and that they will form an element in your last account. You will stand at the judgment-seat on a very different footing from that of the poor outcasts who live in the wretched streets and lanes of our city, and will be reckoned with for the use of your Bibles, and your closets, and your family worship, and all your other means of grace; for it is the equitable law of God's kingdom, that to "whomsoever much has been given, of him shall the more be required." Impressed, as I trust you are, with this solemn reflection, and with a sense of God's distinguishing goodness to you, permit me farther to remind you, that as there are many advantages, so there are also some peculiar dangers, in your case; and of these I shall only mention, first of all,—the tendency, of which you may perhaps be conscious, to take too readily for granted that you are religious, merely because you are a member of a religious family, and have been from your youth accustomed to religious observances, forgetting that religion is, with every soul of man, a personal matter, and that it has its seat in the heart;-secondly, the danger of your mistaking the natural and common fruits of a religious education for thorough conversion to God, your knowledge, your amiable dispositions, your gentle manners, your correct habits, your attendance on ordinances,-all these and many more may be nothing else than "the form of godliness while you are destitute of its power;—and thirdly, the danger of your supposing, that because you know a great deal more than others, you have no need of farther inquiry, and may give your thoughts to other studies, and your

time to other pursuits. These temptations are peculiarly incident to you, and while I warn you against them, I would point out a few symptoms by which you may discover the real state of your heart. Are you conscious of a sincere desire Godwards,—such a desire as leads you to pray for yourselves in secret, as well as to join with your families in prayer? Do you, in your private, and family, and public prayers,-do you really seek after God, and offer up the desires of your heart to him? Are you convinced of sin, and have you discovered that the "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked?"— and, under a sense of sin, are you seeking to be cleansed by the blood of Christ, and to be purified by the grace of his Holy Spirit? If thus concerned for the salvation of your souls, you are seeking it in the way of God's appointment, and making conscience of duty, then "wait upon the Lord, and be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart; wait, I say, upon the Lord." To you the apostle's exhortation may be addressed, when he says to Timothy, "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures ;"-continue, i. e., “Hold fast the beginning of your confidence,-be not turned away from the hope of the Gospel, but continue in these things;" nay, "meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all." Paul deemed it necessary to address such exhortations to Timothy, his dearly beloved son, of whose un

feigned faith he had no doubt, and to whom he gave that honourable testimony, "Ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the Gospel." If, notwithstanding, Paul be so urgent in exhorting him to flee youthful lusts, to avoid the snares and temptations of the world, to watch over his own spirit, and to maintain a constant warfare with sin,-oh! is not this an affecting proof that you, too, require to be strengthened, and stirred

up, and animated in the path of duty? His exhortation specially points to the careful and continued use of the means of grace; and if these were needful for Timothy, how much more for you?

But if there be any who have enjoyed the advantages of a religious education, and who are yet unable to discover in themselves any of those hopeful symptoms which I have described; if they cannot honestly say, that they have ever made the salvation of their souls a matter of personal concern; that they have ever sought after God, either in the retirement of their closets, or in the season of domestic worship,that they are now resting on Christ's atonement, or desirous of the Spirit's grace; and if, on the contrary, they begin to be conscious of a repugnance to the strict views of religion in which they were brought up,

-of a disposition to cherish slighter thoughts of sin and to extenuate its guilt, or of a tendency to be weary of a religious life, and to long after greater licence and gaiety than their father's house affords; if they are seldom or never found on their knees, or with their Bibles in their hand, and yet flatter them

selves that there may be some easier road to heaven than their fathers trod before them,-oh! let me beseech them, now, and before they advance one step in that way which appears to them so attractive, to pause, and choose such a course as they will be content to live and die in; and to remember, while they make their choice, that heaven or hell is involved in it!

CHAPTER VIII.

CONVERSIONS AT PENTECOST.

Acts ii.

THE nature, method, and results of true scriptural conversion may be illustrated by the striking narrative which is given of the events that occurred at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. These events were in many respects extraordinary; they were accompanied with miraculous interposition, they produced a powerful impression on the public mind, and they resulted in the sudden and simultaneous conversion of many thousand souls; yet, in other respects, they correspond exactly with the usual methods of God's procedure in the conversion of individual sinners, and may be improved, as affording an instructive example of the great change which may be still. wrought by the faithful preaching of the Gospel, when it is applied by the power of his Spirit.

I. In regard to the previous state of the three thousand souls who were converted on this occasion, there is reason to believe that they belonged to two distinct classes,-the first including devout persons