be called upon to decide. Is it not reasonable to expect that an intelligent being in your position would be bowed down, if not overpowered, with the profoundest sense of the terrible responsibility which now rests upon you? Should we not expect you to be pressing forward, with soul-thrilling anxiety, to the moment when your spirit might repose on the settlement of this question of questions? Thus we should expect of you-thus the angels and hierarchies of heaven expect of you-and thus God himself expects of you.

But mark, while we say so deliberately, we advocate no fanaticism-nothing that would dethrone reason, and make religious decision a mere frenzy of feeling, impulse, and excitement. We advocate no decision which is not the result of calm deliberation and Scripture enlightenment; and we want no excitement, no impulse, no feeling, that does not arise from the heartfelt conviction of the truth. But this we do say-take a full, true, and deliberate survey of your position, as a responsible, sinful being, who is offered by God a glorious alternative, and is called by him to decide upon it. Do so, and proceed onward to the point of decision. Begin now, and stop not nor delay till you are a saved soul in Christ. Let there be no further procrastination in commencing, and no interruption after having commenced. Rest not till you are decidednot till you are saved.

Why should you act rationally on every question except the chief one, and act in regard to it like a fool or a madman? Take warning, dear reader-do take warning. Your sand-glass is running out! Your day of grace is passing! More than your first and second periods of grace may have passed away already, and shortly may the third, the unrecallable command, go forth- Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground! Perhaps you think that God is so merciful that he will certainly spare you till you repent; but do you not see thousands around you cut down in their impenitence? and does the quotation just made not remind you, that it is no want of mercy in God to remove a persistent cumberer from the ground, in order that his place may be better occupied?

Remember, if instead of proceeding at once, and in earnest, to make up your mind, you continue as you have been doing, you must necessarily become one of that fearful class described by the apostle, who are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.'

·

I HAVE NO FEAR.

THE absence of fear is no proof of safety. Though you have no fear, dear reader, it does not follow that you are free from danger. Want of concern may prove quite the reverse. Want of fear may only show that you are asleep in the midst of danger, and, consequently, that your danger is all the greater from your insensibility to it. Suppose two persons on board a ship at sea, and it is discovered that the vessel is on fire. The alarm is raised; but one of these two individuals is in a profound sleep, and is quite insensible to the havoc around, and the impending doom. But is he safe, because he has no fear? Nay; for his jeopardy is a thousand times greater than if he were in anxious suspense; and his destruction is certain, if he awake not to a sense of his danger. Absence of fear, therefore, is no guarantee of safety. Its absence does not prove that you are safe-it proves the very reverse.

But, perchance, you say that you are not asleep, as we have supposed this man to be. Perhaps you are not asleep like him exactly; but, dear reader, asleep you are if you are not to your knowledge saved, and yet are not apprehensive of danger in the approach of eternity. True, you may be awake to many things-to the world, to business, to pleasure; but as regards your soul, as regards God, as regards salvation, as regards eternity, you are asleep, if you have no fear, and are not saved already. Is not this, in fact, your boast? Do you not say, I have no fear? and does not this of itself prove that you are asleep? It does; for if you were awake to a sense of your relation

to God, of the state of your soul, and of the multitude of your sins of the approach of death, and of the eternity, and the judgment, and the awards beyond-no longer would you say, I have no fear. It would be a lie if you did say so. You cannot seriously reflect upon these solemn realities, and not tremble at the thoughts they suggest. Triumph not that they have not yet made you shudder with fear. As we have already said, this is no proof of safety. Believe it, the time is not far off when these dread verities shall cause your defiant spirit to cower in dismay. Ah, reader, forget not that it is written in the sure word of prophecy, 'When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.'

If the thought suggest itself that you shall escape, prepare to answer-how? Say, how shall you manage to evade the detection of him to whom all things are naked and open? Have not the words of one of old suggested to you that it is impossible for you to escape the omniscient God? Do they not lead you to ask, 'Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right had shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.'

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One day, reader, the terrors of the Lord shall burst upon you, and fill your guilty soul with horrible dismay, unless you timeously take warning, and shelter yourself beneath the protectorate of him who is as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest.' Dream not, then, O reader, of security in view of such fearful danger. ceive not yourself by imagining that, because you have no fear now, you have nothing to apprehend hereafter. Think of your position before God-think of his justice and your unrighteousness-of his law and your transgressions-of

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his holiness and your sinfulness-think, we say, of these things, and think of them in all their tremendous and eternal importance, and soon must the false peace of which you boast leave you in utter dismay.

But when conscience has been heard, and its verdict given against you, and you feel yourself to be under the ban of the law of heaven, think of the law-fulfilling Jesus -think of him bearing its curse for you think of his peace-speaking blood, and the peace which it whispers to you-think of him dying to deliver those who through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage,' and of him having thus died to deliver you.

I AM NOT OPPOSED TO RELIGION.

WHAT, dear reader, though you are not opposed to religion, if you are yourself irreligious? Can your supposed neutrality save you? Does it show you to be in either a better, a safer, or a more consistent position than the infidel or the blasphemer? You acknowledge the truth of religion, yet you treat it as if it were all a lie! Your sense of the verity of religion leads you to feel and express yourself friendly toward it, yet your conduct is exactly such as it would be if you had no faith or kindly feeling in regard to it whatever. Now, what is this but the greatest possible inconsistency? You know, feel, and allow, that religion is infinitely worthy of your most earnest consideration, and your unreserved adhesion, and notwithstanding you deny it both! Now, we think that infidelity is not less consistent than this. We can understand why an infidel remains indifferent to the claims of religion; for his indifference is consistent with his professed views. But with you it is quite the reverse. cannot name a more indefensible and inconsistent position than yours. According to your own confession, you know to do good, but you do it not. You appreciate the right,

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yet you practise the wrong. Now say, is this argument, that you are not opposed to religion, a good defence? Would it pass muster at any earthly bar? No; it would bring upon your head a double weight of condemnation. So, dear reader, shall it do for you, if you attempt to plead

it at the bar of God.

But let us see if there is any truth in this objection of yours. Is it really true that you are not opposed to religion? Are you not living in neglect of religion? Are you not living without God and without Christ? Yes, you are and still, you are not opposed to religion! In such a position, you cannot but be opposed to it. Do you suppose that it is necessary, to constitute you an opponent of religion, that you publicly denounce, revile, and obstruct it? If so, it is quite a mistake. Do you not know that, like every man on earth, you carry with you an influence wherever you go and are known? There is not an hour you live--there is not an action you perform-that does not bear an influence for good or bad on all with whom you come in contact. You forget that it is written, 'No man liveth to himself.' Now, if you are practically irreligious -if you act toward religion as if it were false or unworthy of supreme attention, you necessarily bear about with you a deadly influence on others, in relation to their eternal interests. You thus cannot tell how many precious souls you have already influenced for evil. There may already be spirits among the lost through your irreligion. You know that it is habitual to man to regulate himself by the conduct of others. How many of those with whom you have had intercourse, or of those whom you do not know, but who know you, may have been led to argue thus from your conduct:-There is So-and-so, a prudent, sensible, far-seeing, respectable person, quite indifferent to religion; and if he is so unconcerned, surely I may let religion alone, for the present at any rate. Thus, by your example, unknown to yourself, are sinners around you led on in a course of sin and fatality. Yet you think that you are not opposed to religion. Ah! vain thought! If you see it not sooner, the day of death shall make it but too plain, that you have all along been deluding yourself in suppos