forever to debar you from heaven. Look at it; do not conceal it from yourself; do not apologize for it; do not diminish it in your conception of it; do not say, "Is it not a little one?" and expect that God will spare it on that account. But, perhaps, you will see every thing but this; and you will wonder what it is that prevents you from being a Christian. That which does prevent you, the adversary of souls takes care to keep out of view. He knows how to accomplish his plans. He is willing that you should obey Christ in every respect but one. He does not care to have you retain more than one sin. He has no objection to your being devout in your intercourse with God, provided you will not be honest in your dealings with men. And you may be, for all he cares, as honest as Aristides, if you will only be satisfied with that. You may profess religion. That does not offend him. Indeed you cannot please him better than to profess religion, when you have none. Yes, profess to be a Christian, and live like a worldling, and you cannot please him better. He prefers that his servants should wear the livery of Christ. They can do more for him in that dress than in any other. He professes religion sometimes. Do we not read of Satan's transforming himself into an angel of light? And it is supposed he did so, when he went to do his darkest deed, the destruction of our race. He never opposes a soul until that soul has given up, or is about giving up all for Christ. When one of you begins to think about repenting and turning from all your sins to the Lord, then he begins to interfere and oppose. Why should he be

fore? Your partial amendments he will never find any fault with.

Although, as I have said, the hindrance in every case is not precisely the same, yet there is a passage of Scripture which is applicable to every case. “A deceived heart hath turned him aside." Whenever one either totally or partially departs from the living God, it is because of an evil heart of unbelief that is in him. And there is another passage which applies perhaps to every case of defection. "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." That phrase, the "world," is a very comprehensive one. It includes every thing which may be preferred to God. It includes persons and things. It comprehends profit, pleasure, and honor; your business, your profession, your family. One loves the world in this aspect of it, another in that. In what shape or phase of it, it drew away and destroyed Demas, I do not know. By what one of its many chains it binds you, I cannot tell; perhaps by one of such delicate materials, and so finely drawn, that it is scarcely, if at all, perceptible. Nevertheless, it holds you fast, and keeps you as really from the Saviour as any other. The world! Now be honest, and say if it is not the love of this that has drawn you off from God; this, that now stands in the way of your being a Christian; this, for which you give up Christ and resign the hope of heaven and barter your soul ! What a bargain! The fading vanities of time purchased with the substantial glories of eternity! a mere creature preferred to the Creator of all things! What a choice! The service, the sweet service of Christ

resigned for the sake of the privilege and pleasure of sinning! Heaven lost, for the gain of an unsatisfactory uncertainty! The expiring breath of human applause chosen rather than the approbation of God! Strange that a being of immortality should choose to have his portion in this life! Poor Demas! He sees his folly now; he wishes he had not forsaken Christ. He had the world he loved, perhaps some two or three years; and he has been separated from it now these seventeen or eighteen centuries. All that time he might have been with Christ in heaven. Ah! it was a sorry speculation for him. Yet how many in every age have trodden in his steps; having loved this present world, have either forsaken Christ, or never in any sense gone to him. The Psalmist takes notice of it. "This their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings," Ps. xlix. 13, 14. "Oh! Lord, deliver my soul from men of the world, which have their portion in this life."

See, backslider, what you are doing; forsaking the fountain of living waters for a cistern of your own hewing, and which you cannot make capable of holding any thing; a very sieve. Take care that you do not prove an apostate, that you do not go too far; take care, lest, at the next step, your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. Know now, and see, before you are made to feel it, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God. Return unto me, says God, and I will return to you. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal

your backslidings. Respond ye, "Behold we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God."

"O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy name." Isaiah xxvi. 13.

And see, oh! sinner, what thou art doing. Refusing obedience to the truth, even to the first principle of it, repentance from dead works, and declining altogether to enter the arena of the Christian conflict; neglecting the great, the only salvation; persisting in rebellion against your divine sovereign; treating with the basest ingratitude the best of benefactors; putting in peril the most imminent, your soul; despising heaven; daring the vengeance of the Almighty. And all for what? To avoid a slight inconvenience, it may be; to preserve some passing pleasure; to please some dying man.

Oh! do not strike such a bargain; do not make such a choice. You cannot even now yourself approve of it. Do not for any consideration, but especially for such a consideration lose your all, and yourself along with it, and for ever. No; rather for the pearl of great price sell all. Let every thing go for Christ; it is but little; and that little thou can'st not have long. And with him thou shalt have all things. He will not let thee lack, as he will never let thee perish. Do it; and then sing,

"Jesus, I my cross have taken,

All to leave and follow thee."

SERMON XXV.

But grow in grace.-2 PETER iii. 18.

You will recollect that two Sabbaths ago from the text, "The last state of that man is worse than the first," I discoursed to you on the progress in evil, and attempted to show how and under what circumstances men become worse and the human character suffers deterioration. And, by-the-way, one that heard that discourse is now in eternity, and he was in the forenoon of life too. Take heed how ye hear. In view of the tremendous uncertainty of human life, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness! I propose now to treat of the ways and means of becoming better. The subject, I am sure, is appropriate to all; and to all it ought to be interesting. I presume there is no one here, who, however good he may be in his own opinion, does not believe that he may and ought to be better. With whatever complacency he may contemplate his character, yet can he think that it is not susceptible of any farther improvement? If any are satisfied with themselves, (and it must be said, that some do approach but too near to this state of entire self-approbation,) I pronounce them to be the persons of all others, who should be most dissat