to acquire another, it is clearly necessary also, that you should begin this work betimes, that you should remember your creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not. You, as well as your elder brethren, are required to live by faith and not by sight, to mortify your carnal appetites, and to follow the impulse of that spirit, who would draw your hearts to Heaven. Young men are exhorted by the apostle to be sober-minded, to remember, that they are beset by peculiar temptations through that love of pleasure, which is natural to youth, and that consequently it behoves them to cultivate sobriety of mind, that so they may not be dazzled by the false glare of objects, which seem inviting, but may look through these nearer objects to those more distant, but brighter glories, where Christ, their redeemer, sitteth at the right hand of God. The spirit and the bride say to you- Come!' Turn not with giddy inattention from the gracious message! For, if despised and neglected now, you know not, that it will again be repeated. Death may surprise you, a stranger to the power of religion; temptations may multiply

upon you; grace refused may be withdrawn, and the saviour himself pronounce the sentence Depart from me! I never knew

'you.' All this may be prevented by a prompt and immediate obedience to the call-' Let ' him, that is athirst, come!' Oh, let not one young person pass through this day without a serious prayer to God, that he will be pleased not only to invite, but to draw him, that so he may indeed come to Christ by faith in his meritorious atonement and efficacious intercession, and that, coming, he may have life through his name!

Nor let those, whose days of youth are gone, imagine, that they have no concern in the invitation of the text! If they have sought their redeemer hitherto, it will ever be a delight to them to hear the note of invitation repeated: for amidst continual declensions, abiding infirmities, and besetting sins, they will feel, how much they need the voice of the saviour, to uphold their sinking steps, to revive their faith, and sustain the hope of glory, so essential to their progress and safety; and they will be sensible, that, although they have already

come to him in earnest, they have need to come to him still more faithfully and still more urgently, that they may not only have spiritual life through his influence, but that they may have it more abundantly. If on the other hand they have hitherto neglected the call, let them not think, that they are even now excluded! Still to them as well as to others the spirit and the bride say'Come! Let him, that is athirst, come! and, 'whosoever will, let him take the water of life 'freely!' If you will come to him even now in sincerity, and do not draw back to the maxims of a world, lost in wickedness, whatever may have been your past offences, I can promise you on the word of God free acceptance and full salvation. The thing required is a ready mind, a hatred of sin, a desire of holiness, a conviction of your natural inability to attain the promised blessing, and a reliance on the power and willingness of the saviour to give it you. With these dispositions every one, that asketh, receiveth, whosoever seeketh findeth, and to all, that knock, it shall be opened.

But at the same time do not deceive your

selves! There are many, who make a fair show in the world, and appear religious, because their sincerity has never been tried. Hence they deem themselves, and are thought by others, to be among those plants, which our heavenly father has planted. But in time of tribulation or trial, when principles are put to the proof, they fall away, and wither: and why Because they have no root in themselves. A little warmth was sufficient to nurse them into height; and a little heat as suddenly scorches them. They have come to the saviour, but without putting away their love of sin. Hence, when the sea is troubled, their fears return; their guilty propensities revive; unbelief regains its hold of them and then it

happens to them according to the description of saint John- They went out from us. But 'they were not of us: for, if they had been

of us, they would no doubt have continued ' with us. But they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all ' of us.'

It concerns you therefore to be sure, that you all come to the lord in earnest with a full

Y

surrender of all your corrupt and selfish appetites, desiring to be led by him, as sheep follow their shepherd. Is the root of the matter in you? This is the main question. Are you living for eternity? Are you seeking first of all the kingdom of God and his righteousness? The prevailing bent of all your hearts must even now be to Heaven, or to Earth. Which is it? If you were to die this instant, the answer to this question would determine your condition for eternity.

I must not conclude without one affectionate and solemn word of caution. You were born, the children of wrath. But you are made, if you will but believe it, the children of grace. What do these strong phrases import? They import, that, whereas you are by nature in a state of most fearful danger, a gracious dispensation has been devised by the divine mercy to deliver you out of it. The father has given his own son for your salvation; the son has come from Heaven, to live, to suffer, and to die, as a ransom for your offences; the holy spirit watches and strives even now, to reclaim you to God; the church