session of authority into a disregard of the feelings of those beneath them, into a neglect of their spiritual interests, into harsh judgments concerning them, and a forgetfulness of their peculiar hardships and trials; while servants on the other hand forget, that the commands of their masters are to them, as the commands of God, and are consequently to be performed, as unto the lord, and not to men. Parents are too apt to form their plans of life without due regard to the influence of their proceedings upon the tender minds and pliant habits of their children, and children, as they advance in life, to assume a liberty of thought and action, inconsistent with the respect they owe to their parents.

These are some of the natural temptations, to which experience teaches us, that we are all exposed; and he, who is duly aware of them, cannot but seek to take refuge continually in that defence of the most high, under which whoso dwelleth, shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. Whenever any persons follow this course, when they hold habitual communion with Heaven in the use of appointed

means, and are at the same time solicitous to avoid the occasions of evil by watching against the sin, whatever it be, which most easily besets them, we may be sure, that such persons are led by the spirit of God. They will gradually acquire more and more of the mind. of Christ; and, being admonished by his example, and filled with his love, they will be less moved by the seductions of the world, and enabled so to live, that they may say'Not I, but Christ liveth in me.'

Still notwithstanding their utmost care the most spiritually-minded christians will be the most forward to bewail their continual failures. Their improved moral discernment will see imperfections in their best obedience and service and besides this, if the grace of God should withdraw from them even for a single moment, even they will fall into grievous sins: and then, if temptation should get the mastery of them, and they be led into some flagrant violation of the obligations of their holy profession, how shall they recover the peace, which they have lost? How shall they regain their

forfeited confidence, and return to that life

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of God, from which they have unhappily deviated?

My brethren, are there any of you, who, having begun well, have fallen from grace, have grown slack in prayer, become indifferent to the word and sacraments, and been betrayed into some form of criminal or irreligious conduct? Your situation is one of alarming danger; and you ought not to rest in peace a single night, till you have returned to the position, which you have quitted: and this can only be done by confessing your faults before God, and looking again to the law and to the testimony, which you have neglected, to the law in all its detail of duty, and to the testimony in all its sweetness of promise. There is but one way of salvation; and therefore there is but one way of returning to a state of salvation: and that is by repentance and faith. Only repentance after a relapse must be accompanied by deeper compunction; and faith will be encountered by greater obstacles. For in repenting of the wickedness, into which you have now fallen, you cannot but feel, if you are indeed a child of grace, that you have wounded a saviour,

whom you knew and loved, and brought dishonour upon a cause, which it was incumbent upon you to adorn; and these are reflections, which must occasion keener anguish, in proportion as you have attained to a more lively sense of the importance, and to a more perfect knowledge of the greatness of redemption. And besides there is shame to be borne, shame, justly brought upon you by your own wilful misconduct, shame, to which you are bound humbly to submit before God, and which you are often required also to bear with meekness in the presence of men, who will not be slow to reproach you with the discredit you have brought upon religion, and whose reproaches, though they may not be entitled by their own superior holiness to cast them upon you, and though indeed they would be restrained from casting them upon you, if they possessed that superior holiness, you are bound not to resent, but must receive them, as your justly appointed portion, a bitter, but wholesome medicine, which your heavenly physician has dispensed to you. All the temporal inconveniencies, which have resulted from your

crime, you must endure with patience, while, if any temporal advantages have been purchased by iniquity, they must be resigned and abandoned, if you would acceptably return to God. These are causes, which render a return to the paths of wisdom more painful than the original entrance into them; while on the other hand the very recollection of your past ingratitude, the conviction of having sinned against light, and cast a stumbling-block in the way of those, who were beginning to live religiously, or who were prejudiced against the truth, may naturally render you slower to believe, that the promises of the gospel any longer belong to you, and may thus obstruct seriously the renewal of your faith. Under such circumstances faith too often appears to be presumption, and a reliance on the promises of the gospel to indicate a defect of humility. Yet reflect, my dear brethren, if there be any of you, to whom these remarks are applicable, that, unless you can believe in the grace of our lord, Jesus Christ, in the fulness of its blessings to your own soul, unless you can honor the compassion of the saviour so far as to believe it capable