But, friend, have you none of those little things which are credentials, essential to a Christian character? Oh no! I think it not worthy to trouble myself about such things. My past conversion is all I ask, to make my calling and election sure; and a life of godliness would be an intolerable cross to me. Alas deluded man! Satan has appeared to you transformed into an angel of light; and if you do not yet repent, and begin to walk in newness of life, he will meet you at last in the clouds of the air, and drag you down to the region of despair. The secret motives of the heart, words, and retired places for prayer, will be sources of joy to some and of consternation to others. Let us recollect that Naaman, the Syrian leper, was not required to do some great thing in order to effect his cure. Then let us take the simple and only safe means which God has given, to save from hell and raise to heaven. If we seek to do great things and for these to be saved, we die; but if we neglect not those little things, which the word of life points out as essential to our forming a Christian character, we live. Yes, live in glorious immortality, when these heavens and this earth shall be no more.

REFLECTIONS.

1st. In the light of this subject we may see, that our great concern should not be to know what the world may think of us; but how we are esteemed in the sight of God. It is desirable to have the good opinion of others; and earthly friends in this pilgrimage state, are important. If an upright and cour teous conduct will secure the esteem of our fellowmen, we should endeavour to obtain their good opinion, that we may be the more useful: Still we should not seek to be men-pleasers, but the servants of God. And when our name is evil spoken of, when our motives and character are questioned by others, our solicitations should be to obtain the ap

probation of the Searcher of hearts. Our fellowmortals may be deceived, or from some evil design may judge us uncharitably; but it will be a strong consolation, if the Lord, who cannot err, smile upon us. Better to have all the world in hostile array against us, and to suffer the most bitter persecution, if we have heaven on our side, than to please all men, and not be the servants of Christ. As it is desirable to have the friendship, sympathies, and aids of our fellow-mortals, so it is infinitely important to have that communion, and those joys, which are the effect of being reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Happy is that man, who has a good report amongst his fellow-men; but blessed is the one, who, like Enoch, walketh with God, and who enjoyeth the smiles of his reconciled countenance, and that peace which passeth understanding.

2d. When we see criminals arraigned before human tribunals, we should exercise compassion and pity, rather than scorn and contempt. They may not be more guilty than some of the spectators. Suppose for instance, a person is condemned for having robbed another of a thousand dollars, Do we look upon him with abhorrence and dread? Perhaps he would not have committed the deed, had he not been in straitened circumstances. Or could he have obtained but a dollar at a time by some other dishonest means, he might not have had recourse to robbery. Probably he would rather have obtained the same sum from several persons than from one. Yes, and the person who habitually cheats but a gill of grain, or a cent at a time, has the same dishonest principle and views. He might be alarmed and deterred from taking a large sum dishonestly, or all that any man possessed. But let his base heart insinuate that a man is wealthy, and that the loss of 'a thousand dollars would be a mere trifle; if he should have opportunity to cheat or overreach without any means of detection, quickly would his

avarice grasp the dishonest gain. And let the same person be brought to want, he might be more odious and more to be dreaded, than the arraigned criminal. The only difference between the most secret and trifling dishonesty, and the most open and daring robbery, is merely circumstantial. The principle is the same; for he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. A change of condition and the depravity of the human heart, would be sufficient to lead such an one into the most enormous crimes. Then when overt acts, disgrace any of our fellowmortals, let us inquire of our own hearts, if we cherish the secret lurkings of such a principle in our breasts.

3d. This subject may serve to show, that though the gain of sin be small, the guilt may be great. One great principle to be inferred from the text, is, that he who has sinned, though to a small amount in respect to the fruit or profit of the transgression, has, by so doing, incurred a full condemnation. He who has just passed over a forbidden limit, which was distinctly known to him, is unfaithful in the least; and is also guilty in much. For a vindication of this, it is evident, That by a small act of fraud, the line which separates the right from the wrong, is just as effectually broken over, as by a great act of injustice. The Saviour, in the words of the text, speaks to the man who is only half an inch within the limit of forbidden ground, in the very same térms by which he addresses the one who has made the fartherest and the largest excursions over the boundary. Grant • that he is but a little way upon the wrong side of the line of demarkation! But why is he upon it at all? It was in the act of crossing that line, that he entered upon the contest between right and wrong; and then it was decided. That was the instant of time at which principle struck her surrender. The great difficulty was to pass the partition wall; for, after that was done, the moral principle has no barriers to obstruct his progress over the whole extent of the

forbidden field but what may be easily surmounted. If he is but a little way within the unlawful territory, even upon its margin, the God who finds him there, will reckon and deal with him as a bold transgressor. In the words of the text,the Saviour has taken his stand on the mere dividing line between what is lawful and what is unlawful; and he gives us to understand, that the man who enters by a single footstep on the forbidden ground, immediately contaminates his person with the full hue and character of guiltiness. He does not make the difference between right and wrong to consist in a gradual shading of the one into the other; and thus obliterate the distinctions of morality. He allows no imperceptible intermixture between the nature and margin of virtue and vice; but gives a clear and decided delineation. It is not a gentle transition for a man to step over from honesty to dishonesty, and from truth to falsehood. There is between them a wall, rising up unto heaven: and the authority of God must suffer violence, ere one inch of entrance can be made into the field of iniquity. The Saviour never glosses over the beginning of crimes. His object is effectually to fortify the limit, to cast a rampart of exclusion around the whole territory of guilt, and to rear it before the eye of man in such characters of strength and sacredness, as should make him feel that it is impregnable.

Again: We may see, that he who is unfaithful in the least, has incurred the condemnation of him who is unfaithful in much; because the littleness of the gain, so far from lessening the guilt, is in fact rather a circumstance of aggravation. It is certain that he who has committed injustice for the sake of a less advantage, has done it on the impulse of a less temptation. He has parted with his honesty at an inferiour price, by bartering it for a mere trifle. And does this lessen his guilt? Certainly it proves how small is the price which he sets upon his eternity; and how cheaply he can bargain away the favour of God, and an inherit

ance in glory. And the more paltry the trafick is in respect of sinful gain, the more profane it may be in respect of principle. It likens him the more to profane Esau, who sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage. The piercing eye of Him who looketh down from heaven, and pondereth the secrets of every breast, perceives that the man who is abhorrent only in the view of flagrant acts of injustice, has no justice whatever in his character. It is at the precise limit between the right and the wrong, that the flaming sword of God's law is placed. This is strikingly evident in the instance of the first sin that entered the world. What is it that swells the eating of the forbidden fruit with a grandeur so momentous? How came an action, in itself so minute, to be the germe of such mighty consequences? How are we to conceive that our first parents, by one act of disobedience, brought death upon themselves and their posterity? By the eating of the forbidden fruit, a clear requirement, or distinct prohibition was broken. A transition was made from loyalty to rebellion; and an entrance was effected into the kingdom of Satan. If the act itself was a trifle, it served to aggravate the guilt; that, for such a trifle the authority of God could be despised and set at defiance. Moreover, the truth of God was pledged for the execution of the threatening. And now, if for a single transaction, all the felicity of paradise had to be broken up, and the wretched offenders to be turned abroad upon a world, now changed by the curse into a wilderness; and all the woes with which earth is filled, be the direful consequence, let us not hesitate to believe, That he who is unfaithful in that which is least, contracts great guilt; and for the sake of a little gain, incurs an aggravated condemnation.

4th. We may also see, that he who is faithful in that which is least, is entitled to the highest praise. In respect both of righteous principle and practice, such an one is, and ought to be considered as being faithful in