"judgment to come" when you must render a minute, impartial account of your conduct, and be adjudged unalterably either to heaven or to hell? How often by the ministry of the word has the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, been expostulating, "behold I stand at the door and knock," but have you cordially admitted him; are you supremely rejoicing in him as your only salvation and glory?

Are there some of you who cannot answer these inquiries in the affirmative? Are you conscious that "the word preached has not materially profited;" that it has not imparted any saving light to your understandings, nor holiness nor comfort to your hearts? Are you sensible of the danger of neglecting the great salvation? and would you from this time attend with greater diligence to the things which belong to your peace? Then affectionately would I cherish those resolutions, and offer you the following directions.

1. Embrace with ardent solicitude every opportunity of hearing the word preached: Let not the suggestions of carnal ease, or any other consideration tempt you to neglect this ordinance appointed by Jehovah for your instruction and salvation. "Faith

cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The word delivered in simplicitly and purity, has proved to souls without number the dawn of heaven, the commencement of never ending glory.

"Born," says the apostle Peter, "not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever; and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.' Although the "wind bloweth where it listeth, yet it is in the use of means that its enlivening influences may be confidently expected, and are usually felt. While Ezekiel prophesied, the breath of the Lord came upon the dry bones in the valley of vision, the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost was imparted, and they lived and stood up an exceeding great army.

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2. When you are seated in the sanctuary of God, let nothing divert your attention from the things which are spoken; consider that you are hearing for your souls, and infinitely interested in the message. The oracles of the living God will not, cannot be without an important effect. If this lamp which came down from heaven does not lead you to holiness and heaven, it will serve to lead you deeper and deeper into the regions of never ending torment. Every sermon misimproved will add to the fury of the flames, and the venom of the tormenting worm. A divine of a foreign country and former age remarks, "if the word is not effectual for your conversion, it will be ef fectual for your condemnation; if it does not make your hearts better, it will render your chains heavier, and your hell hotter: Dreadful is their condition who go down to

perdition laden with sermons." Are these things real, with what solemnity should we sit under the ministry of reconciliation? How should we listen to all that is spoken, as a patient listens to the prescriptions of his physician, or a criminal would listen to the sentence of pardon announced by the lips of his prince: Such was the conduct of Cornelius while the word of life was spoken by Peter. "We are all here present before God to hear all things which are commanded thee of God:" And Paul relates of the Bereans, "that they were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. And while we are hearing we ought to look by prayer to the life-giving Spirit that he would clothe it with almighty energy upon our hearts; "that the eyes of our understandings being enlightened we might know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints."

3. Be careful to improve the message of life after you have heard it. As many sermons are lost by being heard without previous preparation, many are probably lost by being carelessly forgotten afterwards. The incorruptible seed left on the surface of the soul almost necessarily perishes; it neither takes root in the heart, nor springs up in the life; it is not covered over, if the expression

be allowed, by frequent and devout meditation; it is not committed by prayer to Him who can visit it with the fostering sun, and the refreshing showers, and therefore remains without fruit. If under the word preached you have experienced any convictions of sin, any joy and peace through a knowledge of the Saviour; any secret desires to walk hereafter more intimately with him, and to live more exclusively for him, see that these impressions be retained and cherished: They are at least the common operations of the Spirit, and it is dangerous in the extreme to resist or neglect them, If you deliberately give yourselves up to carnal indolence, he may depart from you, no more to entreat or admonish. Be occasionally repeating the truths which you hear to others around you.-This will be a means of impressing them more deeply upon your own minds, and rendering them more permanently profitable to you. We ought thus to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we let them slip.

Those also to whose hearts the word has been effectual both for conviction and conversion may receive admonition from this passage. The word preached is designed "for the perfecting of the saints—until we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God;" is such its blessed efficacy upon your hearts?Through its enlightening and enlivening in

fluence, do you aim at "adding to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge, and to your knowledge brotherly kindness, and to your brotherly kindness charity? Are there precious occasions when you feel the power, and see the glory of your God in the sanctuary, and find your hearts elevated in some degree above the cares and tumults of this vain fluctuating earth? When you hear of the Saviour's love to our world, and to you in particular, and of that salvation which he accomplished at an infinite expense, do your souls sensibly expand, and glow with love to him? Are you melted into deep contrition for the imperfection of your past lives, and secretly resolving to love him more ardently, and serve him more perfectly in the time to come? Soaring on the wings of faith, and hope, and joy, are you longing for that world where you shall see him without a veil; where you shall enjoy him without a moments interruption, and praise him without a faultering voice, or wandering thought for ever? Has the gospel already had this purifying, enlivening influence upon your hearts? adore Jehovah for what you have experienced of his grace; pray fervently to him that he would impart still greater efficacy to his most blessed word, "enabling you to abound more constantly in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost." Alas, how far do even the generation of the righteous fall short of their duty in taking "heed how they hear!", VOL. 3. 2A2