all that he has done for you, of none effect. Your own recollections furnish you with many instances, in which, under the weight of his hand, you have determined to submit to him, and yet you have not done it. Had he left you entirely to yourselves, unnoticed, unwarned, unawakened, there might have been urged something for your excuse. But there is not a habitation among you, in which God has not made bare his arm, for sickness, or sorrow, or cause of lamentation of some description, showing you, that you were objects of his regard, and that he wished you to become partakers of his holiness. And yet, how many unrenewed, and perhaps, careless souls, does every habitation contain; testifying still, that however abundant have been the kind warnings of the providence of God, ungrateful men are still able to receive them all without effect. To such, as the last remaining communication from God, the message of the text is addressed, "Thus will I do unto thee, therefore prepare to meet thy God, O Israel," even God who cometh with a recompense!

III. The warning of our text was addressed to those who had been the peculiar objects of divine forbearance, without repentance. Thus God says to them, "I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." The destruction which had been brought upon others, was immediate, and without a remedy. It was like that awful destruction which God had brought upon

the guilty cities which are here referred to, as an ensample unto those who should after live ungodly." Amidst this dreadful judgment upon others of the people, the Israelites to whom the prophet speaks, were mercifully protected and preserved, "as a firebrand plucked out of the burning." But the divine forbearance was without effect. They still remained in a careless state of disobedience to God, and had not returned unto him. And now divine forbearance was exhausted, and God commanded them to be ready to give an account of all that was past.

Thus, my brethren, do many despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not willing that the goodness of God should lead them to repentance. The Lord is long-suffering unto all. He desires not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This long-suffering of our God is salvation, if it be not rejected and despised. In sparing men from year to year, amidst all the privileges of revelation, God proves to them, that he wishes them to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But in how many instances, is all this forbearance insufficient to lead men to seek after, and to embrace the riches of his love! Notwithstanding all the mercy with which he has endured towards them, they remain still idolatrous and unconverted. It is of his mercies, that they are not consumed. But these mercies excite no gratitude with them. Though he is pleased to postpone the hour for the execution of his judgment against them, if peradventure, they will be persuaded to return to him, they yet stand in his vineyard, as cumberers of the

ground. The companions of their youth have, perhaps, long since passed into a world of recompense. The partakers of many of their scenes of folly and guilt, have gone to answer for their transgressions. The members of their family and household have been suddenly cut off, and that without remedy. And in many instances they are left, standing almost alone in a world of strangers. And yet, wonderful to tell! these children of many providences, these objects of much long-suffering, are still unchanged in heart, and living without God in the world! The extent to which they have made the forbearance of God without effect, is indeed distressing. But the amount of danger and suffering, which this neglect of God gathers for such sinful souls, around the personal appearance of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, to judge the world in righteousness, and to reward men according to their works, is far more distressing. O, it will be a mournful account which they must render unto God, who have turned the grace of God into licentiousness, and sinned when grace abounds; who have pressed God under the weight of their iniquities, and made him to serve with their sins! But it is the account which is certainly before them, and for which sinners must prepare themselves. Though they do evil many years, and sentence against their evil works be not executed speedily, yet in the end, which will soon arrive for them, their iniquity shall not go unpunished.

Under these three aspects, as illustrated by the history connected with the text, may their characters be considered, to whom we address this message, as to the idolatrous Israel. Their guilt is in their volun

tary choice of the paths of sin, amidst all the chastisements and judgments which they endure, and all the forbearance which is exercised towards them. Charged with this guilt, they are to be brought into account before God, in the day of his appearing. For this account they are warned to be prepared. Who can abide the day of his coming? and who can stand when he appeareth? When he riseth up, what will they say? When he visiteth, what will they answer him?

SERMON IV.

GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL.

AMOS iv. 12.-Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

I AM engaged in applying this solemn message to the unconverted portion of my audience. The various aspects of their character, to which the history connected with the text directs us, have already been made the subjects of consideration. I would now direct your notice to the great day itself, of the approach of which, the text admonishes them.

The purposes of Almighty God are ripening fast. He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. It is to a settled, determined, inevitable approach of God, that the attention of men must be directed. His coming as a final Judge cannot be postponed. It is not left to us to say when it shall be, or whether it shall be at all. But it is left with us to determine whether we shall be prepared for its arrival. That solemn day may find us altogether wanting in a readiness for its events. It may find us busied in our numerous engagements here, without one thought of their result hereafter. It may find us glorying in