God might open the eyes of his backslidden people, and show them wherein they have sinned against him!

Another cause of the low state of religion in the Church, is the carelessness of so many professing Christians in reading the Bible, and meditating on divine truth. Go into many of our Christian families, and you will find the tables covered with books and pamphlets, and works of fancy, designed for the entertainment of a certain class of readers, without any regard to their religious improvement. These books are eagerly sought after, read in the family, and provided for the entertainment of visitors, when the Bible is neglected, and its sacred truths kept out of view. The Bible is the great means which God has given for preserving and promoting spiritual religion in families, and in the Church. For this purpose, it should occupy the chief place in every family. It should be faithfully read and studied every day. Christ says, "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they testify of me." The Bereans were commended, because "they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so;" therefore many of them believed. And this is every Christian's duty. He must search the Scriptures-he must read his Bible every day; read it seriously, prayerfully, so that he may derive instruction and benefit from it. If he neglects this, he neglects the very means which God has given him for his improvement in religion. If he neglects his Bible, he will soon lose his interest in religion. He cannot go forward in the work. The Psalmist says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path;" and if we have not this lamp and this light, we shall soon be left in the dark, and lose our way. And it is by not paying sufficient attention to this light, that so many professing Christians lose their way. It is this that causes so many to stumble and fall in the Church; and it is in consequence of this, that the Church has so often reason to mourn over the low state of religion-the errors and offences-the wanderings and backslidings of so many of her members.

When people do not read the word of God, they have no desire to hear it preached. They neglect the public worship of God in the sanctuary, absent themselves from the ordinances, and feel no interest in the religious meetings of their brethren, for their spiritual improvement. This is usually the case with persons who neglect the Scriptures and the worship of God at home. They feel no interest in the public worship of God, and when they attend religious meetings, it seems more from constraint than from a willingness to be benefited and improved. This is also a cause of a low state of religion in many of our churches,

The next cause of the low state of religion among us, which I would mention, is the want of brotherly faithfulness in members of the Church towards each other. Christians should take a deep interest in each other's spiritual welfare. They are bound toge

ther by the most sacred ties. They should love each other as brethren, as members of the same spiritual family. They should always be united in the closest harmony and friendship; and when differences occur among them, they should immediately seek to become reconciled upon the principles laid down in the Gospel of Christ, Matt. xviii. 15-17. They should never indulge in any unkind and bitter feeling. They should never think of publishing each other's faults among men, or resorting to the world for the settlement of their difficulties; 1 Cor. vi. 1-7. For, whenever they do so, they go out of the way prescribed in the Gospel; they violate the law and commandment of Christ, and they bring dishonor on the Christian profession. All differences among Christians should be settled upon Christian principles; upon the principles asserted by the Apostle, that the saints shall judge the world; that Christians are the most proper persons to judge between their brethren, and that we should rather suffer wrong, than to contend before the world, and cause the wicked to blaspheme. This is the spirit in which all differences among Christians should be settled; and it is because there are so many professing Christians who are unwilling to be governed and directed by this spirit-so prone to indulge their selfish feelings-so unwilling to receive Christian counsel and advice, and so determined to have their own way, that religion suffers, and the cause of God languishes in so many Christian communities. Christians should feel such a deep interest in each other's welfare, they should have such a love and regard for each other, as faithfully to observe each other's conduct; and when they see anything that is wrong, anything hurtful to the soul of an individual, or injurious to the cause of religion, they should admonish one another, for God has commanded the Christian, "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." We should honestly and faithfully admonish and reprove one another for the errors and offences which we commit; and it is the want of this faithfulness among professing Christians, this want of interest in the welfare of our brethren, this proneness to selfishness, an unforgiving disposition and worldly temper in the Church, which has done more injury to religion than all other causes combined.

Such are the causes of the low state of religion. These causes exist among us. We see their sad effects, and feel their deleterious influence. We see how iniquity abounds, and the love of many is waxing cold: how the ways of Zion mourn, and how few come to her solemn feasts. How Christians forsake the assembling of themselves together, and how they are neglecting their Christian duties, falling from their steadfastness, and giving themselves away to a worldly spirit. We see how the cause of God is languishing in our midst-how religion is diminishing in our own hearts, how we are carried away by the spirit of the times. The reason is, we do not pray as Christians ought to pray, especially at such a time as this. We do not call upon the name

of the Lord with that earnestness and perseverance which are required. We do not agonize in prayer; we do not lay hold of the horns of the altar, and cry mightily to God, and wrestle with him, as his servants did, who prevailed. We do not read the Scriptures, and hear the word of God, and love and meditate upon it, as we ought to do. We are not faithful enough to each other as Christian brethren. We fall into sin, and backslide, and bring reproach upon the cause of Christ; and we suffer each other to go on, without laboring with each other and admonishing and reproving one another, as it is our solemn duty to do.

And now, in view of these causes, how ought we to feel, and what ought we to do? I answer,

1. In view of the low state of religion among us, and the causes which led to it, we ought to feel deeply humbled. It is not a light matter, which should pass over with a confession of sin, such as we are accustomed to make, and then think we have done all we can do, and is our duty to do. No, we have arrived at a crisis in the Church which should awaken deep feeling in every heart; we have turned away from God; we have grievously backslidden; we have fallen into open sins, which have brought dishonor on religion, opened the mouths of gainsayers, and made us a reproach and by-word before the world. And now God is ready to come out in judgment against us. He is already chastening us with his sore displeasure. It would almost seem that his Spirit had departed from us, and that he had given us up as a prey to the enemy. Difficulties and trials are coming upon us from every quarter, and roots of bitterness are springing up to trouble us in every direction; and if the Lord do not stretch forth His hand and save us, we must eventually perish. Such is our state; O that we might all realize it, O that every member of the church might see and feel the awful crisis we have reached! We would then feel like Nehemiah, when he said, "Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my father's sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire." Like Esther, the queen, when she fasted and prayed for the deliverance of her people, and entered into the presence of the king and sought relief. Like the priests and the ministers of God who wept between the porch and the altar, and cried, "Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach." Such should be our emotions and feelings, in view of the present state of religion among us. And the reason why we do not experience these emotions and feelings, is, that we are so blinded by sin that we cannot see our danger. And is it not to be feared that some of us are past all feeling, that we have hearts like the nether millstone, that our eyes are closed, that we cannot see,. and that God has sent us strong delusions, that we might go on and perish, as a judicial affliction upon us for our sins?

2. Christians should unite in faithful and judicious efforts for the reviving influences of the Holy Spirit. They should come

together, and consider the low state of religion; they should inquire into the causes, and make it a subject of special prayer, that they might be awakened to a just sense of their duties and responsibilities in the matter; they should feel that they are the cause of the spiritual deadness in the Church, of the neglect, and indifference, and contempt, with which religion is treated around them. They should feel that they are to blame in this matter, and that upon them rests the responsibility of continuing in this awful and perilous condition. Such a feeling in the Church usually leads to a blessed result: it brings down the Holy Spirit; and we cannot hope for the descent of the Holy Spirit until the Church begins to wake up and feel the weight of her responsibilities and duties. This is the great thing now needed among professing Christians. They must look at the state of religion; they must see how deplorable it is; they must feel to mourn over it; and then they must look into their own hearts, and see how, by their neglect of Christian duties, their worldly conformity, their backslidings and sins, they have contributed to this state, and how very guilty they are in the sight of God. They must confess their sins, and humble themselves before God, and repent in dust and ashes. They must call upon the Lord; pray for the Holy Spirit, and God will yet have mercy on them, and hearken to their cry, and send them relief.

3. Christians, in view of the low state of religion, should commence the work of reformation in their own families. We are too apt to look for great things abroad, when we should look for them at home. If we wish to have a revival in the Church, we must begin in the family. If there are any obstacles in our families, or in our own hearts, they must first be removed before we can hope to see a work of grace commence in our midst. We must prepare our families and our own hearts, and then we shall see it go on : and if every Christian did so, if he opened the way for the Holy Spirit in his family and his heart, how soon we would have a revival of religion. This is what hindered the Holy Spirit from coming in our midst; this prevents revivals of religion. We pray for them in the Church; we look for them abroad; but we do not pray-we do not look for them in our families and in our own hearts; and until we begin here, we cannot hope that God will hear our prayers and prosper our labors.

4. Christians should pray for a revival of religion, as the most necessary and important matter that can possibly engage their attention. They should pray, with one accord, with united hearts; they should assemble themselves together for this purpose; they should lay aside every other business, and attend to this; they should feel that this is the first and most necessary business to be attended to, and that the time spent in this business is most pleasing to God and profitable to their souls. They should realize, without a revival of religion, the times are constantly growing worse-iniquity is abounding-the love of Christians is

waxing colder--sinners are growing bolder in sin-God's wrath is waxing hotter against us, and the danger is constantly increasing that we shall all be consumed by that wrath. Such is our situation, and such the crisis to which we have arrived, that the only thing that can save the Church, and the country, and our families, from impending destruction, is a revival of religion. God is our only refuge from the storm that is ready to burst upon us. To Him let us flee. He alone, by His Almighty arm, and the influence of His spirit, can save us. Then let us ask this influence. Let us ask God to pour out His Holy Spirit upon our Churches, and our families, and our hearts. Let us pray that He may revive and refresh us by a shower of His grace. This is what we need, a revival of religion; and we need the spirit of prayer to obtain it. We need the spirit of the Patriarch who wrestled with God, and said, "I cannot let thee go, except thou give me a blessing." We need the spirit of the Prophet who intreated for Zion, and said, "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake will I not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth."

God alone can revive us, and He will revive us if we do our duty, and use the means He has appointed for this purpose. Though we have deserved that He should leave us to perish in our sins; though He is a Sovereign, and under no obligations to save us, even if we should use the means, yet He hath promised that He will have mercy upon us if we turn from our sins with penitent and broken hearts. He hath said in His word, "Return unto me, ye backsliding children, and I will heal all your backslidings." What a kind invitation! What a precious promise! O, let us accept this invitation. Let us lay hold of this promise, and let us say, "Behold we come unto Thee, for Thou art the Lord our God."

God can bring deliverance to His people. He can raise His Church out of her low state; He can turn the waste and desolate places into blooming fields; He can bring order out of confusion, light out of darkness, and can even so control and overrule sin and wickedness, when they have arrived at their highest pitch, so as to promote His purposes and glory. All this the Lord can do. But for this, He will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. This is the condition. If we want the power of God to be manifested in our deliverance and salvation, and the accomplishment of His blessed purposes, we must ask for it. O, then, let us ask for a manifestation of His power and grace in our midst. Let us ask for the Holy Spirit with humble, believing, persevering prayer, and then we may expect a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.