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on, I will go through the house and ask you one by one what answer I shall carry back to him that sent me. My aged friends, "If you will deal kindly and truly with my Master, tell me." Shall I wait for your decision? decision? Will the middle-aged prepare their answer? Will you deal kindly and truly with my Master or will you not? If you would wish for a moment to deliberate, I will go to the youth. My dear young friends, are there any of you who will consent to go and be eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ? Methinks I hear some secretly replying, "Yes, I will go." Well, come Well, come along, blessed youth, as many as will, and be assured of a kind reception. Shall I now return to heads of families, and let them know that some of those who have not lived half as long as they, are determined not to wait for another invitation? And why should you stay behind? I am indeed unwilling to leave you. Already have you delayed too long. For thirty, forty, and fifty years has this affectionate offer been pressed upon you, and yet you have formed no decision. You must not delay any longer. Answer me then to this explicit question; Will you become united to Christ and share in a blessed immortality, or will you, with Dives, lie down in everlasting burnings? Eternity hangs on the decision. Your soul is at stake.. O decide. Will you be happy or miserable forever?

After all, I fear there are some in different parts of the house who have not yet given their answer. It is distressing to leave them thus. I will go through the house once more and apply again for

their decision. Suffer me to turn to those on my right hand. Sirs, I have a commission from the Lord to put this solemn question to you; Will you deal kindly and truly with my Master and live, or will you refuse and die? And are there not some more on my left who will consent to go and be united to Christ? The Saviour is waiting for your reply. O do not weary out his patience and provoke him to leave you and seek his bride among another people. Trifle with him no longer. For know, the Son of God, with all his condescension, is conscious of his dignity still. He knows it is an infinite stoop in him to look on you. He knows what returns he ought to receive. And ere long he will assert his rights and vindicate his injured honor. They who will not take shelter in his bosom, shall soon feel the weight of his almighty arm. His persuasive invitations will turn to angry thunders; and then ten thousand voices will proclaim, "The great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?"

When Abraham's servant received his commission, he said, "Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me." And Abraham said, "If the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath." Whether therefore you will hear or whether you will forbear, I humbly hope that I have delivered my own soul.

SERMON XXXIX.

THE WATCHMAN.

EZEK. XXXIII. 7, 8.

So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Is. rael: therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand.

Then the office of a watchman is responsible and solemn indeed, and they who sustain it must carry to the ears of sinners those denunciations of death which the word of God contains. The text imports that they will be tempted to keep back the evil tidings, for fear of distressing and offending those they love. And such temptations are often felt. It is no pleasure to a tender watchman to excite pain and complaint. It was no comfort to the prophet that he was forced to be a man of strife; and sometimes he was pressed so hard by frowns and rebuffs, that he sunk under them and said, he would no more speak in the name of the Lord.

It is impossible for a minister to deliver the whole message of God without giving offence to some. And the reason is, that the character and destiny of sinners are such as they cannot bear to hear described. The truth is, that heaven and earth are at variance. The world is not as it was made, nor as it ought to be. It has revolted from God; and God esteems the character of unregenerate men as bad, and is as angry with them, as any watchman ever represented. Else why is every page of his word filled with solemn accusations and complaints, which call forth resentments against this book more than against any other book on earth? Why is it that every eye, as soon as it is opened, sees this controversy to be as real as the existence of God? Why was this beautiful paradise changed to a vale of tears, to be chastened with griefs and shaken with tempests? Why did a view of divine wrath against the world press out the bloody sweat of Gethsemane? Did not the agonies of Calvary show that God was angry with men? If all these proofs fail to strike, one is at hand which, one would think, could not be resisted. Why is it that when sinners die, God puts them into an eternal hell? Does this evince no anger, or anger less dreadful than the watchmen represent? It evinces anger greater than human tongue ever described or human heart conceived. Settle it then that heaven and earth are at variance, and that God has a controversy with men.

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Under these circumstances he sends forth his ambassadors, (whom by another figure he calls

watchmen,) to assert his claims, to justify his ways to men, to convince them that he is right and they are wrong, at the same time to make overtures for reconciliation and to press the invitations of heavenly mercy. Now some sinners seem to expect that these ambassadors, instead of maintaining the honor of their king, will take the part of a revolted world against him, will sigh and condole with them as with poor injured beings, and will soften his charges and relax his requirements as being too severe. But how could they expect this? Would not any ambassador from an earthly court, who should thus betray the honor of his king, be despised by a universal world? And why should you require the ambassadors of the heavenly king to be the basest of mankind? Some who live in open sin, and others who "sacrifice unto their net and burn incense unto their drag ;" who cannot be prevailed upon to lift one cry for mercy during the week, but spend their breath in profaning the divine names and reproaching religion; when they come to the house of God, cannot bear to hear anything but the soothing tones of mercy and peace. But what have they to do with peace? The grand secret is, that the natural heart wishes to be left in the undisturbed possession of its own pleasures, and to be solaced with self-esteem and with the hopes of future bliss. And because God spoils this self-esteem by his reproaches, and disturbs these pleasures by his commands, and crushes these hopes by his threatenings, therefore "the carnal mind is enmity against God." And in pro

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