: trance, but not through yourselves- final impenitence. It has to us all the air the dream, which has given warning of a last attempt, when the preacher has of the peril of neglecting the soul, has been enabled to overcome the unbelief not invaded your own slumber, but that of some one in the household, and so of those in whom you have garnered up may be said to have sent that one as his the heart and you are to consider that messenger to the rest, to warn and to this course has been followed, because beseech them not to fight against God. there was less probability of your re- It is the attempt through the affections sisting the claims of the Gospel, as pre--the attempt upon Pilate through the sented to you by the objects of deep love. If, then, you can be irreligious with religion personified in a son or a daughter, alas! we can scarcely dare hope that you will ever be won over to God. And the husband, who is yet devoted to the present perishable world, but whose wife has been roused to provide for eternity, and who tells him of those visions of the future which startled her from her lethargy, and entreats him to join with her in fleeing wrath to come-we see in this man not one from whom God withholds the vision, but rather one to whom He sends it in the mode best adapted to convince: and if it be to no purpose that she, to whom he is bound by the closest of human ties, becomes to him, as it were, the medium of communication from the invisible world, the minister may well fear that his preaching will be vain, and that he shall never be gladdened by that husband's conversion. We are advancing nothing at variance with the important truth which we often feel it necessary to press on your attention, namely, that it is through the public ministrations of the Gospel that God ordinarily turns men from darkness to light. We are only sketching to you a result of those public ministrations, and considering its effects on others beside its more immediate subjects. And we are bound to tell you, that we look with the most melancholy apprehension on that family or household, one of whose members has been converted through the preaching of the word, whilst the others continue careless and worldlyminded. At the first moment, we hail with delight the conversion of one, and eagerly anticipate that the little leaven will leaven the whole lump. But when we observe that no salutary effect is wrought upon the mass, we have less hope than ever that good will be accomplished through future preachings of the Gospel, and almost regard the unconverted members as shut up to entreaties and forebodings of his wife. There may be other attempts, and-for there is nothing too hard for the Lord— the strongholds of unbelief may yet be cast down. But as a general rule, we believe, that, where vital religion has made way into a household, and does not spread, there is cause for a more than common fear that it has won its only victory. When the parent is converted, but can effect nothing against the ungodliness of the child; when the child is converted, but sets in vain before the parent the truths of Christianity; when the wife hearkens to the summons of the Gospel, but cannot persuade the husband to be one with her in seeking rest beyond the grave; or the husband renounces the world, but cannot induce the wife to join him in breaking away from its fascinations-oh, it may seem a harsh thing to say, but the child, or the parent, or the husband, or the wife, who can thus resist the claims of religion, when urged through the channel which goes directly to the heart, appears to us to be closing up the last path of escape, and almost insuring the dying unconverted. Depend upon it, it is a fearful thing to have your affections engaged, so to speak, on the side of religion, and yet religion to gain no hold on your affections. Let this be pondered, we entreat, by those of you who may be conscious to themselves that they are being attacked through what we define as the avenue of the affections. Let them not think that it might be better for them if they were acted on more immediately through the ministrations of the Gospel; so that, as the preacher launched forth his oratory, the terrors of the future world might crowd their imaginations, and the Judge of humankind rise before their vision, seated awfully on his throne of fire and of cloud. Let them rather think, that it may be on account of its greater probable efficiency, that God tries the method of rousing a near kinsman, and then employing that kinsman to operate upon them, so that, in withstanding this process of attack, they only show that no other would prevail. And let them consider whether this may not be illustrated by the instance of Pilate, Pilate of whom we may say that God designed to use the strongest possible means of withholding him from the guilt of crucifying Christ, and yet of whom we read, not that his own slumber was broken by a supernatural visitation, but only that, when he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him to tell him of an agonizing dream, and to beseech him to have nothing to do with that righteous man Christ. But now we would wish you to observe how greatly it increased the criminality of Pilate, that the message of his wife reached him at the very moment of his taking his place on the judgment seat. It would seem that he had left his palace without hearing any thing of the dream-nay, that the dream had not then been vouchsafed-for you will observe how the communication runs, "I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." The dream had not come in the night, the ordinary season for such modes of revelation, but in the day-so that there was probably something altogether supernatural about the vision, leaving no room for doubt in Pilate's wife that God had indeed interfered to attest Christ's innocence, and to give warning as to the danger of using Him injuriously. And Pilate, receiving so sudden and unexpected a message, must have more strongly felt a Divine interposition, than had he heard in the morning some marvellous story of a strange impression on the mind during the usual hours of sleep. He must have perceived that something extraordinary had happened: the vision had evidently been so timed, that the tidings might reach him when he could least question their authority, and stood most in need of their import. And this, as we have said, greatly heightens Pilate's guilt: whatsover power the vision could have, was brought to bear upon him at the precise moment when he most required aid: and you may see that the whole thing was ordered, so as to afford him the strongest possible assurance that there had come a warning from God, and to afford it him when it was most likely to strengthen him to do right. Of course, it would in a measure palliate his conduct, if you could show that he had reason to doubt the fact of a supernatural communication, or if there had been nothing to force the fact on his attention at the exact moment when conscience required an auxiliary. But though he had no power of examining the alleged communication, it was impossible for him not to feel that something very singular had occurred. His wife, whom he had left but a short time before, undisturbed by any thoughts as to Christ, would never have sent him so strange a message and entreaty, had there not been actually what looked like the interference of God: and it was precisely when his own convictions were urging him to release Christ, that there came to him a testimony to his innocence, which ought itself to have nerved him to the resisting the popular will. We quite believe that the same accurate timing of warning and admonition is to be traced in the experience of all, so that, if any one of you would carefully observe how things fall out when he is exposed to temptation, he would find proof that God sends him seasonable aids, and disposes events to the strengthening him to resist and overcome. Certainly, if He took care that Pilate should receive a message, just as he ascended the tribunal whence he would be tempted to deliver a wrong verdict, He will not leave without the appropriate assistance any of those, who, being brought into perilous circumstances, are sincerely desirous to keep unsullied their Christian profession. And in regard of others, who are led captive by Satan at his will," they have often to overcome obstacles which seem thrown suddenly, and as of set purpose, in the way of their attaining the gratification of their passions. They have only to note the difficulties which unexpectedly arise, and warn them back from some object on which they are bent, to confess that it is as though an invisible Being watched the opportunity, and pressed upon them with a motive to do right, exactly at the turning-point where the risk became greatest of their determining to do wrong. But even if these special interpositions cannot be traced, you are to re member that the whole judicature of conscience is constructed on the principle of counsel being administered at the precise moment when temptation is urgent. This is one of those peculiarities in conscience which will make it so stern a witness against every man who dies in his sins. It is not in moments of calm reflection alone that conscience delivers a verdict on this or that action; just as a friend, with whom we hold serious discourse, may offer opinions and tender advice. If this were the whole course of conscience, we should have nothing to appeal to in any sudden emergence but certain registered decisions, which it might be hard to recall, or at least, to invest with any influence, amid the urgent pleadings of passion or interest. But conscience tenders its remonstrance precisely at the moment when temptation plies us with its bait the two things occur together as though the one produced the other the message, which ought to influence the verdict, is delivered at the instant of ascending the judgment seat. It is not the result of any process of argument which is announced to you through the pleadings of conscience: you cannot tell whence the unseen monitor has sprung; but there is no debate as to his presence; and the voice compels an audience, even where there is the most set determination of acting counter to its suggestions. And this, as we have said, will make conscience the most fearful of witnesses against every man who persists in his wickedness. He must have carried with him into every scene of iniquity the remonstrating principle; and as he went after his unrighteousness, he left not behind his counsellor and reprover; but that counsellor and reprover was continually at his side, refusing to part company, urging advice in the precise instant of danger, only to be silenced as a monitor by the commission of the sin, and then to wake up immediately as an avenger. We are willing therefore to put out of sight those strange interferences which may be traced, we believe, in every man's history, and which give evidence of a watchful Providence, ever anxious to cast obstacles in the way of the sinner, and to furnish him with fresh motives to do right at the moment when most tempted to do wrong. We feel confident that such interferences are frequently made, so that there is much in the experience of every one of us which is accurately parallel to the incident under review, to the coming of the message from Pilate's wife precisely when Pilate took his place on the judgment seat. But we will not insist on this fact; for it is a fact which is only to be established in individual cases by close observation, and therefore may be easily either questioned or denied. We confine ourselves altogether to the jurisdiction of conscience, conscience which every man bears about in his own breast, so that no one may plead that he knows nothing of its existence. We declare of this principle, that it is its very nature to be most energetic when there is most need for remonstrance, and to deliver its counsel at the exact moment when the individual is urged by temptation. We know not how this comes to pass it is as though at the presence of danger there started forth a guardian angel: through some most beneficent but inexplicable arrangment, you have only to set the foot in a perilous place, and you thereby call up an adviser, whose counsel is certain to be for your safety. But, mysterious as it may be, such is actually the case: through no tedious process of ratiocination or deduction, but instantaneously, with all the freshness and all the vehemence of a living thing which had been watching an opportunity that it might pour in its counsel, does consience rise up in the moment of temptation, and, by exhortation and threatening, seek to withhold you from what it denounces as wrong. : And therefore will there be something of the like testimony against every evildoer, when God shall sit in judgment upon men, as against Pilate who was met by the message from his wife when the Jews were urging him to crucify the Christ. The like testimony-because that evil-doer had equally to go forward in the face of a remonstrance, and to perpetrate the wrong against the warning and entreaty of the most intimate associate. The condemning thing with Pilate was, that the message came upon him in the moment of emergence: had it come sooner, the effect might have worn off, and it must have been unavailing if later. And the condemning thing with any one of us-so far as conscience has to do with the sentence-will be, that we were warn ed and tempted at the same instant: had the man whom I knew to be guiltless, the warning preceded the temptation, we but whom I abandoned, because I bomight have pleaded that it was weakened lieved Him to be powerless, unable to by distance; and of course, had it follow- avenge an insult, or punish a wrong. ed, it could not have aided us in resist- But now, in place of a crown of thorns, ance. But forasmuch as the two were there is upon his head the diadem of the contemporaneous, the temptation seem-universe, and, instead of the reed, there ing always to call forth the warning, there will be nothing to urge in our own vindication; no more than with Pilate, who, on taking his seat as a judge, received the message which should have bound him to "judge righteous judgment." What a scene will it be when this Roman stands forth to answer for himself at the tribunal of Christ! The judge will be the prisoner, the prisoner the Judge. Christ was arraigned before Pilate, and now Pilate must be arraigned before Christ. How changed the condition of the two! Who can recognize in that majestic form, from whose face the earth and the heavens flee away, the defenceless Being, who, pursued by the imprecations and blasphemies of a desperate multitude, stood meekly before the Roman governor, waiting his award of life or of death? Around the Roman were then all the tokens of power: he bore the commission of the mistress of the world, and seemed to have absolutely at his disposal the persecuted man whom his disciples and friends had forsaken in the hour of peril. But now that persecuted man appears as King of kings, and Lord of lords : ten thousand times ten thousand angels wait to do his will: and the myriads of human kind, summoned by his voice from the grave, are to receive from his decision eternal allotments, whether of happiness beyond thought, or of wretchedness without limit. And the Roman is there, the scornful man who would not wait an answer to his own solemn question, “what is truth?" the cowardly man, who would not stand to his own conviction of right; the unjust man, who could deliver up the innocent to death; the presumptuous, self-deceiving man, who could wash his hands in water, and think to excuse his dipping them in blood. He will know that awful Being on the great white throne: he will repeat to himself his own words to the Jews, "Behold the man!"-the man on whom I sat as judge, the man whom I surrendered to the will of his enemics, is the rod of iron in his hand, with which to rule the nations, so that "as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers." And if we may venture to go yet further in anticipating the scenes of the judgment, will not his own wife be a witness against Pilate will she not be forced to declare how she told him of the terrors which had been wrought into her spirit, through some mysterious representation, of the very events which are then coming to pass? and will not this testimony, even if corroborated by no other, demand and justify the sentence of condemnation, and drive down the criminal to the lowest depth of woe? It is among the most affecting of the probabilities which belong to the last judgment, that relations and friends will have part in giving evidence against the impenitent and unbelieving. It must be so, where the assault has been through the channel or avenue of the affections. We do not know how you can avoid the conclusion, that the righteous parent will be appealed to in proof of the inexcusableness of the unrighteous child; and that the child who has beautifully exemplified the truths of Christianity, but gained for them no entrance into the breast of a parent, must testify against that parent, and vindicate his condemnation. And it will not be the wife of Pilate alone that shall lift her voice against her husband. Wheresover human affections and ties have been enlisted, so to speak, on the side of religion, it must come to pass that the sentence ou irreligion will be justified from the witness of one who loved and was beloved, who would perhaps have given life to insure happiness to the party that would not be persuaded, but must, nevertheless, attest the equity of the doom which consigns that party to the fire and the worm. Let any one, on whom the duties of religion are pressed through the voice of one deservedly dearwhether the voice of parent, or of child, or of husband, or of wife—but think of that voice as calling down eternal judg ment hereafter, if those duties remain | Lamb must produce desire for his favor; neglected; and possibly there will be a and where this desire exists, it will urge shrinking from what it is so fearful to to those endeavors which are never made contemplate, and a determination, in the in sincerity, but they are made with sucstrength of the Lord, to seek forthwith cess. We want you, then, to be visited the things which belong unto peace. with a vision of Judgment to come: and if you would only sit down to a calm investigation of the relation in which you stand to the moral Governor of the universe, it could hardly fail but that the vision would be upon you, and dread and dark things come crowding from the fi ture. And if in every case-and the cases are of daily occurrence-in which it is virtually put to your decision, whether you will crucify the Son of God afresh, or acknowledge Him as your Savior, you would then go up, as it were, to the Judgment seat under the impression of this vision, with the message which it conveyed ringing in your ears, indeed we can be sure, that, when the last trumpet sounds, and the last assize is held, you will look with confidence on the descending Judge, and know in Him a brother and Redeemer. Our wish for the yet unconverted amongst you is, that, with Pilate's wife, you might be made to suffer many things because of Christ. O for the vision! O for the dream!—the vision which should scatter every other, the dream which might break your fatal slumbers. I know not what the dream was which roused the wife of Pilate. But it was a dream of terror-it would seem of unmingled terror: she had "suffered many things;" and probably the Redeemer passed before her, trampling down his enemies, and having all his garments red with their blood. O for such a dream again! but not alone: we would have it followed by a different vision, a vision of this terrible Being as ready to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through Him. And it will be thus followed: the dread of the wrath of the SERMON XIV. THE EXAMINATION OF CAIN. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper! And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."-GENESID iv. 9, 10. The brief notices which the inspired | gression of which they had been guilty. historian has given of the condition of We read, indeed, that, before the fall, our first parents immediately after the they had no feeling of shame at the not fall, do not suffice to answer the ques- being clothed; but that no sooner had tions which naturally suggest themselves they eaten of the forbidden fruit than to the mind. We have no power of their eyes were opened, and they knew knowing what alteration they felt in themselves naked. But this is our only themselves as consequent on the trans-information as to any consciousness of |