to enter, might supply, to strengthen and confirm his dawning conversion. Thus awakened, as from a guilty dream, he is led forth to Golgotha. Every thing around him must tend to invigorate returning virtue, and kindle opening piety: every object combine to remind him, that he had no longer any part or lot in this world. The awful pomp of military procession, the gazing multitude, the sorrowing disciples, the fearful preparations for a violent death, the heavy cross, alternately borne by the Cyrenian and the sufferer, the striking contrast to the savage stupidity, and ferocious hardihood of his comrade, displayed in the calm but elevated deportment of a blameless victim, in whom the judge, corrupt as he was, had declared he "found no fault :"— all these circumstances must have powerfully worked on the imagination of one, now on the very verge of eternity:-but nothing, perhaps, with more effect than the fearful but affectionate prediction of the persecuted Messiah to the sympathising females who lamented his fate: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me; but weep for yourselves and your children: for, behold! the days are coming in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never

bare! Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us." At length, they ascend to the scene of death. The soldiers perform their horrid office ;-the guilty convicts, the guiltless teacher of truth, are, alike, nailed to the fatal tree. The inscription on the cross," This is Jesus, the King of the Jews,"-declares the title he had assumed. That he had assumed that title, as well as the supernatural power he had exerted, is recognized by the scornful sarcasms of his enemies. "If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross; he saved others,-let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of GOD." The patient endurance, the unrepining submission, of such a personage, to insults so unprovoked, to tortures so unmerited, and every circumstance attending the dreadful catastrophe,—are brought home to the understanding, and to the heart of the penitent. Conviction flashes on his mind; -faith takes entire possession of the whole man; -he sees, he knows, he confesses, "the hope of Israel," "the desire of all nations." In the suspended Jesus, "despised and rejected of men," he finds a Saviour,-the "Son of the living his prayer is heard.

GOD."

He prays

Now let the sinful brother of these days judge for himself, and find, if he can, the least shadow of resemblance, between his character and condition and the insulated and unexampled situation of the Jewish criminal. Introduced from infancy to the knowledge of a Redeemer; taught the elements of language out of his written Word; his doctrines explained, his precepts enforced, by a standing ministry; his house of worship established in every district;-thus tutored, thus invited, it is impossible for any man now to be ignorant, that "GOD hath raised up a mighty salvation for us, in the house of his servant David." Of the conditions of that salvation, too, he cannot be ignorant :-faith, whereby we stedfastly believe the promises of GOD, and repentance, whereby we forsake sin. These are the express stipulations of the baptismal covenantfaith, to receive the Gospel; repentance, to forsake sin―to forsake sin,-utterly to renounce the world and the flesh, while we can renounce them; not weep and lament, when we can do nothing. From the beginning, we have known,

or might have known, " Him that is true." The contrite robber knew him not, till they met in death. How could the untaught malefactor

"believe in Him of whom he had not heard? And how could he hear, without a preacher ?" The worldling, who postpones his lingering repentance, absorbed by avarice or sensuality, will not believe, till belief can work no reformation: he will not hear, till his ears are dull of hearing, and the warning voice is vain.

Another passage of Scripture has been brought forward, to justify the same expectation;-the labourer sent into the vineyard at the eleventh hour, yet receiving the same recompence with those who had been hired early in the morning. But you will recollect, that, before that hour, there was no one to engage him: he was in attendance, but found no employer: when invited, he went; and, though late, he worked,—he performed his task: he did not seek the vineyard, when the sun was absolutely set, the business of the day entirely over,—and the lord on the point of reckoning with his servants.-This parable, perhaps, may be applicable to reformation at the decline of life, when something may be actually performed, when indolence may be shaken off, obedience renewed, and sincerity manifested by deeds instead of words,-not when life itself is come to its period.

In short, I remember no declaration or assurance of the New Testament, which can justly encourage the procrastinating transgressor to place any reliance on that selfish, that long-protracted sorrow, which is roused only by fear, and which comes too late to " bring forth fruits meet for repentance." Single, insulated texts, are nothing, to prove this, or any position, which contradicts the general tenour and purpose of revelation. And that this expectation is contrary to the whole scope and design of the Gospel, I shall now briefly attempt to show.

"All Scripture," says St. Paul, ❝is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." All these purposes it answers, by teaching what is to be believed, what is to be abjured, and what is to be performed. Belief can signify nothing, when it comes too late to influence conduct. Sin cannot be said to be avoided, it must cease power of sinning is gone.

of necessity, when the

And how can any act

be performed, when the season of action is past? -And what is the ultimate design of all “instruction in righteousness?"--that the man of God may be perfect. Can perfection be attained without a course of discipline,-of progressive