to us. partakers; and let us try to make them sensible of their guilt, and to bring them to repentance on account of it. Alas! where shall we find them? Many, who have been thus injured by us, are probably unknown Many are at a distance from us, and will perhaps never be seen by us any more. Some, it may be, are already gone into another world, with all their sins upon their heads, and can never be profited by our admonitions, or our prayers. And others, though still in the land of the living, and within our reach, are yet possibly too hardened in the ways of sin (and let us remember, hardened partly by our means) to listen to our counsel, or to be reclaimed by our endeavours. Let us go then and repair the mischief we have done. We cannot repair it, if we would. Let us go then, and in secret before God, confess and deplore our guilt. Let us confess and deplore before him, who seeth the heart, the share which we have had in wounding the consciences, in hardening the hearts, in ruining. the souls of others. Let us call to mind how much more injury might have been done by us in this way, than perhaps, has been actually done. Add all this measure of sin to our own personal transgressions, and see, to how great a size the whole amount will swell.. Let the thought of those things humble us to the dust.. Have we not reason, every one of us, from the heart to say, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord!" but "cleanse thou me from my secret faults. Let us judge ourselves, brethren, and we shall not be judged of the Lord. Let us condemn ourselves, and be will not condemn us. Let us see our need of Jesus Christ, and of his all-sufficient grace and mercy. Let us flee to him in this our day of grace, that so we may be saved by him in the great and terrible day of the Lord. SERMON XXIV. MERCY IN THAT DAY. 2 TIMOTHY, 18. The Lord grant unto him, that he may find Mercy of the Lord in that day. WHEN St. Paul wrote this Epistle, he was for the second time a prisoner at Rome for Christ's sake. His confinement indeed was not in itself severe; but his afflictions were greatly increased by the unkindness and ingratitude of many persons, from whom he might have expected a very different treatment. "This thou knowest," he says to Timothy, "that all they which are in Asia, be turned away from me of whom are Phygellus, and Hermogenes." The mention however of this circumstance led him to notice one person, whose conduct had been directly the reverse. Onesiphorus, whose kind offices to the Apostle at Ephesus, Timothy could not but remember, had shewn the same kindness to him at Rome ; "For," pursues St. Paul," he has oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But sought me out diligently, and found me." This conduct had made a deep impression on the Apostle's mind and the recollection of it led him to break forth into the devout and solemn petition recorded in the text. "The Lord grant unto him, that he may find mercy of. the Lord in that day." From these words two important truths, which are deserving our most serious consideration, may be inferred : I. That there is a day coming, in which to find mercy of the Lord, will be our only consolation, and se-curity. II. That there will be some, who in that day will not find inercy of the Lord. 1. The day here meant is the day so frequently mentioned in Scripture; and in which we are all most deeply concerned. It is described by many different names, as "the day of Judgment," "the day of the Lord," "the last day,' ,"" the day of wrath," " the day in which God will judge the world." In fact it is that great and terrible day, when we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive the awful sentence, which will for ever assign us to the habitation of unspeakable happiness, or misery. It is that day "in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent beat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." It is that day," in which the Lord Jesusshall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know. not God, and obey not the Gospel; and to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe ;"that day in which he will" descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Arch-Angel, and the trump of God," and "wi sit on the throne of his glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations ;"-that day in the which "all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resur rection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation."-A day thus awfully distinguished; a day, on which events thus infinitely momentous are dependant; a day, which will be to every one of us the end of time, and the beginning of eternity, may with reason be justly called that day for it is a day which ought to be deeply fixed on our minds, and ever uppermost in our thoughts. Such is the day here meant a day, which is fast approaching; which every hour brings nearer and of which no wit, nor wisdom, nor power of ours can prevent or delay the coming. In that day then what will be our only consolation and sacurity? The text reminds us, To find mercy of the Lord." In this mercy alone will be all our comfort, alk our safety. If in that day we find not mercy of the Lord, we are lost, and miserable for ever. This is a teuth indeed which is generally admitted. Most men : will readily confess, that they stand in need of mercy; but few, it is to be feared, understand what this confes. sion implies. Do we understand it? There can be no doubt but that we all entertain a hope of finding mercy of the Lord in that day: and the Lord grant that we find it! But while we entertain this hope, do VCL. II. 26* all may we rightly understand what it means? Are we sensible what mercy is; what hoping for it presupposes; what, by professing that we hope for it, we allow ourselvesto be? Let us further consider these points. : Mercy is another word for grace. It is an act of free and uninerited favour. It is shewing kindness to one who has no claim to it, and is totally undeserving. of it. This idea of mercy should be clearly conceived, and constantly kept in view. Men sometimes say, that such a person deserves to have mercy shewn to him! But this is a very incorrect and careless way of speaking. A man can never deserve mercy. There may be some circumstances in his case, which may make him more particularly an object of compassion, or may induce us especially to shew mercy to him in preference to some others but neither these, nor any other circumstances in his case, can give him any clàim tomercy. The very supposition of such a claim would totally contradict every idea of mercy. When a criminal by his offence has forfeited his life, and is condemned to die the king from pity to the offender, or from some other considerations best known to himself, may grant a pardon and remit the sentence. Here is mercy, an act of free, unmerited grace to the undeservg, and the guilty. But to say that there could be any ing in the criminal which gave him a claim to mercy, ould be to talk absurdly. If indeed he has been unstly condemned, then he may reasonably claim to have his sentence remitted, and we may truly say that he deserves a pardon. But in this case, the reversing af the sentence, the grant to him of pardon, is an act |