an unholy thing." Spirit of grace.' "You do despite unto the You are destroying yourself, 66 and bringing a curse upon others. And all this because you will not submit yourself unto the righteousness of God." Your sin is wilful and deliberate; it is against light and knowledge, against convictions and resolutions. You dare not attempt to justify it; yet you seek to excuse it, that you may continue in it. How long will you thus blacken your character, and ruin your happiness? Let Jesus standing on the Mount of Olives, declare to you your guilt. Read it in his tears, and hear it in his words. If these will not move you, how can I hope to do so? "He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that make for thy peace." This is your mercy; it is not yet added, "But now they are hid from thine eyes." Yet it is said to you, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." It can cleanse even yours; but do not now despise and rebel. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near. VII. THE DANGER OF THE NOMINAL CHRISTIAN. In reading the Old Testament, have you not often thought, that if you had been placed in the circumstances of the Israelites in the wilderness, you would have been numbered with the few who remained faithful amidst the faithless? You have commended the fidelity of Caleb and Joshua; you have admired the meekness of Moses; and you have felt constrained to justify God in the punishment of the disobedient. But has it never occurred to you, that the parallel between the unbelieving Jew and the unbelieving Christian is very close, and the resemblance very striking? The apostle Paul illustrates the case of those who come short of the kingdom of heaven by the history of the Israelites, who came out of Egypt and fell short of Canaan. In both cases, a gracious promise of future good is presented; in both cases, aggravated guilt is incurred; and in both cases a fearful condemnation ensues. The principle of the disobedience is also the same— unbelief. The difference lies here. As the object of gracious promise under the gospel is infinitely more valuable than the promise of Canaan ; and the provocation which unbelief now implies, is on this account vastly greater; so the guilt which is now incurred is more aggravated, and the danger to which unbelief exposes is infinitely more awful. "We see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it," Heb. iii. 19; iv. 1. "He that despised Moses's law died without mercy, in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing; and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" Heb. x. 28, 29. This danger appertains to the state of unbelief in every case. The guilt may admit of some slight shades or varieties; but it is essentially the same, wherever the heart is not subjected "to the obedience of Christ." It is of little moment that you are not an infidel, if you remain a practical unbeliever and a merely nominal Christian. As such I speak to you. O that I could so depict the danger of your condition as to constrain you now to "yield yourself unto God!" You Your present state is a state of condemnation. Thus saith the gracious Saviour himself, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God," John iii. 18. The gospel of Jesus Christ is to you the law of God. are placed under it as a government of mercy; in which the way of salvation is shown to you, and your duty is plainly declared. To submit yourself unto God in Christ," is now made your first obligation; in other words, to repent, and exercise faith towards the divine Mediator, is your first duty. All needful and desirable means of knowledge and life are granted to you; and at this point of believing submission, your spirit is tried, your character is developed, and your state before God determined. If when you read, and hear, and learn the will of God, you do it, the promised blessing is yours; you "pass from death unto life." Your previous exposure to everlasting misery, as the just consequence of your sins, is removed; the mercy of God reaches you; your sins are forgiven you for Christ's sake, and you come into a state of life. You then enter upon a new life, spiritual in its nature, holy in its character, and everlasting in its duration. Like the condemned criminal, when he is pardoned and discharged, you come forth from your prison house to serve God "in newness of life." Your state is now a state of life. The promise of eternal life is yours; and you have the earnest of its enjoyment in the holy desires, and purposes, and efforts of your nature to serve and please God, which are the very essence of it. Then, when you believe, the word of Christ is verified unto you, which he spake to the woman of Samaria : "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life," John iv. 14. But what is your condition, if when the requirements of the gospel are addressed to you, you do not obey them? Jesus says, "You are condemned already." You need not wait the disclosures of eternity to show you your condi. tion, it is obvious at once. You have refused to submit to the prescribed terms of God's mercy, and are consequently condemned by the commandment which you would not obey. You are necessarily exposed to all the legitimate consequences of your unbelief. Your first refusal to "obey the gospel of God" placed you in a state of condemnation. The sentence was then recorded. In mercy to you, the execution of it is still delayed, and thus time and place for repentance are afforded you, as the overtures of reconciliation are repeated. But it is not repealed. It is true, indeed, that it may be; but it will not, except you change your course, and submit to the authority of God. This forbearance of God is designed to secure your salvation; and it is dan gerous to presume upon it. You have no security that it will be prolonged. The day of grace will close. The patience of God will not always wait. And how uncertain is the tenure by which you hold your continued opportunities! Your life is rapidly wearing away. Its close may be You have no the most sudden and unexpected. power to "retain the spirit;" no, ment, when God shall require it. you die. If he look, you are not. you are at his bar. What a solemn thought, that you are not ready! You are in a state of condemnation. Your sins are not pardoned. Your peace with God is not made. Jesus is not your Saviour and your Lord. Your privileges are not improved. Your judgment is already recorded. One opportunity more is now granted. It may be the last. "O consider your dangerous position;" and "flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before you.' You stand on the brink of a precipice, where all around you may be improved to secure your safety, but where there is nothing before you but "the bottomless pit." 'Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?" "Now, even now, to Jesus fly, Whose powerful arm can save." Your hope is that your life will yet be spared. Hence you calculate upon future opportunities, and purpose to make sure work for eternity on some coming day. This delay to repent greatly increases the difficulty of your salvation. Days may increase; sabbaths may be multiplied; years may yet be added to your life; means and opportunities may yet be given. But every day's |