ings of parental compassion, and the movements of parental love! Would to God that every individual in this congregation would learn to contemplate the Lord in this character! This, this, my brethren, is genuine religion, to approach God as our Father. "God is love;" and he would have his creatures remember, that this is his one great and conspicuous attribute-the prominent jewel in the crown of the Divine perfections. Shake off, then, your coldness and indifference, and your slavish fear, or reluctant and niggardly obedience. Your Father calls you. One who yearns over you with a parent's tenderness bids you come to his bosom, and "find rest to your souls."

I shall conclude this exposition of the text by stating some practical lessons which seem to arise out of it.

1. In the first place, I would speak to the indolent and desponding.-Observe, I beseech you, the use made in the text of the low and miserable circumstances to which the Israelites had reduced themselves. There is a disposition in many to pervert their past sins, or their present calamities on account of sin, to the most mischievous purposes. And especially does this disposition of mind prevail with regard to the great sin and calamity of human nature, the fall of man. "We are fallen," say some," and therefore how can we hope ?" "We are fallen," say others," and therefore how can we love and obey?" But what is the language of the text? "Thou hast fallen;" and therefore "take with thee words," and "turn to the Lord." In other words, you have fallen from God: let it be a motive, not for indolence or despair, but for seeking the Lord.

and urgently and devoutly pleading with Him for pardon and grace, for admission into His presence, and conformity to His nature. When Joshua and the elders of Israel in a season of suffering under Divine displeasure, cast themselves in despair upon the ground, the language of God to them was, "Get thee up: why liest thou there upon thy face?" And such is His language to yourselves: "Repent, lest iniquity be your ruin." Arise, lest this fall become the prelude to a fall more deep, more awful, more irremediable; remember that, however great your present calamity or danger, escape is still possible. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help;" and therefore, give not "sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids," till you have sought and found the deliverance which "cometh from God only."

2. In the next place, I would speak to the nominal believer; and to him, I would say, Observe to whom the call of the text is addressed: "O Israel, return unto the Lord." It is therefore to "Israel;" to the people bearing the name of the Lord, and professing his religion, this language is addressed. And, my brethren, in our own days, it is not merely on the avowed profligate, or despiser of God, that the necessity of a deep, vital, heartfelt repentance, or conversion of heart and practice, must be urged. We may be far from "sitting in the seat of the scornful." abhor many of the principles and practices which deform and pollute the face of society. We may bear the name of the Saviour, and make an outward profession of his religion. But, nevertheless, if we are worldly, or indevout, or unconscious of our sins, or negligent of the Sa

We may

viour of sinners, we have the same practical need of the doctrine of conversion, even as the proffigate offender. For, in this case, our "hearts are not right with God," and we have not that "holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." Examine, then, let me beseech you, my brethren, the character and extent of your own conversion. Beware of stopping short at a change which reaches the manners without touching the heart; which cuts off only a few of the grosser vices, or imparts only a few of the easier virtues; which separates you from the profligate without uniting you to God and the Redeemer. "O Israel, return to the Lord thy God."

3. And, finally, let me speak to the poor contrite sinner, who is unable to find any hope or consolation in the promises of the Gospel.-To whom, I again ask, was the invitation of the text addressed? Was it not to guilty and afflicted Israel; to those who, whatever name they bear, had, by a long series of provocations, brought down the heavy wrath of God upon themselves; to those who had sinned against light and conviction, in the face of the strongest warnings, and in the midst of the highest privileges? And, even those deep and old offenders are directed to draw nigh to God, with the conviction, that in Him "the fatherless," the helpless, the destitute, "find mercy." Take, then, this encouragement to your wounded bosoms, you who are prostrate supplicants at the cross of your Redeemer; and never question the willingness of God to save you. Go to Him, as not merely the Judge of his creatures, but the "Father." and the tenderest

of all fathers. But, then, while the conviction of his love fills you with hope, let it also prompt you to watchfulness, to purity of life, and sweetness of temper. If it is as children you would be saved by Him, it is as children you must love and obey Him. "Say no more, therefore, to the works of your hands, Ye are our gods." Renounce every other master for the love and service of the Lord. Abandon the world, that you may be installed into the high privileges of the children of heaven. Whatever be the disposition of others, let your language be, "Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a covenant which shall not be forgotten." Thus, by the power of Divine grace, resolve and act; and the promise of God shall be eternally fulfilled to you: "I will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holi

ness.

PERHAPS there is no duty of which the obligation is more universally felt and acknowledged, than that of a child to a parent. Indeed, it might be thought that none could fail to give to obligations of this class all their due weight and solemnity, who had ever reposed on the sleepless anxiety of a mother's love, lavishing health, and strength, and life itself, for the child of her bosom. Amongst some of the nations of antiquity, the violation of this duty was regarded with such abhorrence, that the parent was permitted to punish it with death. And, if in some modern idolatrous countries, the child is found lighting the funeral pile of its widowed mother, or plunging its decrepid parent into the waves of the sacred river, it is not so much that filial duty is despised, as that a false system of religion has prescribed wrong means of discharging that duty. In fact, this obligation seems in many in