not make you happy, and who sigh for something better than the world can give, remember you are now under the influence of a divine drawing; beware how you fight against your convictions; beware how you trifle with your serious impressions; beware how you resist these heavenly drawings, lest they cease, and you be left to yourselves-and what then? Your case becomes hopeless! you are lost to all eternity! O, quench not the Spirit! Beware, lest, grieving the Spirit, he cease to move upon your heart, and you become hardened. And O, think, what it is to be hardened! It is to have all the moral and religious sensibilities of the soul deadened. It is to become reckless and unconcerned. It is to be habitually in such a frame of mind that there are no compunctions for the past-no apprehensions for the future;-deaf to all the calls of mercy, stupid under all the means of grace. It is to be habitually in such a frame of mind, that all promises and threatenings are alike disregarded, and all motives and appeals equally unavailing. As the dead man feels not the burning of the coal lodged in his bosom, nor the flinty rock the softening influences of the showers of heaven, even so it is with him whose heart is hardened. He may be in the sanctuary, but the most pungent discourses make no impression. He may witness sacramental scenes, but they inspire no solemnity

even funeral rites and the burial of the dead affect him not. Spread before him the glories of heaven, and he is not allured; point him to the torments of the damned, and he is not alarmed. Lead him to Calvary, and talk to him about the love of Jesus and his dying agonies, and he is as insensible as steel. Friends may intreat, but he heeds not; ministers may warn, but he repents not. Others may feel, but he feels not; others may weep, but he weeps not. He is hard as rock; or

say,

-Some alarming shock of fate

Strikes through his wounded heart,

The sudden dread! another moment, and alas!
where past the shaft no trace is found,
As from the wing no scar the sky retains,
The parted wave, no furrow from the keel."

The rock may be rived, but it is rock still.
It may be broken into a thousand fragments,
but there is no softening yet; and so it is with
the sinner, when the drawings of heaven re-
sisted, and the Spirit quenched, the sinner is
left to himself and becomes incorrigible and
hardened-past feeling and past hope! Let
me be poor, let me be a bondman, let me be a
beggar, but let me not, given up of the Spirit,
be a hardened sinner! O my God, cast me not
away from thy presence, neither take thine
holy Spirit from me.
what you do just now.

Fellow sinner, take care
You are in solemn cir-

cumstances, and great interests are at stake! Many of you are under the influence of divine drawings now, and some, perhaps, who are not fully aware of it. O remember

"God's spirit will not always strive

With hardened self-destroying men;

You who persist his love to grieve

May never hear his voice again!"

O! then, let me exhort you, one and all, to make light of sacred things no more. They are too serious to be trifled with. Heaven and hell-eternal life and eternal death! What more rousing themes can be presented to the mind of man? O! if any of you have never yet come to Christ, let me entreat you to come this day-put off the great concern no longer. It is dangerous to delay. Your day of grace may close when you least expect it. Only one sin more, and the sentence may go forth against you, "Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone!" Yes, only one sin more and divine drawings, in your case, may cease for ever! Here is a beam extending over a precipice, a man may take several steps upon that beam, but there is one point upon which, if he steps, he is gone! A cord may sustain a certain weight-add one ounce to that weight and the cord breaks! O! then, beware how you take another step in the road to death! beware how you add another sin to those

already committed! and beware how you slight this, which may be your last-last call! Fellow man, eternity is at the door. You need a Saviour. There are influences now in operation to draw you to this Saviour. For heaven's sake for your dear soul's sake, resist not these influences. O! yield, and may you this day find Christ precious to your soul— even the chiefest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely. Amen.

SERMON XI.

VAIN EXCUSES.

LUKE XIV. 18. And they all with one consent began to make

excuse.

WHY, my brethren, are there so few real Christians amongst us? The fact I assume, for I suppose it will not be denied. Should the angel of death pass through the length and breadth of our land, and sweep into the grave all the careless, and all the prayerless, and return and sweep into the grave all the intemperate and all the profane; and return and take away every scoffer, and every hypocrite-and return, in short, and take away every impenitent and unrenewed sinner, what silence would reign in our streets! what solitude would exist

in our dwellings! and how thin would be this congregation? Why this?-why so few real Christians? Doubtless there are many reasons, such as pride, worldly-mindedness, and a want of thought; but certainly one reason is this, a self-justifying spirit, prompting the impenitent to make vain excuses. This morning I design to examine some of the excuses which are commonly urged by the unconverted, for neglecting to obey the gospel call. Before I take them up, however, I would observe, that there is a general evidence against their soundness, arising from some remarkable circumstances :-their number-their easy relinquishment-and the representation which our Saviour gives of them in the parable whence we have derived our text. Their number: When a person is asked to do a thing, which he does not choose to do, and yet desires to keep up fair appearances, he is very apt to make a great many excuses, as if he would make up in number what is wanting in the value of his excuses. Precisely so with regard to the sinner: Here is an unconverted man, and I say to him, My dear sir, I am astonished that a man of your good sense, should neglect the salvation of your soul. Certainly you must admit it to be a matter of great importance, why then do you neglect it? He makes one excuse; before he allows me time to meet that excuse, he abondons it for another, and that for another; and thus he goes on, re