bling method of reading, whether it be the scriptures or other books, is not to edification: it often arises from levity of mind, and sometimes from impatience; both of which are states very unfriendly to improvement. Remember it is salvation you are in quest of; an object of such transcendent importance, as to be a check upon volatility, and of such value, as to encourage the most exemplary patience.

7. Read calmly. You are anxious to obtain eternal life you are eagerly asking, "What shall I do to be saved?" But still, you must not allow your solicitude so far to agitate your mind, as to prevent you from listening calmly and coolly for the answer. In circumstances of great anxiety, men are sometimes so much under the power of excited feelings, that the judgment is bewildered, and thus they are not only prevented from finding out what is best to be done, but from seeing it when it is laid down by another. This anxious and hurried state of mind is very common in those who are just awakened to a concern about salvation; they are restless and eager to gain relief, but are defeated in their object by their very solicitude to obtain it. The scriptures are read, sermons are heard, advice of friends is received, in a confused state of mind. Now you must guard against this, and endeavour so far to control your thoughts, and calm your perturbation, as to attend to the counsels and cautions which are here suggested.

8. I very earnestly recommend the perusal of

all those passages of scripture and chapters which I have quoted, and which, for the sake of brevity, I have only referred to, without quoting the words. I lay great stress upon this. Read this book with the Bible at your elbow, and do not think much of the trouble of turning to the passages quoted. If, unhappily, you should consider me, or my little volume, as a substitute for the Bible, instead of a guide to it, I shall have done you an injury, or rather you will have done yourself an injury by thus employing it. "As new-born babes," says the apostle, " desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby," 1 Pet. ii. 2. And as those infants thrive best who are fed from the breast of their mother, so those converts grow most in grace, who are most devoted to a spiritual perusal of the scriptures. If, therefore, I stand between you and the word of God, I do you great disservice; but if I should persuade you to read the scriptures, I shall greatly help you in your religious course. Perhaps, in the present state of your mind, it is not desirable to begin and read regularly the word of God, but to go through those passages which I have selected and recommended.

And now may God, of his great goodness and sovereign grace, deign to bless the perusal of this book to many immortal souls, by making it, however humble the production, the means of conducting them into the path of life!

CHAPTER I.

DEEP SOLICITUDE

ABOUT SALVATION REASONABLE

AND NECESSARY.

READER, you have lately been awakened, by the mercy of God, to ask, with some degree of anxiety, that momentous question, "What shall I do to be saved?" No wonder you should be anxious; the wonder is, that you were not concerned about this matter before, that you are not more deeply solicitous now, and that all who possess the word of God do not sympathize with you in this anxiety. Every thing justifies solicitude and condemns indifference. Unconcern about the soul, indifference to salvation, is a most irrational, as well as a most guilty state of mind. The wildest enthusiasm about these matters is less surprising and unreasonable, than absolute carelessness, as will appear from the following considerations.

1. You are an immortal creature, a being born for eternity, a creature that will never go out of existence. Millions of ages, as numerous as the sands upon the shore, and the drops of the ocean, and the leaves of all the forests on the globe, will not shorten the duration of your being; eternity, vast eternity, incomprehensible eternity, is before you. Every day brings you nearer to everlasting torments or felicity. You may die any moment; and you are as near to heaven or hell as you are to death. No wonder you are asking, “What shall I do to be saved ?"

2. But the reasonableness of this anxiety appears,

B

if you add to this consideration, that you are sinners. You have broken God's law; you have rebelled against his authority; you have acted as an enemy to him, and made him your enemy. If you had committed only one single act of transgression, your situation would be alarming. One sin would have subjected you to the sentence of his law, and exposed you to his displeasure; but you have committed sins. more in number, and greater in magnitude, than you know, or can conceive of. Your whole life has been one continued sin: you have, so far as God is considered, done nothing but sin. Your transgressions have sent up to heaven a cry for vengeance. You are actually under the curse of the Almighty.

3. Consider what the loss of the soul includes. The loss of the soul is the loss of every thing dear to man as an immortal creature: it is the loss of heaven, with all its honours, felicities, and glories; it is the loss of God's favour, which is the life of all rational creatures; it is the loss of every thing that can contribute to our happiness; and it is the loss of hope, the last refuge of the wretched. The loss of the soul includes in it all that is contained in that dreadful word, Hell!—it is the eternal endurance of the wrath of God; it is the lighting down of the curse of the Almighty upon the human spirit; or rather, it is the falling of the human spirit into that curse, as into a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. How true, as well as solemn, are the words of Christ, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" All the tears that ever have been, or ever will be shed on the face of the earth; all the groans that ever have been, or ever will be uttered; all the anguish

that ever has been, or ever will be endured by all the inhabitants of the world, through all the ages of time, do not make up an equal amount of misery to that which is included in the loss of one human soul. Justly therefore do you say, who are exposed to this misery, "What shall I do to be saved ?”

4. This solicitude is reasonable if you consider that the eternal loss of the soul is not a rare, but a very common occurrence. It is so tremendous a catastrophe, that if it happened only once in a year, or once in a century, so as to render it barely possible that it should happen to you, it would be unpardonable carelessness not to feel some solicitude about the matter how much more, then, when, alas! it is an every day calamity. So far from its being a rare thing for men to go to hell, it is a much rarer thing for them to go to heaven. Our Lord tells us, that the road to destruction is thronged, while the way to life is travelled by few. Hell opens its mouth wide, and swallows up multitudes in perdition. How alarming is the idea, and how probable the fact, that you may be among this number! Some that read these pages will very likely spend their eternity with lost souls; it is therefore your wisdom, as well as your duty, to cherish the anxiety which says, "What shall I do to be saved ?"

5. Salvation is possible, for if it were not, it would be useless to be anxious about it. It would be cruel to encourage an anxiety which could never be relieved by the possession of the object which excites it. But your case is not hopeless; you may be saved; you are invited to be saved. Christ has died for your salvation, and God waits to save you; all the opportunities, and advantages, and helps, and encouragements to salvation are round you; the blessing is within your reach; it is brought near to