reveals, we have no difficulty in perceiving how it operates in the sanctification and salvation of man. There is that in the great truths of the gospel which must, when cordially received, exert the very influence which the gospel claims for itself; which must render it quick and powerful; a sovereign balm for every wound. But tell me what there is in the insulated fact that God has made a revelation to the world, which could produce this effect? What is there in it which the most depraved man on earth might not fully and cor dially believe, and yet not lose a particle of his depravity? What is there which a heathen might not believe and be a heathen still?

3. Let me proceed to a third class, who are still a little upon the advance. of the preceding;-who not only admit the authority of the bible, but intelli. gently give their assent to its doctrines; who nevertheless, in their heart and life, do not yield to its influence. Let us see whether, as wise men, they can justify their conduct.

Suppose the message of which I have been all along speaking, to have been addressed to a criminal under sentence of death, and to contain nothing less important to him than the offer of a free forgiveness, which yet he was at liberty to reject; and suppose he should not only be fully satisfied that it had come from the proper authority, but should examine it, and fully understand its nature; and then, instead of gratefully accepting the pardon which it proffered, should indignantly or insultingly reject it, and should hug his chains, and seem determined that the law should have its course in his executionwould you have any doubt that that poor criminal, however it might have been with him when he committed the act for which he had been condemned, was then bereft of his reason? Would you not say, "the love of life is natural to man; but this man, in choosing death rather than life, does violence to the dictates of nature: he must be a maniac?"

Or suppose the message to be addressed to yourself, and to be nothing less than that there was an immense fortune, or if you please, an earthly kingdom, at your command, which would be made over to you in a formal way, provided you would consent to receive it as a free gift: you are perfectly satisfied of the authenticity of the communication, and the sincerity of the offer; but instead of taking measures to make it your own, you practically treat it with absolute indifference; and that too, when you profess in words to place upon it the highest value-would this conduct savor of wisdom? Should you dare stake your character for worldly prudence on such conduct?

The message which God sends you in his word, corresponds in its different aspects to both these cases. It comes to you as a criminal condemned by God's law, and contains the offer of a full and gracious forgiveness. It extends still farther, and contains the offer of a heavenly inheritance, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. You profess to believe that the message comes from God; that your condition is just as bad as the message presumes it to be; that the provision made for your salvation is every way adequate; that there is a crown of life offered you, and a seat at God's right hand. And then with these sentiments on your lips, you fold your arms, and go to sleep over these amazing interests. You suffer yourself to be altogether engrossed with the things of the world; with objects which, by your own con. fession, compared with those you neglect, are as insignificant as the playthings of children. I surely need not stop to ask whether this is wise. You cannot dream that there is wisdom in acting contrary to your own convictions; in professing to believe that religion is every thing, and then acting as

if it were nothing. He who should do so in his worldly transactions would never get trusted after it; for he would be set down as a knave or a fool.

I observe, once more, that there is a class of men who not only admit the authority of God's message, and understand well what it means, but fully intend to yield obedience to it; though they are putting off such obedience to a future season. How will their conduct bear to be judged by the rules of wisdom?

You admit that religion is a matter of infinite moment, and that it must be attended to before you die. You have no expectation of getting to heaven in any other way than by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and if you should die before you have complied with these conditions, you fully believe that there could be no salvation for you.

Now in order to make it appear that this delay to which you are inclined to yield is marked by true wisdom, you must show at least two things:-First, that you are certain you shall have a future period for repentance; and, second, that that period will be more favorable than the present.

Show me, vain mortal, your security for a single day. Is it youth? Is it health? Is it beauty? Go with me to yonder sepulchre, and I can show you the death worm, revelling amid the ruins of each. Do you speak of early promise or of parental hopes? These also death mocks without distinction; and writes the father and the mother childless. The truth is, you have no secu rity. You are living in a world where the arrows of death are flying in every direction; and there is not one of them of which you can say with certainty that it shall not pierce your own heart. When you put off the concerns of religion to a future day, you put it off to a day which, for aught you know, may dawn upon your grave. It is consummate folly to do this, even if you are young; for how many monuments are continually rising up to tell of the departure of those who had but just begun to live! And if it is folly for the young, what is it for the man of grey hairs? What for him who already walks tremblingly, as if he were near the borders of the grave?.

But even if you were certain of a future day, would you be under better advantages to repent then than now? Will repentance be an easier work? Is it the nature of habit to grow weaker by indulgence? Do you really believe that you would enter upon the work with better hope of success than at this hour? Are you certain that God will give you grace to repent, after you have abused his grace by long delay and presumption? Are you sure that when the anticipated season shall come, provided you are yet among the liv ing, your heart will not be as insensible as a rock; that the curse of reproba. tion may not have fallen upon you, and frozen up the very fountain of feeling? I know, my friends, that I have your judgment and conscience on my side, when I enter a protest against this delaying spirit. I know you cannot but feel that in what you are doing in respect to this matter, you adopt precisely such a course as you would expect, in your worldly affairs, would lead to disaster and ruin. Let me entreat you then to do at present what you intend to do hereafter; because the difficulties of the work of repentance are constantly accumulating, and because to-morrow is a word which ought not to be found in the vocabulary of a probationer for eternity. I only ask you to act in accordance with your own honest convictions. I have spoken to you, my friends, one and all, words of truth and soberness. I have spoken to you as unto wise men: judge ye what I what I have said.

SERMON XXVII.

BY WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D. D.

OF ALBANY.

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTIONS AGAINST COMING TO THE LORD'S TABLE, ANSWERED.

ZECHARIAH 4:10. Who hath despised the day of small things?

THIS interrogation makes part of a prophecy which was designed to encourage the Jews in respect to the success of their enterprise in rebuilding the temple. There were many things at the commencement of it which seemed discouraging: it was emphatically a day of small things; but the prophet intimates that such a day is not to be despised; and that that which had a feeble beginning, would issue in a glorious result. The head stone should be brought forth with shoutings, of "Grace, grace unto it.”

There is something analogous to this in the common course of divine operation. A seed is cast into the earth, and it germinates; and begins to shoot upward; and perhaps, in your walk you tread it under foot without observation; but ere long a tree rises and stretcheth forth its boughs toward heaven, and takes its place among the majestic oaks of the forest. The first dawning of the day-star is but feeblelike one solitary ray falling on thick darkness; nevertheless this almost imperceptible glimmering is a sure precursor of the brightness of noon-day. When the little company of pilgrims who originally settled in New-England, were collected on the shores of their native country to embark for a wilderness, which to them lay beyond the ocean, doubtless it seemed to many who looked on, a desperate enterprise; and certainly it was the day of small things; but long since has that enterprise proved itself to have contained the elements of national greatness and glory; and at this hour it reflects back light and joy upon the country in which it originated; and I may add, is car rying a healing influence to all the nations. The cause of temperance, as it exists in this country, took its origin in an accidental conversation between two individuals; and had you listened to that conversation, not improbably it might have seemed to you an unimportant one; but there grew up out of it a great moral institution, which in these few years, has wrought the greatest change which any country, perhaps, has, in the same period, ever experienced. And you may look through all the great works which have been accomplished

in the providence of God, and you will find, in respect to each of them, that there has been a day of small things; that each has been like the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day.

Now, as it is with other things, so it is with the experience of the Christian: it has a small beginning. I know, indeed, that when the principle of religion is first implanted in the heart, there is often a more intense rapture than is felt at a more advanced stage of religious experience; but this by no means indicates that the principle of piety exists in a higher degree of strength. Every Christian is born a babe in Christ, and it not uncommonly happens that the functions of spiritual life are, for a while, so feeble, that after the soul has parted with its first joys, it begins to doubt whether it has not been yielding to delusion. There is often in these circumstances a melancholy vibration from burning rapture to deep despondency; and while faith is extremely weak, hope trembles, and sometimes well nigh expires.

There is one circumstance in particular which renders this, to the young Christian, a moment of the deepest interest. There is a question. of great moment pressing upon him, in relation to which he has to decide, and in the decision of which the state of feeling of which I have spoken, often subjects him to great embarrassment. It is the question, whether or not he shall make a public profession of religion. The obligation of this duty he clearly perceives; but either from looking too much on the dark side, as it respects himself, or from some mistaken views of the nature of the duty, he is often painfully in doubt whether he has a right to come to the table of the Lord. To a person in this state of feeling the text comes in the way of encouragement:-"Despise not the day of small things." And this is the use which I purpose to make of it in this discourse. More particularly, I will endeavor to meet some of the most common objections which occur to a young Christian, under the influence of a tender conscience, against making a profession of religion.

Before proceeding to this, however, let me offer a single remark to guard you against misapprehension. Far be it from me to say a word to diminish the solemnity of the act of taking upon you the vows of God. Far be it from me to detract aught from the scriptural qualifications of coming to the Lord's table; or to lift a hand to open the door of the church to those who have no reason to believe that they have been taught by the Spirit how to appreciate its privileges, or to wish to see the borders of the visible church enlarged, at the expense of its internal purity. And I will add that I have no intention in any thing I shall say, to induce any individual to come into the church, who is not, or who does not become, persuaded in his own mind that it is his duty to do so; nor would I, in any case, have him come otherwise than with deliberation and reflection. My purpose is to relieve from needless anxiety; and if I can, to clear away the darkness which, in some cases, may hang over the path of duty. There are those who turn their back on a christian profession, because they practically disregard their own salvation as well as the command of Christ.

With such I have at present nothing to do. My business now is exclusively with the sincere and the conscientious; who have a desire to confess Christ before men, but are kept back by honest, though mistaken considerations.

1. It is sometimes objected by an individual, against making a profession of religion, that he has never been the subject of peculiarly deep and pungent conviction.

But you cannot, my friend, have made any observation on this subject, without having noticed that some persons who are brought into the kingdom, are the subjects of a much more powerful divine operation than others, according to the original constitution and previous habits of mind, as well as various other circumstances. This variety is what always has existed, and what always must exist, from the very laws of human nature; and it is abundantly proved by experience, that where the work of conviction is comparatively silent and gradual, it may result in as genuine a conversion as where it is more rapid and overwhelming. If there are those who are now adorning the doctrine of God their Savior, whose conversion was preceded by awful forebodings of wrath, and even by absolute despair; so, also, there are those of an equally spiritual and heavenly mind, who can scarcely say when their conviction began, and what was the occasion of it. If you take the result of your own observation, then, you cannot but perceive that the objection at which you are halting amounts to nothing.

Besides, the bible has no where declared that a particular amount of conviction is necessary as a preparative to conversion. It has decided that conviction is necessary; that a sinner must understand and feel his guilt and ruin, before he will ever accept the gospel offer; but it has no where declared, that unless the sinner is awfully alarmed, and visibly agitated, and even convulsed with terror, as some are, he is not prepared to accept an offered Savior. The bible, in this respect, as well as every other, is exactly accordant with the laws of man's intellectual and moral nature; and in every thing that it prescribes or declares, in respect to the regeneration of the soul, it takes man just as he is; and recognizes the variety that exists in the human constitution.

The only question, then, which you have to settle in respect to your conviction, is, whether it has been such as to bring you to feel your need of a Savior? Have you realized that you are a sinner, guilty, polluted, liable to eternal death? Have you felt that God's condemning sentence against you is just, and that you can be saved in no other way than through the mediation of Christ? If this has been your experience, then, be assured, if you are not a Christian, it is not for lack of the necessary conviction; nor has there been any thing in your case, so far as conviction is concerned, which ought now to minister to your despondency. Whether you have laid hold on the hope of the gospel, is, indeed, another question, and to be de