uncharitable irritation of temper, undue indulgence of bodily appetite, God hath Himself declared, He will bring the soul into judg

ment.

The last cause of sin, example and early habits, applies chiefly to those who superintend the young; whether they be parents, guardians, masters and mistresses of families, or hold such a station in society, as shall ne cessarily influence the opinions and conduct of others. To such in a most especial manner it belongs, to take diligent heed that their example be good; that their habits, even in what are too often deemed things of little moment, be strict, and wise, and holy. To all such, this is made, in the strongest sanction of religion, a great and awful duty. But if to one class more than any other that duty be rendered of heavier obligation still, it must be to parents, and to the teachers of the young. To these it greatly appertains, that they never forget the solemn trust which God has reposed in them; that they use regular, firm, and consistent endeavours to counteract the strong principle of selfishness, at the early period of infancy itself, by watching, and, as far as human means can avail, by opposing the natural corruptions of their children's souls: for all are born in sin. Upon the great Christian principle of self-denial, let their first appetites, instead

of being drawn into strong desire by ill-judged and cruel indulgence, be regulated by accustomed indifference to the mere outward allurements of sense: let their tempers be checked by choosing wisely for their personal wants, not giving them the choice, and the habit of early gratification will not then grow with their growth, nor render them irritably susceptible of every little ill, a prey to their own pampered appetites, a source of misery to themselves, and a thorn in the side of those who have nourished instead of crushing the selfish principle in the days of their childhood...

Thus do we see how plainly it appears to us all, that sin is unprofitable; that, notwithstanding this acknowledged truth, sin still reigns among us. We have considered those three causes of this prevailing power of sin: natural corruption, present feeling, early bad habit and example. We have been reminded of some of the methods by which these different causes of sin are to be met; and it now only remains that we apply the whole matter to our own hearts.

Let us, then, ask our own consciences whether, in our past lives, we have not experimentally discovered that sin is unprofitable? Whether we have not found cause to say, "I have sinned, and perverted that which was

right, and it profited me not"? Can our memory bring before us one single instance in which we can honestly say, that an act of sin has, in the end, made us firmer in our worldly condition, and happier in our own mind; peaceably saved us from expected ill, or satisfactorily promoted our real good?

If, as our own conscience too truly testifies, sin has never yet been thus profitable to us, we may be assured that it never will be. Sin may possibly have brought us some increase of the unrighteous mammon, some passing enjoyment of a present pleasure; but our conscience, unless become judicially hardened, hath not ceased to torment and alarm our soul with this fearful remembrance; that unrepented sin, though productive of a temporal gain, will be matter of strict and unerring inquiry at a future day. Then, if not before, "be sure your sin will find you out." When that day shall be at last arrived, when Almighty. Power shall be displayed in our resurrection from the dust, and infinite Wisdom manifested in the unthought of discovery of the secrets of all hearts, the real unprofitableness of sin will then be seen, and a voice from the Throne of the long-forbearing Judge consign the sinner to that state of enduring pain, where only the last and incurable evil of sin must be for ever felt.

There cannot be an individual here present, who denies that he believes the revealed truth of a future judgment: it is, nevertheless, a safe caution for us all to remember, that one in torment, during his lifetime lived under the outward profession of believing "Moses and the prophets," yet that it was only in the personal experience of the sad reality of future torment, that he found he had never really believed them at all.

If there be those who, with the knowledge and professed belief of the Gospel, still go on in the road which ends in all the sad evils of either world, let them be urged to the earnest inquiry into the profit and tendency of their evil ways. Will those poor deluded sinners still love sin, unprofitable as it is? Rather let them make trial of a better way, and seek for real profit from Him, who, for our encouragement, hath recorded it in His own Holy Word, that "Godliness hath promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Let them no longer commit sin, which brings the only real and permanent ills of life upon them. No longer let them walk in the way which leads to destruction; otherwise they live without hope, and the covenanted mercy of God in Christ Jesus is not theirs.

If sin, in spite of every warning, be still their determined choice, they must not say

that they love, or that they believe in the Saviour of the world, who died for sinners. They cannot indeed but believe, so far as mere history goes; but the belief impressed upon the understanding only, is not the Christian grace of a holy faith.

Christ commands and invites us to believe. We know the sacred history of His life, how He lived, and what He willingly performed to satisfy the justice of an all-perfect God. We know the pains he endured, the death He died, that a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice might be made for the broken laws of a righteous Judge; that a good and merciful Father might be able to forgive and receive into their forfeited glory, those whose souls were exposed, through sin, to the penalty of eternal punishment. These things we all know. Let us pray then unto God for His enlightening grace, that we may each of us spiritually discern and apply them to our soul; for some or other of us may even now be on the very point of our last " accepted time." Let us ask for, and accept of mercy, whilst God, still forbearing, offers mercy. Let us have pity upon ourselves, and not be among those wretched beings who, in life acknowledging the unprofitableness of sin, nevertheless go on in sin, and so living in bondage all their life long, discover in their death the