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but a step betwixt you and death, betwixt you and hell, and can you sleep within the sound of its wailings, or sport while your feet are sliding down to it? What awful reflections are these, I am another stage on my journey to destruction, and another day nearer hell! Amidst all the sorrows and struggles of the good, they can comfort themselves with the thought, that though weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning; but, after millions of ages have passed over you in torment, the termination of your misery shall be no nearer than when first plunged into it, because it is eternal. What meanest thou then, O sleeper; arise, and call upon thy God, if so be thy God will think on thee, that thou perish not. You have rejected his salvation with contempt, yet still doth he say, "Hearken to me, ye stout-hearted, and far from righteousness: behold I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry."* It is brought near for your acceptance and happiness, if ye will receive it, and for your more aggravated condemnation if ye reject it. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; death and judgment, heaven and hell, are all near. Awake, therefore, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give thee light.

If you will perish, we wish to have this testimony in your consciences, that we did what we could to prevent your destruction, but would to God we could persuade and urge your lingering hearts to flee to the Gospel refuge. If the sense of immediate danger,

* Isaiah xlvi. 12, 13.

and of all-sufficient help in Christ, is making you say with Lot, "Behold the city is near to flee unto; let me escape thither, and my soul shall live." Then God saith, "See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing: haste thee, escape thither."*

* Gen. xix. 20-22.

DISCOURSE VII.

THE CONVERSION OF AN AGED TRANSGRESSOR.

1

2 CHRONICLES XXXiii. 12, 13. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.

PROFANE history is filled with the acts of kings. The memorable events of their reign which it details have been too often the display of vain pomp, or of bloody ambition; and too often has truth been sacrificed to palliate the excesses of monarchs, and to give a favourable view of the condition of their subjects. But sacred history, in the notices which it gives of kings, dwells chiefly on the moral qualities of their heart and character, and describes them with perfect impartiality. How insignificant in the estimation of superior beings are the wit or valour which the world admires when compared with these! They lead to happiness or misery for ever, while the accomplishments which the world applauds pass away like the rest of its fashions.

The book of sacred history from which our text is taken gives us a melancholy view of kings; for of the great number whose course it details, few had

and of all-sufficient help in Christ, is making you say with Lot, "Behold the city is near to flee unto; let me escape thither, and my soul shall live." Then God saith, "See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing: haste thee, escape thither.”*

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DISCOURSE VII.

THE CONVERSION OF AN AGED TRANSGRESSOR.

2 CHRONICLES xxxiii. 12, 13. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.

PROFANE history is filled with the acts of kings. The memorable events of their reign which it details have been too often the display of vain pomp, or of bloody ambition; and too often has truth been sacrificed to palliate the excesses of monarchs, and to give a favourable view of the condition of their subjects. But sacred history, in the notices which it gives of kings, dwells chiefly on the moral qualities of their heart and character, and describes them with perfect impartiality. How insignificant in the estimation of superior beings are the wit or valour which the world admires when compared with these! They lead to happiness or misery for ever, while the accomplishments which the world applauds pass away like the rest of its fashions.

The book of sacred history from which our text is taken gives us a melancholy view of kings; for of the great number whose course it details, few had

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