you have a stable hope. Your moral conduct will not save you; your fear of punishment will not save you; your resolutions of amendment will not save you. These, like the mountain-tops, would disappear, one after another, surmounted by the flood. Nothing will save you but the ark of mercy, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ embraced by faith. Men will mock you when you speak of danger; they will tell you that you need not be too earnest about religion: but the scriptures tell you that it is the "one thing needful," the pervading principle which ought to rule your thoughts, and words, and actions. Men will tell you, that God is merciful, and will excuse your imperfections: but F the scriptures tell you, that he will "by no means clear the guilty." Continuing in sin, you must be ruined. You cannot escape, except, urged as it were by angel hands, you seek the Rock of Ages, and lay hold on Christ, not in a mere cold formal way, but with heart, and soul, and warm affections, taking him for your Lord and your God. May the Spirit convince you of the danger in which you naturally stand: may he incline each of you to inquire with befitting anxiety, What must I do to be saved? May he lead you to the Redeemer who shed his precious blood for sinners, and there, through faith in him, give rest and peace unto your souls! LECTURE III. WATCHFULNESS FOR CHRIST'S SECOND COMING. MARK Xiii. 35, 36, 37. Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh; at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning : lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I unto all-watch. say THE suddenness of our Lord's approach is, as I observed in the last discourse, taken in scripture, as an argument why those who profess to be his disciples should watch for him. He has fixed no particular hour: therefore we should be always ready. Yet though the hour is not noted, the time, generally speaking, is designated by certain marks. He is said to come as a thief: but though the master of the house knoweth not the exact time, yet, generally, the thief cometh in the night. Christ is said to come as a bridegroom to the wedding supper: but though the virgins were not aware of the precise moment, yet, generally speaking, the cry of the bridegroom's arrival was, by ancient custom, at midnight. And so our Lord, in the verses before my text, just previous to warning his disciples against that impertinent curiosity which would settle exactly the time of his coming, gives some general indications of the period when he might be expected, and adds, "learn a parable of the fig-tree: when her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: so ye, in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors." When the prognostications of his approach, therefore, are visible, then especially his disciples must watch. They must be always ready: but when, to change the metaphor, the distant streaks of ruddy light proclaim the night far spent, the day at hand, then, especially, must they that are of the day watch and be sober. I lay before you, in this third advent sermon, the necessity of watchfulness in respect of Christ's second coming. The |