we cannot avoid the consequences of our choice.

This is a very awful consideration. It behoves us to attend to it. It behoves us the more seriously, because we are told by Him to whom all the prophets bare witness, and whose prophecies are sure of being fulfilled, that though many should hear, of the many there should be few who would not hear in vain!

I am extremely anxious to impress a lively notion of your personal interest in all our Saviour said and did; because I am convinced that it is not until such impression be made upon the heart, that the account will prove of any use. Let me then entreat you to reflect, that what a day is to eternity, so is all that this world can offer in comparison of what is offered to us by God through Jesus Christ.

Then

Then let us for a while throw the world and the things of the world from our niinds, and come and inquire together concerning the foundation of the hopes we cherish of living in a state of improved felicity and' joy, when the world in which we now live shall, by the breath of Him who called it into existence, have been dissolved!

We are expressly toid by our Saviour, that "God so loved the world, "that he gave his only begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him "should not perish, but have ever

lasting life; for God sent not his

"Son into the world to condemn the

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world, but that the world through "Him might be saved."

The question now is, in what does this belief, so essential to salvation, consist? Is it enough for us to be lieve that such a person as Jesus Christ

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Christ came into the world, and that he did, and taught, and suffered, all that is set forth in the Gospels? I imagine it may be very possible so far to believe all this, as never to entertain any doubt concerning it, and yet that the belief should have no effect upon our heart or conduct. And surely it is no such belief as this that is meant by Him, who elsewhere says, "It is in vain that ye call me Lord, "Lord, and do not the things that "I say."

Is it, then, to believe in him according to the interpretation given of his person and doctrines by any particular man or set of men?

No: for this is to believe in these interpreters; not to believe in Jesus Christ. All that is given, as discovered by the exertion of the rational faculties of any uninspired being, is open and liable to the investigation

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of beings equally gifted. We ought undoubtedly to yield great deference to the opinions of those who are our superiors in abilities, and who have enjoyed greater opportunities of information; but it is not by taking up such opinions implicitly that we are to be saved. Still less reason have we to hope, from enlisting ourselves under the banners of a party; for though we may obtain from the power and influence of that party considerable support in this world, its power and influence will be of no use to us in the next. Our Saviour, who upon all occasions evinced his perfect knowledge of the human heart, foresaw and warned us against this snare. "I am come in my father's name," said he," and ye believe me not: if "another shall come in his own

name, him ye will receive. How "can ye believe which receive honour

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one of another, and seek not the "honour that cometh from God?"

The Israelites who had heard with fear and trembling the voice of God, when he declared himself from Sinai, and who had seen the wonders that ' he did, could not doubt the evidence of their senses. They did not doubt. And yet we are told that they were kept back from the promised land on account of their unbelief. Now this unbelief of theirs could not have been in the understanding, but in the spirit of their hearts. By the same sort of unbelief we shall be equally disqualified. Belief in the Son of God, and in all that he has revealed, must be cherished in the heart as an active principle, before it can avail us as a hope of salvation. It will be here, as in the common affairs of life: when we seriously believe, we shall act accordingly. Let us see if

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