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"TAKE HEED WHAT YE HEAR."

sufficient reason for diligent attendance on these appointed ordinances. It is required as of Divine authority; and should be performed as a matter of duty. But there is also another line of thought worthy of our attention upon this point, and that is, the motives by which men are led there; what are the circumstances of our case which give to a thinking and serious-minded man the tendency to seek the house of prayer and of religious instruction;-and to consider these briefly will be our present object.

We are aware that many persons have become habitual attendants on christian worship without knowing why they are so. They have not thought on the subject; and therefore as they do not question the truth of our system, they submit to it, and join the crowd of nominal worshippers; but with these at present we shall not occupy ourselves. We would rather consider what are the real reasons which present themselves to an inquiring mind as inducements to seek after religious knowledge,—after more knowledge of the Author of our being, and of His will, than we are naturally and intuitively possessed of;-that is in fact, what are the circumstances of this our present condition, which, when we come to consider them seriously, press upon us the necessity of looking beyond this scene of our present experience, and make us listen eagerly to the declaration of another and a better world. To follow out this inquiry is to dive into the feelings of every heart that is at all alive to the real state of things; to touch it in its tenderest point, and to set out for inspection the real springs of its distress. Oh, how thankful ought we to be, that while we thus

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take the guage of this world's misery, we are blessed with a real knowledge of a gracious and effectual remedy.

We proceed then to touch briefly the reasons which operate gradually to turn the affections of men from the things which are seen and temporal, to the scriptural annunciation of those better realities which are not yet seen, but which are eternal.

And first of all, we feel that here we are afflicted. The real experience of this life exhibits much of trial, disappointment, distress, and positive suffering. No man has lived long in this world without discovering this. It is evidently the very character of this existence;-life is marked and characterized not by its enjoyments but by its sorrows. There are those who strive to disregard this, who harden themselves, who endeavour to drown thought, by seeking eagerly such enjoyment as circumstances will yet permit; and still, as the power and the means of enjoyment diminish, they cling to the scanty remnant that remains, and drain the cup of earthly delight to the very dregs; and yet at the very time probably they are struggling with real and severe afflictions in their own persons or circumstances, or in that of others,-and are compelled to feel that there is character of chastening and correction in their present lot, against which it is vain to contend. The Omnipotent has them in His hand, in His mighty grasp, and is forcing them to recognize His controlling agency. Now to a thinking man it is no light matter to perceive that this is the very character of our existence here; to see that all the exercise of prudence and forethought will not ward off misfortune and trial; nor all the exercise of temperance on our parts, or skill on the part of others,

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avert disease and suffering. can this be? Why is it so? Why am I called into being to make one of a rational and moral world; and to be in it the child of affliction and of sorrow? What are the extraordinary peculiarities of this state in which I find myself, that some controlling agency is pressing me on to successive scenes of trial and distress, so that it may be said, "Deep calleth unto deep all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me?" These considerations alone would operate with a serious person to lead him towards that hallowed spot which seemed to promise light and instruction. And if he who felt himself oppressed by affliction, and could not fully explain to himself the nature of his dispensation, was told upon anything like good authority that there was a book, and an appointed teacher and expounder of its contents, who could open to him the mystery of his Maker's providential dealings with him, there surely he would be found patiently waiting for instruction; and if he was told, that there, at that spot, in that book, God would meet and bless those who seek Him, surely there he would go, and opening to the invisible God the fulness of his sorrow, would say in the bitterness of his soul, "Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress, that thou shouldst despise the work of thine own hands?" And this is actually the case. It is to get light upon this present afflictive dispensation,-it is in order to understand the meaning of God's providence, that many a man turns in the hour of darkness, and doubt, and discomfiture, towards the place of religious teaching, and waits upon the Gospel ministry.

Secondly. But a little calm and deliberate examination into the state of the heart, soon discloses to us a still stronger reason for seeking God as our Teacher and our Help in trouble. We find that we are sinful,— that there is evidently a principle of corruption and ungodliness in our nature, which renders personal holiness on our own parts impracticable, and leads us as a matter of direct and deliberate choice and forethought, to things which are diametrically opposite to that which is good. This is a sad discovery when it is made practically for ourselves, and seriously thought of. Many can talk of it, and are willing to admit the notion generally; but we speak of the serious examination of the heart-the calm, quiet, rational, inspection of its desires and tendencies. The results of such an inquiry are most distressing. We find that long before we have reached the years of thought and caution, the unholy passions have grown into might, have demanded and secured the dominion; and that before we could suspect their tendency, they have established in us habits, that our better reason condemns but cannot control; and we find the conscience already laden with guilt, incurred even in those earlier years, which scarcely cost us a thought before,and the corrupted propensities rendered too strong by early yielding and indulgence, to be curbed by any means in our power. "The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots;" neither, without more than human aid, can he do good who is accustomed to do evil. Bid the angry man eject that whirlwind from his heart. Bid the unholy man bridle that eager look. Bid the covetous man scatter with a liberal hand his

TAKE HEED WHAT YE HEAR."

hoarded wealth; the vain man cease to seek applause, or the drunkard to forsake his draught. The thing is impossible in his own strength. His tendency to the reigning evil is identified with him. It is his character, it is his nature,-it is himself. And where is he to obtain an extrinsic influence that shall curb this nature that shall effectually set the man against himself? And where shall he obtain the willingness to seek a disposition contrary to that in which he delights. Alas, it cannot be; the secret history of many who know that they are wrong, but seek not to the remedy, will shew how vain were such an expectation. Men are the sordid slaves of their earthly and unholy propensities, bound down to them by a hard bondage, and serving with rigor in a profitless and penal labour;—for the wages of transgression is hard.

And what an awful thing it is thus to know oneself by clear conviction to be a sinner, with at the same time an increasing apprehension of the holiness and righteousness of God;to think rightly of Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being; who holds all things in His hand, and whose power can readily make all the creatures subserve the purposes of His justice and His wrath. It is indeed a distressing situation to stand convinced of guilt before a holy sinhating God, knowing ourselves to be unfit for His presence and glory, knowing, as far as we can know anything of Him naturally, that He cannot be the Holy God that He most assuredly is, if we are to be happy in sin, and if a corrupted soul is to be admitted with all its bad passions and desires into His presence. Then the inquiry comes up in the heart, What must I do? Where must I turn?

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The soul feels ignorantly but earnestly after God. How shall I reach this Almighty Being for advice or guidance? Can He, will He, help me? Is it possible for Him to look upon a corrupted being, and give him holiness and peace? Can the defect, the extraordinary and incomprehensible defect of this my rebel nature, be remedied? and may there yet be hope for this conscious being, which, with all its faults, I cannot but believe to be immortal? Shall I be eternally a sinner, and eternally dealt with as a sinner, or does another existence hold out the prospect of a holy and renovating relief? It is in such a state of mind that men see the wisdom of coming up to the house of prayer and religious instruction. The present misery of guilt, and the opening prospect of retribution, drives them to that spot where they begin to imagine it possible that deliverance may be obtained; and there are those in the house of God, like the cripple at the pool of Bethesda, waiting for the moving of the waters; and there they have waited long. The burden of conscious guilt, and of unsubdued sinfulness, is on them. They see that till this is removed there can be no hope; and their anxiety is gaining strength, lest this state of evident unfitness for the presence of God should be irremediable. They are beginning to inquire after pardon,-after a cleansed heart and a renewed nature; and to hope that while human strength cannot offer it, they may find it yet in God.

But, Thirdly. A third reason for inquiry, and for submission to instruction, presses upon the considerate mind, and with daily increasing force. We are dying men;—a few years must unquestionably remove us

from this world. If we have reached forty years, it is scarcely probable in the nature of things that we shall see forty more; and surrounded as we are, by evils seen and unseen,-open to invisible influences of the most deadly kind, liable to accidents daily, which may at a moment put us out of life, it is not probable that we shall see such a period; it is very probable, on calculation, that our life may be very much shorter. And, now, what is death? When we come to look at it, as it is, without the certain light of Scripture, what aspect does it wear? Is it not something very awful and unnatural?-something from which all our innate feelings revolt? Does not it administer alarms, to think of the decay, the breaking up and failure of this animal machine, and its corruption in the dust of the earth, and the passing away of the rational spirit into some other sphere of existence? And is not that alarm and shrinking justifiable? Do men without right religious principle look calmly at the event as a part of the lot of their existence, and feel satisfied with it, and calculate on it as on a regular step in their progress-a night-sleepafter which they shall wake to the breaking of a brighter day? No such thing. On the contrary, they look at it, and shudder, and turn pale, and multitudes will not look at it at all. They look away. They plunge into scenes of bustle and excitement purely to put it away from them. But bring the thought powerfully home upon the mind,-"This night thy soul may be required of thee.” Let the natural and rational reasons be understood and brought forward for that assertion," It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that

the judgment ;" and let the conviction seriously lay hold of a man, that his experience of this life, his human pilgrimage, is coming suddenly to a close. Let him see himself shut up by the ravage of an incurable disease, or the slow but certain effect of some injury, to inevitable death; and let him dwell upon the thought, "I must surely die." How it harrows up the soul. What a tremendous situation it appears to live in! How calculated to wring from him a cry of despair. How many are there whose feelings would be wrought up to agony by the sudden prospect of an inevitable death, with the load of unforgiven sin for a whole life upon their consciences.

And the interval of a few years makes no difference in the character of the case. It delays but does not

alter the decision. If sin lies at the door it will certainly be inquired into, and visited by a just God whenever the period of removal comes, however near or however distant. The only effect therefore of a probable interval of a few years, in altering the case, is, that it may hold out the opportunity of seeking and finding some way of deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, some escape from the horror of an otherwise inevitable condemnation. Now there are those who are so using their opportunity, those whom affliction has led to think, who have seriously considered their moral circumstances, and ascertained their guilt; and they have looked forward to death as a certain event at some time not far hence, and not an improbable event even within a very short period of time; and they have seen the exigencies of their case to be so awfully great, that from the very bottom of their heart they have yearned after

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some prospect of peace and hope. How shall I meet this terrible event? With what plea can I go comfortably out of this world into another? Where shall I find a ray of light to cheer the gloom of my downward way into the grave, with a reasonable prospect of happiness beyond? This very thought brings many to serious and steady attendance on the ordinances of scriptural instruction. They find that the powers of natural reason will do nothing; that within the range of unassisted human effort or inquiry no hope appears. Accurate examination of the foundations of the question will aggravate but will never diminish conscientious distress. The question, How shall guilty man be just with God? finds no answer but in the page of revelation. And, consequently, there are those, who having tried all other ways, and found them vain, have come to this determination ;As a sinful and dying man, having shortly to leave this present existence and before go my Judge, I will go up to that place of solemn meeting where it is said that the revealed Word of God is dispensed under the sanction of His promised blessing. There nothing presents itself contrary to my common sense and my best feelings. There men seem to devote themselves seriously to an occupation worthy of their highest powers, and in a way in no respect repugnant to my sound and deliberate judgment; and there many appear to obtain real consolation in a hope full of immortality. However contrary then these habits may be to the way in which I have formerly passed my time—a way which I know too well to have been wrong, however my indulged propensities plead for still further indulgence, I will pause in my unholy career; I

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will cease from folly; I will go and will wait seriously on this ordinance of instruction. It may be, that my God will give me a blessing. Worse than I am, as to my lot at death, I cannot well be, for I see that I am ruined. Serious consideration shuts up the question entirely, and tells me that in myself I am undone. Here, however, if any where, in the range of means before me, here I may yet find hope. I have good reasons, the further I inquire, to believe that God has spoken by the Scriptures; and if so, that He does, as those sacred Scriptures tell me, speak by the preaching of them. Then here I will wait. I will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me. I will bow before the footstool of Omnipotent goodness, an afflicted, sinful, dying creature. I will be willing, as far as my corrupted heart will yield, I will be willing to receive instruction. I feel the evil of my former habits; the deadening influence of the world; the unfitness for serious thought and prayer; the instability of my mind towards God and goodness; the eagerness and readiness of my affections and my attention towards evil;—yet here is my only hope. Hopeless misery envelopes me on every side; and there is no way of retreat, except it be through the christian Scriptures, unto the shelter of that Great Being whom naturally I dread, but who is declared in them to be a God of grace, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and offering to the penitent sinner the glories of eternal life.

Blessed, blessed state. Happy indeed is that man who has reached this point, and who waits in the house of God with deliberate conviction, satisfied that there only he can find hope.

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