of sinful men, we are not willing to allow that full justice is done to the calls of the gospel of grace by this view of the subject. Ye all, who have souls defiled with sin, and are urged by the invitations of mercy to come to the great and healing fountain of a Saviour's blood, are in circumstances far more hopeful than the Persian queen. She came in before a capricious tyrant; and you come before a gracious God. She understood not how an unalterable decree of Persia could be set aside; she feared it was impossible; and we may know how God's law, while yet unchanging, is magnified and satisfied by the sacrifice of Calvary. She came unbidden and without a word of encouragement to that throne, whence many had been cast down; and though our fears often place us upon a level with her, yet against such fears should we still press on; or better than this, our faith should lay hold upon the many commands and solicitations and promises of God's holy word, which are extended to every humble soul, and on which we are fully warranted to rely. She came to plead for Israel's temporal deliverance; we come to plead for the soul's life.

Look at it any way you will, and the sinner should flee to Jesus. If you are not as deeply affected by your sins as you are conscious you should be, yet come to Jesus, for he gives repentance. If he seems not to hear or even to spurn you, so did he to an humble woman once in the days of his flesh, whom yet he received and blessed. Matt. xv. 21—

28. Your path though dark is not a strange one; many a saved sinner has trodden it before. Your difficulties though numerous are just such difficulties as others have passed through and touched the golden sceptre. Let not your perplexities and fears cause you to lose sight of the necessities yet deeper, which urge you on. Your sins may be many. Not a doubt, but that they are greater than you think for. You have no claims upon mercy long abused. This is very true. But while pondering your difficulties. choose not the very worst. The worst thing you can do is to turn your back on Christ-the only Redeemer. You must perish, if you are unbelieving; you must perish, if you are hardened; you must perish, if you are careless; you must perish, if you neglect the great salvation! You can but be rejected, if you fly to Christ. Resolve that you will go to Jesus. Christ never rejected any. His own word is, "Him that cometh unto me I will IN NO WISE cast out." John vi. 37. Resolve that you will be the first one rejected, if you are not received. Your eternal life is at stake. Drive away your fears. Fly to Jesus. Be in haste lest you be too late!

Come humble sinner in whose breast

A thousand thoughts revolve;
Come with your grief and fears opprest
And make this last resolve.
I'll go to Jesus, though my sin,

High as a mountain rose;
I know his courts, I'll enter in,

Whatever may oppose.

Prostrate I'll lie before his throne,
And there my guilt confess :
I'll tell him I'm a wretch undone
Without his sovereign grace.
I'll to the gracious King approach
Whose sceptre pardon gives :
Perhaps he may command my touch,
And then the suppliant lives.

Perhaps he will admit my plea,
Perhaps will hear my prayer;
But if I perish I will pray,
And perish only there.
I can but perish if I go,
I am resolved to try ;
For if I stay away, I know
I must for ever die.

LECTURE VII.

THE SLEEPLESS NIGHT.

THE unfinished plans of Esther we may not further pursue, till we delay to trace the strange workings of Providence in preparing for their complete success. Within the compass of a few verses, we may see the eventful changes of human life. Who knoweth indeed what a day may bring forth? "The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich; he bringeth low and lifteth up." 1 Sam. ii. 7.

The first proud step that passes before us is that of Haman "joyful and with a glad heart." Added to all the honours heretofore enjoyed in the realm of Persia by Haman the Magnificent, a new one had that day been granted from a most unexpected quarter; and perhaps his vain and conceited mind imagined himself beginning a new career of preferment. far as Esther has designed by her attention to the favourite, either to conciliate the king, or to throw the wily Agagite off his guard, she has completely succeeded. The new honour swells his heart with new pride, and no suspicions of evil enter his mind. It may seem a strange thing to us in the abstract

So

reflection, that in a world so completely governed by a righteous God, wicked men can be joyful and glad of heart. Yet we see it all around us; we find it fully recognized in the sacred Scriptures, that there are pleasures in sin; and the joy of the wicked in their prosperity has distressed and grieved many a dejected believer. So a Psalmist writes, "My feet had almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped; I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." Psalm Ixxiii. 2, 3. These things are a part of the wonderful dealings of His hand, who tries the hearts of the children of men. So we need not grieve. while such men as Haman pass before us in the joy of their hearts. Nor let us embrace the fallacy of supposing that since Haman was not a Jew, we may justify his hatred to the Israel of God; or that the long cherished enmity between Israel and Amalek was any proper reason for his continued hostility. We may thus account for Haman's feelings and conduct; but to explain a matter of this kind is not to justify it. It is not from the circumstances. of a man, it is from his very nature that he is under obligations to love and obey God. No matter in what family, or nation, or church a man may be born; no matter what his education or prejudices; no matter whether he is willing or unwilling: so far as right is concerned, he is bound by all the laws. of God; bound to practise justice and speak the truth; bound to love his neighbour as himself;