people, what have I done unto thee? wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me." Testify against me! man to testify against his Maker! criminal to testify against his judge! sinner to testify against his God! In like manner here," Come now and reason together;" and remember, brethren, that every appeal which you hear from this pulpit in the ministry of the word (if it be God's truth that is spoken) is directly an appeal to you from the living God.

Come, then, saith God at this moment, and let us reason together. Listen not to those who would deceive you as to the best interests of your souls. The world may argue that strictness in religion is unnecessary; that to condemn those who are lax in their principles and habits is uncharitable; and that to make yourselves singular in your conduct will be destruction to your interests, your reputation, your happiness. The flesh also will reason with you; it will say, Spare thy lust; it will represent sin as venial, a life of holiness as impracticable, and the love of the world as not incompatible with the love of God. And it will further argue, that at all events it will be time enough to serve God, when you can have no longer any enjoyment in the world. Nor will Satan be silent. He will endeavour to take away the seed of life, and to lull the soul asleep again in its iniquities. He will perhaps insinuate that the Scriptures themselves are not true, that the fundamental doctrines of original sin, the atonement, and such-like, are unworthy of God, and that we need not fear, but we shall do as well as others. But in opposition to the arguments of the devil, the world, and the flesh, God this day invites you to come and reason the point with him;

and a few questions from him will show to you the necessity and expediency of a religious life.

In arguing with you, God says, " Am not I worthy to be loved and served by you, you for whose salvation I have done, and my Son has suffered so much? Am not I able to reward my friends, and punish my foes? And have I not irreversibly decreed that I will put a difference between those who serve me, and those who serve me not?" Let but a candid answer be given to these questions, and the sophistry of every deceiver will be made manifest. Consider this subject, brethren— meditate upon it, and form your own judgment by it, as persons admitted to reason with God. Is not your course of duty and interest most decidedly and unequivocally clear? Does not your reason tell you that the very first object of your being is, to seek unto Him in whose favour is life, and whose loving-kindness is better than life? What can be more natural than every precept of his law? What more reasonable than his call to repent and believe his gospel? The statement of God's argument with you is shortly this :You are sinners; your sins are numerous, and highly aggravated; you are exposed to the vengeance of Almighty God, but you are not yet in torment,—not yet in hell. That God against whom you have sinned, and whose vengeance might long before this have descended to crush you, has himself (in love and mercy) devised a method by which mercy may be obtained, and even justice met; by which every faculty of the mind, and feeling of the heart, may be satisfied, every hope fulfilled, every wish accomplished. But if you refuse his method of pardoning and blessing you-if you go on in unbelief and sin, then there remains no

more sacrifice for sin, but only the fearful looking-for of judgment, and fiery indignation to devour. Oh, brethren, I beseech you, then, confer not with flesh and blood in the matter of the soul's salvation, but reason with God himself, and so shall you experience the marvellous extent of his forgiving mercy.

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The subject is capable of application to two classes of hearers, unbelievers and believers. 1st, To unbelievers, we do say, in God's name, Let us reason together." Again, what can you allege, as a sufficient • excuse, for your continuance in iniquity? Reason! Is it reason to try to build your temporal concerns on a rock, and your eternal concerns on the shifting sands? Is it reason to follow with eagerness a shadow, and to neglect the substance? Is it reason to grasp at the less, and despise the greater? Is it reason to court fellowship with sinners, and to cast off communion with God? Is it reason to pursue death in the error of your ways, and not to enter the path which leads to life? Is it reason to sport with reckless bravado on the brink of the pit of destruction, while you see below the dashing of the billows of torment, and hear the shrieks of despair, rather than be brought to the land where you shall join the happy multitude arrayed in white robes, and standing around the throne of God and the Lamb? Is that reason? Reason! Better that you had never known the blessing! Better that you had never had but the vacant, gaping stare of the idiot, or the "madness laughing wild amid severest woe;" better that the light of understanding had been darkened in infancy; better that you had never possessed the least claim to rationality, than that this should be your conduct, and this your condition for eternity. Will

you, can you, think on the state of your souls,-your reasonable souls, and yet be unconcerned? Come, now, and let us reason together. There is much emphasis in the little word now: for now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. The cross now exhibited to your view will not be seen long; the fountain for sin and uncleanness will not be open long. A morrow is coming, when these things will not be for thee, O sinner! when for thee, there is no cross-for thee, no Saviour-for thee, no pardon-for thee, no salvation-no heaven for thee!-when God, who now would reason with thee in tenderness and compassion, shall come forth out of his place clad in the robes of vengeance, and armed with omnipotent wrath; "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded: but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh."

Brethren, against that doom we warn you: to yonder heaven we beckon and invite you. Arise, and call upon thy God; arise, and trust in the Redeemer's mercy; arise, and seek the salvation of your immortal souls; and then the sun of happiness shall gild your immortal destiny; and thus shall come visions of eternal glory, where, united to Him that loved you and washed you from your sins in his own blood, you shall ascribe to him the praise and the power for ever.

2d, But ye believers in Christ Jesus, ye humble obedient followers of the Lamb, with you, too, your God again kindly reasons; and he reasons with you now in his own house, as you approach his own table. Break off all your sins by repentance. Cling to the

cross of the glorious Mediator. Live a life of faith on the Son of God, who loved you, and gave himself for you and so, when there gathers around you the darkness of the sepulchre, you shall enter a region where the storms of this wintry clime shall have for ever passed away, and the joys of a peaceful, an eternal, an unbounded spring encircle all. And come now, and plead with God, who this day brings out to you, from the casket of his mercy, the pearl of great price, and lays before you, in the feast of love, the rich supplies of his grace. He spreads out for you a heavenly banquet, and he says, "Eat, O friends;" "The Spirit and the Bride say, come. And now let him who heareth say, come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosever will let him come, and take of the water of life freely." And is there one humble soul here who will not come; any awakened who does not wish to see the God of mercy, and to hear the voice which whispers, "Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee?"

Communicants, come now: the times of Calvary are here, the hill of Golgotha is here. Ascend it-stand upon it. Here is the cross-come to it. Yonder is the dying Saviour-fly to him. Here is the altar of propitiation, with the victim stretched on it-go, surround it; with one hand cling to the horns of the altar, and the other lay on the head of the victim, and confess all your sins.