of the earth?"+ Do I strive to walk before them in a godly life, and try by my own example to point them the way to Heaven?

You that are a servant, ask yourself, Am I obedient to my "earthly master, in singleness of my heart, as unto Christ, not with eye service, as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;" not "answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, and aiming to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things?"

In short, in all those doctrines which God has revealed for my salvation, and in all those duties which He has commanded me to observe towards Himself, my fellow-creatures, and myself, is it my earnest care and desire to rule myself by the word of God, according to which I know that I shall be judged at the great day of the Lord?

CONCLUDING ADDRESS.

FELLOW CHRISTIAN!-It is by thus com† Jeremiah x. 25. Ephesians vi. 5-8. Titus ii. 9, 10.

muning with your own heart, it is by such serious application of the great truths and duties of the Gospel to yourself, that you may gain an acquaintance with your own heart, and ascertain your state towards God. Some, indeed, have attained the habit of bringing under review their thoughts, as they move in their minds, and their words and actions at the time they are said and done, (and a truly Christian habit it is;) some, at stated times-at their times of prayer, and when they are about to partake of the Lord's Supper, review the way in which they believe and live; but shall the rebuke fall upon you which God uttered respecting the Israelites, "My people do not consider!"

Such a comparison of yourself—of your faith and practice with the word of God, as you have now been invited to enter upon, will doubtless bring to the remembrance of the most devoted and circumspect Christian, many ignorances, failures, and sins, the doing of many things forbidden, and

the omission of many things commanded by God; if you truly believe in the Son of God, the effect of such remembrance will be to grieve you, and to humble you before God, and to lead you to seek in Christ's name the pardon of your sin, and more grace and watchfulness for the time to come, that you may put away from you that, and every forbidden thing, and begin that, and every neglected duty without delay; after you have done all that is commanded, you will say in the words of the Lord, I am an unprofitable servant,' who have not profited God any thing—‘ I have done that which it was my duty to do,'*. and at the last you will pray unto God to pardon your unrighteousness, and to accept you in his beloved Son.-You will examine and prove yourself, and be anxious to abound in every good word and work, not as trusting in any thing you have done as the price of eternal life, for you know that the price at which it was purchased, was

* Luke xvii. 10.

the precious blood of Christ; and whatever good thing there be in you, that it is by the grace of God that you are, what you are; that all boasting is therefore excluded, 'that if you would glory, you must glory in the Lord.'-But you thus examine and prove yourself, because you know that sin is deceitful above all things, and that you may have a good hope that you are really Christ's, "walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit;" and you seek to abound, more and more, in every good word and work, because you are persuaded that every additional manifestation of God's love to you, -that clearest manifestation of it, in His Son, lays you under the greater obligation no longer to do your own will and pleasure, but His "who died for you, and rose again;" that since "there is mercy with God, therefore He ought to be feared," with a reverential fear and love, and that the proof of your love towards Him, which He

+ Romans viii. 1.

2 Corinthians v. 15.

requires, is that you "keep his commandments."§ If you should be tempted to trust in the fruits of your obedience, as the price of your salvation, then if you have been taught "as the truth is in Jesus," you would regard yourself more foolish than a man who having built a house on a strong foundation, should think that the goodly superstructure which he had raised, would stand, if the foundation were removed from beneath it. No-you thus examine yourself, and are anxious to bring every thought of your heart into subjection unto Christ, that you may have a good and solid hope that you are edified and built upon that "foundation which is laid, and other than which there is none, even Jesus Christ,"¶ remembering those words of His, "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat ¶ 1 Cor. iii. 11.

§ John xiv. 23

E