much for you, who scarcely ever think about him. If you wish to be happy now; if you wish to be happy when you die; if you wish to be happy for ever in heaven, ask of Jesus this very day, to teach you how to pray.

Do any of you long to be taught by Jesus? I can tell you he is more willing to teach you than you are to be taught by him. He will send his Holy Spirit into your hearts, if you will but ask him. And this Holy Spirit will teach you to pray. Then you will say the Lord's Prayer with delight, for you will know the meaning of it. But I have said enough to you for one time. Try to remember what I have said. Think of it when you go home. Say to Jesus very often in the day, Lord teach me to pray.'

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POETRY.

DANGER OF DELAY.

STAY, thou harden'd, heedless sinner,-
No longer drink the draught of woe;
Stay, while the lamp of life doth glimmer,-
While streams from mercy's fountain flow.
Oh, stay! behold the Lord a Father,

Forbearing, gracious, fondly kind;
And thou whom 'neath his wing he'd gather,
Art proud, rebellious, madly blind.
Yet still his arms are widely thrown;-
Yet still his cup with love runs o'er;-
Yet still his grace is freely. shown;-
His mercy boundless as before.
Return, return, and he will meet,

The humble, sin-sick, mournful, soul;
Oh! he will guide thy wand'ring feet,
And make thy wounded spirit whole.
Yes in the Saviour's pard'ning blood,
"Wash and be clean," the gospel cries;
Nor does he ask for aught that's good;
-But broken hearts for sacrifice.

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In showing then our need of a revival, it seems necessary not only to point out the present depressed and dwarfish standard of our Christianity; but also to refer to the causes that have produced it, that they may be removed. Whence, then, has arisen this lamentable, lukewarm, Laodicean spirit? And here, though I reluctantly turn accuser of my brethren, I do fear the tame and compromising sermons of some, the trimming and haggling discourses of others, the paring, cutting, and chipping the Gospel to shreds and shavings, has mainly conduced to this sad effect; and I see not how the present state of things is to be revived, till we have a fuller, more free, and less equivocal declaration of the doctrines of grace, a larger declaration of the doctrines of the Cross.

The circumstances in which the Church has been placed, have also combined to the same unhappy result. This is a day, when a man is not called upon to give up much for religion, when the profession of it is not only creditable, but also profitable; and I fear in these peace

I

ful times, many are for us who are not of us; many have entered the gates of our Zion who know nothing at all of spiritual religion, whose influence is as the deadly Upas tree upon the body. For them alas! they are the most hopeless of all characters; though within the pale of the Church, they are the farthest from the kingdom of heaven. They have mistaken membership for real union and fellowship; they have received a ticket of admission, and have been stamped by the Church's signet, and now they are proof against conviction, and slumber on the pillow of carnal security; yea, so soundly do they slumber, that nothing can rouse them but the sounds from the infernal pit, whither they are driven by this dreadful delusion. Such members, my dear readers, are to be found in every body; and it is time you should be on your guard, lest their spirit imperceptibly encroach upon your's. Wherefore I would exhort you, my beloved, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith 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 sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." What if you were to withdraw from a covetous, railing member, from one that is an extortioner, according to the apostle's rule. (1 Cor. v. 11.) You might, indeed, be thought turbulent, factious, and uncharitable; you might be looked shy upon by the whole body; you might make even the Church your enemy; but this I tell you, you are in the way for a revival of personal religion; you are in the way for a revival in your own community, and in the world.

That a revival is needed in the world needs no demonstration; the mass has become more and more corrupt; so corrupt, indeed, as to bring down the visible

judgments of God by pestilence. Not that unregenerate men, from the highest to the lowest, are changed in their nature, but only what was always in their hearts has now come out; hence the denial of God's providence by Christian legislators; Sabbath profanation, by high, and low, rich and poor, by governors and governed ; attempts in high quarters to suppress God's book; prostration of all classes to the idols of the day-liberality and mammon; and, last, though not least, a crucifying afresh the Son of God, and rejecting Him, or putting Him to an open shame; these, all these, cry aloud for a national revival, which I am persuaded is our nation's only strength and security in her present trying circumstances. I hope, then, I have shown our need of a revival both in the Church and in the world.

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Thirdly. I will give you the reasons we have for expecting a revival.—And here it will be necessary for me to refer,

First, To those prophecies of Scripture which speak of a great improvement and growth of Christians in holiness." Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." (Isai. Ix. 1-3.) This speaks of religion being so glorious in itself, as to invite and attract them that are without; and the effect upon religious persons themselves, to make them far outshine the glory of former times and ages. So also in Malachi, iv. 2: "But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings;" that is, in that day of the Lord spoken of in verse 1, "Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble:

and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Here it is to be observed, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with reviving, cherishing beams upon the actual fearers of God, and make them spring and prosper even as calves of the stall, as it is expressed, That is, as I understand it, they shall not be faint, languid, and impotent, as they now are, but strong and flourishing.

Secondly. To those prophecies which speak of nume◄ rous conversions, of a revival in its most extended sense."Now in the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isai. ii. 2-4.) The world has never yet known such a great effusion of the Spirit, accompanied with a state of peace and tranquility, which determines the last days to be the latter times of the Messiah's. reign, which is yet certainly future. The prophecies in Micah iv. 1, 2, Dan. ii. 34, 35, Isai. liv. 1-9, lxvi. 6, lx. 4, 5, Joel ii. 28, appear to me all to refer to the same event, which passages I hope my readers will turn to in their Bibles. That such Scriptures have been fulfilling ever since the ascension of our