I would press upon you, to profit yourselves by the publication of the Gospel. Seek the conversion, the sanctification, the edifying of your own souls under its influence. Your days of grace are precious. Precious to you, is every offer of a Saviour's love, every awakening admonition of the Spirit of grace, every dispensation of the truth which makes men free, every Sabbath's privilege, every hour of prayer. O, suffer not your opportunities to pass, and your hearts to remain unaffected, and cold, and alienated from God, amidst such dispensations of divine mercy. It is high time you had all awaked out of sleep, and were found in a new birth of the Spirit, accepted before God, and sheltered in the provisions of his love. Trifle no longer with the proffers of divine grace. O cast in your lot even now, with a waiting Saviour. Return with him to that Father's house, where there is bread enough and to spare, and where you shall find eternal life for your souls. And in the certain hope, which is the privilege of his people, the assured salvation which is covenanted to them in the sufferings and obedience of their great Redeemer, bread shall be given you, and living water shall be sure forever.

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SERMON XIII.

LITTLE SINS.

GENESIS xix. 20.—Is it not a little one? and my soul shall live.

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OUR blessed Lord lays it down as a principle of human conduct, and of human responsibility, "he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much." Though a man start back, and shrink from great transgressions, if he allow himself in known offences against God, which appear to him of a smaller character, he manifests that the spirit and disposition of his heart are still guilty, and opposed to God. The claims of true piety and obedience not only require that we should be kept back from presumptuous sins, but that we should be cleansed also from secret faults.

The incident connected with our text, may be viewed as an illustration of this. Lot hesitated in an entire and thorough obedience of the divine commands, and would have compromised with their claims upon him, by the offer of an inferior submission. He had come out of Sodom, as God had directed him.

But when the heavenly messengers had brought him forth abroad, and said, "escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed;" he hesitated in following out their earnest address. He had shewed himself willing to obey to a certain extent. But he was not willing to obey to the utmost extent of the requisition. He answered to the angel, "O, not so, my Lord! behold now this city is near to flee unto; and it is a little one. Let me escape thither. Is it not a little one? and my soul shall live." God would teach him by his own experience, and for a little while endured with his folly, that he might learn how poor a refuge his sinful heart had selected for himself. The result was as the Lord designed it. He was soon glad to escape from the little city which he had selected, and which had been spared for a time, for his sake, to the mountain which the Lord had pointed out.

Lot stands before us as an example and testimony; and it is the principle which is displayed in this illustration, of which I wish to speak. I see in the incident, a principle which is exhibited in the conduct and character of multitudes, who profess to be the servants of God, and who attempt to cover up transgressions because they are esteemed little, and pass over faults which they deem of little consequence, in the hope that their souls shall live. But it is a principle which will be found in all cases as great a mistake in calculation, as it was in the case connected with our text.

An inattention to those which are considered small things in religion; a disregard to the guilt of those which are supposed to be little sins; and an

allowed commission of these sins, on the ground that they are of inferior consequence; are the source of vast evil, and of vast danger to the souls of men. However long endured, they are uniformly found at last, a Zoar, in which the soul of man cannot live. The evil and danger of this inattention to little things in the cultivation of religious character, is a subject which I propose now to consider.

The men of this world understand the necessity of a vigilant attention to the smaller outlets of waste, in order to the attainment of success and prosperity, in earthly pursuits. It is deemed a wise proverb in their affairs, "take care of your pence, and your pounds will take care of themselves." They will ask for no surer indication of a spendthrift, than the habitual contempt of little things, in the system upon which the business of life is conducted. Negligence in this respect, will go far towards clothing a man with rags. Diligence, assiduity, and persevering economy in small expenses, not disjoined from a spirit of liberality and kindness to the needy, have raised multitudes, who had no remarkable share of natural talents, and no peculiar experience of what the world calls good fortune, to the highest posts of earthly influence and honour.

This is equally the principle of certain success in the concerns of the soul. There must be in that merchandise which is better than silver, to which the heart and thoughts of the real Christian are directed, and to an interest in which the hearts of all are invited in the Gospel, the very same attention to matters which are too often considered trifling and indifferent. The most lamentable consequences in a

Christian's life often date their origin from some small act which is suffered to grow into a principle; from some incidental occurrence which ministered temptations that were heedlessly encouraged; or from a failure in habitual watchfulness in something which was considered unimportant in its influence. The conflagration which fills the proudest city with desolation and ruin, was in its first appearance, a little spark, which a single drop of water would have easily extinguished. The storm which covers the face of the heavens with its blackness, and pours its torrents of devastation upon the earth, was seen in its incipient state, to arise a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. Thus will it be found also, in the most destructive concessions in a Christian's life. The unheeded lusts of the eye, the disregarded risings of mental passion, the momentary excitement and indulgence of sensual appetite, only serve to lay open a way which will continually widen, to habitual transgression, irreparable loss, and even the final destruction of the soul. You may as easily set bounds to the flowing of the sea, and in the tempest's raging, command the swelling wave to stop its course, as arrest the triumphant progress which you have given by indulgence, to a headstrong lust, and say, "hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." The man who will walk with God in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, must fix his unremitted and suspicious inspection upon the smallest incidents of his life; and test the power of his principles, by the minuteness of application, to which they can be carried. If a man finds that he is not always a religious man; if he perceives that the great principles by which he professes to be