importance of attaining a correct knowledge of the Gospel, and of your obligations which flow from it. In a country like this in which we dwell, you cannot be at a loss, if you really wish to acquire this knowledge. The Holy Scriptures, which teach us the way of salvation, are dispersed in every corner of the land, and you may all read them for yourselves, or hear them read. As you value your souls, let me entreat you to search these records with all diligence. Let them be your meditation by night and by day. There you will find your disease and your remedy-there you will discover how to escape the wrath to come, and how to inherit eternal happiness-there you will see the way that leads to life, and the way that leads to death. And while you search these sacred records with all humility and reverence, fail not to direct your earnest prayers to Almighty God, that He would vouchsafe to illumi

nate your darkness, to give unto you the spirit of wisdom, and to open your eyes that you may understand the Scriptures.

And when you have thus, in the use of the appointed means, ascertained what the will of God is, then, let me entreat you, reduce to practice what you have learned. Be not forgetful hearers, but doers of the work. If the perusal of the written word, if the preached Gospel, do not influence your life, while they inform your understanding-they will only serve to increase your condemnation. The servaut, that knew his Lord's will, and did it not, was beaten with many stripes. Of what service is it to know the way to heaven, if we refuse to walk in that way! ? Of what service is it to know that Christ died for us, if we will not come unto Him for salvation? Of what service is it to know the commandments of our Saviour, if we daily neglect them and break them? If we thus make shipwreck of our under

standing of the Gospel, we had better never have set sail. To sin against light and knowledge-against our judgment and convictions-is indeed to augment the terrors of that doom which awaits the ungodly.

Let me, then, prevail upon you, brethren, to carry out your knowledge into a correspondent practice-to shew that you have not studied the Gospel in vain by your faith working by love and abounding in all the fruits of righteousness. Remember it is not the "hearer," but the "doer" of the "work," that shall be "blessed in his deed." You cannot expect the consolations of religion in this life-you cannot expect the recompence of the just in the life to come,-if your practice does not make good your profession. The pleasures of piety are only promised to those who take their cross,

up

and deny themselves, and follow their

Saviour-the kingdom of heaven is only

promised to those, who keep the commandments of the Lord their God, and who walk in His ways. Strive, then, to be Christians not only in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Give all diligence to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour by heavenly tempers and virtuous habits-by a blameless conversation and a holy life. And ere long, Jesus, who is gone to prepare a place for His disciples-for them that love Him and keep His commandments - will come again, and receive you unto Himself, that where He is, there may you be also, and behold His glory, which the Father hath given Him.

SERMON IX.

CHRIST'S CONDESCENSION TO SINNERS.

REVELATION iii. 20.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.

THE Church of Laodicea, from the Epistle to which these words are taken, was one of the seven Churches of Pro-consular Asia. It is supposed to have been founded by St. Paul and his assistants in the ministry. From an expression which occurs in the Epistle to the Colossians, it would seem, that that Apostle wrote an Epistle to the Laodiceans. This Epistle is now