can receive in order to save sinners; and all that is necessary on your part, is to castyourself upon his free mercy and faithful word, and salvation is yours.

But I find that men will look into their hearts, or back on their past lives, or dwell on the nature and number of their sins, or fancy God has fixed some time in the future when he will shew them mercy, or think that something must be done in them, or by them, before they can obtain pardon and enjoy peace. Now the fact is, God is willing and waiting, the atonement has been made and pardon is ready, and all that is necessary is, for you to be saved as a poor sinner, of free grace, by an act of sovereignty, to God's glory. Or, in one word, to cast yourself upon God's mercy in Christ, and take Him at his word, which word is, "He that believeth shall be saved." You may

labour ever so hard, you may wait ever so long, you may try what means you please, but you must come to this before you can have peace and joy, "I will go to the Lord just as I am, and tell Him all my fears." You may find this difficult, for the flesh cannot like it, but come to it you must, for it is God's way, and God's plan. We have known many try it, and all have found it answer; but we never knew a soul find solid peace or settled rest in any other way.

Reader, whoever you are, you may be sav◄ ed, if you are willing to come to God on his

own terms; you may be saved now, if you will come to Jesus just as you are, trust in his precious blood, and tell him all your fears. There is nothing to wait for, and "if you tarry till you are better, you will never come at all." There will never be a more suitable time, for now God is in Christ beseeching you to be reconciled unto him; now the Lord waits to be gracious, and is exalted to shew mercy unto you. He says, 66 ALL THINGS ARE READY, COME. The blood through which you are pardoned, is ready; the righteousness in which you are to be justified, is ready; the Spirit by which you are to be sanctified, is ready; all is ready, if you are ready-and you are ready, that is, prepared, if you are but WILLING.

COME, humble souls, with guilt oppressed

No longer yield to doubt;

"Come," says the Saviour, "to

I will not cast you out."

my breast,

"Though you have long my wish withstood

And are defiled throughout;

I'll cleanse, and save you by my blood,

And never cast you out."

OBSTINACY AND FOLLY,

"Ye would not."-LUKE xiii. 34.

MAN is a strange creature. He is in danger, and will not accept of deliverance: he is in want, and will not accept of a supply: he is condemned, and will not accept of a pardon. He must live for ever, and may live for ever in the enjoyment of perfect happiness, and in the possession of the highest honours, but he will not. Sin has filled human nature with a spirit of contrariness; so that we call darkness light, and light darkness; we put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. It was so with the Jews: the Lord Jesus warned them of their danger, pointed out the only way of escape from it, offered to protect and preserve them, as the hen does her brood under her wings; but they would not. He invited them to come to him, in a most loving spirit, with most gracious words, and yet they would not come unto him that they might have life. So the city was given up to the Romans, many of them were slain with the sword, and the rest were made captives or wandered as fugitives and vagabonds over the face of the earth. What the Jews were, we are we are as like as two peas.

"Ye

*

would not," was said of them, and "ye would not" may be said of most of us.

The gospel and its blessings are represented by the most attractive, useful, and necessary things; and we are invited, exhorted, and urgently pressed to receive, partake of, and enjoy them-yet we refuse. We are guilty of sin, and therefore criminals in the sight of God; as such, we are condemned to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire; but God, who is rich in mercy and has no pleasure in our death, offers us a pardon, and entreats us to accept it, but we will not. We have an inward craving for something which we do not possess something that will meet the wants and satisfy the cravings of our immortal nature; and God in the gospel has provided a great feast, made up of everything we can want, or reasonably wish for, and he has sent us an invitation, and urged us to accept of it, but we will not. We are in danger-imminent danger, from sin, Satan, and the just wrath of God: and the Lord Jesus has come from heaven to earth to make an atonement for sin, to conquer Satan, and to turn away the wrath of God from us; and having done all, and suffered all that was necessary for the purpose, he beseeches us to come unto him as to a stronghold, an impregnable fortress, and a high tower, but we will not. We are in deep spiritual poverty, our wants are numerous and various, and will go on increasing