the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord."

"Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, to him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, world without end, Amen."

SERMON XIII.

PREACHED JANUARY 1, 1830.

1 KINGS, XVIII. 21.

How long halt ye between two opinions?

WE are all hurrying on to eternity, my friends. This day commences a new period of our existence. How often have we contemplated the year 1830 as a distant period, to which we might never attain? How distant the NEW YEAR Would have appeared had the fulfilment of some favourite scheme hinged on its arrival! And now it is come, what do we intend to do with it? It is set before us this day as a blank tablet; if its pages are written, it is with invisible ink: what will you write on them? Shall they be inscribed with Vanity," or shall they

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be inscribed with "Holiness to the Lord?" If the pen of fate were placed in your hand, which would you write? Would you fill the blank with schemes of pleasure, of profit, of advancement in the world? or would you write there, "The Lord is my portion, and the lot of heritance?"

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Of each of you, it now appears, it was said, at the commencement of the now departed year, "Let it alone this year also." Well might divine justice long since have said of every one of us, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" No fruits of righteousness were found in us to avert the sentence; but, up to the present hour, the Lord Jesus has interceded for us, and pleaded for the fruitless tree, "Let it alone this year also, till I dig about it, and dung it:" and he has fulfilled the promise; he has stirred up the earth around us by judgments, and by mercies he has appealed to our hearts; his Gospel has been freely of fered to us, and where are the fruits? May he not say of this part of his vineyard," What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?"

The decree which has been unfolded in our last year's history, we now read, "Let it alone this year also." But, oh! my friends, who can raise the curtain which veils futurity? What if the sentence be fulfilled against any of us this year:-" If it bear fruit, well; and if not, then cut it down?" And if we be cut down as cumberers of the earth," as the tree falleth so shall it lie:" the worthless trunk will be cast into the fire of hell.

If you were sure of life this added year, then you might say, (though most foolish in you would it be thus to defer your own happiness,) "To-day, or to-morrow, we will go into such a city, and buy and sell and get gain, and enjoy ourselves after the devices and desires of our own hearts." But, What is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.' Perhaps the web is wove which shall enshroud your limbs; perhaps the wood is sawn which shall make your coffin; perhaps this burial ground, through which you have walked so carelessly and thoughtlessly to-day, will next open its mouth to receive your body; and where, oh! where, shall be the soul?

While I address you all as trembling on the very brink of destruction, I do

not accuse you of any particular vice: I do not charge you, though conscience may, with the flagrant crimes of Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, covetousness, or such like: but I stand on broader ground; we are, every one, children of Adam, and under the curse pronounced on his posterity. We are born the "children of disobedience," and "of wrath;" (these are Scripture expressions;)" the wages of sin is death," eternal death; and we are all hastening to everlasting destruction as fast as the torrent of life can carry us; except only those who have been stopped short in their career, and have been separated from the multitude, to be a peculiar people, shewing forth the praises of the Lord. Now, the question on which my fate for eternity hangs, does not depend on my comparative merit in the eyes of man. It is this-" Am I, or am I not, one of the people of God? Have I ever been turned from the power of Satan unto God? Have I left the world to follow its own way, and "fled to Jesus for refuge from the wrath to come?" Have I made God my shield, and my exceeding great reward? Have I risen up and left all I formerly valued, to "follow the Lamb of God whithersoever he goeth?"