repentance for sin. There is no religion at all, unless it is personal, practical, and self-controlling. And the words of our suffering Lord, therefore, are applicable to us all-watch and pray-watch against the opportunities and temptations of sin, and pray for grace to conquer, for faith to believe, for the power to practice, and for strength to persevere to the end. Watch and pray, and the atonement of Christ will be the salvation of the soul.

SERMON XXIV.

GOOD FRIDAY.

[Preached at Northallerton, on Good Friday, 1828.]

MATT. xxvii. 50, 51, 52.

Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost-And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened.

THE hour is coming-and it is a fearful and solemn hour even to the wisest and the best-the hour is coming, when we must bid adieu to the scenes which please us, to the families we love, to the friends we esteem. Whether we think, or whether we think not, that body which is now warm and active with life, shall be cold and motionless in death— the countenance must be pale, the eye must be closed, the voice must be silenced, the senses must be destroyed, the whole appearance must be changed by the remorseless hand of our last enemy. We may banish the remembrance of the weakness of our

human nature-we may tremble at the prospect of dissolution; but our reluctance to reflect upon it, and our attempts to drive it from our recollection, are in vain. We know that we are sentenced to die, and though we sometimes succeed in casting off for a season the conviction of this unwelcome truth, we never can entirely remove it. The reflection haunts us still-it attends us in solitude-it follows us into society-it lies down with us at night-it awakes with us in the morning. The irrevocable doom has passed upon us, and too well do we know it-dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return1.

Instead, therefore, of banishing the remembrance of that which is so unavoidable, and so certain, let us, on this solemn morning at least, endeavour rather to bring home the conviction of our destiny to our heart and conscience. Instead of shunning the recollection of death, let us bring the subject before us, and represent to ourselves the solemn hour which may soon arrive to the youngest and the healthiest of us all. Let us imagine that it has been announced to us that we have not one day more to live-that we have arranged our worldly affairs—that we have taken our farewell of our families, our kindred, our friends-that we are awaiting the hour of our departure, and have no thought of any thing but the moment of death, and the consequences which shall

1 Gen. iii. 19.

follow. Place yourselves, by anticipation, upon the bed of death, and now, at this moment, consider yourselves as in the presence of God, with a dying frame, and a departing spirit—and then seriously, solemnly, and anxiously ask yourselves this question-what are my hopes of future happiness? And on what foundation are they placed? Will you say that you depend on the mercy of God, because you have lived a good life, and have done no harm? What is the meaning of this language? Have you never committed evil? Are you perfectly free from those actions which conscience reproves, and the Scriptures condemn? Have you at all times devoted yourself to the will of God, so as to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, as God has required of you? Have you continued in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them? You may possibly have been preserved from some evils into which others have fallen, but have you not been led into many errors, and committed many offences, which are forbidden by the God in whose presence you are about to appear? Do you turn from the remembrance of your failings to the merits of the repentance to which you have resorted in the anticipation of future sorrow? Repentance alone can never remove sin. If an offence is committed against the law of man, that offence must receive its punishment; it cannot be done away by repentance. Will repentance alone pardon a murder-will re

pentance alone remove the consequences of vice, folly, or extravagance? So also, if the Almighty had revealed the pardon of sin upon repentance alone, then an encouragement had been given to all men to violate the law of God, because men might go on to sin through many years of life, and be pardoned, after a long career of evil, upon a deathbed repentance-a just and holy God would have appointed a law which sanctioned all wickedness while men lived, provided they repented when that wickedness attracted them no longer, because they were no longer able to indulge in its commission. Would you leave your salvation to chance, or to some undefined resolution of reformation, if your life was to be continued? In this case you would acknowledge to the world, to your friends, and to yourself, that you die without any, even the least Christian hope, of the mercy of God. of God. Would you drive from your mind all reflection upon the subject?-it cannot be done. A dying man cannot separate the reproaches of his conscience from his soul. Neither presumption, nor despair, can annul the solemn declarations of Scripture, that it is appointed unto men once to die, and, after death the judgment 2. As the doctrines of immortality and life have been brought to light by the Gospel-as we are assured, and know by the most undeniable evidence, that there is a spirit in man, so we know that he who most succeeds during life in excluding

2 Heb. ix. 27.