own strength resist them: therefore pray. Pray for clear views of the nature of faith, and for clear views of the character of that faith which you really have. Pray for the help of the Holy Spirit to strengthen your weak efforts, to humble your natural vanity, and to enable you to appreciate the value of spiritual things. If you thus examine yourselves, conscientiously, scripturally, and prayerfully, you will see your weaknesses and your wants.

In conclusion. Delay not the discharge of this duty. Examine yourselves to-day. Why? Because you may die ere to-morrow. Your lives are uncertainthey are compared in the Bible to the flower of the field, which is fresh and lovely in the morning, but which, ere the shades of evening have gathered around, lies withering and rotting on the ground;-they are compared to the fleeting shadow, which appears, but is gone ere you can trace its limits or its form. Nor is it only in the Word of God that proofs of the uncertainty of life are given. The events which daily occur in the world around you prove that man's breath is in his nostrils, and that that thread is slender which keeps him from decay. Look back but a few passing months and you will find, that they are fraught with lessons which prove the folly of delay. Never does the first Sabbath of another year dawn on this place of prayer, without shedding its light on the tombs of those, who but a short time before sang the songs of Zion, but whose lips have been silenced for ever. They have died: you may die too. Therefore delay not the trial. Examine yourselves to-day.

To this the youth just entering on the pilgrimage of life may reply, "I am young;" and looking to his grey-haired neighbour, who has tottered in his weakness to this house of God, he may say, it will be long ere I am as old as he, "Why then need I examine myself to-day?" My young friends, are you too young to die? The bud may he nipped ere it bursts into bloom, the leaf may fall ere its beauty is seen, and the child may die in the spring-tide of his life. Look around you. You see surrounding this house, the graves of the aged and the strong, but they are mingled with the graves of those who were cut down in the morning of life. They died: and so may you. Therefore examine yourselves to-day.

There are here those who are strong and healthy, and who plead their vigour as an excuse for delay, and who put off this trial to days of sickness, or perhaps to a bed of death. Brethren, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Great though your strength may be, there is an arm that is stronger than yours, for man dieth and goeth to the grave, and where is he? Strong men have fallen, and so may you. Therefore, delay not,

Aged men who have neglected this duty, you have little time, your race is nearly run-the morning and noon of your years have passed away. And ere a short time expires, your neighbours will gather around your dwellings, and carry you slowly to the grave. Redeem the time that is lost by losing no more, and examine yourselves to-day.

Lastly, examine yourselves to-day. Why? Because

the longer that you delay the work, the more difficult will it be. The sinful feelings of natural men grow in power as they grow in years. Their unwillingness to test their faith, their power of self-deception grow with the rest so that self-examination becomes, as we now said, every day more difficult and disagreeable. To you, then, who have never tried yourselves, would we say, the trial is more difficult to-day than it would have been a year ago and if you go on without engaging in this duty till another year has passed away, it will be more difficult then than it is now.

There may be some present who will retire from this house to their homes, careless, unimpressed, as before. Brethren, this sermon is closed, but still you are not done with it-it has been heard in heaven, and it is recorded there, and if you continue ignorant of yourselves, it will one day witness against you. Your guilt will be aggravated by the fact, that when warned of your peril, you still refused to flee from the wrath to come. Amen.

SERMON XVI.

THE KEY OF DAVID IN THE HAND OF

CHRIST.

BY THE

REV. GEORGE ARKLAY,

MINISTER OF INVERKEILLOR.

REVELATION III. 8.

"I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name."

So spake "He that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth." Unto him all judgment had been committed, and knowing the works of every Church, the fruits that manifested

the condition and character of every corner of his vineyard, he set before each of the seven Churches of Asia his delineation of its spiritual state. In some of these churches, he saw much to reprehend and reprove; in others, he found occasion for commendation and encouragement; and while he unsparingly exposed the emptiness of a mere nominal Christianity in some, he failed not to cherish in others the most feeble branch that gave promise of bringing forth fruit unto holiness. In all this, he shewed that, as the King of his Church, he was ever ready "to fight with the sword of his mouth," against al hypocrisy and impenitence; while "the bruised reed he would not break, and the smoking flax he would not quench."

The commendation bestowed on the Church at Philadelphia was not so unqualified and abundant as that which some of the others received; but it was much not to be denounced as dead, or as utterly negligent of the opportunities afforded of improving its own spiritual condition, and glorifying its heavenly King. It was much to receive the encouraging assurance, that its struggles against the enemies of the cross, though feeble, had not been altogether vain; and that its little strength would find scope for exertion, in a field into which the Lord himself would guide it.

We have not a detail of the particular privileges enjoyed and improved by this Church; of the special trials to which it was subjected, or of the difficulties with which it had been called to contend; but enough is made known to teach us, that any church that would approve itself as faithful, must go in at the door opened