expect that a prophet should be sent to rouse us to a sense of our condition? Was such a restoration due to David? Is God bound or pledged to bring the sinner back who wilfully departs from him? Nor is this all: should the pardon be granted, as in the case of David, and the restoration to God take place, consider, if your restoration resemble his, it is no unqualified blessing. His sorrow was acute. All the billows of the Divine indignation seemed to pass over him. The arrow of God pursued him. The "iron entered into his soul."

Thus, whatever encouragement the story of David may supply to the real penitent, (and to him, blessed be God, it does give encouragement), it affords none to the sinner who, presuming upon the Divine mercy for restoration and pardon, daringly violates the Divine commandments.

In a word, the whole of this history exactly harmonizes with every other part of the Sacred Record. It displays to us the fallen and destitute condition of man

-his exposure to temptation-his rapid progress in sin, if left to himself-his immeasurable obligation to God, if restored and saved-and, finally, the unchangeable character of God as a hater even of that sin which he may ultimately pardon.

SERMON XIX.

ON THE GRADUAL PROGRESS OF EVIL.

James iii. 5.

Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

THE design of the proverbial expression which the Apostle here uses, is to intimate the importance of little things, which are apt to be despised and neglected, as being of little or no consequence; whereas, in the end, they are productive of the greatest effects. It is a great point of wisdom to know how to estimate little things. Of those which are evidently great, every one can see the importance: but true wisdom looks at these great objects before they have arrived at their full size. She considers, that it is principally in this earlier state that they come under the power of man, and can be arranged, modified, increased, or extinguished at his pleasure; whereas, in a more advanced stage, they set at defiance all his efforts. On the contrary, it is the part of folly to wait till evils have attained their maturity before they are attacked; for then, that which might at first have been easily crushed, becomes irresistible.

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Behold a conflagration! With what dreadful fury it rages! The largest houses are devoured by it in a moment! The strongest fall victims to its uncontrollable power! Yet this fire, which now resists the united wisdom and power of man, originated from a small spark, and might at first have been extinguished by a child.

Look also at yonder tree, which is now so firmly rooted in the earth, which rears its lofty head so high, and bears its flourishing honours so thick upon it! It was once only a small seed: it was then a tender plant, so slender and so weak that the foot of accident might have crushed it, the overshadowing of a weed might have suffocated it, or the hand of negligence or wantonness have torn it up. Thus does Nature point out to us the growth of the strongest things from weak and almost imperceptible beginnings.

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Behold also the traveller! He is at a long distance from the end of his journey. A step seems to be of no consequence to him. For what is a step, compared with the many miles which he has to travel? But it is by these successive steps he is carried on, till at last he arrives at his desired home. Mountains, vallies, and plains, the prospect of which even fatigues the eye, are all at length surmounted by the constant application of those little steps which appear at first to bear no proportion to the immeasurable distance.

Such a stress does the established order of nature teach us to lay upon little things. And if we look into the moral word, we shall find that they are not there to be considered as of less importance.

Behold an abandoned and hardened murderer, who is about to receive from the hands of public justice the ignominious punishment due to his crimes! You survey with astonishment and terror his vices; you are shocked while you consider his daring profligacy, his furious passions, his avowed defiance of God and man, his hardness of heart, and his universal depravity. Would you know by what means he arrived at such a dreadful pitch of sin? It was one little step taken after

another, which brought him to it. He began with neglecting the worship of God, proceeded to breaking the Sabbath, resisted the remonstrances of conscience, indulged his passions without controul; to gratify them, he pilfered and stole: one act led on to another: one crime prepared the way to another: till at length he became such a monster of criminality, that it was no longer consistent with the safety of mankind that he should be permitted to live. But would you know what was the seed which produced this evil fruit; what was the principle which uniformly operated upon him, and induced him to risk the loss of his wealth, his reputation, and his life: it was this, the desire of present gratification. Yes, it was this, which is thought of no consequence by almost all mankind; which is even cherished by many as the chief source of pleasure; which, when it once prevails and overcomes the bounds of reason and religion, produces those dreadful effects that leave no hope of amendment, and almost necessarily terminate in irrresistible ruin. Behold how great a matter a small fire kindleth!

Contemplate also the unhappy woman whose licentious conduct has banished her from the society of her own sex, and whose scandalous profligacy and shameless impudence make her shunned by all but the most worthless of the other. In her countenance and conduct appears not so much as a single trace of the amiable graces which should characterize her sex. See her brought to a state of sin, which excites disgust even in the wicked; and to a state of misery, shame, poverty, and ruin, which shock even the hardest heart! To what shall we attribute this dreadful accumulation of crime and wretchedness? What powerful cause has produced it? Perhaps it may have been one, the evil of which is little suspected. It is, indeed, a small spark which kindleth such a fire. It may have been only the love of admiration. That vanity which is seldom considered as any crime, which is even cherished while it does not become immoderate, as being in some