darkness, into the pit that has no bottom, and into the fire which is never to be quenched! What is it to be damned? It is to be cut off from God and all his angels, from the ransomed and all our pious friends-from heaven and all its joys. It is to be deprived of all peace and all comfort; of all hope and all expectation. It is to be given over to all the thraldom of sin, to all the thrillings of remorse, to all the agonies of despair. It is to be ruined and undone! Lost! lost! lost for ever! O! who can bear the thought of being damned for ever? Shall any lift up their eyes in torment? Shall any have, in the world of woe, to send up the sad and mournful lamentation-"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved?" Hea ven forbid! But are there not here some impenitent, unbelieving sinners? They are the very ones who are exposed to the anathema of the text. O! careless mariner upon the sea of life, breakers are ahead! O! thoughtless traveller to great eternity, a fearful pit is before you! Danger is nigh, even at the door; and do you ask, What is to be done? Would to God that this cry was coming up from all parts of this congregation! It is the pentecostal cry. It is the cry of the three thousand who were convicted and converted on the day of Pentecost. And was not this, too, the anxious inquiry of the Philippian jailor: "O sirs, what must I do to be saved?" It has been put, by many in every age, and has resulted in peace and joy. Is any disposed to propound this question? God be gracious to all such! There is hope for all!-aye, and even in the very verse whence our text is taken; for, if we find it there written, "He that believeth not, shall be damned," we find it there also written, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." Thank God, you need not perish. O listen to the sweet words of the Saviour again: "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." How cheering! how charming is the voice; how sweet the tidings are! There is another thing which is most encouraging to the sin-sick soul, and that also is in close connection with our text. In our Saviour's last charge, which contains our text, he gave commandment to his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, beginning at Jerusalem. Luke xxiv. 47. Only think-Jerusalem! The very place where his murderers dwelt; the very place where they crowned him with thorns; where they smote him upon the cheek, where they spit in his face, where they nailed him to the cross, and where they gave him vinegar and gall to drink in the hour of his deepest agony! and where, after his death, as he foresaw, the unfeeling soldier thrust his spear into his side!-As if he had said, "Go, my disciples, and preach that gospel which breathes good will toward all mankind, which opens the gates of paradise to a dying world-preach that gospel first to my enemies! Go, tell those priests and pharisees, those scribes and elders, who longed for the time to come when they should feast their eyes with my streaming veins, and regale their ears with my dying groans-go, tell them that they never so thirsted for my blood as I have desired their salvation. Go, find out those soldiers who platted a crown of thorns and put it upon my head-tell them that I, by my streaming blood, have bought for them crowns of glory, and no rugged thorns shall be found in those crowns of glory! Go, my disciples, and tell that man who spit in my face how freely Jesus can forgive! Go, my disciples, and find out those who nailed me to the cross, and tell them that I am now willing to put under them my pierced hands, and raise them to thrones in the highest heavens, and no nails shall be driven into their hands! Go, my disciples, and search for that man who gave me vinegar and gall to drink in the hour of my deepest agony, and tell him that I freely offer him the cup of salvation, and no drop of vinegar or gall shall be found in that cup! Go, my disciples, find out that soldier who thrust his spear into my side, and tell him that there is a nearer way to my heart.-Blessed Jesus! who can resist thy matchless grace, thy dying love? It is enough! We see that thou art able and willing to save the chief of sinners, even the vilest of the vile! O! that every sinner would respond, "It is enough! blessed Redeemer! glorious Saviour! I will reject thee no more! I yield, I yield; I can hold out no longer-By dying love compelled, I own thee conqueror!' I repent in dust and ashes! I take thee now on thy terms, on any "terms. 'Here, Lord, I give myself away, 'tis all that I can do!'" Welcome, welcome, dear Redeemer, Lord, I make a full surrender, Every power and thought be thine. Through eternal ages thine! . SERMON IV. JUSTIFICATION. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access, by faith, into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.-ROM. v. 1, 2. NO TRUTH is more certain than this, that we are sinners; yea, that all have sinned, and have come short of the glory of God, for the apostle John says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." But another truth, equally certain, is this: that the great God with whom we have to do, is pure and holy-cannot look upon sin with allowance, and has positively declared that he will, by no means, clear the guilty. These things being so, a question here presents itself, Who can be just with God? This is a question of immense importance to our race, and one which, without divine illumination, I verily believe neither man nor angel can solve. This very subject the apostle handles in the preceding context. After affirming that God hath concluded all under sin, that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God, and that, consequently, by the deeds of the law no flesh could be justified in his sight-after showing that man, by reason of sin, was in himself absolutely ruined |