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flect upon the wild and appalling emotions of those who have "lived without God in the world," when the near prospect of death suddenly unfolds to their affrighted apprehensions the fearful retribution that awaits them in a world eternal! What can avail the prayers of such when their appeals to God are only awakened by their fears, and when perhaps they have never put up one fervent supplication to heaven, until aroused to the reality of their spiritual condition by their proximity to that bourne beyond which the issues of life are no longer to be calculated--beyond which there is to the wicked nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment," that to them will realize only "lamentation, and mourning, and woe."

Do not let us imagine that God has any pity for those who have uniformly withheld their obedience to his commands, until the apprehension of a near retribution has forced from their terrors a fallacious and selfish homage. Such pity belongs not to a being whose justice is absolute and will be rigidly enforced where his mercy has been defied. It is certain indeed "that his mercy is great above the heavens," but it is nevertheless equally certain that "his truth reacheth unto the clouds." "Hath he said, and shall he not do it?" We may as reasonably imagine the extinction of God himself as the forfeiture of his word. Upon the authority of inspiration we are

assured that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail." Can we expect then that the Almighty will say, and do not? Shall we imagine that he will forbear to visit the guilty with everlasting punishment, in opposition to his own solemn and proclaimed decree, only because the sinner, sinking under the weight of his alarms, puts up a prayer to him in order to avert those miseries which he has provoked by a life of spiritual rebellion against the author at once of his creation and redemption? Would not pity be a weakness where it induced falsehood? Would not forbearance be a sin where it involved injustice? And how should infinite perfection be either false or unjust? How could sin issue from the source of all good? "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" He is not only eternal, but unchangeable," the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." His word is gone forth, and he has as solemnly declared his determination to punish obstinate offenders as to spare the contrite.

Besides the sincerity of that contrition which is solely called forth upon a sick bed, by anticipating those dreadful inflictions which await the outcasts from heaven in a future world, is at all times to be suspected. Of such penitents the Almighty has declared, through the mouth of his prophet, "they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their

beds." The violence and urgency of their appeals were no proof of their sincerity. They were indeed sincere so far as they expressed a vehement desire to induce the Avenger of human delinquency to suspend his punishment; but they evinced no sincerity with respect to love of God, from a consciousness of, and from a principle of gratitude for, his numerous dispensations of mercy. Such appeals are therefore offered up

in vain.

"Have I not remembered thee in my bed and thought upon thee when I was waking?" asks the Psalmist, under the influence of a holy reliance upon the divine mercy; and adds, "because thou hast been my helper, therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul hangeth upon thee." These are the words of one whose affiance in his Creator sprang fresh from the heart, whose prayers therefore were acceptable to a gracious God who "delighteth in mercy," and lends a favourable ear to "all them that call upon him" faithfully. But the outcries of a despairing sinner have not the same welThose prayers which are accompanied by the feverish exclamation; "What must I do to be saved?"—when the summons to a higher tribunal than any upon earth has gone forth, are not hailed by the Omnipotent Arbiter of events as the fruits of pure and spiritual penitence. Like the waves from the sea-girt rock, they fall

come.

back among the troubled waters of despair which chafe with fearful commotion round the forsaken delinquent.

But let us reverse the picture and see what efficacy attends the prayers of the truly righteous Christian. His aspirations go up to the throne of mercy where they find a ready admission, because "God is in all his thoughts." "His heart is right in this matter;" his soul is therefore "made white, and purified" by that most precious blood which was shed to "cleanse it from all sin," and which invariably works this miracle of love, where we do sincerely “give all diligence to add to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity." The righteous man's devotion is not mere matter of caprice or of selfish calculation, but an habitual and delightful service. It is the vital principle of his moral nature, and he feels it to be as essential to his spiritual existence as food and raiment are to his corporeal. He therefore pursues it with a relish proportioned to the influence which it has upon his spirit; and that influence encreases according as the fountain whence it is supplied is kept open and allowed to pour its fertilizing streams into the barren recesses of the soul.

Under whatever state of bereavement the sin

cere Christian may find it his lot to groan, his appeal to God will never be made in vain, for "He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer." If the worshipper be only humble and earnest in his supplication, “he shall in no wise be cast out." "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God:" but " every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished."

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The Scriptures everywhere assure security to the righteous, and peril to the wicked. The prayers of the former are encouraged, and thus it is that the Deity and his godly creatures "take sweet counsel together," the humble instruments of divine mercy, in this spiritual communion, receiving quietness and assurance for ever." "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace!" The consciousness that his prayers are heard and accepted is at once a pledge that they are so; for the God of love, of justice, and of mercy, could not "give up to strong delusion to believe a lie" those who worship him "in spirit and in truth," since " he seeketh such to worship him."

How steady are the hopes of him who lifts up his heart unto God in prayer, through all the phases of temporal suffering which he may be doomed to undergo! Strong in faith, God fortifies his soul by the acceptance of his affiance,

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