On the Christian Characters of Youth. Come out from among them, and be ye Sepa- rate, faith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be My fons and daughters, faith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved; let us cleanfe ourselves from On the Christian Characters of Youth. Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved; let us cleanfe ourselves from SER- SERMON I. On Hearing of Sermons. 2 TIM. iii. 7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth. A DESCRIPTION equally emphatical and difheartening! But to whom is it applicable? If there were fuch characters in an age painfully emerging from Jewish and Pagan darkness; are there fuch in modern days? If fuch characters are to be found among the moft obfcure and misguided fects; are there fuch in the bofom of the national church? In ancient and in modern times, among fects and in the establishment, of fuch characters there have been and there are multitudes. Is it poffible? Shall man be ever learning, and never able to attain knowledge? Shall man labour, fhall he labour in the pursuit of religious truth, and reap no fruit from his exertions? VOL. II. B The The event is poffible and frequent. In vain the husbandman fcatters the feed, if the foil is not duly prepared to receive it. The foil may be well prepared and the feed may spring up green among the furrows: but it is in vain that you expect a plentiful harvest, if you permit the rising plants to be smothered by weeds. Is it reafonable to imagine that the feed of the Gospel, the feed from which you look for the bread of life, will flourish and arrive to maturity; if you bestow on its cultivation lefs reflection, lefs folicitude, than are neceffary for the grain which is to fupport your mortal body? The word of God will in vain be preached unto you, if you be not disposed to embrace it. The word of God will in vain be preached unto you, if afterwards you fuffer it to be overwhelmed by the business or the pleasures of the world. My purpose is to endeavour to lead you to that frame of mind, with which a Chrif tian ought to confider the difcourfes which he hears from the pulpit. Let me request your ferious attention. For on the atterition with which you regard the general truths now to be laid before you depends not only the benefit, fuch as it may be, which might be received, under the divine bleffing, 15 1. from from the present discourse: but much also of the advantage to be derived from the fu ture discourses, which the minifters of religion may addrefs to you. .. That you may furvey with a comprehenfive eye the extent of your duty, it may be useful that you should previously turn your thoughts to mine. In the first place, therefore, I shall briefly mention the duties of a Christian Preacher: and fhall then proceed to the duties of a Christian Hearer. I. Go ye into all the world, faid our Lord to his difciples, and preach the Gospel to every creature. Woe unto me, faid St. Paul, if I preach not the Gospel. I determined to know nothing among you, said the fame Apoftle on another occafion, but Jefus Chrift, and him crucified (a). A Christian Preacher is not to fet before the congregation a fyftem of religion in part devised or modified by his own fancy. He is not to confider what fpecies of doctrine will prove most agreeable to the natural imaginations of the heart, He is not to follow the fpeculative opinions of the wifeft of men; nor to establith moral truth and moral duty on the basis of human authority. He is to look to the (a) Mark, xvi. 15. 1 Cor. ix. 16. ii. 2. B 2 revealed |