what is more hard to bear than the bitterest corporal suffering, could they, under the most ignominious and shameful lot, if such were appointed to them, bow with humble reverence to the Great GOD who inflicts it? Could they, like him, from the heart "confess, that GOD's Judgments are right, and that He of very faithfulness hath caused them to be troubled"? Do they,

in fine, as the Penitent on the Cross did, regard life and death, ease and anguish, shame and honour, and every earthly consideration, as unworthy even of a thought-when compared with GOD's favour and with the interests of eternity?-If they do, then may they too hope, that the LORD will hereafter say to them, as He said to His companion on the cross, "To-day shall ye be with ME in paradise."

II. A second remark which I will make on the case before us, is, that the faith evinced by this dying malefactor had in it something most special and peculiar.

At the hour when the triumph of our LORD'S enemies seemed to be accomplished-when "all His disciples forsook HIм and fled," when the most forward and zealous of them had " denied HIM thrice," -when "the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them, derided HIM," when He was reduced so low, that "one" even "of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on HIM, saying, If THOU be CHRIST, Save thyself and us:"-at that hour, the everlasting Son of the everlasting FATHER, found a Worshipper only in the Penitent on the Cross. It was then, that this illustrious confessor declared his faith in the suffering MESSIAH,-acknowledged HIM to be God, on whom all around were heaping mockery

and insult, adored HIм as his LORD, and trusted in HIM as his SAVIOUR, "LORD, remember me when THOU Comest in Thy Kingdom.

Well may it be said, that Faith, such as this, had in it something most special, most peculiar. And what was it which gave to it this distinction ? Was it merely, that the malefactor believed, when none else believed? This, indeed, is true, but it is far from being the whole truth. Or, was it that he was satisfied to believe on little, or on no evidence? Certainly not; for such belief would not have deserved the name of Faith. No-the main distinction of his case is this; that he was able to give due weight to the evidence of our LORD's Divine character, to attain (by GOD's Grace) to Christian Faith, under circumstances which had overcome-or had paralysed-the faith of all besides. Now, what was the Evidence which was thus effectual with him? It was exactly of that kind which would have effect on a very ingenuous, but only on a very ingenuous observer: for it was the evidence derived from the personal demeanour of the BLESSED JESUs, under trials of the most searching kind.

Whether this malefactor had ever, before the last days of his life, known anything of our LORD, we have nothing whatever to inform us. It has, indeed, been suggested, that among the various occasions on which our LORD came up to Jerusalem, and exhibited His power and wisdom so signally before the people, this man might at some time have witnessed His Miracles, and listened to His discourses-that, in the solitude and leisure of his prison, his mind might have recurred to what he had seen or heard of this New Teacher,

So small reason is there to trust in the most assured intention of repenting on our Death-bed.

V. But, lastly, can we be sure, that even this intention to repent will long endure? He, that sins with the intention of repenting, may continue to sin-(may, said I? most probably he will-GoD's wondrous goodness only forbids us to say, he must-continue to sin,) till he ceases to see the necessity, or to feel the desire, of repenting at all. It is in the very nature of Sin to deaden the sensibility of the mind towards its foulness and its wickedness. The first wilful departure from the path of duty, not only makes the second step more easy, but also makes us less conscious of it; till, at length, the headlong career of wickedness is run without compunction or remorse.

For, be it remembered by every one who calls himself a Christian, that, weak and corrupted as our fallen nature is, we cannot, of our own strength, we cannot resist the temptations of Sin-we cannot turn to the service of GOD. It is the HOLY SPIRIT that alone can make, or keep us holy. But His sanctifying Grace is promised only to those who seek and cherish it :"Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." These words were spoken, be it remembered, of the HOLY SPIRIT. Every Sin we commit offends that HOLY SPIRIT, and weakens His hold upon our hearts. HE may be utterly driven from us; and, if HE be, there remains not only no hope of Pardon, but no sense of our want of it. Cases of this sort every day present themselves. The desperate and abandoned Sinner is known to perpetrate crimes, which ordinary minds cannot even contemplate without shuddering; to perpetrate them, too, in seeming ignorance of their enormity. Our own

age has witnessed many of these deeds of horror: the records of public justice every year present fresh instances of the frightful excess of wickedness to which the natural man may be carried, when abandoned by the Grace of God.

And is there no warning held out to us (aye, to us, to me and you, my friends, to the best and holiest among you) by crimes like these? Are we not taught by them to see the frightful tendency of Sin, of all and every Sin? to dread its first inroads on our heart? Above all, to repent at once? To avail ourselves of the earliest motions of that BLESSED SPIRIT who yet dwells within us?

In the "still small voice" of conscience, He calls us to mark our iniquities as they arise: in the written Word, HE bids us repent and turn to GOD " to-day, while it is called to-day, lest any of us be hardened through the deceitfulness of Sin."

GOD grant, that the call to us may not be in vain! GOD grant, that we, sorrowing in time with a godly sorrow for our past sins, and imploring from HIM who is "Mighty to save," that strength which of ourselves we cannot have, may finally receive the completion of His merciful promise,

"Blessed are ye that" thus "mourn, for ye shall be comforted ;"-" Blessed are ye which " thus "hun;' ger and thirst after righteousness, for ye shall be filled !"

H. E.

SERMON VIII.

REJOICING A PRIVILEGE OF WATCHFUL

CHRISTIANS.

Sunday after Ascension.

PSALM LXXxix. 16.

"BLESSED IS THE PEOPLE, O LORD, THAT CAN REJOICE IN THEE."

A CHRISTIAN may have lived but a short time, and yet, if he knows anything of himself, or has looked at all deeply into his own heart, he will often feel anxious scruples, and very serious doubts whether, in this life, he has any right to think of enjoyment. He finds in himself so much that is sinful, so much that falls short even of his own imperfect standard of what he ought to think, and say, and do, that he is dissatisfied and distressed. He sickens at the thought of such an one as he is presuming to make merry and be glad, just as a person who is suffering from bodily illness sickens at the offer of rich and dainty food. He shrinks and turns away from indulgence of the most innocent gratifications, in whatever shape it may present itself, and he feels as if he must always shrink from it.