thing must be done; you have all had experience of its painfulness. And you have subsequently felt the relief of decision, as if some heavy burden had been taken off, or some irritating annoyance removed; and that though you may have made a most unwise decision. I do believe that if some of you were now to decide against God, you would be immediately afterwards more at ease, and happy than you now are. If any one affirms that he does not find this state of mind painful, it is not his really; he has secretly decided, and in all probability against God.

My first argument then in favor of decision, is derived from the painfulness of indecision. My second is from its disgracefulness. I appeal to you if it is not considered dishonorable to a man to remain long undecided on other subjects. What is thought of one who is always making up his mind and never does it, who now expresses this preference, and anon the opposite, and never takes a side, in politics for example, on the fence? Is he not accounted weak or something worse than that? And yet how long have not some of you been undecided on the subject of religion, hesitating whether to give the heart to God or not, vacillating between God and Mammon; unable to make up your minds, and to this day apparently on no side; neither fully for God, nor wholly against him. Is it creditable to you, to say no more?

But I plead, in the third place, the unnecessariness of indecision. I know that immediate decision is not in all cases practicable. It is often necessary to occupy some time in weighing arguments and comparing advantages. The course which a man ought

nates.

to pursue does not always reveal itself immediately. Hesitation under such circumstances is reasonable and honorable. But this state of mind rarely continues long. We soon discover which scale predomiWe very soon see or think we see an inequality of excellence in two objects between which we are to choose. It does not take long to decide on the comparative merits of two rival candidates for office. It does not take ten, twenty, thirty, or fifty years to settle such questions as these and to determine the side we shall espouse or the course we will pursue. Yet this length of time some of you perhaps have been deliberating on the subject of religion, and you have come to no decision yet. Perhaps there is but a single subject on which you remain undecided, and that is the subject of religion! You find no difficulty with any other but this. What is the reason? Are the arguments in favor in weight equal, or so nearly equal that you cannot determine which preponderate? Do you find reasons as many and as strong why you should not, as why you should serve God? Have you never yet been able to decide whether or not the Bible is the word of God; or that question having been decided affirmatively, are you still in doubt about its meaning; and though anxious to know, and diligently seeking, yet unable to discover which is the path of duty? Have you still some lingering fears that if you should decide for the service of God, and the discipleship of Jesus Christ you might be doing wrong? Do you stop and hesitate between the two courses, as not knowing which you ought to take? If this were the

of either choice,

cision.

not.

case, you would have some apology for your indeBut it is not the case, and you know it is Conscience has long ago decided the question of duty; and the decision of that one question, is a decision of every other, for that cannot be safe, or honorable, or, on the whole, advantageous, which is wrong. If one has found the path of duty, he has found in it the path of peace, and safety, and profit, and glory too. You know how you ought to decide. There is no inability in your case to come to a decision; for, if you cannot decide for God, you can decide against him. You can form to-day and execute the purpose, not to engage in the service of God. There is no want of power to do this. Why then do you not decide? I will tell you. Your conscience dictates one course, and your inclination another. The one will not let you decide against the service of God; the other will not allow you to decide for it. And these carry on within you a perpetual conflict, there waging the worst species of that worst kind of war, civil war. How many a soul is now the arena and the object of such a conflict! Sometimes it is terminated by the submission of inclinatio n,s in the case of not a few of you, I trust; but sometimes it is terminated by the capitulation of conscience, as in the case of some of you, I very much fear.

There

are those, who, having chosen, and now pursuing the course that is agreeable to their inclinations, have been able to persuade themselves that it is the right and safe course, and, consequently, have no disturbance from conscience, or from any quarter. Perhaps they think that they are serving God, though it be

notorious to every one else that they are not; or not being under that delusion, they think that God is too good a being to allow any course which a creature of his may pursue, to terminate in destruction. And so they adopt secretly, if not avowedly, that pestilential doctrine, which is now proclaimed among us, that everlasting life and glory are equally the end of every moral course that a man may pursue; and that whatever one soweth, whether it be good seed or bad, whether it be to the flesh or to the Spirit, he shall reap the same everlasting life. Be not deceived. God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. These have decided, and to a worse decision they could not have come; for, if there be another more criminal, there is none so dangerous. He who does wrong, knowing that he does wrong, is more criminal than he who does wrong, thinking that he does right; but, for the former, there is more hope than for the latter. The case, involving the greatest guilt, is, I suppose, his who adopts an evil practice in opposition to good principles; but the case which is attended with most danger is his, who, having adopted an evil practice, has been able to bring down his principles to the level of his practice. Both make inclination their rule of action; but the latter has somehow brought himself to believe, that, in conforming himself to that rule, he is obeying the law of God. Is it not shocking?

Some have done this. But others have not been able to do it. In them conscience has been too well enlightened, and too carefully cultivated, perhaps,

by the early assiduities of some pious mother, to be so easily overcome; and, in their breast, the struggle still goes on. The state of indecision continues. They are not disposed to choose the good part. The other, they are afraid to choose. Conscience draws them one way, inclination another. They cannot make them draw together. Now the first seems about to prevail, but then the other rallies, and victory seems ready to crown it. They wish they could reconcile God and the world, and so serve both; and they try, but they cannot succeed; and yet they try again. This is the double minded character. Here is the divided heart. This is the history of many, until death comes in, and the question is no longer open for decision. The alternative of life and death, of good and evil, of heaven and hell no longer exists; evil, death, and hell alone remain, and these must be taken. There is no choice left.

The principal cause of indecision I have mentioned. There is something, however, which very much promotes it, that I have still to mention. It is the impression existing generally, that, to be undecided in religion, is vastly better than to be decided against it; to halt between two opinions, better than to adopt the worse of the two; in other words, that the temperature of lukewarmness is preferable to a lower temperature. One says, if I decide now, I shall decide against the service of God. I had better, therefore, come to no decision; better make no choice, than a bad choice. And the person that reasons thus, secretly solaces himself with the reflection that he has not decided against God, though he