opportunity after opportunity is passing away unimproved, when the term of your probation may be almost exhausted.

In closing an address on that union with Christ which is productive of such happy effects, I cannot but tender to those who have been hitherto careless, a solemn admonition to seek this great blessedness. It is offered to the possession of every sinner, and the neglect to acquire it, will issue in ruin hopeless and unutterably great. I beseech you, therefore, to be reconciled to God. Alienated from him, you perish; reconciled, you live and die happy with him forever. These are solemn truths which have been often proclaimed to you; they are truths which many of you admit in words; but where is the conduct which we might expect from those who really cherish these impressions? If the forgiveness of your sins and an interest in the Redeemer, obtained in the manner exhibited in the gospel, be indispensable to your happiness, why do you neglect so entirely this great interest?

Many of you, no doubt, think that you will not altogether neglect it. There is some period, fixed or contingent, when it is your secret determination to attend to religious duty, and to seek pardon and the purification of your nature, and thus to become prepared for the happiness of a life to come. Thus you resolve, although your own judgment and observation will tell you what you have so frequently

heard declared to you from this place-that life is uncertain, death often unexpected, and reason often lost at the first onset of disease; and what is most important of all, that presumptuously continuing in sin and neglect of religion in the days of your youth, or the period of your health and prosperity, when age or infirmity, or the approach of death at any period may induce you to call for mercy, the God whom you have so long neglected may reply to you only with the stern denunciations of his justice.

I beseech you to weigh these considerations. Do not give them a careless hearing; if they now affect you, do not let the feeling which they produce pass away as you leave this house. Let them often return to you in your hours of solitude and reflection. Let some portion of this day be occupied with a solemn communion with your own spirit. Consider the indispensable duties resting on you, and may that God whose power and grace are without limit, so affect your hearts, that repenting and being turned to God, your sins may be blotted out, and through faith you may become fruitful branches of that living vine.

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SERMON XXXV.

ON HEARING THE WORD.

LUKE viii. 18.

Take heed therefore how ye hear.

THESE Words were spoken by Him who intimately knowing the nature of men, was aware of their disposition to treat with levity things deserving their serious attention. And of this necessity, we, who minister in holy things, can cherish no doubt. For often have we reason to exclaim, "who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed." Although the message which we deliver is of unequalled importance and solemnity; although a contempt or neglect of it will be productive of ruinous consequences, there are few who bestow upon it a proper regard; there are multitudes who, by an inattention to it, are increas

ing a guilt already sufficiently awful. It is an affecting thought, that the means of life thus become the occasion of death; that the exhortations and warnings of the gospel are not merely uninfluential, but productive of serious detriment to those to whom they have been addressed. My object on the present occasion is, so far as is possible, to obviate this evil by calling your attention to the admonition of Jesus Christ, "Take heed, therefore, how ye hear."

This address appears to be an inference from some reasoning or fact previously under view. It will then be proper to inquire what this reasoning or fact was, and then to explain and enforce the declaration of our Lord.

The conclusion expressed in the text is derived from a parable in which the preaching of the gospel was compared to the sowing of seed by an husbandman. As the effect of the latter would vary according to the quality of the soil upon which it fell, so the gospel would impress men differently, according to the different dispositions with which they received it. In this parable we have represented every variety of character which exists among the hearers of the word. We have an accurate description of them all-from those upon whom it has no effect, to those who experience its full influence. One or the other of these characteristics is applicable to every man to whom the

message of God has ever come. A view of the parable will show the propriety of the caution which is grounded upon it. "Some seed fell by down, and the birds

the way side, and was trodden of the air devoured it."

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The interpretation of this is the seed is the word, those who receive it by the way side are those who hear, but then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved."

currence.

The fact here referred to is one of frequent ocThe expositions of duty, the representations of danger, the admonitions to seek salvation, which are addressed to men, meet the ear and perhaps become the subject of a little thought, but before any impression is made upon the heart, all concern in regard to them is dismissed. The careless hearer will persuade himself that there is no reality in the things which are urged upon his attention, or at all events, that they are somewhat doubtful, and there is a possibility that no evil may arise from a neglect of them. And should they possess the reality and importance ascribed to them, it may be thought that some future period will be sufficiently early to attend to them. Such are the vain thoughts which fill the mind of men, and render them insensible to all the alarming and pathetic exhortations which can be addressed to them.

Those who hear the word but never comply with