shall be the sinner in the day of judgment, who neglects the Redeemer? If his anger will burn against fallen angels, whom he has never made one effort to recover, what will be its rage against the human being whom he came to save, and yet he would not. The church, the host of heaven, and God, will join in a condemnation too powerful te be conceived.

88

THE INVITATION OF THE SAVIOUR.

Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.-Matt. ii. 28.

THE charge prefered by Jehovah in ancient times against that nation to whom he then exclusively revealed his character and precepts, "That he had sent his servants the Prophets, daily rising up early and sending them in vain, for they would not hearken, and had stretched out his hand to a stiff-necked and rebellious people," lies with equal propriety, if not with greater force, against those who hear the invitations of the New Testament. There is no hyberbole; perhaps in saying that, most of you, my brethren, have for years listened to the injunctions of holy writ, and to the moving accents of Jesus Christ, uttered with imploring eye and with extended arms that court you to his embrace, and have gone from the sanctuary with scornful non-compliance, or with an apathy that finds its equal only in the insensate part of nature, or with an irresolution that has been soon overcome by contact with the world, and has relapsed into the old inveterate habits of sin. Are you not then like the Jews? And ask your conscience and accustomed train of thought, whether either problem may not be solved by the application of this same principle. That mankind look upon religion

not so much as a privilege, but a duty which God requires, and of advantage to him, rather than of necessity to themselves. In no other way can we account for the reluctance with which persons frequent the house of prayer, or for the idea of merit which they entertain from an observance of any of its ordinances. They could do without it, and hence their indifference, they consider obedience to its mandates altogether gratuitous on their parts, and hence for every item they think Deity obliged, indebted. This is the common delusion-this the latent error which is manifest to the Christian observer, and to every one closely attentive to the deceitful workings of the human heart.

But believe us, my brethren, there is no prejudice so fatal to a pious life, nothing that presents so great a barrier to cordial acquiescence in the Gospel, whilst reason, experience, and the terms in which the doctrines of Christ are made known to us, demonstrate its fallacy. "Come unto me." Does the Saviour seek a benefit for himself,-did he become bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,—did he suffer and bleed on Calvary,-and on the virtue of his death thus exhorts He for his own emolument? Infinite in every perfection from everlasting,

"Pavilion'd high he sat

In darkness from excessive splendours born;

By gods unseen unless through lustre lost

His glory to created glory, bright

As that to central horrors!"

How could the service of polluted mortals augment his joy? An earthly prince, whose government depends for its existence upon public support, seeing two thirds of his subjects in armed rebellion, may, from interested motives, offer pardon, and urge their submission, because of inability to oppose, or fearing that force might swell their ranks and hazard his crown; but say, can our transgression of Jehovah's laws affect the Lord of the universe?" If thou sin," says Job, "what dost thou do against him? Or if thou be righteous, what dost thou give him? Can a man be profitable to God, as he that is wise is profitable to himself? Or can we provoke the Lord to wrath, and not ourselves to the confusion of our own faces ?" What if all men were damned with the sinning cherubim whom he hurled from their imperial seats to deepest misery? could raise new worlds, and create other intelligences to supply the vacuum in his dominions; nor yet would the lost be out of his controul, for he also reigns in hell. His throne would remain fixed immoveably as it was before, and security and peace flow as uninterrupted in the realms above. "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Behold religion comes, then, a heavenly guest, that leaves her native skies, not from their interest, but purely from a friendly feeling nay, a boundless affection for man, to promote our eternal welfare. An insignificant favour is this! worthy of the treatment we give it,―neglect, hostility, derision; mark the language in which it is uniformly couched, and the metaphors under which

He

it acts. It comes only to men, and yet it declares it comes needed by all, and yet it "calls not the righteous but sinners to repentance;" a physician, not for the whole, but for such as are sick, as rest to the "weary and heavy laden." In short, it addresses man as a fallen miserable creature, and is the inconceivable love of God, bringing all the assistance of Divinity to heal our woes.

"Heavy laden." How is it that men regard this description, and consequently the Redeemer's call, as restricted only to a certain class of individuals, I perceive in it no limitation, but a characteristic of the entire race. Human life, without

the comfort of regeneration, is like the camel journeying on in the desert, amidst sultry suns, and a scorching soil, where no spices, "and not a tree, and not a herb is nigh,"

"But rocks alone and tasteless sands are found,

And faint and sickly winds for ever howl around."

The infant struggles into life under a load, and as he comes to maturity finds it increasingly heavy, until the world he loves is a burden on his shoulders, great as that which the fabled Atlas bore. When we perceive the mass of the population toiling for daily bread,—when we perceive the dangers of the seaman to support his family, and the anxiety of the tradesman and the merchant, it seems a continued illustration of the sentence passed on Adam and his