During what time shall we seek revival? While God's ministers, in the name of their great Master, invite you. Soon the voice of the minister will cease to sound in your ears: soon you will hear no longer-"O every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy wine and milk, without money and without price." This evening again, in the name of our great Master, "we pray you, in Christ's stead;" we beseech you, "be ye reconciled to God:" his arms are open to receive you; he is waiting to welcome you, stand not back; now, while the voice of the minister is sounding in your ears, entreating you, come to Jesus.

While opportunity is afforded, come. What is there, that is not continued to you for this very end? It is for this the sun rises in the morning, shines through the day, and sets at night: it is for this your food is provided; your life is continued; your pulse beats; your lungs heave. Every thing you have, is continued by the great Jehovah to you, simply for this end-that you may avail yourselves of the day of grace; that you may seek the Lord while he may be found; that you may win Christ, and be found in him; that your souls may be revived; that you may attain endless life and glory-all is given you that you may turn to God, and be everlastingly saved. "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years." The time present is the only time. Never, never, then, neglect the present season, for seeking the revival of God's work in your souls.

I would now, from the whole subject, draw two or three practical lessons. First, my brethren, search into the state of your own hearts. I ask this question -Has God ever wrought effectually his work of grace in your souls? Have you been brought out of the bondage of Satan, into the service of Christ? Are you advancing in the divine life? Does your profiting appear to all around you? If the work be not begun, O apply at once. It is not now too late: time is now given you; the precious moments of salvation are yet afforded you. Search, then, into the state of your own heart.

The second practical lesson I draw from this subject, is, for us all earnestly to seek revival from God, in prayer in private. Were we but earnest and persevering in prayer, all would revive. I am quite satisfied of that, that if we gave lengthened time to private devotion, all would be well. Remember well from whom alone revival comes. Strengthen the things that remain, and are ready to die in earnestly seeking grace from God in private prayer, for the revival of his work.

One lesson more I would draw from this subject. Devote yourselves-God grant that your preacher may do the same—devote yourselves afresh from this hour unto God. What is our Christian life, but again and again beginning anew and afresh, and in his strength devoting ourselves again and again to him. O that we may present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto him. And if devoted, we shall freely and gladly, according to our means, aid every work, and every society, for enlarging the kingdom of our divine Saviour. What an interesting season is this, when the servants of Christ, day after day, assemble together for the purpose of advancing his kingdom. I hope you will, in your private devotion, and in your family prayers, remember the various societies that are meeting, and commend them to God from day to day, that every meeting may be holy, spiritual, edifying, with much of our Master's divine presence in the midst of them; that every preacher, and every speaker,

may be greatly assisted, with an unction from the divine Spirit, so that what he speaks may be to the edifying of all who hear. May there be a blessed revival in the midst of all the societies.

I feel I need say very little about the peculiar object, for which I plead this evening. I have good hope, that if you make a vigorous effort, the sum required will be completely met. You know what a station of usefulness is this; I trust, on this occasion, our friends will liberally and cheerfully give, to aid so important an object, in connexion with the usefulness of this neighbourhood. What a station of usefulness and blessing has God now, for upwards of twenty-five years, made this chapel, and this congregation. I trust that, by your liberality this evening, the deficiency may be completely met.

THE INFLUENCE OF MEMORY INCREASING THE MISERY OF

THE LOST.

REV. J. A. JAMES,

SURREY CHAPEL, MAY 11, 1834.

"But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."— LUKE, xvi. 25.

OUR Lord Jesus Christ was not only the greatest of all preachers, but unquestionably the most awful. His discourses abound with more frequent allusions to the punishment of the guilty, and with more fearful descriptions of it, than can be found in almost any other portion of holy Scripture. How tremendously fearful is the parable of which the text is a part; in which He that hath the keys of the unseen world, seems to throw the door of it ajar for a few moments, and to give us a glimpse of that world where hope never enters, and from which misery never can pass. Much of the parable, I admit, is what might be called drapery; but it is not the drapery of error, but of truth. The sentiments conveyed to us are these: that there is a state of punishment prepared for the wicked in another world, and a state of blessedness for the righteous: that every man when he dies enters upon one or other of these states; that the circumstances of the present life (I mean those of riches or of poverty) have no influence of themselves upon man's eternal destiny. Poverty, if united with piety, will exclude no man from heaven; riches if connected with impenitence and irreligion, will keep no man from hell.

But there is another sentiment conveyed in the language which I have selected as the subject of discourse this evening, and that is, that memory will have an important influence in aggravating the misery of the damned. "Son, remember," was the expression which our Lord put into the lips of the father of the faithful, when addressing himself to the rich man that lifted up his eyes in torment. There is a dreadful taunt in the admonition, a sting not to be described. This, then, my hearers, is the subject of discourse on the present occasion-the influence of memory increasing the misery of the lost.

That there is a state of inconceivable and interminable punishment for the wicked in another world, is one of the first principles of revealed truth, which cannot be discredited without withholding assent from the Bible. In that inspired book a state of rewards and punishments is placed in the very front of its announcements, and it is interwoven with the whole texture of revealed truth. To doubt this, is not so far to mistake as to contradict the testimony of God. Yes, my hearers, hell is a dreadful reality. The poet may make it the source of gloomy and awful images with which to adorn the creations of his genius, the dramatist may work it up into a form for public amusement, the

swearer may employ it to add venom and fury to his oath, the scoffer may use it to point his epigram, or sharpen his wit; but notwithstanding this shocking levity, this vulgar obscenity, this awful impiety, it is a fact, whatever men do with it, that there is a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, and that "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."

It is not improbable, that the greater part of the punishment of the wicked will be mental anguish: the curse of Jehovah will fall upon a spirit made bare to receive it. The sufferings of the lost will arise probably more from their own reflections and dispositions, than any positive inflictions of the Almighty; a circumstance which ought to increase rather than diminish the apprehension of man concerning this punishment: for what are the tortures of the body in the case of a rational being to those of the mind? What is mere pain, received through the nerves, compared with heart-remorse and self-reproach? By universal consent, there is no hell like that of a guilty conscience; other punishments are without us, but the source of this is within us. It is admitted on all hands, that the faculties of the soul will be inconceivably strengthened in another world; the immortal part of man will then arrive at the maturity of its powers, both for good and for evil; the good will be strengthened, the evil will be made more resolute and determined, and all the passions more lively and vigorous. Among these faculties, the memory will bear its part in the way of influence. This astonishing power of the human mind is susceptible of almost illimitable degrees of strength now; some possess it to an extent that is most incredible; certainly astonishing. By its mysterious constitution we very frequently find, that thoughts rise up that had been lost not only for hours, days, weeks, months, but for years; a circumstance which renders it not impossible nor improbable, that the memory will be so strengthened when the soul shall arrive at its eternal state, that the whole series of its actions, of its words, of its motives, will again be revived; the history of the man's whole self be again brought before him, so that he will seem to be living through all that he did and all that he was, in that other state of existence. We are always, therefore, my brethren, sowing seed which is to spring up to be gathered in eternity: "Be not deceived; what a man soweth that shall he also reap: he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;" while "he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." We are thus to live for ever, as it were, with ourselves; and not only with ourselves as we are to be, but with ourselves

as we now are.

I know not whether this thought has ever struck you, but it is a terrific one -we are mysteriously and wonderfully formed, and not less mysteriously and wonderfully placed. What, speaking of a lost soul, will he remember in another world? First, THE Possessions he HAD IN THIS: Son, remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted; and thou art tormented." Yes, all shall be recollected the gains in business that this lost soul in perdition secured when he was an inhabitant of our world; his patrimonial possessions, his accumulations of wealth, his splendid mansions, his gay equipage, his sumptuous living, his retinue of servants, every thing that constituted his gaiety and his grandeur, and all his pomp and circumstance. But what advantage will it be to have a voice perpetually saying to him throughout eternity, "Son, remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things?" Oh, the sting of that past tense

"thou hadst." Worldly possessions in hand, or in expectation, are generally a source of high gratification; but when alienated, when lost, when gone for ever, what consolation do they generally yield to him that possessed them? And this lost sinner will in many cases recollect by what dishonourable and dishonest means these possessions were gained. Successful fraud and villainy, while the fruits of them last, evil as they are, yield a gratification to evil-disposed men: but when the fruits are all withered, and there is the bare, blighted, leafless, and fruitless tree of guilt that bore them, then what pleasure will it be to remember possessions? And even where there may be no guilt, where no guilt may have been contracted in acquiring possessions, yet to recollect possessions for which the man sacrificed his soul—oh, then for a man to recollect that his Bible, and his minister, were perpetually sounding in his ears the expression, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul!" He is then to recollect this very expression, and by his own experience, to stand convicted of the veriest folly that an immortal creature can commit-of sacrificing the immortal for the mortal, heaven for earth, things unseen and eternal for things seen and temporal! Oh, to have a voice, whispering to the soul through eternity, as there was in the case of Esau, when he arose from the consumption of his transient meal, "This is the price of thy birthright;" to have a voice whispering in the soul for ever, "Thou hast sold the high possessions of eternal life and glory for gratifications and possessions that are now for ever gone!"

But there will be another kind of remembrance of those possessions; or, in other words, a remembrance of them connected with another idea; and that is, that they have all been spent upon a man's self. That property, granted to him to employ for the glory of God, and for the good of mankind, for the relief of misery, the instruction of ignorance, and the salvation of lost souls, had all been spent on himself, for his own gratification, and the aggrandizement of his family. Men will learn at the day of judgment, if they never learn before, that wealth is a talent to be employed for the good of man and for the glory of God; and then think what will be the feelings of the lost spirit, to look back on hundreds and thousands spent on his own gratification, and that of his family, and nothing, or next to nothing, spent for God, and for the good of society. And connected with this, it is to be recollected, that, in the present world, rich men are sometimes estimated in society rather by their wealth than by their virtue; a very false standard of respect, but so it is-and that tribute is paid to a man's purse which cannot be demanded for his character. But think of that man having passed into the unseen world, to take his place among the meaner lost, and to be for ever hearing the taunt from pauper tongues, "Art thou also become even as we? For remember that thou in thy life time hadst thy good things, we our evil ones; we are both tormented together now." Oh rich men, ye prosperous tradesmen, ye hoarding men, ye covetous men, if such there be here to-night, do consider how soon you may be stripped of all that wealth, and go, a naked, penny less spirit, into eternity; and if you have not employed your wealth (as, if answering to the character I have just named, you have not) for the glory of God, eternally to hear this voice, "Thou hast had thy consolation, now nothing remains for thee."

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Secondly, LOST SOULS WILL REMEMBER THEIR WORLDLY PLEASURES; their routs and partics, their public and private entertainments, their lawful