that dwell in the land of the shadow of death."* Even like those who are laid in the tomb, they have hidden themselves away from every thing that is fair and goodly; and, in the state of hopeless misery which they have chosen who have finally shut the gate of mercy against them, and have been "given over to a reprobate mind," we can truly say of them, in the language of the Psalmist, that they are "counted with them. that go down to the pit;" that they are "as free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom God remembereth no more, and they are cut off from his hand."t

3. If then this be a good comparison,and we have Scripture authority for believing that it is,—whereby to describe the effects and the misery of sin, I would briefly pause, before we leave this part of our subject, to observe how wretched such a condition is, and how greatly

When we lose a

and sedulously to be shunned. beloved friend or relative by the hand of death, we feel it a bitter trial, and a hard and painful visitation. But oh! how infinitely more dreadful is their affliction who have suffered themselves to become spiritually dead, and have sacrificed the life of the soul! We might apply to their case, in a figurative sense, the words of Jeremiah; + Psalm ixxxviii. 5.

* Isaiah ix. 2.

"Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goeth away."* Bodily dissolution is a fearful thing to contemplate, but spiritual decay is far more full of terrors. Death comes not, in the latter case, openly, as a king or conqueror, to claim his prey. He creeps in as an insidious spoiler, to spread general but sure devastation and ruin in the heart. This is death indeed without any of its wonted consolations ;-death with its most triumphant victory, its sharpest sting. This is death without hope, without sympathy;-with no kind hand to support the aching head,-with no spiritual guide to direct the soul of the departed through the dark and mysterious valley which it has to pass. It is a painful thing, and shocking to humanity, to stand by the bedside of the dying, or to enter the chambers of the dead. But there is a calmness, methinks, and a peacefulness about such a scene as this, far less distressing to a Christian mind than the irregularity without and the discord within, the riotous excess, the turbulence of passion, and all the restlessness and disorder of that ill adjusted heart which has been given over to the tyranny of Satan. The sickness of the body is grievous; but oh! that we could learn to attend, at least with equal care, to the sickness of the soul! Oh! that men would mi*Jeremiah xxii. 10.

nister to the diseases of the spirit with half the care and perseverance which they apply to the infirmities of the flesh! Oh! that they would guard against the approaches of eternal death with but one portion of the precautions which they use to avert the dissolution of the body!

II. Granting then that the condition of man, both by means of original and actual sin, becomes of itself such as has been described, I have now to touch, (which I shall very briefly do) on the other branch of the text. 66

You," the apostle says, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him." It is plain then that the gospel, amongst other things, was designed to remove that miserable state of deadness in man, and to restore him to a state of life. That this is

literally the case with regard to a future world, I need hardly remind you now. We know full well that, but for Christ, and for that gospel which " brought life and immortality to light," we must all have died eternally, and retained no hope of a joyful resurrection hereafter. But, besides this literal meaning, it is also true in a figurative one, as it was observed above, that the comparison of life is a good one to describe the state of those who, by Christ's gospel, have become regenerate, and have partaken of the

sanctifying grace of God's Holy Spirit.

They

that "are in Christ" are, indeed, "alive from the dead," and have "passed from death to life;"* and "if any man keep his sayings he shall not see death."t There was more, therefore, than a literal meaning in those prophecies which said, speaking of Christ, that "thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead." As well as in the words of Christ himself, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."§ The touching narratives of the restoration of Lazarus, the daughter of Jairus, and the widow's son at Nain, breathe a higher and more instructive moral than they would have done as mere historical facts, when they remind us that he who thus traversed the order of the natural world, could exercise a like controul over the spiritual. And the saints who "arose" from their tombs at the crucifixion of Christ, and "appeared unto many," had a more

* John v. 24; 1 John iii. 24. John viii. 51. Isaiah xxvi. 19. § John v. 25.

marvellous tale to tell them than the mere miraculous reanimation of the mouldering dust, in the emblem which that miracle gave of their Redeemer's power to quicken also the soul with a spark of new and unextinguishable life.

They, indeed, who are truly and seriously Christians, and who strive earnestly and humbly to keep their Saviour's law, to observe his ordinances, and to obtain, through Christ, the favor of God,-they indeed may be said, in the true sense of the word, to live the life of immortal spirits even in a mortal world. Their life is not the mere energy of the evil passions and the carnal affections, it is the lively operation and the animated exercise of the best feelings of the heart and soul. Barren indeed was that soul by nature, but by grace the prophesied miracle has been wrought, the very desert itself hath blossomed like a rose," and that which had nothing in itself of good, hath now put forth the thriving buds of faith, and hope, and charity, and love, and all the Christian graces. The true Christian lives, in every sense of the word, under the guidance of heaven-as far, at least, as human infirmities will allow him the life that an immortal spirit should live. He is not dead to feeling or to natural affection; he is not blind to the way, nor deaf to the word of God. "He that believeth in Christ,