and grace of God in Christ Jesus, the sinner's everlasting doom is that which he will have brought upon himself by his continued rejections of that tender mercy which founded a way of salvation for poor and perishing sinners. O, let us be wise,

and let us make that choice of which we shall never repent. If we shall ever cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, it is necessary that our hearts be renewed by the grace of God; if ever we expect to be true followers of those who have left all and followed Christ, we must be delivered from the power of that attachment to the things of this present world, which not only keeps many even from a solitary thought about religion, but which, to the detriment of the Christian cause, makes so many unstable in their ways. Ours should be the con

stant, the earnest, the persevering prayer to God that he would put his fear in our hearts, for then we should not depart from him. If we are left to the natural impulse of our hearts, however amiable those hearts may be, we shall inevitably follow, not the example of Ruth, but of Orphah, who kissed and left Naomi. How lamentable is the fact, that while there are many who have a sort of external

respect for religion, few, very few, decidedly espouse it; and still more melancholy is the truth, that to all such who are half-way, or almost, or lukewarm, or indifferent, or careless, there remaineth nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.'

One remark, and we have done. Death, instead of parting Christian friends, brings them into a nearer and immediate union. Death, which sunders natural, strengthens spiritual ties; and in that eternal and glorious kingdom which, through the merits of a Saviour's blood and his free gift, believers shall enjoy, nothing can ever separate friend from friend-all is life, happiness and immortality.

EVIDENCES OF A CHRISTIAN
CHARACTER.

My dear friends, I have delayed writing to you, because there are so many demands now of the same kind. You want the evidences of a Christian character; it is a voluminous subject. All I can

do is to expand the idea that if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.' If you are converted, your views, feelings, purposes, objects of affection, train of thought, topics of conversation, objects of pursuit, and your conduct, will be new, your judgment of men and things altered essentially. Your feelings towards sin, yourselves, God, Christians, sinners, time, eternity, are new. When pride, ambition, selfishness, solicit gratificationwhen the world presents its allurements-you answer, No, I am not my own, for 'to me to live is

Christ,' his approbation is my highest ambition, his sacrifice the source of my hope, his intercession and his glory my chief desire, his will my rule of action.

I think it is not so difficult to ascertain whether we are Christians as is generally imagined. We can tell what objects we love supremely, what gratifies and what distresses us most. Is the blessed and ever-glorious Jesus the Alpha and Omega, the all and all with us? Can we find our chief enjoyments in serving, praising, supplicating him? Does nothing distress us so much as the dishonour we and others cast upon him? Does nothing delight us so much as to see sinners turn to him? What think ye of Christ? is the question to try both your state and scheme. But I always feel an objection to dwelling upon the evidences of Christian character-for this reason, that so many rest in what they call examining themselves. There is much selfdeception in it; there are two laws of human nature, which ought to be borne in mind on this subject; first, no feeling can be excited except by an appropriate object. Now, you are chasing a rainbow when you are searching your heart for love to God,

unless you fix your thoughts on the character of God. The way in which a mother would test her affections for an absent son, would not be to look into her bosom by a kind of corporeal exertion; but she would recall the image of her boy, review the recollection of his thousand infant gambols and expressions of affection, his smile, his tear, the budding of his genius, and the display of his noble disposition; and it is when the image is distinct before her mind, heightened by all the recollections and associations, that she feels her heart beat quick, her affections kindle, her anxieties awaken, and the silent prayer trembling on her lips. This instance may then show you how to examine your hearts. Bring your sins distinctly before you; sometimes set apart a day to revise the recollections of all the sins of your life. Let it be a day of fasting and prayer. And then, when they are before your minds, watch what emotions they excite with regard to the character of God, the The second principle

person of Jesus Christ, &c.

I referred to is, that the way to strengthen and develope any class of feelings, is to exercise them; and this remark must close what I have to say.