they rejoice, for they assuredly know,

"that

he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins."

But the joy produced by causes such as these, is not confined to the regions, which are the immediate scene of these glorious events. The Repentance of a single individual of our race, however obscure and undistinguished by adventitious circumstances, constitutes an article of intelligence, sufficiently important, to be transmitted to the world above, and circulated as an occasion of extatic delight and adoring praise, through the mansions of celestial blessedness. The interest it excites is not peculiar to beings of our own ransomed race. No, the Lord of paradise assures us, that "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth." Knowing, as these benignant seraphs know, the value of a soul immortal, and of joys eternal, we wonder not that heaven should echo with their rapturous hallelujahs, while they rejoice over the repentant sinner. Could you conceive adequately of their joy, you would be better prepared to form some conception of the still higher delight of Him whom angels adore, and who came from heaven to earth, for the express purpose of "seeking and saving them that were lost." It was to describe

his own feelings of compassionate love and complacential delight, that he who calls himself the "good Shepherd," and who "laid down his life for his sheep," delivered the three distinct but harmonizing parables of inimitable pathos, recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Luke-the parable of the lost sheep-the parable of the lost piece of silverand the parable of the long-lost son. Read and study these, with an attentive mind, and surely your hearts" will burn within you," while you contemplate the Son of God--the Lord of angels-the Sovereign of the universe-rejoicing with joy ineffable, over "one sinner that repenteth!" Oh what must be the love of his heartwhat must be the value of one human soul! The simple fact speaks a volume of instruction-a volume of encouragement! Are any of you still impenitent? And can you any longer retain the feelings of indifference with regard to that essential change, which, were it to take place in your heart, would, on the very ground of your incipient happiness, be an occasion of joy to the Son of God? Or can you imagine, that the exalted Redeemer can be reluctant to grant you the grace requisite to Repentance, when the exercise of Repentance would be to himself an occasion of high delight? Or can you suppose it possible, that he should be unwilling to receive you

on repenting, when every instance of contrition is an accession to his joy and his glory? In whatever aspect you view this disposition of the heart of Jesus, see what encouragement it suggests-what incentives it presents and urges. You would not be an indifferent spectator of the joy even of a little child; but as the joy of a man of mature mind may be supposed superior in its nature, and in its source, to infantine delight, so may the joy of an angel, exulting in wisdom, be deemed superior to that of man, and the joy of the Son of God superior to that of angels. Conceive, then, if you can, of the elevation and intensity of his delight, and let your loftiest conception, inadequate as it still must be, operate with all the power of a moving and exciting principle, upon your inmost soul!

And now, to deepen the impression, be it remembered, that He who in heaven rejoices over the sinner that repents, on earth shed tears of compassionate lamentation over such as retained their impenitence. He wept over Jerusalem, not because it was about to be the scene of his own unparalleled sufferings, but because the obduracy of its inhabitants was about to bring down upon their devoted city the severest and most tremendous judgments. Think of the import of the words which accompanied those tears of ill-requited love;-"Oh that thou hadst known,

at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace; but now are they hidden from thine eyes!" Think of the import of those tears: -how much they expressed-how much they portended! The eyes which they suffused could see into the deep depravity of the human heart, into the remote futurity of another world, and into all the indescribable realities of death and judgment, of hell and heaven! Sinner, dost thou not read in those tears the dreadful nature of the guilt thou art contracting? If the goodness of God lead thee not to Repentance, art thou not "treasuring up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God?" Dost thou not discern in those tears of the Redeemer, the sorrows of slighted love and despised compassion? Do they not stream forth from a contemplation of the invariable laws of heaven, and the tremendous terrors of insulted justice, when mercy has been disregarded and contemned? Dost thou not discover in those tears the sincerity of the Saviour's love, and the greatness of his unequalled compassion? He who shed these tears was about to shed his blood, and to pour out his life as a sacrifice for sin. Can thine heart, then, still retain its cold insensibility? Wouldst thou be found amongst those over whom the Redeemer wept with tears of disregarded pity, or amongst

those over whom he rejoices with divine, ineffable delight ?

You are ready to admit, perhaps, that a state of impénitence is a state both of guilt and of danger. You hope that, sooner or later, you may repent. You even resolve that before long you will, if possible, exercise Repentance. At all events, you hope that your Repentance will be sincere, in the immediate prospect of death and of eternity. What! do you calculate on securing the best opportunities, and the best facilities for the exercise of Repentance, on the bed of death ? Who can tell whether your death may not be sudden, and even without the previous warning of one single moment? Who can tell whether the powers of intellect may not be pitiably enfeebled? Who can tell whether pain of body may not be so violent and unremitted, as to produce an awful disqualification for efforts of the mind and heart, on the neglected concerns of salvation? Who can tell the agonies of soul, and the upbraidings of conscience, and "the fearful looking for of judgment," which may give a character of horror to the death-bed "scene of such as defer, for the present, the exercise of Repentance unto life? An eye-witness of such a scene, and one of recent occurrence, has put into my hands a heart-affecting narrative, from which I will extract a few passages, with a