hand, been brought to your door pale in death and weltering in blood, would you then think the crime a small one? Would you honor with your confidence, and elevate to power by your vote, the guilty monster? And what would you think of your neighbors, if, regardless of your agony, they should reward him? And yet, such scenes of unutterable anguish are multiplied every year. Every year the duellist is cutting down the neighbor of somebody. Every year, and many times in the year, a father is brought dead or dying to his family, or a son laid breathless at the feet of his parents; and every year you are patronizing by your votes the men who commit these crimes, and looking with cold indifference upon, and even mocking, the sorrows of your neighbor. Beware, I admonish you to beware, and especially such of you as have promising sons preparing for active life,— lest, having no feeling for the sorrows of another, you be called to weep for your own sorrow; lest your sons fall by the hand of the very murderer for whom you vote, or by the hand of some one whom his example has trained to the work of blood!

With such considerations before you, why do you wish to vote for such men? What have they done for What have they done for you, what can they do, that better men cannot as happily accomplish? And will you incur all this guilt, and hazard all these consequences, for nothing? Have you no religion, no conscience, no love to your country, no attachment to liberty, no humanity, no sympathy, no regard to your own welfare in this life, and no fear of consequences in the life to come? O, my countrymen, awake! Awake to crimes which are your disgrace,to miseries which know not a limit,— to judgments which will make you desolate!

SERMON III..

A REFORMATION OF MORALS PRACTICABLE AND INDIS

PENSABLE.

Therefore, oh thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?” EZEKIEL 33: 10.

AT the time this direction was given to the prophet, the nation of Israel had become very wicked, and were suffering in captivity the punishment of their sins; and yet they did not reform. They affected to doubt whether, if they did reform, the Most High would pardon them; and if he would, it would afford them no consolation, for reformation, they insisted, had become hopeless. "Our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?" The burden has increased, until we are crushed beneath it; the disease has progressed, until it has become incurable.

They were correct in the inference that, if they did not reform, they must die; but they erred lamentably in the conclusion that reformation was hopeless.

To wipe off such an aspersion from his character, and to banish from the minds of his people such desponding apprehensions, the Most High condescends to expostulate with them. Have I any pleasure in the death of him that dieth? Is it my fault that nations are wicked? Do I constrain them

to sin, or prevent their reformation? "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"

We are brought, therefore, by the text and its connections, to the doctrine

~THAT A WORK OF REFORMATION, IN A TIME OF GREAT DECLENSION, IS A DIFFICULT, BUT NOT AN IMPRACTICABLE

WORK.

In the illustration of this doctrine, it is proposed,

I. To consider some of the difficulties which may be expected to impede a work of reformation.

II. To show that such a work is, notwithstanding, entirely practicable.

III. To consider some of the ways in which it may be successfully attempted; and,

IV. The motives to immediate effort.

With respect to the difficulties which may be expected to attend a work of reformation, one obvious impediment will be found in the number and character of those who must be immediately affected by such a work.

The sons of Belial, in a time of declension, are numerous and daring. Emboldened by impunity, they have declared themselves independent both of God and man, and are leagued by a common interest and a common feeling to defend their usurped immunities. They are watchful and zealous; and the moment an effort is made to execute the laws, every mouth is open against the work; and their clamors, and sneers, and threatenings, and lies, like the croakings of Egypt, fill the land.

This direct opposition may be expected to receive from

various sources collateral aid. In this wicked world, where the love of money is the root of evil, there are not a few who traffic in the souls and bodies of men. Not immoral always in their own conduct, they thrive by the vices of other men; and may be tempted to resist a reformation which would dry up these impure sources of revenue. They would not justify intemperance, nor the means of promoting it; but pretexts are never wanting to conceal the real motives of men, and justify opposition to whatever they deem inconsistent with their interest. Though reformation, therefore, might be admitted to be desirable, either the motives of those who make the attempt, or the means by which they make it, will always be wrong; and it will be impossible ever to devise a right way, till their interest is on the other side. In many cases, it is to be hoped that integrity would get the victory over cupidity; but, in many more, it is to be feared that avarice, secretly or openly, would send recruits to the standard of opposition.

This phalanx may receive, also, some augmentation from those whose pride may be wounded through the medium of their unhappy relatives. They could endure to see them live in infamy, and die in despair, while they shrink from the imagined disgrace of applying a remedy which may rescue the victim, or limit the influence of his pestilent example. How long shall it be ere men will learn that sin is infamy, and that reformation is glory and honor?

To the preceding must be added the opposition of all the timid, falsely called, peace-makers.

They lament bitterly the prevailing evils of the day, and multiply predictions of divine judgments and speedy ruin; but if a voice be raised or a finger be lifted to attempt a reformation, they are in a tremor lest the peace of society be

invaded. Their maxim would seem to be, "Better to die in sin, if we may but die quietly, than to purchase life and honor by contending for them. If men will be wicked, let them be wicked, if they will but be peaceable." But the mischief is, men freed from restraint will be wicked, and will not be peaceable. No method can be devised more effectual to destroy the peace of society, than tamely to give up the laws to conciliate the favor of the flagitious. Like the tribute paid by the degenerate Romans to purchase peace of the northern barbarians, every concession will increase the demand, and render resistance more hopeless.

Another class of men will encamp very near the enemy, through mere love of ease.

They would have no objection that vice should be suppressed, and good morals promoted, if these events would come to pass of their own accord; but, when the question is asked, "What must be done?" this talk of action is a terrific thing; and if, in their panic, they go not over to the enemy, it is only because the enemy also demands courage and enterprise. In this dilemma, it is judged expedient to put in requisition the resources of wisdom, and gravely to caution against rashness, and innovation, and zeal without knowledge, until all about them are persuaded that the safest and wisest and easiest way is to do nothing.

There is another class of men, not too indolent, but too exclusively occupied with schemes of personal enterprise, to bestow their time or labor upon plans which regard only the general good.

If their fields bring forth abundantly, if their profession be lucrative, if they can buy and sell and get gain, it is enough. Society must take care of itself. Distant consequences are not regarded, and generations to come must provide for their