to the calls and warnings of the saving Spirit; not, if the appointed seasons of reckoning with our own souls, of examining our ways, and correcting our deviations, be passed over in worldly and carnal neglect; not, if the sacred and venerable institutions of the Christian Church, the ordinances of our Maker and of our Saviour, are to be weighed in the balance of this world's wisdom, and measured by the standard of blind and sinful men; if the salutary observance of Lent, the deep and solemn humiliation of our Lord's passion, the severe but wholesome contrition of the crucifixion, the purifying discipline of our penitential services, are to be laid aside, as irksome and unnecessary, by those who are yet abundantly ready to join in the festivity of the resurrection, and to share the triumph of that victory to which they are too selfish and too sensual to have contributed, even by their sympathy in the fearful contest, even by the slightest expression of in

terest in the agony of that conflict which was undergone for our sakes alone!

The power which our Lord now enjoys to call us out of darkness, and to make us His flock, was not won, even by His Almighty wisdom, without a terrible struggle and a dreadful sacrifice. He has entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" but that entrance, and that redemption were purchased "by His own blood," by his own bitter, protracted, unutterable sufferings; by such a combat with the whole congregated force of evil as no created being can imagine!

And is it to be conceived that the glorious fruit of so much self-devotion and perfect virtue may be reaped by men who, in the utter obduracy of a worldly heart, pass it by unregarded? by men who grudge even an hour spent in the solemn commemoration of the great event, even a single meal curtailed, a single recreation abridged, even the smallest de

duction from their daily profits and pleasures, in acknowledgment of all which has been done for them!

Surely not. Justice and reason, and right feeling alike forbid it. If they, who sincerely love their Saviour, who approach Him, in all the humbleness, and duty, and fervent love of penitent forgiven sinners, and at all times of solemn commemoration; if even they are ashamed of "their cold hearts, wandering thoughts, and trifling spirits;" if even they are not only contrite, but often alarmed by the sense of their unworthiness, by the worldly desires, and sensual thoughts, and irregular passions, which disturb their devotion, pollute their sacrifices, and drive them from the steadiness of their course; if they tremble for their safety, and, (if they be sincerely humble Christians,) they often do tremble, if so, what can be the hope of that numberless body of self-called Christians, who neither tremble, nor fear, nor think,

nor pray with any real or hearty sentiments of piety, who do not truly lament their sinfulness, nor honestly desire to be freed from the bondage of those sins which they practise almost without compunction, almost without apprehension, that "the end of these things is death?"

We cannot but see that vast multitudes around us are wandering from the way in this hardness of heart, this darkness of understanding: we must hope, and pray, that GOD, in His own good time, will awaken them to a sense of their danger, will call them out of the wilderness of the world, and lead them into the way of life: but, if we have reason to consider ourselves as already so blessed, if we feel that we are awake to the unspeakable importance of the subject, and alive to Him who is our hope of salvation; "be not high-minded, but fear," the desert is not yet passed; the temptations to wander yet surround us on the right hand and on the left; "griev

ous wolves," and "roaring lions," are prowling about us, "scattering the sheep" of Christ, and "seeking whom they may devour;" and if we quit the guidance of "the good shepherd," "if we stray beyond the protection of His "rod and staff," if we trust to our own knowledge to find the

the right and the true way" at last, our danger becomes extreme; and we may be yet to learn that "it had been better for us not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after we have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to us."