of my heart iself?" Oh! then, as you pent of it, mourn over it; cast yourself down God; tell him what a wretch you have been; ss through the blood of his Son, with the aids of to work in you a better temper. For thus saith Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby essed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit. my reproof. Behold, I pour out my Spirit upon what you can, and what you should, and live.

It is implied in this demand, that God is now ready to

is one abuse of the truth which I have just presented, ar to the deceitful heart. Perhaps already, my still impenitent over, you have been guilty of it. You may have said to yourWell, if it is so that I can give God my heart at any inment, when I please, I will delay it for the present. The world my yet longer be my idol. If my heart is his before I die, that will be sufficient." Is it so? Let me remind you of that solemn passage: "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, and shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof." Esau sold his birthright, but he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. You can at any time give your heart to God, and therefore you ought to do it at this moment of time; but it is also true that you are so depraved, so alienated from God, so under the power of your own pride and self-gratification, that you never will do it without the grace of God to subdue you; and the least delay, under the circumstances under which you are placed, may lead him for ever to give you to the power of your corruptions. Through the death of his Son, God is now ready, and I venture to say my text warrants it, to receive you. Without an atonement there could be no reconciliation. Never, no, never, could rebel man approach his Creator. To all the wicked God would for ever be a consuming fire. But lo! he has had compassion. "God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whoso believeth in him should not perish, but might have everlasting life." God may now be just, just to himself, just to his law and all holy beings, and yet justify him that believeth in Jesus. And therefore he says: "My son, give me thine heart." "Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and turn to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, and of great kindness." Yea, like the father of the repenting prodigal, he will run and meet you. It is no light thing, sinner, that God is now ready

to receive you. All has been purchased by heaven's greatest, choicest gift. But though all things are now ready, soon the door will be shut-soon the day of mercy will be clean gone forever. Do I say that death will be the boundary beyond which God will be irreconcilable? Ah! It may lie far this side of that. "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate." The day of merci

ful visitation soon passes.

"While God invites, how blessed the day,
How sweet the Gospel's charming sound;

Come, sinners, haste, Ò haste away

While yet a pardoning God he's found."

Shall I not add, then,

Fifthly, That it is implied in the demand and in all the considerations which I have placed before you, that you are called to make an immediate surrender.

"What! While I am in this house, sitting on these seats, hearthis sermon?”

now.

Yes; for if God has a right to your heart, he has a right to it If you can ever render it, you should render it now. If this is the moment in which he is ready to receive you, this should be the moment of your return.

"But I did not expect to do it when I came into this house."

And, said a young man, thrown from a horse, and suddenly hurried into eternity; "I did not expect to die to-day.' But he was called to. And how much better unexpectedly become a Christian, than unexpectedly die and perish forever.

"But I do not know about submitting to God so suddenly. I must have time. Conversion is not a hasty but a gradual work." How much time do you want? How much have you had? How long has God called and you refused-stretched out his hand and you have not regarded? What if you were sailing swift down Niagara's flood; would you ask for time to turn? What if your house was wrapped in flames, would you talk of a gradual escape? What do you mean by a gradual conversion? Can a man gradually stop fighting? fire a few more guns as the war is over? gradually exchange his enmity to love? oppose God to-day, only not so violently as yesterday, and with less and less bitterness as time rolls on? What would become of the soul, he dying in the process? Whose would it be, God's or Satan's? Sinner! God now commands you to repent. As the Roman ambassadors drew a circle around the captive princes and bid them them accede to their terms before they had passed its bounds, so God now requires an immediate accession to his overtures of mercy.

Perhaps you say: "I have tried often and often to give my heart to God and been unable."

And how have you tried? Just as a man has tried to serve two masters. You have tried to give up your heart to God, while you have continued to give it to the world. Your partner, or child, or house, or gold, or honor, has been your idol, or you have cloven to some forbidden sin and refused to cut off the right hand, or to pluck out the right eye. No wonder you have failed; and try in this way you may forever, and at last make your bed in hell. How will your heart ever fasten upon God, until you renounce every other object of affection?

"But I have no conviction and no realization of my entire alienafrom God, and how without that can I yield myself to him alive from the dead?"

No conviction! No realization! Can you lay your hand on your heart and say this? Are you not struggling this moment against convictions more distressing than you can bear; laboring to conceal it from a scrutinizing world; more willing to have it said that your heart is so hard, so unbelieving, that all that God can do, all the blood and sufferings of Christ, and the very prospect of an eternal destruction has no effect upon you, than that you are under conviction and alarmed at your state; rather be called a stupid, hardened atheist and infidel than an anxious, inquiring sinner? What will you think of this pride when your flesh and your body are consumed-of this careful concealment of your true character and these resistances of the Spirit of God? O my still impenitent hearer, God once more says to you in infinite kindness and compassion-" My son, give me thine heart." Refuse, and how shall you escape his wrath and curse? Do what you will; be moral in your life, sober in your conversation, chaste in your thoughts, honest in your intercourse with your fellow men, regular in your attendance on the forms of religion, give all your goods to feed the poor, and your body to be burned, without love you cannot enter heaven. Never, no, never, can you praise and enjoy God; never stand in the "light of his countenance." Hell must be your abode; weeping and wailing your potrion.

"But God is merciful."

True; and therefore you are spared, and God is saying " My son, give me thine heart." For though all your sins were blotted

out, without love you could not live in heaven. You could not dwell a moment there while withholding yourself from him that that sitteth on the throne. Here you have happiness in the objects around you; in acquiring wealth; in moving, perhaps, in a wide circle of friends; in the gratification of appetite; in the pride of life. But in death, the world, with all that is gratifying to a wicked man,

passes away. Riches he must leave behind; sensual pleasures come to an end; honor, pomp, pride perish in the dust. So the rich man found it. He had withheld his heart from God, and rioted in the bounties of his providence. But he died, and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, without one drop of water to cool his tongue tormented in the flame. Thus was it with him; and you are now to decide whether thus it shall be with you. Are you aged, with one foot in the grave, within sound of the groans of the lost; how precious the moment! Are you young, in the spring season of life, unhardened, uncommitted to an eternal alienation, within the precious promise: "I love them that love me; and they that seek me early shall find me." Unto you, O man, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. Hark! I seem to hear you say:

"Weary of this war within,

Weary of this endless strife;
Weary of myself and sin,

Weary of a wretched life;

"Burdened with a world of grief,

Burdened with a sinful load;

Burdened with my unbelief,

Burdened with the wrath of God;

"Lo, I come to thee for ease,

Jesus, gracious as thou art;

Now my weary soul release,

Write forgiveness on my heart."
Father, I have sinned, etc.

66 Now, Lord, I would be thine alone,
Come, take possession of thine own,
For thou hast set me free;

Released from Satan's hard command,
See all my powers in waiting stand
To be employed by thee."

O to

And is it so? May I leave you reconciled to God? grace how great a debtor. "I say unto you there is joy in heaven among the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Oh, the wonders of redeeming love! Oh, the triumphs of the Cross over sin and hell. Give your heart, your all to God, and be blessed for ever.

"Sing, ye redeemed of the Lord,
Your great deliverer sing;
Pilgrims for Zion's city bound,
Be joyful in your King.

"A hand divine shall lead you on
Through all the blissful road
Till to the sacred mount you rise
To see your smiling God."

The Fulton-Street Prayer-Meeting. ria who left her water-pot and THIS Consecrated spot continues went into the city to tell the the home of prayer, the house of people of Christ-so must I say prayer, the place where it would I will leave all to sing the praises seem God delights to hear and an- of the Lord. I am now sixtyswer the petitions of his praying three years old. But since I was ones. Here the citizen, the stran- born the last time I have rejoiced ger, the merchant, and business- each day in the Rock of my salman from a distance, the soldier vation." and officer from the army or navy, the sailor and sea-captain from their ocean voyages, come with warm hearts and deep emotion, to tell how God has heard their prayers, and what he has done for their souls.

Prayers having been requested for the conversion of two brothers on the battle field; the speedy conversion of a woman sick and near to death; and for the blessing of God to rest on a Sabbath School in New Jersey, an army At a recent meeting a young chaplain led in prayer, remembersoldier arose to speak. His words ing these with much earnestness. were few, but his heart seemed He prayed for the wounded on full. "He had come to thank the battle field; the sick in hosGod publicly," he said, "for his pitals and camps; the poor wangoodness." A short time since dering colored people in our city, he asked the prayers of the meet- many of whom were God's being, that he might be kept while lieving, humble children, who away in camp. Those prayers were cast out and homeless; and had been answered, God had he prayed with great fervor for kept him, and he was here to give our distracted country that the the glory to Him. God of battles would guide our generals in the field, and that the Gospel of Christ would go forth with our armies.

"I have come again," said an aged sea-captain in the meeting, 66 to tell once more the same old story. Surely I can say, I rejoice in God, the Rock of my salvation. It is now four years and eight months since I was born into the kingdom of God's dear Son: 'But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' This verse," he adds, " and particularly the latter clause, just suits my case exactly. I rejoice that I was born a second time. Like the woman of Sama

On another occasion, one who had been converted through the influence of the meetings arose to speak. It was about a year and a half since he had sought his happiness at the foot of the cross— and here he found it truly. He added: "I always expect to be happy, because I always intend to do the will of God." He had spent some time of late in Convalescent Camp, Virginia. He found there a great outpouring of God's Spirit. He had seen in the many meetings