will He hail the returning allegiance of every rebel, as a new accession to His triumphs, as another trophy to the might and the glory of His great undertaking.

But, amid all this latitude of call and of invitation, let me press upon you that alternative character of the gospel, to which we have often adverted. We have tried to make known to you, how its encouragements rise the one above the other to him who moves towards it. But it has its corresponding terrors and severities, which also rise the one above the other to him who moves away from it. If the transgressor will not be recalled by the invitation which we have now made known to him, he will be rivetted thereby into deeper and more hopeless condemnation. If the offer of peace be not entertained by him; then, in the very proportion of its largeness and generosity, will the provocation be of his insulting treatment in having rejected it. Out of the mouth of the Son of man there cometh a two-edged sword. There is pardon free as the light of heaven to all who will. There is wrath, accumulated and irretrievable wrath, to all who will not. Kiss the Son, therefore, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way: when His wrath is kindled but a little, blessed only are they who put their trust in Him."

It is the most delusive of all calculations to put off the acceptance of the gospel, because of its freeness and because it is free at all times-and because the present you think may be the time of

your unconcern and liberty, and some distant future be the time of your return through that door which will still be open for you. The door of Christ's mediatorship is ever open, till death put its unchangeable seal upon your eternity. But the door of your own heart, if you are not receiving Him, is shut at this moment, and every day is it fixing and fastening more closely-and long ere death summon you away, may it at length settle immoveably upon its hinges, and the voice of Him who standeth without and knocketh, may be unheard by the spiritual ear-and, therefore, you are not made to feel too much, though you feel as earnestly as if now or never' was the alternative on which you were suspended. It is not enough, that the word of God, compared to a hammer, be weighty and powerful. The material on which it works must be capable of an impression. It is not enough, that there be a free and forcible application. There must be a willing subject. You are unwilling now, and therefore it is that conversion does not follow. To-morrow, the probability is, that you will be still more unwilling-and therefore, though the application be the same, the conversion is still at a greater distance away from you. And thus, while the application continues the same, the subject hardens, and a good result is ever becoming more and more unlikely-and thus may it go on till you arrive, upon the bed of your last sickness, at the confines of eternity-and what, we would ask, is the kind of willingness that comes

upon you then? Willing to escape the pain of hell-this you are now, but yet not willing to be a Christian. Willing that the fire and your bodily sensations be kept at a distance from each otherthis you are now, for who of you at present would thrust his hand among the flames? Willing that the frame of your animal sensibilities shall meet with nothing to wound or to torture it-this is willingness of which the lower animals, incapable of religion, are yet as capable as yourself. You will be as willing then for deliverance from material torments as you can be now-but there is a willingness which you want now, and which, in all likelihood will then be still more beyond the reach of your attainment. If the free gospel do not meet with your willingness now to accept and to submit to it, neither may it then. And we know not, my brethren, what has been your experience in death-beds; but sure we are, that both among the agonies of mortal disease, and the terrors of the malefactor's cell, Christ may be offered, and the offer be sadly and sullenly put away. The free proclamation is heard without one accompanying charm-and the man who refused to lay hold of it through life, finds that, in the impotency of his expiring grasp, he cannot apprehend it. And oh, if you but knew how often the word of faith may fall from the minister, and the work of faith be left undone upon the dying man, never would you so postpone the purposes of seriousness, or look forward to the last week of your abode upon earth as to the convenient

season for winding up the concerns of a neglected eternity.

If you look attentively to the text, you will find, that there is something more than a shade of difference between being reconciled and being saved. Reconciliation is spoken of as an event that has already happened-salvation as an event that is to come. The one event may lead to the other; but there is a real distinction between them. It is true, that the salvation instanced in the preceding verse, is salvation from wrath. But it is the wrath which is incurred by those who have sinned wilfully, after they had come to the knowledge of the truth— "when there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the abversaries." Jesus Christ will save us from this by saving us from sin. He who hath reconciled us by His death, will, by His life, accomplish for us this salvation. Reconciliation is not salvation. It is only the portal to it. Justification is not the end of Christ's coming-it is only the means to an ultimate attainment. By His death He pacified the Lawgiver. By His life He purifies the sinner. The one work is finished. The other is not so, but is only going on unto perfection. And this is the secret of that unwillingness which we have already touched upon. There is a willingness that God would lift off from their persons the hand of an avenger. But there is not a willingness that Christ would lay upon their persons the hand of a sanc

tifier. The motive for Him to apprehend them is to make them holy. But they care not to apprehend that for which they are apprehended. They see not that the use of the new dispensation, is for them to be restored to the image they have lost, and, for this purpose, to be purged from their old sins. This is the point on which they are in darkness" and they love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil." They are at all times willing for the reward without the service. But they are not willing for the reward and the service together. The willingness for the one they always have. But the willingness for both they never have. They have it not to-day-and it is not the operation of time that will put it in them to-morrow. Nor will disease put it in. Nor will age put it in. Nor will the tokens of death put it in. Nor will the near and terrific view of eternity put it in. It may call out into a livelier sensation than before, a willingness for the reward. But it will neither inspire a taste nor a willingness for the service. A distaste for God and godliness, as it was the reigning and paramount principle of his life, so it may be the reigning and paramount principle of his death-bed. As it envenomed every breath which he drew, so it may envenom his last -and the spirit going forth to the God who gave it, with all the enmity that it ever had, God will deal with it as an enemy.