The wealthy merchant.

The message to him.

you may arrest a momentary attention, you may awaken awe and even terror, by bringing death and a coming judgment to view. But to link that heart by any substantial tie, to its maker and benefactor, and kindest and dearest friend, will baffle all your powers.

Make the experiment then upon a maturer mind. Here is a wealthy merchant, engaged in business, which abundant prosperity from God has brought before him. In order that there may be nothing exceptionable in the form and manner in which his duty as a child of God is brought before him, we will suppose that he is sick, and has sent for his pastor to come and visit him. Let this pastor explain what is meant by the requisition of the Bible, that a man of wealth should feel that his wealth is not his own, but that he holds it as steward,— agent; and that he is bound to be faithful to the trust committed to him. He knows very well what are the duties of trustee. He understands the distinction between agent and principal; so that no long explanation is necessary. Let the pastor simply call his attention to the point, and bring home to his mind the nearness of eternity, the inconceivable importance of the salvation of his soul, and that of his workmen, his clerks, his salesmen, his navigators; and plead with him to come out honestly and openly and with all his heart, on the side of God and holiness;-to let his light shine;- and to devote every thing he has to the work of helping forward God's cause in the world. Suppose this experiment were to be tried, who that knows mankind will doubt about the result. One half the christian pastors in the world would be so convinced of its hopelessness, that they would not make the attempt. They would not ask, plainly and directly, a worldly man under such circumstances, to give himself up to God. And if they should bring the question forward, plainly and faithfully, and in all its honest truth, instead of winning new con

Ennity against God.

The amiable girl.

verts to God, they would, in nine cases out of ten, in any commercial city in Christendom, excite high displeasure, and very likely never be able to gain admission to the bedside again. Worldly men are very willing to sustain the external institutions of religion, and to assemble on the Sabbath from time to time, to hear praises of the moral virtues, or discussions of the abstract excellences of religion. But you cannot take such a text as this, "YE ARE NOT YOUR OWN, YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE, THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODIES AND IN YOUR SPIRITS WHICH ARE GOD's:" and fairly bring it before men's consciences and hearts, so that they shall really understand its meaning, without awakening strong opposition or dislike. It is opposition and dislike to something. They say it is not enmity against God. But that certainly looks very much like enmity against God and his government, which is excited by the presenta tion of the very fundamental principle of all his laws.

But do not let us despair. There may be some one yet, who will admit God, though all these have rejected him. Here is an amiable and gentle girl; obedient to her parents, faithful in many of her duties, affectionate, kind. Let us bring to her the invitation to come into the kingdom of heaven. Exemplary as she is in external conduct, she knows very well that her heart would not bear exposure. Envy, self-will, jealousy, pride, often reign there. She knows it; she feels it, and her conscience being still tender, these sins often destroy her peace. Tell her that divine grace will help her to subdue these, her enemies. She sometimes looks forward to future life, and sighs to think how soon it will pass away. Tell her that piety will dispel the darkness that hangs over the grave, and open immortality to her view. She thinks of future trials and difficulties and dangers, with dread. Tell her that the Savior is ready to guide her and be her friend; to protect and bless her at all

Apparent attention.

Real indifference.

Almost a Christian.

times, to give her employment, and to be her reward. Spread the whole subject out before her, and urge her to come and give herself up to God and save her soul. She listens to you with respectful, and perhaps even with pleased attention. Do not be deceived by it. She is, at heart, tired and sick of the gloomy subject. She might like perhaps protection and happiness, but her heart revolts against God and holiness, and you might as well talk to the deaf adder as talk to her.

Or if her heart is not entirely braced up and hardened in its determination to have nothing to do with God and religion, if she is really willing to listen and to read, --she is still just as obstinately determined not to obey. She is called perhaps a religious inquirer. She reads the Bible, and offers a daily prayer, and takes an interest in religious instruction; but her secret motive is to keep religion within her reach, because she dares not let it go altogether. She is still determined not to give up herself to it. She can love her parents, her brothers and sisters, but her heart is cold and hard against God; and do all you can to persuade her to come out openly and honestly and cordially on his side, she is fixed, immovably fixed, in refusing to do it. Her religious friends think she is very near the kingdom of heaven. And in one sense, she is near. She stands at the very gate of the celestial city. All obstacles are removed: she can look in and see the happy mansions and the golden streets. The simple difficulty is, that she will not enter. If you urge her, she tries to perplex you with metaphysical speculations, or listens in respectful silence, and goes away and continues in sin exactly as before.

And thus it is all over the world. There are many beautiful moral exhibitions to be seen here; many admirable results; many alluring aspects of human nature. But after all, any honest observer must see, that between mankind and God their Maker, there is

Universal alienation from God.

Dead in trespasses and sins.

a deep and settled and universal disagreement. They would be willing that God should rule over them, if he would leave them pretty much to themselves. But this he will not do. His very first and most emphatic command is," THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH ALL THY HEART, AND THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF;" and this they will not do. It is their fixed, their settled, their unchanging determination that they will not do it.

Perhaps I ought not to call it a determination; for it is rather a feeling than a determination,- a disrelish for holiness and the spiritual enjoyment of loving and serving God. The heart, sensitive as it is in regard to its own rights and interests, is cold and torpid in regard to its Maker's claims. Motive will not act upon it. Persuasion has no effect, for there is no feeling for persuasion to take hold of. Argument does no good, for though you may convince the understanding without much difficulty, the heart remains insensible and cold; dead, as the Bible terribly expresses it, dead in trespasess and sins. This coldness and insensibility of the heart towards God, lead to all sorts of sinfulness in conduct. It takes off restraint, gives up the soul to unholy feelings, increases the power of temptation, and thus leaves the soul the habitual slave of sin. These overt acts are the effects, not the cause, and he who hopes to be morally renewed, must not look directly and mainly to his moral conduct, and endeavor to rectify that; but he must look deeper; he must examine his heart, and expect no real success which does not proceed from the warmth of spiritual life springing up there.

I presume that a large portion of the readers of this chapter, will be persons who feel, in some degree, the value and the necessity of piety, and they are perhaps actually reading this book with a vague sort of wish to meet with something in it, which will help them to find salvation The book can do this only by showing you

The real difficulty.

Spiritual blindness.

The ungrateful child.

the real difficulty;- which is that you do not sincerely wish for salvation. "Cease to do evil, ask forgiveness in the name of Christ for the evil you have done, and henceforth openly serve God." These are certainly directions which it is easy for you to understand, and easy to practise. The difficulty is, a heart which will not comply. There is a moral obligation to comply, which the understanding admits, but which the heart does not feel; and a moral beauty in complying, which it does not perceive.

This is spiritual blindness. And yet, simple as it seems, a large portion, even of those who call themselves religious inquirers, have very little conception of what spiritual blindness is. It is insensibility to spiritual things, a dulness of moral perception, such that sin, though it is intellectually perceived, makes no impression, and holiness, though the word is understood, awakens no feeling of its excellence and beauty in the heart. I can best illustrate it by a simple case, such as parents often have occasion to observe.

A noisy boy, three or four years old, was once running about the house, disturbing very much, by his rattling playthings and his loud outcries, a sick mother, in a chamber above stairs. I called him to me, and something like the following dialogue ensued.*

"" Where is your mother?"

"She is sick up stairs.'

"Is she? I am sorry she is sick.”

A pause.

* As the reader proceeds through the dialogue, we wish he would recollect that the case is not brought forward to illustrate the general character of children. That is not our present subject. The story is told merely to illustrate the nature of blindness to spiritual things; and though true, it would have answered our purpose just as well, if it had been entirely imaginary. Children generally, or at least often, have a very keen sensibility to the guilt of ingratitude.