who are lost. They are perfectly sufficient for the end designed. They supply every possible want. They meet every possible difficulty. They come up to the utmost extent of the sinner's need. And whosoever is willing to receive them, finds in them, a full and everlasting salvation. The Gospel thus attains its great and all-important object. It proclaims the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus, reconciling God to you. It offers the all-powerful influence of the Holy Ghost to reconcile you to God. It announces God to be already reconciled in his Son. It intreats you to be reconciled to him, by the Spirit. It is thus effectual for the purpose of the Son of man "to seek, and to save that which was lost."

III. In concluding my remarks upon this important subject, I must ask you to examine with the utmost fidelity, how far this object has been attained among you.

"The Son of man has come to seek and to save," this whole congregation of sinners, pressing forward to the judgment seat of God. Had the gospel produced its proper effect, there would not be in this assembly one transgressor still alienated from God through the blindness of his mind. But alas, how far are we from this result! What mean the number of slaves to the world, of captives to Satan, to whom the solemn voice of the Almighty God this day comes in the warnings of his word? What mean the giddy children of folly and mirth, for whom hell has opened her mouth, and still enlarges herself without measure? Whence the swarm of infidel hearts that yet lift up themselves in rebellion against the Creator of heaven and earth? O, how very partially has the great object of the gospel been attained among you! Could I go from soul to soul before me, and see the mark of God's infallible determination of character rise upon your foreheads as I approached each; upon what numbers should I read that solemn word, LOST, LOST! in many cases, perhaps, beyond the reach of recovery! And what would be the probable result-but, that

the greater portion of this assembly of immortal beings would be proclaimed, to be still under the wrath of God, and without hope in the world? This fact is awful; is it a fact? Am I now addressing hundreds who are denying the Lord that bought them, and bringing upon their souls a swift destruction? And are you careless and unconcerned under such views of your character and condition? Do you feel nothing? Have you no desire to be brought back to the fold of Jesus? Have you no wish to be saved in the day of his power? Will you choose as your portion, the darkness and despair in which unpardoned sin will inevitably involve you? I would ask you honestly and affectionately, will you determine to drive the Son of God from your souls, and lie down in the unbeliever's everlasting portion?

I would speak to you, as a poor sinful creature, with humility and tenderness; but I would speak to you also, as the minister of God to you for good, with authority and much assurance; I warn the multitude of dying and yet unconverted sinners to whom I speak, that they cannot escape the just judgment of God. I call upon you in the name of the glorious Redeemer, who desires not your death, to awake from the ruinous delusion which you are playing upon your own hearts. Lay up no more sorrow for the last days. Be no longer infatuated with the false promises of the destroyer. The Son of man has sought you, O shall he not be allowed to save you and bless you with peace? Every thing is waiting the result of your own determination; heaven and hell are often suspended upon a moment's choice: and this night you either go back with the shepherd to the fold, or you bind yourself the more irrevocably to the power of the destroyer.

Poor deluded sinner, lost! O, how much is meant by that one word lost. The man has wandered from his home, the shadows of the evening are stretched out, the coming darkness hurries on despair. Alone in a wilderness, wearied with

anxiety and fatigue, with no track to lead him to his home, no prospect of repose but on the bosom of the desert, no shelter for the night but the chill atmosphere of his solitude, with what feverish delirium he throws himself upon the earth. Home, children, friends, comforts and joys, all crowd into his bewildered mind. But these are gone. He shall see them no more. He is lost, and many a heart is swelling with anguish at the fear that he is lost forever. No sound arrests his ear but the desert's blast, or the wild beast's roar; and hope, and peace, and reason too, have taken their flight from his disordered mind.

But see, a messenger of kindness comes to this lost man to tell him of a path to his home, and to lead him back to its secure repose. He wakes him from his dream, intreats him to arise and go with him, assures him that he will lead him in safety to his own abode, and with a thousand words of sympathy and love intercedes with him for his own deliverance. But reason and feeling and recollection have gone, and though he is lost, he refuses to hearken to his guide. He will listen for a moment to his kind offer, and then lie down in the madness of despair, finally to perish, and turn a deaf ear to every intreaty and remonstrance. You pity the image which fancy has created, but you are lost, and will not pity the actual miseries of your own ruined, deserted souls, nor allow the Son of man, this messenger of mercy, to bring you back to his Father's house in peace.

LECTURE II.

THE GOSPEL WAY OF SALVATION.

By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God.—EPHESIANS, II. 8.

man.

THE great object of the Gospel is the eternal salvation of To accomplish this object, has been the design of the Son of God, in all that he has done, and suffered, and taught. The accomplishment of this great purpose, is all that man requires. Let the sinner be saved, and he may be happy in the possession of this salvation, though he be poor, and heavily burdened with the sorrows of the present life. Let him live and die without the attainment of this salvation, and all the wealth and indulgences of the world, cannot purchase for him, the comfort which he needs. The few years of his existence here, are but of small importance; whether they pass away in sorrow or in joy, they will soon pass, and their pains and pleasures be alike forgotten. So far as this life is concerned, therefore, it would be reasonable in you, to dismiss anxiety and care. But you have to die ;-and after death, the judgment; and after the judgment, eternity is before you. These claim, and must have your faithful consideration, and intense concern. Seventy years of life, even if you are sure of their possession, we will allow you to despise. But the countless ages of a future state cannot be thus lightly treated. For them, the great question is to be settled, and to be settled here, shall you be SAVED or LOST ?

The object of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, is to settle this important question for you, and to save you with an everlasting salvation. It teaches you how you shall attain this everlasting salvation, how you shall escape the just judgment of God, and come before his spotless throne, in perfect and eternal peace. This is the subject of instruction which I desire to bring before you, in the present discourse, in which I would speak, of the Gospel way of salvation.

By nature, you are in a state of utter ruin and condemnation. You have no peace with God, and when awakened by the Holy Spirit to see your real condition, no comfort or hope in yourselves. Eternity appears before you filled with the blackness of darkness forever. You have no foundation for hope when God takes away your soul. God, in his righteous indignation against you, appears a consuming fire, and you feel that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. But how you shall escape this anger, or be delivered from the proper consequences of your own transgressions, it is utterly beyond your power to determine. This is a mystery which would have remained hidden in God forever, had it not pleased him, in the riches of his grace, to reveal it to you, in the Gospel of his Son. To the simple decision of this point, the text before us, comes with the revelation of the wisdom of God, while it answers, as from the very throne of the Most High, to every question and every doubt, " By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

In considering this subject, the text presents three natural divisions, in the three assertions which it makes:

I. "By grace ye are saved," as the cause and the instru

ment.

II. "Through faith," as the method.

III. "It is the gift of God," as the origin.

I. "By grace ye are saved." When we are first awakened