not forever." O my brethren, what powerful consolations are these to a believer, when his offspring are torn from him by death; how different are these feelings from those which wring the hearts of parents as they hang over the death-bed of an irreligious child. In trembling anxiety they mark the approach of his dissolution; his closing eye, his livid mouth, the death-like paleness spread over his whole countenance, teach them that in a few moments more, his destiny will be fixed for ever. They look to the future, but no cheering ray consoles them; all is dark, dismal, and afflictive; they behold their child torn from their embraces, seized by the fiends, and sentenced to that abyss whence "the smoke of his torments shall ascend for ever and ever." Thus keenly oppressed, they lean over his corpse, and exclaim with a heart almost broken with anguish, "Oh! Absalom, my son, my son, would God I had died for thee !" Merciful God, be present to such mourners, for thy consolations alone can prevent their gray hairs from descending in sorrow to the grave!

The feelings of your parents are of the same force, if, as is the common order of nature, they finish their lives before you. If you are truly pious, they can leave you with confidence to the protection of your heavenly friend; upheld by the hope, that you will be honoured and respected by men,

and at last acknowledged and received by the Lord, Animated by this hope, they will be serene and happy till the final pulse of their heart, and the last trembling accents that they utter, shall bless you for that ineffable pleasure which your pious conduct affords to them. But if, when you surround your dying parents you are still in your sins, you will disturb the tranquillity of their closing hours, and prevent them from giving up their souls to God with that serenity and triumph, which they might otherwise feel. Afflicted at the apprehension of your future destiny, fearful that you will plunge still more deeply into sin, when you shall no longer be restrained by their tender counsels and pious admonitions, they will be tortured by you, by their child: you, whose whole study and occupation it should be to render their dying hours pleasant and happy, will pierce their bosoms with sorrows more excruciating than those that were caused by their bitterest enemies. O Saviour! thou, who when about to re-assume thy glory, weptest at the prospect of the sins and perdition of thy much beloved Jerusalem; how often hast thou seen poor afflicted parents about to receive the crown of immortality, yet having their souls racked at beholding their unholy posterity! Ah! perhaps there are such at this moment somewhere stretched on the bed of languishment! O Saviour! haste to their succour, lest they be driven by the keenness of their tortures to revolt and to murmur at thy holy will!

My brethren, these scenes are not too highly coloured. They have often been presented to those of you who are in the habit of attending the death-bed of the saints. And what effect shall they have upon you, my young friends? Will you fail to be moved by the sighs and distresses of a tender father, by the anguish and tears of the mother that bore you? Will you still delight in grieving, in stabbing them to the heart? If so, pretend not to the sentiments of humanity; if so, renounce the name of man which you so much dishonour. But if, as I love to believe, you have acted thus through inconsideratenesss and want of reflection, pause instantly; and even though you are so foolish as to trifle and sport with endless perdition, be not so brutal as to trifle and sport with the feelings of your parents; and for their sakes, if not for your own, begin to seek early the God of your fathers.

My brethren, will any of you say, in order to avoid the force of this appeal to the best feelings of your nature-" All this, though true, is not applicable to me-my parents themselves are unconverted, and have not these feelings." Woe, woe, to such criminal parents! they shall answer not only for their own souls; the blood of their chil dren also shall be required at their hands! But leaving them to their Judge, let us enquire whether filial affection will not powerfully urge you also to seek the Lord, although your parents are as you

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say, unconverted. Yes, if you will turn unto the Lord, you will save them from accumulated misery, Their punishment, though it be solitary, will be inconceivably severe, when they are enwrapped in the flames of the abyss. But oh! if they meet you there, it will be tenfold more excruciating. The sight of you will kindle in their breasts an inward hell. At sight of you, conscience will speak to them in a voice of thunder, and reproach them, that worse than the worshippers of Moloch, they have not been contented with their own perdition, unless they could also sacrifice their child to satan, and devote him to the flames: Oh! flee in time then to Jesus, that you may not bring down this additional punishment on the heads of your parents. Oh! flee in time to Jesus, and you may perhaps be made the instruments of saving your parents from all these horrors. I recollect that it is remarked by the pious Baxter, that "at Kidderminster, where God most blest his labours, his first and greatest success was amongst the youth; and that when God had touched their hearts, the parents and grand-parents, who had grown old in an ignorant, worldly state, were many of them savingly converted unto the Lord." Many others, besides Baxter, have seen divine mercy operating in a similar manner. Oh! my brethren, what a powerful inducement is this! Your parents gave you animal life; you, by attending to the concerns of piety, may perhaps be made the instruments of their spiri

tual life: Your parents have brought you into this
fading world; you may perhaps be made the,instru-
ments of raising them to that world of light, where
there are pleasures for ever more.
Oh! if you
really love these parents, turn, turn unto the Lord,
that he may have mercy upon you, and that he may
through you, "pluck them as brands from the
burning."

Are there any amongst you who say, this motive still does not address me; my parents have left this earth, and their destinies are already fixed and im. mutable. Still this motive does address you, and address you with force. Are your parents lost and undone? We have already told you, that you will increase their torments by descending to join them. From the bosom of the pit the ungodly rich man cried out, "I pray thee father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five breth ren, lest they also come into this place of torment." (Luke. xvi. 28.) If your parents are the companions of this rich man, they also supplicate you to avoid their lot; to come not thither to aggravate their sufferings. Are your parents among the blest? Remember how Jesus hath told you that "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth :" (Luke. xv. 10.) and if your parents are amongst these angels, they surely, in an eminent degree participate in this joy. Think then, that perhaps the spirit of