it furnishes them with greater opportunities For honouring God than even if they were removed' at once into the kingdom of heaven. For in heaven many holy qualities cannot be exercised, for which we have here continual opportunities. Here is the "faith" and "patience of the saints: there faith will be superseded by sight and patience will have no place, where there is no suffering. Here we have the opportunity standing up faithfully and courageously for the honour of God, and of proving our love to him by our actions: but in heaven there will be no evil customs to resist, no sinful affections to mortify, no bad men whom we may reclaim, and whom we may thus lead to join us in glorifying God:

Wof

Learn then, O Christian, to value this life as an opportunity of honouring God; very short, indeed, but very precious. We are too apt not to discover the value of opportunities till they are lost. We lament that we live in a world of sorrow and sin, and we hope soon to be admitted1 into a more pure and holy residence. But, when admitted there, if any thing could give us pain, it would be to consider how many opportunities, once possessed, of honouring God, are now irre trievably lost. There will be no sick to visit, no naked to clothe, no afflicted to relieve, no weak to succour, no faint to encourage, no corrupt to

rebuke or profligate to reclaim. A new sphere of virtues will present themselves; brighter, indeed, and more glorious than those which presented themselves on earth, but not affording such opportunities for manifesting the love we bear to God. Happy are they who labour "while it is I called to-day."

III. Having thus examined the subject proposed to you, I shall conclude with two observations of a practical nature.

1. In the first place, the mixture of the righteous and the wicked, far from supplying to the righteous an excuse for not profiting so much as they ought by the means of grace, is rather an argument for their giving themselves up more fully to do the work of God, while the opportunity of doing so is afforded. And how infinitely important is the present period of their existence! How much may they do in it, both to glorify God and to benefit their fellow-sinners, and also to qualify themselves for the inheritance of the saints in light! Actuated by these views, let them be careful to improve their necessary intercourse with the wicked, to their mutual advantage. Let them not deem the time spent in their society lost. There are means of turning it to good account, which a

mind duly sensible of the infinite value of the present life will discover, and a heart impressed with the sense of Divine things will eagerly em+ brace. Let them beware of esteeming the present state of things useless and uninteresting of merely suffering life as a kind of necessary evil Let them not so engage in earthly pursuits as to forget the noble ends for which a Christian iss destined, and the manner in which he is called to accomplish them. Let them always remember, that, as there is an essential difference between the tares and the wheat, such a difference must also dis-) cover itself between the righteous and the wicked; a difference which ought not to be lessened by a gradual accommodation to the customs, and man-d ners, and maxims, and habits of the world. And, in fine, let them always bear in mind, that it is the "fruits of righteousness" which constitute the essential difference between the "wheat” and tares," and which will regulate the final separation of the good and bad. They who have lived together here in the separated by the angels,

external church will be "who shall gather out

of the kingdom of Christ all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth: then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

2. Lastly, while we see the "wheat" and "tares" thus permitted to grow up together till the harvest, let us call to mind, both the difference of their nature and the cause of that difference. The tares, or weeds, cannot produce food for the nourishment of man. In like manner, there is an absolute difference of nature between the righteous and the wicked. The righteous possess a new nature implanted in them by the Holy Spirit. They are become "new creatures in Christ Jesus,' Once unprofitable and corrupt, through faith in Christ they have been made partakers of the influence of the Holy Ghost.-Such, then, is at once the difference and the cause of it. Christ has become a quickening principle in them. He giveth life to the dead, strength to the weak, wisdom to the ignorant, and grace to the corrupt. Let us therefore, my brethren, call upon him to plant us in his field, to watch over oùr growth, to water us with the dew of his grace, and, at length, to "gather us into his garner.".

1 KINGS Xviii. 21. -2 ad baB

How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.

Τ

THERE are few persons, perhaps indeed there are, none, who have renounced the service of God from a deliberate principle. Few intend to forsake God, or directly to oppose his will, But too many do so indirectly, through negligence or indecision. They do not seriously consider who God is, and what he requires. They do not lay to heart their obligations to him. They acknowledge in general, that they ought to pay obedience to him; perhaps they intend it, and even attempt to serve him in some points but they allow their attention to be occupied, and