nothing can compose. They are like butterflies that fly from leaf to leaf, and from flower to flower; but to settle their minds on any thing serious, much less on religion, is utterly impossible. To flourish and be green, like the leaves of the forest, through life, and then to drop, like these leaves in autumn, with as little thought of futurity as they, is all that they seem to wish, and all that they appear to attain to. Others perish from the mere pleasure they feel in reckless and gratuitous wickedness. They feel a delight in blaspheming the heavens. They are proud of their profaneness, and glory in their shame, just as the conqueror is proud of his victory. They lose their souls for the pleasure of disregarding their Creator, and execrating their fellow-creatures; and seem to make it their boast, that irreverence for God, and a recklessness of man, are equally the inmates of their bosoms. Others lose their souls, because they are too proud to be saved. They are too full of their own emptiness, ever to desire the fulness that is in Christ. They are too elated in their own minds, ever to undergo the self-abasement which consists in submission to Jesus. It is thus, and a thousand other different ways, that mankind barter their salvation for nothing. O how many different avenues lead to destruction; avenues plain and broad, and patent, beaten by the footsteps of countless multitudes, while there is only one narrow tract leading to glory, the way of faith and holiness, and which is lamentably untrodden and unoccupied.

But, it may be asked, how shall we prevent the loss of our souls? To all we would say, make the salvation of your souls the principal object of your exertions. Recollect the language of the Saviour:-" Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Let every day as it passes contribute something to your progress in the fear of God, in faith and in holiness; and be distinguished, not so much for seeking things that are temporal, as the things that are eternal. And to the uncon

verted, we would say, You must be regenerated; for such is the language of the Saviour:-"Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." As we come into this world we are in a state of nature; we are children of wrath, even as others; we naturally love sin, and hate holiness; are averse to religion, and to all serious thoughts of eternity. He that is born of the flesh is flesh; corrupt, sinful, depraved, without God and without hope in the world. He that is born of the Spirit, is spirit; a lover of religion, a man of prayer, pious, holy, temperate, humble, a believer in Christ, and a friend of good men. Now, all such as belong to the former class must be transferred to the latter, if they expect ever to be saved. The thoughtless, and the profane, and the intemperate, must all become new creatures: they must have new hearts in correspondence to the promise in the prophecies of Ezekiel:-" A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." They must also have new lives. They must "put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness." But, it may still be said, How shall this be effected? In the Scriptures, regeneration is ascribed to the gift of the Holy Ghost:Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This, however, brethren, does not supersede the use of your own exertions, but rather encourages them. The Apostle has, indeed, joined them together:"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his own good pleasure." And the Saviour, in his instructions, has expressed himself in terms which imply the necessity and the advantage of earnest and persevering effort: Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life.-Strive to enter in at the strait gate.

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The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."-All these exhortations intimate that our exertions are required, that they are advantageous, and that if persevered in, in dependence on the Spirit, they shall not be made in vain. "Enter ye in, therefore, at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

It is incompatible with our present limits, to describe fully the field of your operations: we shall only present you with a general outline of its boundaries. Your first duty is serious consideration. It is the want of this which chains so many in the fetters of spiritual slumber, and prevents them from adopting a Christian conversation. This is lamented by the prophet, in reference to the ancient people of God: "The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know; my people do not consider;" and when God wished to produce in them obedience to his injunctions, his message was, "Thus saith the Lord, consider your ways." The first duty of the unconverted, therefore, is to consider their circumstances, and reflect upon their situation; to think in what condition they stand; what is their danger, and what is their duty; to introvert their minds, and examine the state of their souls before God; to turn their thoughts backwards, and contemplate their past years of rebellion, and sin, and thoughtless levity, and forgetfulness of God; to bring before their minds the representation given in the Scriptures of their deplorable destiny and aggravated guilt; and to consider what their duty and their interest prompt them to do in reference to their eternal salvation. We can conceive a specimen of that soliloquy which a man of irreligion and indifference may maintain with himself, "I am an accountable creature, placed in this earth by an omnipotent Creator, and I am required to love, and honour, and