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But of us, who are appointed by the all-wise decrees of our Maker a longer probation on earth, it is required that we should watch over ourselves, and work out our own salvation "with fear and trembling," that is, with a holy awe of the Supreme Being, and a humble distrust of ourselves. Hence we cannot too soon begin the study of ourselves. God graciously condescends to say, my son, give me thy heart;" but that heart, he tells us in his Holy Word, "is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Be it our solemn care, then, at any rate, to offer up the unworthy gift, which our Heavenly Father is willing, for our sakes, to accept, as pure from spot and blemish, as our severest scrutiny can make it; and let us implore that aid from above to quicken us in our discernment of the weaknesses and errors that may sully it, which David, beloved of the Lord for his humility and truth, seeks when he says, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me: try my reins and my heart.

"Who can understand his errors, cleanse thou me from secret faults."

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Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression."

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try

me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Remember, my dear children, that, young as you are, you have already entered on eternity; for at the moment of your birth, you were endowed with an immortal soul, a soul that cannot die. On yourselves it must depend whether this immortality ---this eternity-be a source of happiness or misery. Every moment of our existence here has some influence on our existence hereafter. We never stand still. We are continually inclining towards good or evil, and in proportion as we strengthen and confirm ourselves in either, so do we become fitted for heaven or for hell. "See," saith the Lord God, "I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil."

Think, my dear children, how fearful a thing it is "to fall into the hands of the living God," to offend the majesty and incur the just displeasure of a Being perfect in goodness and infinite in power, whose tender mercies are over all his works," yet who is " of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity." Dismal, indeed, and appalling are the denunciations of the wrath of God against the bold and impenitent sinner. To such, he says in his Holy Word, "The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that

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thou settest thine hand unto, for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew, and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness, and astonishment of heart, and thou shalt grope at noon-day, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways, and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee Neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shall have none assurance of thy life. In the morning, thou shalt say would God it were evening, and at even thou shalt say, would God it were morning, for the fear of thine heart, wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see."--- Deut. xxviii.

It was this overwhelming consciousness of God's displeasure, this desolating dread of being forsaken by HIM, that overpowered the fortitude of Job, which had withstood the loss of riches and power, and children and health, that wrung from him the

most eloquent and affecting expressions of grief that ever burst from the lips of man, and made his soul, as he forcibly expresses it, choose “strangling and death, rather than life." "For the arrows of the Almighty," he exclaims, "are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit, the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me."

Let no one imagine that this is a mere temporal curse, applying only to the Israelites at the time it was denounced. No, let us not deceive ourselves; we are all as much concerned in it individually now, as when it was pronounced on Mount Ebol, three thousand years ago, and our eternal state is as much involved in it as our temporal welfare. The same lost forsaken condition, which it quails the heart to contemplate as having to endure even here, in this transient and vapour-like existence, will cleave to us throughout eternity, if we go out of the world unfitted by habitual preparation for a better state. But let us contrast with this awful prospect the exquisitely tender and cheering assurances of our gracious Father, to such as endeavour to walk in his way with humility, fear, and love. "All these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." "Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field." Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit

of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep." "Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out."Deut. vi.---xxviii.

"Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away."---Isaiah li,

"Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance." "In thy name shall they rejoice all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted."---Ps. lxxxix.

Such are the gracious assurances of our Heavenly Father to those who obey his voice: and moreover how condescendingly does he encourage us to turn to Him, and to seek his way.

"For this commandment, which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off." "It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very