have shown you that your souls are diseased, and that, unless you are healed, you must perish eternally. Then I told you that God alone can save, and pointed you to the crucified Saviour as the only remedy. Next I showed you how you must apply the remedy, that is, by a living faith; and lastly, I showed you that, if you lay hold on Christ in this way, you cannot perish, but must be brought by him to glory.

Perhaps you think I have detained you long enough, but I wish to say a few words more. I want to ask you all whether you have been to Christ and had this terrible disease cured in the way that has been mentioned. I am afraid that many of you have not. Ah! I am afraid there are some of you who never will. I am afraid you will let the disease run on until it ends in the everlasting death of your souls.

My dear friends, what are you about? Why will you die? Are you resolved to perish, in spite of all that a tender Saviour has done for your salvation. Oh! what madness! Suppose one of those Israelites who were bitten by those poisonous serpents had refused to look upon the serpent of brass and be healed. Would you not say he must have been a madman? Yet this is just what you have done, are doing every day. You are poisoned by sin, and must die a worse death than that of the Israelites, unless you are cured. God offers you a remedy, but you cast it from you. Again; suppose you were standing on the bank of the river, and were to see a man drowning. If there was a boat near, you would jump into it and row out into the stream to help him out of the water. But suppose, when you got to the place where he was drowning, he should say you should not help him out of the water.

ness.

Would you not say he was a madman? But this is what you are doing. You are perishing, and Christ offers to help you, but you will not let him. Is not this madness? Yes, my hearers, it is worse than madness; it is wickedOh! it is wicked, very wicked, for you to treat the blessed Saviour in this way. And you must remember that he will punish you for it, unless you repent and fly to him for salvation. Kind, and gentle, and tender, as he now is, it will be a fearful thing to fall into his hands in the day of judgment. How will you then escape if you now neglect his great salvation? We are told in Scripture, "he that despised Moses's law died without mercy." And then this fearful question is asked, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?" May God make you to feel your guilt and danger, that you may také refuge in Jesus, before it is for ever too late.

In the West India islands there is a beautiful tree called the manchaneel. It bears a kind of apple which looks rich and delicious, something like the golden pippin. Its smell and appearance are both very tempting. All who take it in their hands are tempted to eat it. But to eat of it is instant death. Its sap and juice are so poisonous that a few drops of it, put on the skin, will raise blisters, and give great pain. When the Indians used to go to war they dipped their arrows in the juice, so that all whom those arrows struck were poisoned and died. But think now, how good God is to men. It is a fact, that you can never find one of these trees, without finding near it another tree, either the white wood, or the fig tree, the juice of either of which, if used in time, is a certain cure for the poison of the manchaneel.

Now this is just like sin, and salvation by Jesus Christ. The manchaneel is sin, which poisons the soul; the white wood, or fig tree, is salvation by Jesus, which destroys sin. Like this poisonous apple, sin looks pleasant to the eye, and all men who handle it, and eat of it, are poisoned and die. Many people think there is no harm in this or that little sin. They say, "Oh! it is only a small sin. It will not hurt us." But who would eat only a little poison? The least quantity of the juice of that poisonous tree will cause death. The smallest sin, if not forgiven of God, will ruin your soul in eternity. Sin is a poisonous fruit that you must not even taste. No, it ought not to be even looked upon with pleasure. Satan has dipped his darts in the poison of sin, and points them at your heart. All whom they strike die the most painful and bitter death, unless they go in time to Jesus Christ, and trust him as their gracious and all-healing physician, to cure them.

"My friends, all of you have looked upon the poisonous tree of sin. You have desired it and eaten of it. If you are not cured of it you will surely die. "The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die." There is only one physician who can cure you. He is always at hand. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us He pours the oil of consolation into our He soothes the troubled conscience. He poison of our sins, and makes us pure

from all sin." wounded hearts. washes out all the and fit for heaven.

C. M.

Alas! and did my Saviour bleed?

And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Was it for crimes, that I had done,
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,

When God, the mighty Maker, died
For man, the creature's sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve, my heart, in thankfulness,
And melt, my eyes, to tears.

But drops of tears can ne'er repay
The debt of love I owe;

Here, Lord, I give myself away—
'Tis all that I can do.

QUESTIONS.-1. What must take place in a man, before he can be saved? 2. Are all men by nature sinners? 3. What is sin said to be like? 4. What was the brazen serpent? 5. What did Moses hang it up for? 6. Who has been hung upon the cross for us to look at? 7. What is it to look to Christ? 8. Can Christ heal us of our sins? 9. What does he say will be our portion if we do not believe in him?

SERMON V.

THE SLEEPING SINNER AWAKENED.

BY THE REV. T. T. CASTLEMAN.

"What meanest thou, oh sleeper? arise, call upon thy God; if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not." JONAH i. 6.

THERE was once, far away in the East, a great city called Nineveh. It was sixty miles round, and within were more than six hundred thousand people. But no

Christian Sabbath was known there. No sound of the church-bell invited the people to the house of God. No company of Christians met to offer up prayer and praise to His name. The people thought not of God. They loved not His laws. They all lived in sin. Their wickedness rose up, as it were, in the sight of heaven. For a long, long time, God was patient with them. At last he could bear with them no more. He grew weary of their sins; and said he would destroy the city and all the people in it. But He would not do this without giving them warning, and still further time to repent. He, therefore, commanded a man, whose name was Jonah, to go and cry out in the streets "forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed." But the people of Nineveh were rich, and proud, and great. Jonah could not see how God could find it in His heart to destroy so great a city, and so many thousand people. He was afraid to go to them on