Finally, The misery of those who perish from such a condition will be peculiarly great.

It has already been shown, that there is no security of a favorable result. On the contrary, there may be a relapse to impenitence, and death may overtake the sinner before he has found peace with God. Peculiarly embittered must be his recollections of the past, when he finds his gloomy account sealed up. If there be an hour of agony to the soul, it is when it calls up the successive steps of its own dark history, and finds how near it often was to the very highway of salvation. So close upon heaven-and still it is torn away with no prospect of restoration.

In one of the terrible calamities, lately occurring on our Northern waters, there was a man who perished in circumstances of peculiar aggravation. He had been long absent from his native land, and the home of his affection. For years he had been wrestling with dangers at a distance from those whom he loved. He had met death in the uproar of storm and shipwreck, but death had not claimed him for its victim. He had been caught in the hideous embrace of the pestilence, but he conquered there. Peril and disease chased after him in his journeyings, but a charm seemed to hang about his person, and he escaped scarred but vigorous. And now full of gratitude for his past deliverances, and buoyant with anticipations of a joyous meeting, he was hastening home from his long exile, to the friends that would glow more brightly at his return. But a fearful death was in reserve for him on the very threshold of his home. At an hour when he least thought of it, yet an hour so hemmed in by an all-wise Providence from every prospect of relief, and when the opposing elements seemed combined for the general destruction, he saw that he must die. As he sunk into the cold wave, and the torpor of death stole over him, his eye seemed to discern upon the neighboring shore, the glimmering of his own fireside, and he could almost hear the welcome voices of those

who looked out at the lattice for his coming. Alas! it was a hard thing thus to perish, just as his arms were stretched out to embrace the long lost and almost recovered treasures of his heart. And, my friends, do you not suppose he would rather have found his grave in mid ocean, than on the very shores of his nativity? Would it not have been happier for him to sink down under lingering disease, so far away from the hearts that yearned over him that his last hours would have been haunted by no visions of their presence, than to lay his head on that icy pillow, while they whom he sought seemed to bend over him so closely, yet unable to smooth his rough bed, or to ease the pathway for his burial.

And so it is with the man who comes, like the prodigal, to the threshold of his paternal mansion, to the sight of his father's outstretched arms, only to linger and perish before he reaches the safe enclosure, or the forgiving embrace. He goes down to perdition with the songs of heaven sounding in his ears, and amid the visions of angels taking up their harps to joy over his repentance. Sad, sad indeed is the last farewell he bids to "the peace that passeth knowledge." And agonizing will be the reminiscence of that one spot in his moral history, where the influence of earth and heaven all combined to bring him to the very gate of paradise, while now he finds himself a more miserable outcast, in consequence of the elevation from which he falls.

And now, brother, thou to whom Christ addresses the language of the text, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." I wander not from the spirit of his affection, when I sound these warnings in thine ears. I mean it not unkindly when I tell thee,-Thou art not a Christian, and thou art not sure of becoming a Christian. New guilt is staining thy garment, and heart-rending will be thy doom unless it be speedily washed away. In Christ's stead, I stand here to-day to beseech thee without delay to become reconciled to God. In Christ's name, I assure thee of the fondness with which the

church contemplates thy character and condition-not vile and odious, but moral and kind; not faithless, but believing; not cold and careless, but determined and anxious. She would cherish thy virtues, and confirm thy faith, and light up thy face with the smiles of hope. Yet it is for such as thee that the church weeps, and bows down in the dust, and can give herself no rest, in thy lingering delay. There is danger on every side of thee but one. If thou return to thine old sin, certain ruin yawns for thee, for if such as thou scarcely escape, what shall become of the hardened and the abandoned. If thou stand still, "sin lieth at the door," ready to rush in upon thy slumbers and bind thee with new chains. If thou press on in thy present strugglings, thou hast but found new avenues to death, and a new weight is accumulating on thy soul. There is but one way for thee, and that is— Repent. There is but one hope for thee, and that is the grace of God. "Oh! Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself— but in me is thy help." In Thee, blessed God is their help.

NOTE.

The preceding sermon, the fifth which Mr. Homer ever wrote, was the first which he ever preached. It was delivered at Sherburne, Mass. March 29, 1840; afterwards at Boston, Salem St. church; at South Berwick, May 17, 1840; at Dover, N. H.; at Danvers, Mass.; at Buffalo, N. Y.; and at Exeter, N. H.

SERMON V.

FITNESS OF THE MEDIATOR TO BE THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD.

AND HATH GIVEN HIM AUTHORITY TO EXECUTE JUDGMENT ALSO, BECAUSE HE IS THE SON OF MAN.-John 5: 27.

THE phrase "Son of Man," here denotes the Messiahship of Jesus. It is a title borrowed from the circumstance of his humanity although not exclusively referring to that part of his nature. The Son of God was most fond of describing himself by this humble appellation, and it is remarkable that in the New Testament, it is used in this sense by no other person.

The scriptures very cleary predict that a day is coming when God shall judge the world; and they uniformly attribute to Christ the office of presiding on that august occasion. They speak of him as "ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead." And our text states the reason of the divine appointment, "because he is the Son of Man.” It will be the object of this discourse to develope more fully the idea of the text, and to show that

The office of the final judge is appropriated with peculiar fitness to the Messiah.

There are three great aspects in which Jesus the Messiah is presented to our view. He is God, he is man, he is God

man. The scriptures describe these qualities as distinct and perfect, and yet uniting in mysterious harmony in the same. individual. He is represented as God. The name of the Supreme is attached to him under circumstances that admit of no qualification. The works ascribed to him are such as extorted from the Psalmist the devout acknowledgement-"Jehovah how excellent thy name in all the earth." The analysis of his attributes proves that he possesses qualities such as could be shared only by the Infinite and the Eternal. And all men are commanded to "honor the Son even as they honor the Father." He is represented as man. History, profane as well as sacred, has recorded his name as that of one who trode upon the earth, and wore the form and features and spoke the language of our nature. From infancy to manhood he grew up, his body and soul maturing together. He loved as a friend, as a brother, as a son; as a mortal he suffered and bled and died. Nor has he yet lost his human identity, for we are told that those who seek his glorified person shall discern in his scarred features the lineaments of his human history; and even in his spiritual body, "he bears about the marks of his dying." He is represented still further as not God merely, not man merely, but an inexplicable union of the two, by which mystery alone he discharged the functions of his high office. As a God he could not have suffered, as a man his suffering would have been no acceptable sacrifice. Only as he wrapped the mantle of his humanity about his incorruptible Godhead, was he fitted to stand forth as the Mediator and the Redeemer of man.

I propose to show that in each of these three respects, Christ is peculiarly fitted to judge the world at the last day.

I. He possesses in his divine nature qualities which fit him for the office. Let us consider how admirably his divine attributes are suited to the judicial function such as we see it among men.

In an earthly judge, we look for uncommon attainments in