own happiness in the first place, and to value other things in proportion as they are conducive to that, then it would follow that self-denial is no duty, but a sin. by what instruments they may, then it is duty to exercise submission to God in them all. But let it be proved that there are any of them in which he has no agency, and it becomes wrong to submit to him in all such. Indeed if God has no design nor agency in the wicked conduct of men, he must be opposed to it on the whole, as well as opposed to it in itself considered. And of course, it must be our duty to feel opposed to it on the whole, as well as opposed to it in itself considered. And so, any kind of submission to those afflictions which come upon us through the wicked conduct of men, must be wrong. It is a duty enjoined in the gospel that we love our enemies, and ex It is a duty enjoined in the gos-ercise patience and meekness unpel, that we love our neighbour as der all their injurious treatment; ourselves, and do unto all men as not resisting evil, nor returning we would they should do unto us. evil for evil to any man, but good This is the grand rule of all our for evil, and blessing for cursing. intercourse with our fellow men. But this duty is the practical reBut this duty is the practical result of the doctrine of disinterested sult of the doctrine of disinterested benevolence, and is strongly enbenevolence. If that doctrine is not forced by the doctrine of decrees, true, and, selfishness is right, then and the doctrine of human depravmy own interest is the only rule to ity. If the doctrine of disinterbe observed; and the thing to be estedness is true, then we ought to considered is, what will be most for regard the welfare of others for my advantage; and I must love my its own sake; of our enemies, as neighbour no further than I can be a really as of our friends. We gainer by it, and for no other reason. ought to seek their good, and treat Submission to God under the them kindly. But if the doctrine common afflictions of life, is a duty of selfishness is true, and our own enjoined in the gospel. Eli did good is to be our supreme object, right, if he expressed the feelings then we need not seek the good of his heart, when he said, "It is of our enemies any further than it the Lord; let him do what seem is for our interest so to do. And eth him good." And Job, when if it is for our interest to resist evil, he said, "The Lord gave and and return evil for evil, in some the Lord hath taken away; circumstances, as many think it is, blessed be the name of the Lord." then it is right so to do, in those But this duty is the practical result circumstances. It was observed of the doctrine of the universal de- that the duty of patience and crees and agency of God. If it meekness under injurious treatis the hand of God that brings af- ment is enforced by the doctrine fictions upon us, let them come f of the divine decrees and the doc trine of human depravity: for if the agency of God is employed in bringing these things upon us, and we deserve them all at his hands, it becomes us to receive them all with meekness and patience towards those whom he selects as his instruments. whether they come with or without human instrumentality, then it is proper to ask him for those blessings; but not otherwise. If we are dependant upon God for his Holy Spirit to make us better, it is proper to pray for it; but not otherwise. If God cannot incline our hearts, without diminishing or destroying our free agency, then he cannot make us better, by any influence he can exercise upon us; and it is absurd and wrong to ask him to do it. If it is God that converts and sanctifies others, causing them to turn from their evil ways, and causing them to walk in his statutes, then it is proper to ask him to do it; but not otherwise. The duty of praying for all blessings, whether spiritual or temporal, with submission, saying, with our Lord and Master, my will, but thine be done," is the practical result of the doctrine of disinterested benevolence, and the doctrine of the divine omniscience. If God knows all things, he knows what is most for his glory, and if the glory of God ought to be regarded by us more than our own individual happiness, then it is duty to make our happiness subordinate to his glory. But if not It is a gospel duty that we make an unreserved and unconditional surrender of our souls to God, being willing to be in his hands, and at his sovereign disposal. We are in his hands, and we ought not to wish to get out of his hands. He will dispose of as according to his sovereign pleasure; and we ought to be willing to have him do SO. It is the wicked only that “would fain flee out of his hand." But this duty is the practical result of the doctrine of the divine sovereignty. If God has not a sovereign right to dispose of us as he pleases, it cannot be our duty to be willing he should. If he exercises his sovereignty merely because he is so powerful that he cannot be successfully resisted, from capice, or partiality, or selfishness, it ought not to be acquiesced in. But since he exercises his sovereignty according to the dictates of infinite wisdom and infinite goodness; since his sov-the doctrine of selfishness is true, ereignty is nothing more than his disposal of every creature in that way which is on the whole wisest and best; it is our duty to rejoice that the Lord reigns, and that he reigns over us. then it is duty to desire the security of our own eternal happiness above all things, and in our pray· ers to make it our supreme object, and ask for its security at all events, even if the glory of God must be sacrificed to it. It is the duty of all men to pray, because all men are equally dependant on God. And it is the duty of all men, whether saints or sinners, immediately to pray, lifting up It is a duty to pray to God, "lifting up holy hands." The scriptures are abundant in enjoining this duty upon all. But the duty of prayer is the practical result of the doctrine of dependence. If in any thing we are not depend-holy hands.' But this is the pracant upon God, that thing is not a proper subject of prayer to God. If we are dependant upon God for the common blessings of life, tical result of the doctrine of human ability. It can only be the duty of men to do as well as they can. And if they are the subjects |