pared to meet God, or shewing the way of preparation, but words in which God calls them to think how they can meet him in the day of his Judgment. So when God answers Job, and would strip off his self-confidence, he says, "Gird up thy loins like a man;" i. e. prepare to answer and contend with him whom thou despisest, as thou best knowest how! Oh, sinner, thou despisest the voice of God warning thee! thou despisest his way of salvation! thou wilt not listen to the sound of his Gospel, or his ministers, then prepare to meet God in your own way. Place yourself for a moment-where you must soon be—at the bar of reckoning; there sits the appointed Judge, the Saviour, whose Gospel salvation thou hast despised; whose arm of Judgment thou laughest at, to shew thee that God is not mocked, for whatsoever thou sowest thou must also reap.

What says it to thee, O believer in Jesus. Its voiec crics in thine ears, Up and be doing;' redeem the time, for the time is short; glorify your God while you may; give all diligence to make your calling and election sure; pray for yourself, that when your Lord cometh, he may find you "so doing;" for the sheep that wander yet, that they may be gathered in before the storm; for those that are brought within the fold, that they may be kept close at the side of the Good Shepherd; and so fear not, come death in whatever farm God may send it, all is well, for "Ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

(To be continued.)

SHORT SERMON.

"Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed”—Luke xvi. 26. THE Bible unfolds to us, on the one hand, the character of the man who is "the friend of God;" and, on the other, describes him who is "without hope" and "without God in the world."

But it does more; it opens up heaven, and particularizes the joys and felicities of that blessed place, and the everlasting enjoyment of the followers of the Lamb. It also removes the covering of the pit, and we behold the agony and despair of impenitent and unholy creatures in Hell, where they are suffering the punishment due to their sins, and their contempt of a holy God. Between these two states, our text informs us, there is a great gulf fixed; from which I proceed to show,

1st That there is a great gulf between the man who is "the friend of God," and him who is " without God in the world," in time.

2nd That there is an impassable gulf between them in eternity.

My first position will appear by briefly giving you a description of the one, and by placing in opposition to it the character of the other. "The friend of God" has become so, not by being born of a woman, or of the will of man, but by being born immediately of God, by receiving an unction from the Holy One to know all things. He stands acquitted at God's bar of all his original and actual sin; and not only so, but he has the righteousness of God actually conferred upon him through Christ: so that by his birth, as well as by his actual condition, he is related to God as "The Spirit itself beareth witness

a son,

with his spirit, that he is a child of God;" the spirit of adoption enables him to ery Abba Father. He brings forth the fruits of the Spirit, which is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;" and because he is born of incorruptible seed, his fruit does not wither. God has written his law in his inward parts, and he shall never depart from him. In every calamity, he knows that neither the rage of men or devils, nor the depravity of his own heart, can separate him from God. He can say, "Who shall separate us from the love of God? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? nay in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Moreover he is "spirituallyminded," which is "life and peace;" that is, the great things which God has revealed are brought nigh to him by faith; he apprehends them, and is led by them daily. Faith is to him another sense, which leads him to walk with God. To sum up all, God in Christ is his father, his friend, and his eternal portion.

In opposition to this character, the man " without hope," and "without God in the world, is a partaker only of the first birth, and therefore stands chargeable with the guilt of Adam's sin, as well as his own actual transgression. Sentence of eternal death has been passed upon him, which, if not reversed, will be carriea into effect immediately he leaves this world.

The Devil having blinded the eyes of his mind, he has become his willing slave and bondman; the works of the Devil he does, even those works which the world calls good, such as his charity, and his integrity, partake of the nature of sin, and sin is of the Devil. His chief good lies in the present world, wherein he lives not for eternity, but for time; continually is he asking, who will shew me any good? Now one scheme of worldly profit, or pleasure, engages him, and again another; and thus he goes on, till death staring him in the face, he finds he has neglected the one thing needful; he is weighed in the balances, and found wanting. The sorrow of the world working death seizes him; he sorrows on account of the punishment of his sins, but never repents of the evil of them; and, at last, with some indistinct notion of the mercy of a Saviour, (alas, no Saviour for him!) he drops into eternity!

Examine these characters, my reader, and say, is there not a great gulf between them? On which side of the gulf are you? If on the wrong, know for your comfort, it is not an impassable gulf; it may be crossed even now by regeneration, or the new birth. But for your caution bear in mind, it must actually be crossed before you can become a Christian indeed, and a partaker of the benefits of the Gospel-before you can become a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven.

2nd There is an impassable gulf between them in eternity.

This will be manifest if we consider the state and condition of the redeemed soul in the world to come. He has already washed his robes, and made them

white in the blood of the Lamb; and now that ke has crossed the river of death, I hear a voice saying, 'Write, blessed is he, for he died in the Lord.' The angels convey him to Abraham's bosom, and he becomes an inhabitant of the new Jerusalem. God himself condescends to dwell with him, and to be his God. A crown of life is placed upon his head, and a golden harp is put into his hands. A new song is put into his mouth, and he sings the song of Moses and the Lamb, saying "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints." All the tears which he shed over his sins; all the mourning and lamentation for his short-comings and lack of love have for ever ceased.

God has

wiped them all from his eyes, and he knows no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, for the former things are passed away. I cannot convey to you any just idea of the eternal weight of glory, which his redeemed soul possesses. Eye hath not seen it, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive it; but this much I can tell yon, that he now sees Christ face to face, and beholds his glory, which constitutes the sum of his life and happiness.

With this happy state, contrast the state and condition of him who died "without Christ," and "withont hope." "I have seen the wicked," says the Psalmist," in great power. Yet he passed away, and lo he was not,-yea I sought him, but he could not be found." He made a great stir in his day, but he passed away like a vision of the night;

and now if

I look for him, I see nothing of him but what thrills me with horror. Snatched away from all he holds