if this last is our case, the light that is in us is darkness: we have shewn God that we love darkness rather than light, because our deeds are evil. Let us then turn unto the Lord to-day, while it is called to-day, lest He should cast us from Him in his wrath, should take His Holy Spirit for ever from us, and throw us, hereafter, both body and soul, into the place of torment, into that eternal darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Having thus shewn you how God is the Light of every Christian; I proceed to consider Him as our Salvation.

It needs no words to convince you, that, poor and helpless as we are by nature, we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, even in this present life; much less could we make ourselves eternally happy in the life to come. But what we could not do of ourselves God has promised to do for us and though we have, all, in spite of the light which He has given us, wandered and strayed from His ways like lost sheep, yet He has mercy and pity still, and calls upon every sinner to forsake his wicked

ness and turn to Him, and declares His readiness to forget and to forgive the past offences of those who draw near to Him with true repentance, and with earnest desires to amend.

And what has He done to shew us how He loves us, how greatly above all things He wishes His creatures' good? He spared not His only Son, but sent Him into the world that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life and that Son, Equal to His Father, in glory, greatness, and mercy, came down to do His Father's will: to give His life a ransom for many to nail, as it were, the sins of which we repent, to the cross on which He suffered, and to wash out the stain of our guilt by His own precious blood. Thus it is that the Almighty Maker and Lord of all things both in heaven and earth offers to be the salvation of us miserable sinners, by whom He is every day provoked: by the death of Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world, the kingdom of Heaven, which of ourselves we never could have reached, is opened to us, and

God by the greatest proofs of the greatest love, by the kindest promises and the most glorious offers, encourages us to enter in. Punishments indeed He has in store for those who refuse to listen to Him, choosing, in the hardness of their hearts, the sinful pleasures of the earth before the bright rewards of heaven: but, through the merits and death of Jesus Christ, there is sprung up a light for the righteous, and joyful gladness for such as are true of heart-and the repentant sinner who flies from his sins, and puts his trust in Christ crucified, shall surely be partaker of those good things which He has prepared for them that love Him, in the kingdom of His glory.

My brethren, although it is impossible for us by any thing that we can do, to deserve or to obtain the glory and happiness which God invites us to, yet let us at least be careful that we do nothing to forfeit them. For our infirmities and frailties God will make a merciful allowance, for our past sins that we truly repent of He will pardon us for Christ's sake; but wilful wickedness will bring down upon us his

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everlasting wrath; and, instead of being able to think upon God as our merciful Saviour, we shall only be able to think of Him as a righteous and justly-offended Judge, who will pay us that we have deserved. O that we would all endeavour by the righteousness and holiness of our lives, I will not say to make ourselves worthy of His mercy, for that we never can, but to become less unworthy of it day by day, and strive to be perfect even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect! Our enjoyments upon earth would all be sweeter than they are, our hopes of forgiveness stronger, our prospects of eternal glory brighter.

Having thus considered God as a Christian's light and salvation, we come now, in the last place, to consider Him as the strength of our life. Of that life He is the Giver: in Him we live, and move, and have our being, and through Him have we been holden up ever since we were born. The food that we eat, and the clothing that we put on are all the gifts of His bountiful Providence to us, and though we take them and

enjoy them as if they were our own by right, and think but little of the giver, He could in a moment deny them to us, if it were His will to do so. In short, my brethren, we are nothing, and God is every thing. Dust we are, and unto dust we must return of ourselves we can neither have nor do any thing, and it is only of his never-ending mercy that these perishable bodies of ours are preserved, protected, and supported as they are. We are assured that God hateth nothing that he has made, and our Blessed Saviour has given us a most lovely description of the care which God has for all his creatures, and above all for man: He tells us that not even a sparrow falls to the ground unknown to God- that it is through Him that the grass grows and the flowers open their leaves and blossoms. to the sun: He bids us believe that we are of more value in the sight of God than these things, and that if He take such care of them, much more will He provide for us: He tells us that even the hairs of our head are all numbered; that is, that there is nothing that concerns us so trifling but our Heavenly Father knows it.