action, every word, and every thought shall be weighed in the balance of divine justice. I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account of it in the day of judgment. (Matt. xii. 36.) O what consternation and dismay will oppress the guilty when Jesus Christ shall arise to pronounce the last, the irrevocable sentence ! what deathlike silence shall prevail through the inconceivable multitudes of assembled nations, and tribes, and people who have ever drawn breath on the face of the earth. But who shall describe the horrid sensations, the already commenced tortures of eternity, that will overpower the wicked, when the irreversible sentence has been fulminated against them! Then shall he say, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt. xxv. 41.) O dreadful sentence ! O bitter separation! Depart from me; far from the joys of my kingdom, from every comfort, into the darksome dungeons of hell, the bottomless pit, where torments everlasting shall be your portion. Go ye cursed, &c.

O my brethren, shall we who now have it in our power to shun this endless calamity, through mere indolence, or, what is worse, through downright malice of heart, bring it upon our

selves! yes, it is by the wilful malignity of the sinner that he loses the eternal enjoyment of all good, and is involved in endless misery. According to thy hardness and impenitent heart, says St. Paul, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God. (Rom. ii. 5.) If we wish to avoid all the confusion of that dreadful day and all its subsequent misfortunes, let us now, in this our day, frequently meditate upon them, and avoid sin, which alone can involve us in eternal misery. If we would judge ourselves, says the same Apostle, we should not be judged. (1 Cor. xi. 31.) If we would examine ourselves with sincerity, according to our best ability, would accuse ourselves in the secret tribunal erected by him who is to be our future judge, with real humility and contrition of heart, would punish in our flesh the sins we have committed, according to the greatness of our offences, or rather according to the greatness of our repentance, we should escape the humbling manifestation of the last day, and the sentence of eternal reprobation. My friends, let us consider that the night is now past, the day is at hand, and therefore, let us now arise from sleep. (Rom. xiii. 11.) Have you not been hitherto slumbering in fatal lethargy, and that

too on the brink of a precipice, down which, had you unhappily fallen, you must have been precipitated into hell? O then, awake ye who sleep, arise, no longer make provision for the flesh in its concupiscences, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, walk henceforward in all his ways, that you may escape the sentence of the wicked, and be admitted to the joys of heaven, there to praise and glorify your God for ever!

SERMON II.

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

ON THE EXAMPLE OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

What went ye out to see? Matt. xi. 9.

THE disciples of the Baptist entertained so high an opinion of their master, and were so strongly attached to him, that they were unwilling to persuade themselves that Jesus was the expected Messiah, and were disposed to view him in the light of a rival, whose increasing reputation they considered as injurious to the fame of their respected teacher. To eradicate from their minds these dangerous sentiments, John avails himself of the account which they themselves had brought to him in his confinement, and sends two of his disciples to our Lord, that from their own observation they might be convinced of the superior character of him who stood in the midst of them, and

whom they did not acknowledge. Being arrived, they find our blessed Saviour surrounded, as usual, by a vast multitude whom he was instructing, and whose sick he was restoring to health. He gave them sufficient proofs of his being the desired deliverer promised to their fathers; and when they had gone their way, he speaks to the people concerning his illustrious precursor, of whom it was written by the prophet Malachi (iii. 1): Behold, I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before me. This prediction was strictly verified in the person of the Baptist; and the church proposes to her children on this Sunday, the example and character of St. John as exhibited to us by Jesus Christ himself; to encourage us to attend to his voice, crying out to us at this time, as formerly to the multitude that came out to hear him, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. (Matthew iii. 3.) Let us, my christian brethren, make a few reflections on what our divine master spoke to the people concerning St. John; by taking an attentive view of his character, we shall be enabled to improve our own, provided we be sincerely desirous of our own improvement.

When the disciples of St. John the Baptist returned to their master with sufficient evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, the hope of Israel,