can have any hope of pardon, justification, and peace hereafter. Consider these things.

Let the Christian consider these things with believing enjoyment. Christian, the days are passing, indeed, quickly away from you; but the days which are bringing you nearer to your latter end are bringing you also nearer to an expected end, which end shall be peace. Your prayers would want an answer, your desires would want an accomplishment, your hopes would want a consummation, if you were not to die; if you did not experience, after all other changes, a latter end which admits of no subsequent change. Every change to you shall be the advance of your happiness, the promotion of your character, and your introduction to a nearer fellowship with God; and your last change shall be a complete introduction into the favour and blessedness of God's eternal kingdom. Carry hope with you to the end; let it sustain you in the darkest night of adversity; let it be your comfort and your joy in the midst of life's conflicts; and let it bear you onward, as the hope of salvation and the faith of Christ, to the very gates of hell, and through the final judgment.

O that we were all wise, thus to consider our latter end! But, alas! brethren, how many of us are unwise; how many of us do not consider; how many of us, so far from encouraging consideration, put it far away! You are conscious of refusing to think on these things, trifling with them habitually, and entertaining any worldly enjoyment and arrangement in order to shut eternity and death out of your consideration. O what a death you will die, if you are left in this state! It is not by refusing to think of death, that you can overcome it, and put it away: then it might be wise not to consider. It is not by refusing to consider of judgment, that you can avert it; nor, by refusing to ask how you shall stand there, and with what righteousness you shall stand; for then, if you could forego the judgment, by refusing to think of it, it might be wise and well not to think of it. Think or not think, time is flying: think or not think, the time is coming: willing or unwilling, you must die: your latter end must come, and you must stand in judgment. I put it, then, to your consciences, as rational men, is it wise, is it consistent, to be appointed to such a destiny, and never to consider, never to seek, never to pray? O that ye were wise to consider your latter end! O that by any words of a mortal preacher, it could be impressed upon you! O that, by any persuasions of tenderness and entreaty, I could win you to consider it; and win you to consider it with that evangelical inquiry and prayerful heart, which it demands above all things else! Believing friends are silently, but eloquently, entreating you to consider: prayerful parents are silently offering up prayers to God, that, by his gracious influence, he might dispose you to consideration and to prayer: the dying year, as it passes away, seems solemnly to say to your consciences, "O that you would consider your latter end!" And, in the words of our text, the voice of the Living God himself is heard, heard with the tenderness of a father, saying, "O that they would consider their latter end !`` It is no more I that speak to you; it is no more the affectionate parent that addresses you; it is no more the warning and expiring year that calls upon you and demands your attention. It is the voice of God your Maker, God your Judge, God who can kill and make alive, and that God from whose hands none can take away. You are in his hands; you are all in his hands: I leave you there. I pray that, in his hands, you may be conscious you are, that you may feel his power, and tremble for yourselves; turn to him and live, and receive the method of his mercy by his own beloved Son, that you may enjoy life abundantly. May he sanctify his word. Amen.

THE CHRISTIAN RULE OF CHARITY.

REV. H. MELVILL, A. M.

CAMDEN CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, JANUARY 5, 1834.

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."-EPHES. iv. 28.

THERE are arguments to be adduced both for and against what is styled the expository kind of preaching. It is often said, that a congregation is most advantaged when their minister takes a large portion of Scripture, and delivers as his sermon a running commentary on its verses. We must admit the likely view to be, that in such a discourse there will be more of God's word, and less of man's, than in another which confines itself to the exposition of a solitary verse; and it is unquestionable, that so far as this result is effected, the one style of preaching must be confessedly superior to the other. But, then, we are persuaded, that there exists no inconsiderable danger, that much which is important in the single verse will be overlooked in the hurry of the endeavour to say something on all. There is ordinarily condensed so much of important and interesting truth into the texts of Scripture, that the most of these texts will by themselves furnish matter enough for a sermon and of course, in proportion as the single verse contains masses of truth, the risk is greater, that only fragments will be deduced by the rapid, and almost necessarily superficial, inquiry. The text which we now bring before you, from the Epistle to the Ephesians, is one which would, perhaps, gain few remarks in an exposition of the whole chapter, though when accurately expounded contains more than sufficient for a lengthened and laboured discourse. It would be a vain effort, that of speaking at due length on every topic which might fairly be evolved from this passage; we shall therefore only summarily mention, what appears to us the truths either asserted or openly implied, and then select, as the special subject of discourse, those which have most of difficulty or interest.

Now you observe, that the Apostle is exhorting men against a sin, which prior to conversion had been probably their besetting sin; "Let him that stole steal no more." It seems certainly remarkable that such an injunction should have been judged necessary; but if not necessary we know it would not have been given. One might have thought, that so glaring a violation of the law of God as theft would have been shunned by all renewed men, had no precept warned them back from its commission: but the Apostle did not address himself you see to the whole body of the church, but to those of its members who might afore-time have been guilty of the crime. He therefore supposes a risk-not that there was vast likelihood that the Christian who had stolen before conversion would steal after-but that the man who had been a thief while uncon

verted, might be seduced to commit acts of dishonesty, though brought into the discipleship of Christ. He thus hints at the probability, that the sins committed by the renewed man would be of the same kind with those which he had been accustomed to commit whilst unrenewed, and that therefore the main of his seekings should be given to the guarding against the form of temptation of whose approach he had been most susceptible in the days of his ignorance.

We gather from such intimation the fearful power of habit; seeing that what a man has accustomed himself to do, he will be in great danger of continuing to do, even when there has passed upon him a moral change, as regards actions which he is now enabled to perform under a new point of view. Once assume a habit, and you form a kind of fixed law of conduct, your obedience to which, as though by a law of nature, becomes soon a thing not of deliberation, but of course. If the great danger of the penitent thief (supposing Christ to have saved him from death, instead of carrying him to Paradise) would have been that of tampering again with the property of others—and that on the principle, that what we have accustomed ourselves to do we can hardly cease to do-you can need scarcely anything to shew you the importance of being watchful as to habits, seeing that even conversion, whatever the mysteriousness of the change, will leave such a tendency to the acting as we have accustomed ourselves to act, that an additional precept is required for the restraining Christians from conduct which is denounced and punished by mere human legislation.

Now we observe, that when the Apostle had thus warned against the seeking subsistence by the dishonest arts which had been once employed, he lays down a rule with regard to the obtaining a livelihood: “Rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." It is a great feature of the natural government of God, and we may add also of his moral, that advantages, which are after all his gifts to men, should be attainable only through their own instrumentality. Labour is one of the grand ordinances of the Almighty, and he hath so constituted our circumstances, in regard both to the present life and the next, that if we sit idly we can look for no blessing. But though employment be thus fastened upon us by the appointment of God, according to the direction of the Apostle, that "if any man will not work, neither shall he eat," it is not, you perceive, every kind of employment which may lawfully be followed. The requisition of our text is, that man should indeed labour, but at the same time he should work with his hands only at the thing which is good." There is a reference to that great truth with which Christ foiled Satan, when tempting him through the appetite of hunger, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

We are quite aware, that there are various instances in which the discharge of duties towards God will seem to interfere with the obtaining of a livelihood, and in which, if a man stand forth consistently, and act like a Christian, he must, to all human appearance, put away from him the means of subsistence: the tradesman, for example, who if he closes his shop on the Sunday must expect to lose many customers; the servant, who unless he will agree to do something which his conscience tells him is wrong, must quit the service of his master; the child, (for there are families in which religion is treated as rebellion) he must give up what is called his methodism, or else be disinherited. These parties are all so circumstanced, that they can be faithful to God only by exposing themselves to the probability, if not the certainty, of destitution. We are far enough from

minking lightly of the trials which may be put on the faith of Christian men and Christian women. We do not suppose it possible to find within the circle of solicitation to the doing wrong, a case which more demands all the sympathies of believers, than that of the small shopkeeper whose profits are chiefly made on the Sabbath, and who therefore feels that in putting up, as his conscience tells him he should do, his shutters, and closing his doors on the day of sacred rest, he is to all appearance directly accessary to the bringing starvation on himself and his little ones. It is easy and it is right, to tell a man what duty requires, and to press it home, that if he values his well-being, both here and hereafter, he will "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." But we will not conceal, that the faith which shuts up the shop must be akin to that which braves the fearfulness of martyrdom; and we are persuaded, that those who move in the better classes of society, and whose means of subsistence arc fixed rather than precarious, know experimentally but little of the conflict of which that man's breast is the scene, who must either walk in the course which conscience, touched by divine grace, denounces as wrong, or bring in all probability, the fiend of hunger into the very heart of his household. Yet with every confession of the greatness of the required effort, the scriptural rule is clear and decisive, making no exception as to the character of the labour, but that we work only "the thing which is good." And we tell any of you, whether the servant, or the tradesman, or the child, who to all appearance can dare to be religious only by daring to be destitute, we tell such an individual, in the words of Christ, that "The life is more than meat, and the body than raiment," and that therefore to disobey the Lord of Life, and the Creator of the body, in the hope of thereby securing a maintenance, is just that poor and short-sighted policy which places the second cause for the primary, and thinks it safer to confide in the instrument than in the agent by whom that instrument is wielded. When once you have determined, that such and such a course is opposed to God's law, to follow that course because it seems to lead to a livelihood, is to declare practically your belief, that though the Almighty give us breath, he has nothing to do with giving us food: and if, according to the text already quoted, man lives not "by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," there can be nothing easier of demonstration, than that to ask the bread and despise the word is the exact way to cause failure in the means of subsistence; it is literally to destroy life on pretence of preserving it.

We

Now we would not attempt to apply the precept to particular cases. would commend to every individual in this assembly this precept, beseeching him to examine carefully his employment, and to see whether, in nature or intenseness, there be any thing in it inconsistent with the high calling of religion. The direction, that we work the "thing that is good," cannot be applicable to the members of a single profession. An occupation, lawful in itself, may be unlawful in the manner and in the degree in which it is prosecuted: and it behoves all to take care for the soul, and to take heed that they be not sacrificing "the bread which perishthe soul to the body; seeking with so much eagerness eth," that "the bread which came down from heaven," is laid out of sight in their plans and calculations. It is quite amazing how prone people are to apply precepts to others, and never to suspect that they are just as applicable to themselves. You would offend numbers by the supposition that seems conveyed in the admonition that they work only what is good. They allow at once, that the dishonest man works not what is good; but though so immersed in secular business,

that they have no time in which to seek after God, they discover no want of goodness in that moral dishonesty, which robs the Creator of what is his due. Nay, we are far enough from being sure that even such a precept as that which forbids stealing, is out of place with many who would start indignantly at the appellation of thief. We hold frankly, for our part, that we can see no moral difference between the highwayman, who strips the traveller of his purse, and the tradesman who in any sense imposes on his customers. We quite agree with those who maintain, that he who passes off as worth a shilling an article which he knows is worth only sixpence, is a thief to the amount of sixpence, seeing that of so much he defrauded the buyer. It is the remark of a staunch writer, "He that is stronger than another may rob him by violence; he that is more subtle may do it by cunning: but if the injury in both cases be the same, must not the guilt be so too?" And just to illustrate the general by the particular, we should not hesitate to class with the criminals whose deeds have sent them before a jury, the shopkeeper whose goods weigh more in his books than in his scales, and who uses a scant measure or a false balance, or uses a full measure and a just balance, but then, as if by accident or oversight, puts on a few ounces or a few drams when he enters the charge in his ledger.

Now we wish you to learn from these remarks, suggested naturally by the precept under review, that there may be a great deal of what human laws scarcely take cognizance, which is as inconsistent as open profligacy with the high-toned morality of the gospel. A mean action, an underhand dealing, a taking advantage of the ignorance of another-these might be distinguished, from theft at a human tribunal, but not we believe at the bar of Christianity And without presuming to insinuate, that there are any in this congregation whose honesty need shrink from the application of so rigid a test, we feel we only do what, as a preacher of God's word, we are required to do, when we "Let him press on your attention, as possibly not out of place, this precept, that stole steal no more;" knowing that all whose consciences acquit them will sce that we transgress not the just bounds of our office, and that if there were one present whom our remarks tend to condemn, his feelings are not to be spared at the expence of his salvation.

But we proceed to our commentary on our text. The Apostle next requires that if man be not content with obtaining just so much as may support himself, but that he labour at that which is good, “that he may have to give to him that needeth." It is on this part of the verse that we desire to turn the main of your attention.

You observe, that the power of relieving the necessities of those who may be less able than ourselves to toil for subsistence, is given as the object which the labourer, as he works out his livelihood, is to have steadily in view. There are degrees in the requisition of the Apostle; each succeeding line of the text demanding something over and above what the foregoing had asked. The man who had subsisted by stealing must steal no more: and thus, the ceasing to do evil is the first thing required. But he is not to live on charity: to beg is to rob, so long as it is possible to gain a maintenance by energy and industry. There is no greater thief than one who, able to work for his bread, gets it by begging; he plunders the sick and the houseless, and the infirm, who having no means and no power of providing for themselves must starve if not supported by the charity of others; and thus a man, unless disabled for the active duties of life, is no more to subsist by the dishonesty of indolence than by the dis