which grow out of their own ignorance and imbecility, from accepting the offered, needed benefits of gracious Heaven; be ours the happiness of cordially believing in Jesus as the Savior of the world. By his agency, did not the blind receive their sight and the lame walk?

-were not the lepers cleansed, and did not the deaf hear?—were not the dead raised up?—and to the poor was not the gospel preached? Jesus, Master, Heaven forbid that we should be offended in thee!

By all the regard you have for your best interests and highest happiness, I exhort you, my hearers, to break through every difficulty which would hold you back from a cordial confidence in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. Tell me, do you not need a Savior, who can be touched with the feeling of your infirmities-who can sympathize in your sorrows-upon whom you can look as a faithful and merciful high-priest? Believe in Jesus. Do you not need a Savior, who can search your inmost souls, forgive your sins, tread down your foes, sustain you in the dying hour, raise you to heaven? Believe in Jesus. You can not contemplate his character as set forth in the Bible, without seeing clearly, and feeling deeply, that he is the very Savior your necessities require. Trample, then, on every obstacle which would hold you back from his feet. Do you shiver with fear when you hear eternal Justice, from the top of Sinai, utter the irrevocable decree, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die?" From your inmost soul do you desire to find a victim, by whose blood the authority of the divine law might be maintained, the glory of the divine character preserved, and your crimes washed away from the book of God's remembrance? "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." Hasten

to his cross. Break through every impediment, and fasten all your hopes on him. Do you tremble lest the evil tendencies of your nature, combined with the assaults of temptation, should lead you far away from duty and from peace?. Do you distrust your power to break off your guilty habits-" to overcome the world?" Do you long to bear the image of the Son of God? Remember, then, “He is more ready to give his Holy Spirit to them who ask, than are parents to give good things to their children." Cast yourself upon this promised aid of the Holy Ghost. Lay open your bosom to his gracious influences; and even in the " narrow way," you shall "run and not be weary." Is your spirit tired of the darkness and storms which settle on this world? Do you see little but vicissitude, confusion, distraction? Look upward, I beseech you. The Lord reigneth. Confide-in the face of general rebellion, confide in his wisdom, power, and goodness, and you shall see him walking on the tempest, guiding the whirlwind, controlling the thunderbolt. Would you be assured of the joys of heaven? Give up your whole heart to the spirit of holy obedience; wait at the feet of Jesus; be clothed with humility; devote your all-spirit, soul, and body— to the Son of God; and even now may you catch “the beams, and breezes, and blessed visions of heaven."

CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS.*

ROM. xiv. 7, 8.- "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord: and whether we die, we die unto the Lord whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."

This passage contains a comprehensive description of Christian obligation and character. The good man refuses to "live unto himself." In all his designs and movements he feels bound to act "with an eye single" to the glory of the Savior and the extension of his kingdom.

Thus briefly explained, this passage lays the foundation for the following statement, which it is my present purpose to illustrate and apply: The friends of the Lord Jesus ought to devote themselves, without the slightest hesitation or the least reserve, to the single object of strengthening the interests and extending the limits of the Christian church.

A construction is often put upon the obligations asserted in this statement, which makes them rest easy upon the conscience of the lax professor. This construction may be thus given: We ought, in our hearts, to give up ourselves-all we are and all we have-to the Savior, with the resolution, if God requires, actuALLY to make the surrender. Thus many a professed

• A Sermon published in the National Preacher-April, 1832.

Christian is ready to rejoice, that he has fallen upon better times than those in which others have been led to prison and to death. He rejoices, that besides the demands which his religious profession has upon him, he is permitted to have another department of interest and exertion. After devoting a small portion of his income to the support of Christian institutions at home and abroad, he is happy to think that he may expend his strength in enlarging his possessions, in securing the luxuries and elegancies of life, and in accumulating an inheritance for his children. This is a construction of the Christian's obligation, as mischievous as it is false. It has furnished a pillow on which not a few professed disciples lay their heads in deep slumber, while the perils of perdition thicken around them! They are invited to contemplate their obligations under a very different construction. According to this, they ought actually to devote themselves, in the strictest sense of the thrilling terms-they ought ACTUALLY to devote themselves, "arm and soul," to the interests of the church. The meaning of this language, I hope to place beyond the reach of misapprehension.

I know a man belonging to the class which is called indigent. For the support of his growing family, he depends, under God, upon his daily industry. He is a Christian. And when at the missionary meeting he threw a dollar into the treasury of the Lord, he thus explained the grounds on which he proceeded: "All I am, and all I have, I have joyfully devoted to Him who redeemed me with his blood. I am under the most sacred obligations to do what I can to promote his kingdom. From these obligations I can not, would not break away. I can not help, then, tasking my ingenuity

and urging my powers to the utmost, to furnish my proportion of the means of diffusing far and wide the sweet influence of Christian truth. What that proportion is, it may help me to determine, to reflect upon the exertions I certainly should make to redeem a child from servitude. Poor as I am, I know full well, that by practicing the most wakeful industry and the most rigid economy, I should be able, besides supporting my family, to raise a considerable sum every year for such an object. And oh, can I do less to save a world weltering in its own blood, from the horrors of eternal death!"

Another man I know, who has a full competence. He also is a Christian. He thinks it not enough, to maintain among his fellow men a reputable profession. "Bought with a price," how can he think himself his own? Whatever he is and has, he resolves shall be sacred to the Savior. In the general outline and minute details of business, he feels himself bound continually to act with a direct and honest reference to the welfare of the church. When he sows, and when he reaps his field; whenever he goes a journey, and whenever he makes a contract; in the style of his living, and in the education of his children-he is governed in every movement by strong desires to extend the kingdom of the Savior. For this he “lives." Here is the spring of his activity-the source of his enjoyment.

The other man you see, is a "wealthy disciple." He is one of the few, who, in despite of the obstacles thrown in the rich man's course, is making progress in the "straight and narrow way." A happy exposition of the principles on which, as a Christian, he feels bound to act, you may find in a short address once made to his collected family. "It is my distinguished privilege,”