trespasses and sins;"-"I, who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, obtained mercy;" and "God, who is rich in mercy, hath raised us up, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Who is not ready to cry out, concerning each of the divine attributes in this grand display, "O the depth!" Who is there that would not swell the train of those who shall thus show forth the wisdom, and power, and love of God? Now is the opportunity! Now may your wishes be realized! Now is the forming season! Haste !-it will soon be over, and "there is neither work, nor device, nor repentance" in the approaching graves. But ye,-ye favour'd saints,-the heirs of somany privileges,-why troubled' at present evils? Take-take your harps from the willow trees. All things are incentives to his praise; and as ye have the bud of heavenly experience in your hearts, let us hear the commencement of heaven's raptures in your strains. 13 THE SLEEPER AWAKENED. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.-Ephes. v. 14. In times signalized for the great mental revolution which has taken place in the world, when men, admitting the long-unheeded truth, that knowledge is power, have rushed to the acquisition of all kinds of human learning with an ardour, perseverance, and success that has no precedent;-when they look back to their former ignorance with surprise, and regard their present eminence with feelings of triumph;-when the arts and sciences have been so far improved as to procure for the century in which we live this noble appellation,-the age of intelligence;-and in a country where the purest form of religion prevails ;-in England, where idols of wood and stone are not known ;-where the fabled gods of heathen antiquity are objects of derision, and the host of heaven have not a knee to pay them homage: but where the unity and spirituality of God are maintained;-the relationship of man to his Creator, and our consequent obligations to worship him alone, acknowledged;-a general reverence professed for the sacred volume;-the christian faith patronized by the Government, and its sanctuaries attended by frequent crowds, it may appear to some that Gospel Ministers entirely overlook these improved circumstances, since to the majority of their hearers, they apply the same declarations of darkness and error which they would use towards the bushmen of Africa, and the uncultivated tribes about the North Pole: since to the man "Whom starry science in her cradle rock'd, And Castaly enchasten'd with its dews; Who throws around him the blaze of wisdom and of art, - Who proves, on mathematical principles, the exist ence and attributes of the one Jehovah, and is equally ready to defend the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testament, they often use the same language in which St. Paul spake to the idolatrous Gentiles: Thou art a child of the night, and covered with a mantle of palpable glooms. But this ministerial course will be justified in the sight of those who consider, that it is our province to speak to you of the saving knowledge of God and his ways. With this, science has no necessary connection. Need we repeat the long catalogue of infidels, who, possessing the amplest stores of worldly information, have yet been lost, from blindness to the Creator and Saviour of men? What lectures might Satan and his associates read, to the astonishment of our philosophers, upon the mechanism of nature, the structure of mind, the being and works of God; yet, says the Word of Inspira tion, "They are under chains of darkness;"-which do not intend a local prison or material fetters, as the devil is at large, prowling through the world for human prey, but they intimate that these beings are left in their destitution of spiritual knowledge, even "to the judgment of the great day." Nor does an outward avowal of some or all revealed truths constitute this knowledge. The Pharisees prided themselves in being able to explain and defend the character and law of the Almighty, as well as Christians; but our Lord charges them, in the midst of their boasted attainments, with being blind leaders of the blind, on this very account,-that they wanted that spiritual apprehension of Scripture which only can produce acceptable service. Have you, my brethren, this spiritual discernment? Such a view of the immensity of God which filleth heaven and earth, as to live under the impression of that truth, "Thou God seest me?" Such a view of his holiness as leads you perpetually to shun sin, and the garments spotted by the flesh ? Such a view of his goodness as powerfully attracts you to his embrace, and leads to an eager offering of body, soul, and spirit, as a most reasonable service? Such a perception of the propriety and beauty of his revealed will, as to seek conformity to it in thought, word, and action,-as to be guided by it in the secular occupation, amid the busy walks of men, at home, and in the closet, and such an anticipation of his tribunal as to give it a commanding influence over the whole career of life? These are the effects of that light afforded to the saints; yet how comes it that many who are openly numbered with his people, practically "deny the Lord that bought them!" And what ideas of Jehovah do they discover, when faithfully warned of their inconsistent conduct from the pulpit? They furnish an illustration of Cowper's words: "Faults in the life breed errors in the brain, "Some," cries the Apostle, "have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame." And this represents the condition of all men: yet if we simply tell them they know not God, they will not believe it. When, however, we enumerate the practical tendency of this knowledge, they feel convinced that their lives present a vacuum here; and of what they admit, the Bible assigns this cause:-That "they are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." And, "the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God." A moral night, then, has spread itself over the race of man,-a continual, uninterrupted night. If the sun that shines in the firmament, goes down, on the morrow he repairs the golden flood, and with rekindled ray cheers the beast of the field, the birds of the air, the insect tribes, and vegetable |