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thy God. Prepare to meet him as an avenger, if ye flee not to him as your sanctuary. Arise, call upon him. Why sit ye here until ye die?

(2.) Alas, my brethren, how certainly, as we look around, must we behold lingerers and loiterers among those who are professedly fleeing toward the refuge of the gospel. Does the avenger imitate your perverse and misguided procedure? Or is he not following you, surely, though silently, that he may more effectually reach you, and more unerringly pierce you to the heart? Delay not a moment. Approach the city of refuge, with every motion and desire of your spirit. How, if the man-slayer had lingered on his way, in the vague hope that his implacable enemy might not overtake him, or might pass him unnoticed and unharmed? He had surely been put to death-no ransom would have delivered him. And will ye linger, will ye cast yourselves into the way of your enemy, and enable him to lead you captive, and to slay you at his will? O let not those who watch for your souls hear you say, "A little more sleep, and a little more slumber, and a little more folding of the hands to sleep." Lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset you. So run that ye may ob

tain.

(3.) And ye, who, urged forward by the

mighty influence of God's convincing Spirit, have held onward toward the city of refuge,Ye, who have entered its open gates, as the manslayer of old rushed within the portals of the appointed city,-Ye, whom Satan may accuse, and sin harass, but whom, except by an act of your own apostacy, they cannot destroy, will ye not accept the conditions of mercy with thankfulness becoming those who owe to the rich goodness of their God and Saviour, nothing less than their eternal all? Will ye not abide in him with contented thankfulness; never wandering beyond the boundary of the law of Jesus, nor turning aside into the ways of sin and death? Will ye not patiently remain until the moment of your liberation? Will ye not consecrate, in the best affection of your hearts, the mighty obligation due from you to the compassion of your Saviour? While ye dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, will ye not bless the munificent hand of Almighty love, which has made a provision so full and so fitting for your present and eternal need? Enjoy your privileges in the city of refuge; but be zealous also to improve them. Walk worthy of God, who hath called you to his kingdom and glory.

SERMON XIII.

THE DEATH OF MOSES.

DEUTERONOMY XXXIV. 5.

So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.

WHEN Elijah was to be translated from his important post of earthly duty to the vision of God, and the bliss of heaven, the sons of the prophets, though they might not walk by his side, and gather the last fragments of his holy converse, to lay them up in their hearts, stood to view afar off, beholding the removal of the man of God, with feelings of uncontrollable awe and wonder. Corresponding feelings must have prevailed among all the faithful within the tents of Israel, when the host lay encamped near the banks of Jordan, and Moses their leader, friend, and intercessor, was about to ascend Mount Nebo, and die. They were indeed forbidden to attend him, at his mysterious re

moval; but the eye of every individual throughout their tribes must surely have followed him, as he went to meet God upon the hill. Every heart also must have been filled with emotions like those of Elisha, when the Lord took away his earthly head, and he cried, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."

Hitherto we have walked with the prophet, the priest, the king, the mediator of Israel, through the varied circumstances of his eventful life. It is now about to close. Like the sons of the prophets we must stand afar off; yet may we clearly see the solemn transaction, through the medium of the word of God. The end of a man so illustrious in rank, so wonderful in his generation, so important in his character, as the giver of the law, and the type of the eternal Saviour, cannot be regarded by a reflecting mind, without a deep and hallowed interest. Nay, if we consider him, less as the judge of Israel, than as a faithful servant of God, we shall do well to study the instructive lesson of his death. He has gone the way in which we must also follow him. The change which he has experienced, must likewise pass upon us all: and "being dead he yet speaketh," to shew how we may be enabled to fall asleep in the Lord. You are candidates for immortal glory, and the feli

cities of heaven. What then is the most important wish your souls can form; what should be the subject of your most fervent petition, at the throne of grace? Surely that of Balaam, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." Behold then, the manner in which such a man terminates his earthly walk; and pray, that ye may be partakers of his grace.

I. The death of Moses is distinguished by AN ENTIRE RESIGNATION TO THE WILL of God. If ever there was a period of his public life when his ministry seemed most necessary to Israel, it was surely that of his departure. The chosen tribes were about to enter the land of promise, and receive their allotment within its borders. By whom could this appropriation apparently so well be made, as by him who had hitherto conducted their marches, and arranged their polity, with unequalled prudence and success? If life at any moment could be personally desirable to Moses, it must have been, when his holy toil was about to have its recompence, in the triumph and happiness of the people whom, under God, he had brought to the very borders of Canaan. The final notice of his departure comes upon him with some degree of suddenness. It is brief and startling. "Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto

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