You may, by setting them before their view in the way most likely to impress them, be made the instrument of a salutary conviction.

When the prophet Nathan desired to make David sensible of his crimes against Uriah, he represented them in the form of a parable, in which he placed before his eyes an image of his own conduct. The same end may be gained, by putting our sinning friends in mind of those passages of Scripture history in which they may see the unhappy effects of their own vices. Speak of the leprosy of Gehazi to the covetous man; of the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah to the lewd; of the man that was stoned for gathering sticks on the Sabbath to the profaners of the day of the Lord; of the fate of Ananias and Sapphira to the liar; of Lot's incest to the drunkard; of the miserable end of Herod Agrippa to the proud; of the destruction of Jerusalem to the despisers of Christ and the gospel; of the blindness of Elymas, the sorcerer, to the opposers of the truth; of the destruction of Aaron's two oldest sons to the rash profaners of divine institutions; of the death of the Jewish prophet, sent to Jero, boam, to the men who can confidently venture upon sins that they may think excusable. Thus you may raise a sense of guilt and danger in their consciences, without finding it necessary to say, as Nathan did to David, "Thou art the man." Their own consciences may supply your lack of service. This indirect mode

of reproof, will, on many occasions, be more useful than that kind of reproof which is undisguised, and which too often irritates those whom it was intended to reform. We ought to consider the temper of our neighbors, to perform to them offices of love. Those who will not bear reproof from others, may be made their own reprovers. If you can find means to engage their own consciences to become preachers of repentance, they will not so easily free themselves from these monitors. as ierod freed himself from the reproofs of John Baptist. Conscience may be held a prisoner, and yet speak in a voice of thunder.

2. Direct reproof ought to be administered when that milder reproof which is conveyed in the form of instruction is without effect. There are some indeed whom it is vain to reprove, because they are scorners; and "he that reproveth a scorner, only getteth to himself a blot." The scorner heareth not rebuke, and must be left to God, who will take his own time to speak to him in language which must be heard. But when there is any probability that we may do good by rebuke, it is a painful but a necessary work of charity to make the attempt. "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart," says the Scripture, "thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy brother, and not suffer sin upon him." He will feel great pain, but pain must often be felt for the prservation of life, or for the preservation of the soul.

He may be angry; but when his passion has subsided, he will see that he has reason to be angry only with himself.

We ought indeed to give him no cause to be angry. We must beware of rudeness, even in reproving sin. A bitter pill ought to be sweetened with love. Some deserve reproof for the reproofs they give. They sin in reproving sin, because they follow not the apostolic rule of rebuking their offending brother "in the spirit of meekness, considering them-selves lest they also be tempted." Much caution is necessary in a reprover, that he may not, by too much gentleness, render his reproofs useless, or, by too much severity, make them more than useless.

Paul will teach you by his example how sin ought to be reproved. He does not spare the offenders, nor conceal any thing proper for impressing their hearts with a deep sense of their guilt; and yet he addresses them in such a way, as to convince them that love dictated every word of his sharpest rebukes. The effects of them were such as might have been expected. A happy reformation was effected by them in the church of Corinth, 2 Cor. vii. 8,-11. He hoped in the Lord that his reproofs to the churches of Galatia would be attended with the same happy effects, and we have no reason to think that he was disappointed. "As an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover úpon an obedient ear.”

3. Encouragements drawn from the gospel, are powerful means of conversion, to be used by private Christians as well as ministers.

When men think that there is little hope of pardon or amendment, they are discouraged from using the appointed means of grace. They will not come with much earnestness, and still less with boldness, to the throne of grace for mercy and grace, if they imagine that there is no grace nor succour with God for them. It is therefore highly proper to put them in mind of the immensity of the divine goodness, and of the wonderful discoveries he hath given of his grace, in the doctrines and promises of his word, and in the manifold salvations he hath wrought on the earth.

Sinners often doubt whether mercy can be extended to themselves, on this ground, that they find themselves unsteady in their efforts for reformation. One day they will relapse into their former follies, and thus forfeit all those favors which may be reasonably expected by those who are stedfast in God's Covenant. But remind your erring friends, that they must expect sanctification as well as pardon from the grace of God. The same God who is gracious to pardon our iniquities, is mighty to subdue them, and hath authorized us to depend on his blessed Son as our sanctification as well as our righteousness.

Sinners are afraid to turn into the ways of righteousness, lest they should find them

unpleasant. It is difficult to persuade them, that delights and joys are to be found in the ways of God, infinitely superior to those pleasures that may he found in the ways of sin. Tell them of that grace of God which passeth all understanding; of those joys of the Spirit, which are the portion of God's people; of those comforts of love, which mingle themselves with the most painful exercise of self denial; of those satisfactions that are found attached to the performance of duty. Assure them, that sinners are their own greatest enemies, and that the self denial with which the devil inspires his followers, is pernicious; but the self denial which Christ requires, is no less necessary, and beneficial, and pleasant in its consequences, than the restraints which the physician imposes on his patient, or those which an affectionate father imposes on his beloved children.

If you talk of nothing but hell fire to sinners, you may affright them, and perhaps persuade them for the present to restrain themselves from some of their gratifications of lust; but while they are unacquainted with the pleasures of religion, the power of their corruptions, though repressed, will not be weakened. Perhaps they may be strengthened to such a degree as to break down all the barriers of conscience. Who can cheer

fully engage in any business without hope of success or advantage? Or if a man under