and low, rich and poor together. "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!" There is given to you this short space for repentance. Around you are men forgetful of God like yourselves. A little farther back in the career of human life, you see the young who have fallen, and made shipwreck of their immortality in the days of their youth. Onward, and at a little distance, is many a veteran neglecter of God's salvation, cast up as a withered hulk on the shores of time, a beacon to warn you of the danger of delay. Just beyond the ground on which you are treading is the grave. It is a dark valley; a darker night than ever yet encircled the earth, will soon enwrap its folds about you. And now, from "the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths,” the voice of wisdom cries, "Flee to the stronghold, ye

PRISONERS OF HOPE.'

We solicit for this promise a glad and thankful and confident reception. There is no imposition in this first promise. It is but for this Saviour to fill the circle of our moral vision, and we may say with Paul, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day!" There are realities in his divine character and perfected work, so sure as to remove doubt. There is nothing obscure, or fluctuating in them. They will never alter. God's covenant with the

day and the night shall come to an end; but the covenant of which his blood is the seal, is "ordered in all things and sure." I am "persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." It is no marvel that when our back is turned upon this Sun of Righteousness, our way should be dark; nor need we wonder that the winter of our comforts comes on when his beams fall scantily and obliquely on our path. If you seek not shadows and gloom, study to know more of this first promise. Be familiar with the pages that develop its import, with the mercy-seat on which it is inscribed, with the sanctuaries which it illumines, with the ordinances and emblems of which it is the substance. And learn to dread not too deeply those dark passages in the wilderness where the light of it shines with unwonted loveliness; nor those hard and tempestuous waves where the wind is contrary, and in the appointed watch of the night, Jesus himself comes walking on the sea. "Stagger not at the promise through unbelief;" and if he bids you come to him on the waters, take heed lest you extort from his lips the deserved, though kind rebuke, "O thou of little faith! wherefore didst thou doubt ?"

Human life is not worth its toil, its perplexity, its

weariness, its disappointments, its trials, its solitude, its ten thousand ills, if there be no hereafter. Man would be the sport of delusion, his hopes mocked, and his best affections cheated, were not life and immortality brought to light by the gospel. O ye, who make light of this gospel! approach and see what a wreck of human hopes this fallen world would be, if this ark of God did not float upon its waters, or if its doors were shut. Cast your eyes over this broad earth; mark the woes that rest upon it, and then turn to this one hope of man.

END OF VOL. I.