answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." We can understand, then, the complaint uttered by God through the prophet Jeremiah, “Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no Physician there? Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" For, while the disease is universal,-while all are sick, few have found health and cure. Experience and observation tells us this. The number of regenerate souls that have washed in the fountain opened for sin, seems nowhere hardly to bear any proportion to those dead in trespasses and sins, who know nothing of the Physician, and feel no need of him. And seeing this, God asks as in astonishment,"Why?" Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there ? Why are they not recovered? There is one near them, walking among them, who can heal. Why have they not sought him? Do they not know that they are sick? Do they not feel the poison working in them? Angels and devils, alike astonished, echo the question-"Why?" They wonder at our infatuation-to have the offer of cure, and to reject it, to have the means of health within reach, and to prefer perishing, to reaching out a hand for them. God also asks, in expostulation, "Why?" How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? Turn ye at my reproof" He pleads with us against such folly. "Wherefore will ye spend money for that which is not meat, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" He would remonstrate with us for minding so eagerly things that will soon be nothing to us, and leaving, unheeded, a disorder that will be our eternal ruin. Why will you reject a Physician, who, without money or price, offers to bring you health? Do you know what you are doing? "He that despised Moses' law perished-of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath trampled under foot the Son of God." He asks, inquiringly, "Why?" How is it that among these many sick there is no recovery? "Why are so few healed, when the means are ample, and the offer free?" This is the reason: "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." The heart's love of sin, and enmity towards God explains it all. I have now opened to you, in some measure, how our case stands. We are sick, God tells us so; and he knows us well. Our disease will end in misery and death. If it were less serious-no more than we imagine it to be-would a Physician have been sent from heaven to heal us? We are invited, one and all, without exception and without distinction to put our souls into his hands to be cured. The cure is gratuitous-freely given. The medicine is all powerful— it is sure to heal. The Physician is kind and gracious -no applicant is turned away. Why, then, is the health of any soul unrecovered? All this shows very plainly, brethren, that while salvation is of the Lord, destruction is our own. If it comes on any one, it is because he sought it, chose it, would not avoid it. If the blessing of a healed soul was known, it would not be so much despised. God's people are troubled, tried, tempted; yet they are a happy people; because the hurt of their souls is cured. If you have ever recovered from a bodily disorder, you know the gladsome, hopeful feelings that attend it. So feels a soul that was once in the horrible pit of an unrenewed nature, and sunk deep in the miry clay of sinful habits, and has been brought out thence, revived, renewed, set free. God puts a new song into its mouth; and if you have never sung it,-even praise to your God; have never waited patiently on him till he bent down and inclined his ear, and heard your call for help, and sent his word and healed you; if you have had no dealings with the divine Physician for your recovery, the hurt of your souls, brethren, is on them still. You may have done many other things, but if you have not done this,-just laid your case before him, pleading for a cleansed soul, and a new heart, health is still far from you. And there is no time to be lost. For he who is now patient and long-suffering, stretching out his hands, knocking, and calling, will at last laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. What must be the power and excellency of the divine Physician, when one right look at him obtains everlasting salvation, and effects what no human efforts or skill can compass, the soul's health and cure. "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else." As when the Hebrew prophet raised The wounded looked, and straight were cured, The people ceased to die: So from the Saviour on the cross Not to condemn the sons of men He came to raise our fallen state, No. 2. THE WAY TO HEAVEN. If we may believe the world, the way to heaven is thronged by a multitude of travellers, who all expect to arrive there at their journey's end. If we believe the Bible, it is a narrow, unfrequented way, which no one selects of his own choice, or finds till a divine hand guides him into it. Here are two testimonies directly contrary to each other, pointing out two different ways to the same place. God, in his word, describes the way to the kingdom as straight and difficult, the world holds it to be broad and easy. Which of the two will really lead us thither? How important to discover and travel in the right one. Imagine the consequences of a mistake in the journey of life; so irretrievable-so fatal! To be travelling all one's days in a wrong direction, and not to be aware of it either, for the broad way of death is not so clear and palpable that no one can walk in it without knowing whither he is going. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, whose end are the ways of death." There can be no information of greater moment and interest to us, who are passing rapidly through this world, and never sure of another moment in it, than that which tells us the right way to heaven. I. On this subject we must first notice the difficulties there are in the way of a sinner's getting to heaven. There are, in the first place, his sins; all his transgressions of the law; his various acts of disobedience; his neglect and omission of duty;-these, till he can get rid of them, will for ever keep him out of heaven. And though one man's sins should be fewer, and more trifling, as he may imagine them, than another's, this gives him no better chance. The law of God makes no distinction between transgressors. It decides L peremptorily, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Break one of the least of the commandments, and you perish. It gives no door of hope to any sinner. If you were chargeable with only one sin, it shuts you up to condemnation. It says nothing of escaping punishment by means of repentance, prayers, penances, or after obedience. The obedience of a whole life would not make satisfaction for a single transgression. How much less could we, by any thing in our power, atone for the incalculable number we have each been guilty of. "Who can tell how oft he offendeth?" He who is most aware of his guilt, very far underrates it. Here is a barrier, then, to our admission into the presence of God. He cannot look upon iniquity. It once manifested itself in heaven, and was directly expelled. The sinning angels were driven out to a place prepared for them. If they, with guilt upon them, could not remain in heaven, have we, with our sins, any hope of being admitted there ? Another hindrance is our enmity to God. One might think sin could be easily removed by an act of pardon,-God might forgive them for pity's sake, and take us to himself. But even if this could be, here is another difficulty:-with such hearts as ours, God, who knows them best, declares that every imagination of them is only evil continually, that they are deceitful, and desperately wicked, carnal, and enmity against him, we would not keep God's law if we could. It is his prohibition of sin that makes us so eager to commit it. When the Israelites worshipped Moloch and Remphan, it was not because they had any special regard to those idols,-but God had said, "Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them," and that was the very reason why they did so. corruption and depravity consists in this rebellious spirit, which animates every human heart. All the souls with which God has peopled the earth,-all the living beings his hands have made and fashioned, are his natural enemies. They would drive him, if they could, out of his own world. "The fool hath said in his heart there is (let there be) no God." His in Our |