the atoning sacrifice of the great Redeemer, he must perish, without mercy and without hope! "The law," says the Apostle," "is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." All its precepts and all its penalties-all its lightnings and all its thunders, have a direct and powerful tendency to cut the sinner off from all his self-righteous plans and self-righteous dependence, and to shut him up to the plan proposed in the gospel. It may be represented thus:The law finds the sinner careless and secure in his sins; setting before the sinner its claims and penalties, it charges home guilt upon his soul. The sinner, waking up in alarm, promises repentance. "How can tears on earth wash out those sins written in heaven?" says the law. "Pay what thou owest! The soul that sinneth, it shall die!" "O spare me," cries the sinner, "I will not only repent of my sins, but I will reform. I will become a better man." "All in vain," says the law, “a better sacrifice is required; without the shedding of blood, there is no remission." "O, well," says the sinner, yet more alarmed, “if it must be so, I consent; I am willing to lay down my life as an atonement for my sins!" "Neither will this answer," says the law."You have sinned against an infinite God, and divine justice demands an infinite atonement, or death. Thou canst not make this atonement; then prepare for death. Now hear your

sentence-"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." O, dreadful! the sinner is condemned! is sentenced to eternal death! What is to be done? Let him cry for mercy! The law knows no mercy; stern and inexorable, it still rolls its thunders over the sinner's soul, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them." And now all the sinner's legal plans and legal hopes are fled, and fled forever! Under the curse of God's righteous law, he is sinking down-sinking down! Despair is gathering its terrors around him! and now he gives himself up for lost. But, hark! what sweet voice is that?" Poor sinner, dying sinner! look from the borders of the pit to my recovering grace!"-"Is this thy voice, my Saviour! my loving, bleeding, dying Lord ?": says the sinner. "Welcome, welcome, dear Redeemer! welcome to this heart of mine. O Ꮕ blessed Saviour, I take thee on thy terms, on any terms

'Here Lord I give myself away,

'Tis all that I can do.'"

A stern master, as the story goes, had, by his repeated corrections, embittered the life of a poor slave. This poor slave sought comfort in religion, and found it. Laid upon a bed of death, he was very happy; ready to depart, and

to be with Christ, which was far better.

At

this moment his stern master stepped into his room, and stood near his dying bed. The dying slave perceived his master, and, with much emotion, grasped his master's hand, and brought it to his lips, and kissed it, saying, "Blessings upon this hand! Blessings upon this hand! This hand has saved my soul !" So, the sinner brought to Christ by the terrors of the law, may say, "Blessings upon the law! Blessings upon the law! It was stern and severe-it humbled me, it scourged me-it taught me that I was a sinner, a great sinner, a sinner lost, ruined and undone-it made me feel my need of a Saviour-it was a schoolmaster to bring me to Christ! Blessings upon the law! in this way it has saved my soul!" May the law do its office upon the heart of every sinner in this assembly this morning. Amen, and Amen!

SERMON V.

THE SINNER WEIGHED AND FOUND WANTING.

DANIEL V. 27.-Tekel; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

AMIDST the darkness of heathenish ignorance and superstition, there have not been wanting plain and unequivocal evidences of a superintending and retributive Providence. Pharaoh was visited with memorable judgments for refusing to let the children of Israel go; and history informs us, that not only Belshazzar, (to whom the words of our text immediately apply,) but Antiochus Epiphanes, Galerius Maximus, and many others, were signally punished for their daring impiety. With regard to Belshazzar, he was a most dissolute monarch. Neglecting affairs of his empire, he gave himself up to every excess of riot and debauchery: but the measure of his iniquity was now full. The period was at last arrived, when he should reckon with his God. On one of the national festivals, (supposed to be in honour of the golden image which had been set up by Nebuchadnezzar in the plains of Dura,) Belshazzar, the king, we are told, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank

wine before the thousand; and, as if it were not enough that he should be a bacchanalian, he must needs add sacrilege to his intemperance. In the midst of his banquetings, he orders the golden vessels, which had been brought from Jerusalem, and placed in the temple of Belus, in Babylon-he orders, I say, these golden vessels to be brought into the banqueting room, that his princes, his wives, and his concubines might drink wine therein; thus turning to a profane use those vessels which had been consecrated, and set apart for the most sacred purposes. But there was a righteous God on high! There was an avenging angel just at hand!

Whilst Belshazzar was thus making an ostentatious parade of his wealth and grandeur; whilst he was drinking wine to gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone-in the midst of his revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries-in the very same hour of the night, came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick, upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. The king saw it, and his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him. The king saw it; and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king saw it; and he cried out in alarm, and commanded to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the sooth-sayers. They came; they saw the writing, but they