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3.

We learn from this subject that all sinners will pray, sooner or later.

"The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God." They cast off fear and restrain prayer. They say: "What is the Almighty that we should serve him, and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him?" But when they are lost they will cry for mercy. The rich man in hell cried. He lifted up his voice in awful distress: "Father Abraham, have mercy on me." But it was too late. "Then," says Christ, "they shall call on me, but I will not not answer." It will do no good. They may cry long and loud, but not one drop of the water of life shall descend to those in hell. Not a leaf from the tree of life shall be blown across the great gulf. This, my hearers, is the world where prayer is heard.

"Where are the living? On the ground
Where prayer is heard, and mercy found,
Where in the compass of a span,

The mortal makes the immortal man!

Soon it may be forever too late. Sinner, seek the the Lord while he may be found.

4.

Those who lose their souls will remember what took place on earth.

"Son, remember." Memory and conscience will now perform their office well. They will remember all the joyful scenes through which they have passed. They will remember all the duties which they have neglected the Sabbaths and precious privileges which they once enjoyed—all the sins which they have committed, and especially the sins of the tongue. Those who have trifled and made sport of the subject of reli

gion-those who deny that there is any such place as hell-who labor to quiet their own fears, and the fears of others who say that ministers wish to frighten their hearers when they get to hell, will wish to come back and unsay what they have said. A great many do before they die. It was thus with Voltaire.

"The Frenchman, first in literary fame,

Mention him, if you please; Voltaire! The same:
With spirit, genius, cloquence supplied,

Lived long, wrote much, laughed heartily, and died.
The Bible was his jest-book, whence he drew
Bon mots to gall the christian and the Jew;
An infidel in health-But what when sick?
O, then a text would touch him to the quick.”

When he became apprehensive that his death was approaching, he offered his physician, Dr. Tronchin, one half of his property, if he would prolong his life six months. He informed him that he could not live so many days. He replied, "Then I shall go to hell, and you will go with me."

Thomas Paine, too, in his last moments, exclaimed: "O Lord, help me. O Lord, help me. O Christ, help O Christ, help me."

me.

All the warnings-all the kind invitations-and all the sermons which you have heard and slighted, you will then remember.

"The sacred temple's sounding roof,
The voice of mercy and reproof,
Regarded never”—

Will then be remembered. And this very discourse to which you are now listening, will hereafter be distinctly recollected, and can never be forgotten.

4. We see what the damned would say, were they to come back to this world.

They could not state what they have seen and felt, better than in the language of the Bible. They could not describe the torments of the lost in better language than they are described in the text. They would call upon their companions to repent, lest they come to the place of torment. This, we know, is the substance of what they would say.

5. We learn that sinners in hell, are not yet entirely convinced of the awful depravity of the human heart. The rich man thought that moral suasion, if increased to a certain amount, would be sufficient to bring sinners to repentance. "If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." But he labored under a mistake.

Finally. We learn from this subject that our Saviour was a very plain preacher. Never man spake like this man. Some think they should like to hear Christ preach. But while, it is true, that he spoke in the most melting strains to the penitent, it is also true that none ever preached so much terror to the wicked. Who is it that says, "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat?" Who is it that says, "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it?" Who is it that says, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Who is it that speaks of the worm that shall never die, and of the fire that shall never be quenched? Who is it that describes in language inimitable, the solemnities of the

last judgment, "Then shall the king say to them on his left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ?" The discourse before us, of the rich man and Lazarus, is also a specimen. How solemn it would be, if a departed soul should come back from the invisible world, and enter this congregation. Do you wish to hear what such a soul would say? You shall be gratified. The Saviour holds him up, and makes him now speak to sinners in this congregation. He knows all the feelings of every damned soul in hell, and can tell us just what he would say. He hold him up to your view, and permits you to hear him speak. You hear him plead for one drop of water. You hear him beg that Lazarus, or some glorified saint may be sent to. warn you. O with what importunity does he press upon you the duty of immediate repentance. "Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent."

And now you hear a voice from heaven proclaim— and let it sound in every ear-let it ring in every conscience, "if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

SERMON XVII.

The duty of Fasting, and the manner in which the duty should be performed.

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.-NEHE MIAH i: 4.

MOURNING and fasting are proper on certain occa⚫sions. Nehemiah was a good man, and a zealous and eminent reformer. The cause of God lay near his heart. He resided, at the time to which the text refers, with king Artaxerxes, in Shushan the palace. On a certain occasion, he was visited by some of his brethren from Judah. He made inquiry of the welfare of Jerusalem. "I asked them" he says, "concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said. unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province, are in great affliction and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire."

On learning this, Nehemiah was greatly afflicted, and "sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven." I propose, in this discourse, to consider

I. The duty of fasting.

II. In what manner it ought to be performed.

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