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become a member of, or to be actively engaged in co-operating with, some missionary, some tract, some Bible or education association, declines with cold and frigid indifference, or with some heart-chilling excuse which indicates a wish to get clear of the subject, I set that Christian down as a kind of spiritual anomaly. When I see or hear of one called a Christian who can spend a dollar ouce in a while in the cause of Christ, and a hundred at any time in pleasure, in equipage, in dress, or in any other kind of show, I see or hear of one who knows about as much of what Christianity is, as if he or she had never heard its name. When I hear of Christians, so called, who never converse with sinners on the peril of their condition; who will see their unconverted friends and relations going down to hell, and be as indifferent to it as if they were on a pleasant journey, I think these are Christians without Christianity. The world is to be converted through the instrumentality of Christian efforts, and the prayers, the labours, the pecuniary sacrifices of Christians, will never be over, till from the rising to the setting of the sun, one song shall sound among all the nations of the earth, even a thanksgiving to our God.

Christians, then, have a great work to do, because they have the nations of the earth to convert to the Lord. Sinners at home, and sinners abroad, must be the ceaseless subject of their thoughts, their labours and their prayers. Why should a single individual hesitate to engage in this, and that, and every plan which even contemplates the least spiritual good? Some will not engage in this great work, because they do not like the plans suggested. Some, be

cause they cannot follow out their own views. Some are opposed to this, and some to that effort of Christian benovolence. Some will do nothing at home, because so much is desired abroad. Some nothing abroad, because so much is necessary at home. In fine, it is not because they would do, if every thing suited their ideas, but because the indisposition of their hearts makes every thing unsuitable. The unprofitable servant who buried his talent in the earth, had the presumption, coupled with the gross impertinence, of telling his Lord, "I knew that thou wert an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed." I place before you, Christians, a world which lieth in wickedness; thousands about you going down into the pit, because there is no one to care for their souls; millions abroad in darkness and the shadow of death, without hope and without God, because there is none to rend the veil and discover to them the glories of the Gospel. It is the business of every one of you to be active and engaged. Too much you cannot do. While there are thousands perishing every hour, you dare to live in apathy, and indifference, and neglect. Against every one called a Christian, and who is not actively engaged in his Master's cause, the cry of your brother's blood is constantly ascending; and it will avail you as little as it did Cain, to say, "Am I my brother's keeper." This is the work before you, and tell me, will not every Christian say, who knows and feels his duty"I am doing a great work?"

But, my friends, there is one particular intimately connected with all the subjects I have heretofore considered. If the work is a great work, because its

objects are an escape from hell, a preparation for heaven, the glory of God, and the salvation of men, it obtains another mark of greatness from the fact, that all those objects are to be pursued while life shall last. It is not the labour of an hour, a day, a month, a year, that will answer for the great designs which you have to accomplish. Nothing less than life will answer; nothing less than all the powers of the man.

A charge to keep I have,

A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

From youth to hoary age,

My calling to fulfil;

Oh may it all my powers engage,
To do my Master's will.

A little labour for a little time, may accomplish a little, and the effect will be as temporary as the effort. He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."-"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."

I have now, my friends, considered this great work as to its objects; and, if in the providence of God permitted, the next time I address you on this text, it will be to take up my second general division, and show that the work of religion is a great work, because of its opponents.

I have little more time now than to ask you, whether you are engaged in this great work? Sinner,

are you seeking to escape from hell, and to be qualified for heaven? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must be born again." Christians, are ye glorifying God? Are ye labouring for the souls of men? And are ye doing this, conscious that life only can put a period to your labour? If not, the whole concern, sinners and formal professors, are but weaving the spider's web, and hatching the cockatrice's eggs; the web, you will find, can never make a garment to cover spiritual nakedness in the day of judgment, and that which the eggs of the cockatrice will produce, will be found to be but a viper. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." I beseech you to be up and doing, "for the night cometh when no man can work."

SERMON XIV.

THE GREAT WORK OF RELIGION.

NEHEMIAH vi. 3.

I HAVE thus far, my friends, been engaged in an attempt to prove, that the work of religion is a great work, if nothing were taken into the consideration but the objects which it proposes, viz: an escape from hell, a preparation for heaven, the glory of God, and the salvation of the world; and all these to be pursued with the most unwearied perseverance, until death shall close all the pains of man's probationary state. I come now to take up another branch of this interesting subject, and as my

IId general division, consider the greatness of the work from the number, the variety, the power and the policy of its opponents. Take the whole circumstances of human life, and there is nothing which is calculated to produce the good of mankind, but it necessarily meets with those who oppose it; some on the one hand, and some on the other; some for ob

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