that "by patience and comfort" of that holy book, "we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life," which is offered to us there by Jesus Christ.

One more remark I ought to make, with which I shall conclude. The rich man in the parable was not charged with the practice of gross and glaring sins. He is not said to have been in the habit of drunkenness, or to have lived in a course of uncleanness; he is not accused of cruelty or dishonesty: his offence was, that he "had left undone what he ought to have done;" that he had lived a life of thoughtless, and giddy, and selfish enjoyment, deaf to the call of duty, and forgetful of the account which we must all give to God, of the time and talents committed by him to our trust.

Beware then how you forget God; beware how you go on, from day to day, as if the Gospel had never been preached, as if Christ had never been born, as if there was to be no day of judgment. The rich man thought of nothing beyond the present world, and his life passed smoothly

on but what became of him after death? He was cast into hell, there to remain in torments for ever, without relief, without comfort, without hope. God forbid that this, my brethren, may be your portion: but such it will, it must be, if, in this your day of trial, you consider not your latter end.

Let the thought, therefore, of death and judgment, which must come, sooner or later, to all, lead you, by God's grace, to do your duty steadily, constantly, faithfully, in that state of life, unto which God has been pleased to call you.

MARK IV. 3.

Hearken; behold, there went out a sower to

sow.

THE more we examine the parables,.or short stories, delivered by Christ for the instruction of his hearers in their various duties, the more we are struck with his knowledge of the human heart. He traces out, with the greatest exactness, all the lurking follies and sins which shew themselves in the conduct of each. The parable of the sower is a remarkable instance of this.

In this Discourse I have gratefully to acknowledge that I have made great use of some excellent observations of Mr. Sumner, in his valuable work" on the evidence of Christianity derived from its nature and reception." See p. 173.

"Behold, there went out a sower to sów; and it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way-side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: but when the sun was up it was scorched; and because it had no root it withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought forth, some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred."

The sower who goes out to sow his seed, that seed being the word of God, as now laid open to us in the Bible, sets forth in lively colours the manner in which the Gospel was taught from the beginning, and is still carried on and spread throughout the world. The sower resembles Jesus, his first followers the apostles, and the Christian ministers who have come after them; and describes, with equal force, the way in which it would be received among men.

Now there are four different ways in which the word of God may be treated, and they are all set before us in this pa rable.

It may be at once put aside and cast off; or it may be admitted, for a while, into the heart, and be afterwards shut out by other interests; or it may remain there, indeed, but have no power over the conduct; or, lastly, it may be made the rule of a man's desires, pursuits, and actions. - Let us now take a view of these different characters, as they are drawn by Jesus Christ in this parable of the sower. And do not neglect the caution with which he enters upon the subject-a subject where the welfare of the soul, its everlasting interests, are deeply concerned. He begins by calling upon his hearers to "hearken:" and when he had finished the parable, he returns to the same point; "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear;"-he that has any value for his own happiness, and wishes earnestly for improvement in the way of duty, let him listen with attention, and lay to heart what he hears, that the fruit may appear in his conduct.