evil day-they endure hardship as good his peace into your heart-if he has soldiers of Jesus Christ; there are sent his Holy Spirit to give you the none of them that draw back to perdi- | spirit of the children of God,—can you tion, but all of them believe to the for a moment after this hesitate what saving of the soul. Those who appear course to pursue ?—can you for a moto believe for awhile and then are of- ment be tempted to believe that it is an fended, are compared by our Lord to evil thing to serve the LORD? No, my those on whom religion has produced dear brethren, you are happy that your no saving benefit; they are never found Saviour has drawn you with cords of at the right hand of God. But they love, and the bands of a man, to the who follow the Lamb wholly, it is they horns of His altar. You determine to who endure to the end-it is they who adhere to him through evil and through keep the word with patience—it is they good report-to choose your portion who hold fast what they have received; with him—to count all things but loss and although they may be occasionally for the excellency of the knowledge of defeated, yet their whole course is a Christ Jesus, and to esteem them but resistance against temptation; these dung, that you may win Christ and be are the only ones that will stand at found in him. the right hand of Jesus Christ, and be rewarded with crowns of immortal glory.

And you who make a profession in this place, if you have found from past experience that the ways of God have been ways of pleasantness, then persevere, cling fast, keep that which you have, endeavour to make progress; not only maintain your ground, but press forward to the mark for the prize of your high calling. It is true, my brethren, there are many trials and difficulties attending religion: you know it, and Joshua knew it, by experience, but at the same time he could say, in the strength of Christian principle, and in the spirit of consecrated magnanimity, "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

And now, my dear brethren, if Jesus Christ has brought pardon to your souls by his precious blood-if he has renewed you in any degree with his Holy Spirit-if he has called you with a high and heavenly calling-if he has brought

The remaining part of this subject I must defer till another opportunity. It would be in vain to attempt now, our time being very short, to enter into the motives and reasons, why we ought to flee to the service of God, and to embrace the resolution of Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." How happy it would be if this was the language of every one in the presence of God this morning! Why should it not be? Dear brethren, you may depend on this, that there is a time coming when every one of us would give a thousand worlds that we had regarded it-there is a time coming when God will be our only prop and stay. You will soon find yourselves in that solitude and desolation when life scarcely lingers in the body, you will then feel that God is all in all; and that every thing else is worthless, unsatisfying, and vain, in connexion with that boundless eternity in which you must rejoice, or lament for ever and ever.

London: Published for the Proprietors, by T. GRIFFITHS, Wellington Street, Strand; and Sold by all Booksellers in Town and Country.

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THE PREACHER.

SERMON BY THE REV. R. HALL.
SERMON BY THE REV. H. MELVILL.

THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1831.

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE LATE REV. R. HALL,
AT BROADMEAD CHAPEL, BRISTOL.

Joshua, xxiv. 15.-" And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose ye this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

IN discoursing on this passage of Scripture in the preceding part of the day, the occasion on which Joshua spoke these words was largely noticed. It was observed, that it was on the occasion of his assembling the people of Israel together to hear his last charge, to receive his instructions respecting their adherence to the service and wor-"Ye cannot serve the LORD." This

this, he proves them still further-he brings them to the test by reminding them of those parts of the Divine character which might be supposed to repel their attachment. He reminds them that God is a holy God, and would not forgive their transgresions and sins; and he goes so far as to say,

you all things richly to enjoy, who has kept alive the breath of life which would have been extinguished had it not been continued every moment by his inspiration; He it is who has in

entertain no idea of a relation equal to | from innumerable evils, who has given
this; we can form nothing-we can
bring nothing into being which had not
a being before; our power consists only
in changing the relation which parts of
objects bear to each other; and though
we can modify the minds of our fellow-spired the hearts of your friends with
that friendship they feel, and your
parents with that tenderness which led
them to protect you when you were
unconscious of it. All the affections
that spring up in social life are the
effect of His benificence, they have
been grafted by His hand, and sus-
tained continually by the goodness of
His providence. You cannot think of
a single enjoyment but what is en-
tirely his gift; and every moment of
your existence it is, through his mercy,
that you are not consumed.

creatures, we can give birth to no
faculty of the mind, much less can we
give birth to the mind itself-not to
any particle of matter, much less to
those laws which guide its operation.
God is our Creator, and he is most
emphatically the father of our spirits;
he has given being to those faculties
of body and mind which constitute our
complex nature. Now, surely, he that
has given us existence has a right to
prescribe the acts of that existence
he that has given us a power of action
has a right to prescribe the manner in
which that power shall be exercised
he that has made us capable of hap-
piness has a right to guide us with
sovereign authority in the way to it,
and to point out the condition on
which it is to be attained-he, in short,
who has made man, must be the being
entitled to govern him with an abso-
lute dominion, and with a universal
and unlimited control, suited to the
nature of that relation in which we
stand to God as our Creator. ""
Shall
the thing formed, say to him who
formed it, Why hast thou made me
thus?" We are but clay, and he is
the potter. Surely, the great LORD
has a right to do that which he will
with his own,
and consequently, to im-
press on them those laws, and com-
mand them to all sort of service, the
obligations of which is so clear and
certain from this mysterious relation.

But besides this, as guilty creatures,
the Divine Being has redeemed
you with
the price of his precious blood; He re-
vealed his heaven to you in order to
attract your attention-to win you
from the world-to cause you to aspire
to the honour of being the children of
God, and the heirs of immortality. He
has appointed you to be a light to the
world; he has given us the society of
saints, the communion of his people,
the ordinances of his house, and the
ministry of his word. He has given
you a companionship with a superior
order of beings who will after a time
be our inseparable and eternal com-
panions. What hath the LORD not
done for us as a God of providence and
a God of grace, and on account of
which we should not for a moment
hesitate in yielding ourselves to him,
in giving up ourselves entirely to his
disposal?

But in the next place, the grand distinction of man above the other creatures, consists in such a constitution of our nature, as appears to have no other end or object but of that of qualifying us for the end of worshipping God. It has been observed many thousands of

But consider, besides this, that God is your benefactor, your rich heavenly benefactor. He is your Almighty friend and patron; He is the Being from whence all your mercies have sprung; He is the Being who has watched over you for good, who has preserved you

times, and on that account is the more | tention and design of the Divine Being in forming him for himself. Unless we show forth the praise of God, and order our lives according to his will, the province of our existence is in vain.

In the next place, let it be remarked, that although there are many circumstances which may influence persons to draw back from the service of God; yet, at the same time, these are not of a nature for a moment to justify them in not coming to the resolution contained in the text. We are reminded that there are some to whom it seems an evil thing to serve the LORD: "If it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose ye this day whom ye will serve.” Now, the grand reason why men feel a disinclination to religion springs from the sacrifices they are obliged to make to their sinful lusts, and to live according to the rules of virtue, sobriety, and religion. But that this, which is the only excuse for our not taking up the yoke of obedience, will not justify us, is evident from two considerations.

likely to be true, that the great distinction of man from the other creatures, is his susceptibility of religion. He becomes susceptible of religion by being capable of understanding moral distinctions-he is able to discern between right and wrong-he has a sense of law-he feels the obligation to gratitude which springs from benefits received he recognizes cause and effect; and could ascend, and would, no doubt, but for the secret aversion of the heart from what is good, to the invisible things of God. This is the grand distinction of human nature; not that it possesses Reason only, but that it possesses Reason capable of expressing itself, and capable of feeling its obligations to an Almighty Creator and gracious benefactor. This part of our nature has no proper scope but in religion; and he that neglects religion and refuses to serve God, loses the great end of his being, loses the great design for which he was created a rational creature, capable of being governed by an Holy God, and of finding happiness in God. Hence the degrading terms in which the Scripture usually speaks of such they are represented as slaves," as "in bondage and corruption," as "led captive by Satan at his will," as "blind," and so on. These expressions, though they are figurative, are intended to de-privilege of living in sin, and walking note a great truth, they are in the state of rational creatures who are destitute of the fear of God; and such faculties as they have fail to discover and adore their Creator, and serve and worship Him according to his revealed will. Were man not intended to be religious and to be the creature of a moral government, he would have been differently constituted from what he is, and the marks that he bears about him of his lofty condition would be wanting; and that they are found in him are plain indications of the in

In the first place,

there is nothing withheld from us by His prohibition but what is better for us to forego than to possess. The only prohibition is the indulgence of evil and sin; and sin is a disease in our moral nature which it is infinitely better to have cured than to retain ; and they who are contending for the

without rule, and gratifying the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, inherit eternal death. There is more than a compensation, even in the present life, by the advantages which piety and virtue bring to their possessor than any of the exercises of sinful pleasure; so that that saying is verified which our Lord spoke, "If any man lose father, or mother, or brother, or sister, or wife, or children for his sake, he shall receive a hundred fold in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting." But although this