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the following observations, up- | feelings, by postponing it, with on which I entered many months inflexible perseverance, from ago, by reasons which need not year to year? Is this the orbe mentioned. Should you think dinary course of things? Are proper to insert these addition- not antipathies strengthened by al thoughts, they are at your time? Does not disgust increase service. by indulgence? Is it not more difficult to perform a thing after having long contemplated it with self as addressing those who ac- proving from the natural course knowledge the truth and im- of things, that you will never portance of religion, the abso- repent. Of this, indeed, there Jute necessity of repentance in is awful danger, and it affords order to salvation, and that they abundant reason for alarm. are in a state of impenitence and Taking for granted, however, sin; and who still deliberately what cannot in faithfulness to put off repentance to some fu- your own souls be taken for ture time, when, as they ima-granted by you, that, at some fugine, they shall be opposed by ture period, suppose twenty fewer obstacles, beset with few-years hence, you really and truer temptations, or possessed of ly repent of all your past sins, more susceptible hearts; when, in short, there shall be a more convenient season. That there are many such persons every discerning Christian will declare. There are many of this character who live in religious families, and receive pious instruction; many who are heads of families themselves, sober and orderly, perhaps, and disposed to regard religion as a serious thing; and God grant there may not be some who have solemnly covenanted with God, and become members of his visible church. In pursuing the subject, I would urge,

10. That by deferring repentance they are laying an ample foundation for future distress and anguish, if they are ever brought to the knowledge of the truth. One great objection to repentance, is an apprehension that it is an unpleasant, a painful task. But, my friends, can you believe that the task will become more pleasant, more congenial to your

with what additional horror will your minds be agitated, with how much deeper abasement will your hearts be depressed? Twenty years added to the long and frightful catalogue of your rebellions! Twenty years of deliberate procrastination, when the matter to be determined was, whether you would obey the positive commands of your Creator, or continue in bondage to the god of this world! Twenty years, with all their Sabbaths, all their appointments of prayer and Christian edification, and all the labors of love which they ought to have witnessed, will then be to you irrecoverably lost; while your hearts will be hardened, your affections blunted, and the chains of your bondage riveted. If repentance is now disagreeable, will it not then be intolerable? I speak in conformity to the views which the irreligious frequently entertain of it; there is, however, such a fitness in the behavior of a penitent as

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more than compensates for all his 11. While men continue imdistresses. Though his sorrows penitent, they naturally and unare great, yet he would not ex-avoidably encourage others to change them, even as to present rest satisfied with the same enjoyment, for the security of character. Of all influence the sinner. But should you, by which one man can have over the blessing of God, repent, will another, that of example is much you not look back upon the time the greatest. We insensibly foolishly wasted, with poignant yield to its silent power, and are regret, (the more poignant as not prejudiced against it by that entirely unavailing,) and with fear of acknowledging our infe the deepest dismay? How many riority, which often arms instances will occur to your against whatever offers itself in minds, in which you might have the didactic form. But though been useful to the souls of your always powerful, example is acquaintance, instances which followed with peculiar alacrity, will never return? How many when it leads the way to which persons to whom you might our passions and natural inhave been useful, will have left clinations tend. How greedily this world, and appeared before the human race seek palliations God; perhaps uninstructed, un- and excuses for their remaining exhorted, and with all their sins in sin, no considerate man need upon their heads? Will it not be informed. Every person overwhelm you to consider, that must be guilty, then, who quietyou have spent the most actively and knowingly suffers his expart of your life in such a manner, as to be a grief to your religious friends, an encouragement to the wicked, a servant of Satan led captive at his will, and a rebel against Jehovah? But possibly you may intend to repent on a death-bed, and thus have but a short time for regret and despon-ner, as naturally and of course to dence. First satisfy yourselves, that a single man who put off repentance on such grounds, ever did repent on a death-bed. The Lord Jesus Christ has directed you to found your house on a rock. Beware, then, if you build your house on the sand, how you indulge a hope, that when the rain shall descend, the floods come, and the winds blow against it; when it shall fall, and be borne away by the impetuous torrent, you shall emerge from its ruins, and, by seizing this straw floating in the whirlpool, obtain deliverance aud safety.

ample to be pleaded on the side of iniquity; who calmly allows himself to be counted a rebel against his Maker, and rallied among the powers of the great adversary. And must not every man at once see the guilt of con ducting himself in such a man

increase the peril of damnation to those by whom he is surrounded? How could any man endure the thought of standing by the dying bed of a friend, a wife, or a child, whom, by his own example, he had encouraged in neglect of God and reli. gion? How could he bear to be addressed on such an occasion, as one who had neglected the most important of all duties, those of religious instruction; who had contributed to render others, (and those perhaps highly dependant upon him for all their opinions on moral sub

jects,) careless and stupid, while do behold such instances, must without hope, and without God in we not be lamentably stupid, not the world; and who had by his to desire such effects to result silent influence induced them to from our conversation in the hazard their everlasting salva-world? May the Lord save us tion? How could he bear to re-from this stupidity, and may we flect that his wife or child was do good to the souls of our felgoing into the world of spirits, low-men by our example, for having received no good at his Christ's sake! hands, but much evil; and that he never could in the slightest degree repair the injury he had committed against one whose future happiness ought to have been an object of his strictest attention? Reader, pause, and answer whether you wish to make this case your own.

C. Y. A. (To be continued.)

MESSES. EDITORS,

PERCEIVING an urgent request in your Magazine, for the friends of religion, to supply 12. The mind easily turns you with matter, to enable you from the last topic, to the con- to continue the publication of sideration of the pleasure which the work, I have determined to the consciousness of having set offer my mite, though I have a useful example, must afford to some doubts whether you will a benevolent heart. How re-think it worthy of your attention. viving must be the thought in I shall begin with a short account old age, that, by the grace of of myself. God, you have been instrumental in awakening, and converting

the souls who surround you? With what delight will you hear your children, or other relations, impute their first thoughts of salvation to your affectionate instruction, or pious example? With what rapture may you look forward to the time when their children's children shall rise up and call you blessed? Possibly it will be objected, that every man cannot hope to be so happy as thus to benefit the souls of others. But does the scripture encourage such an objection, when it directs Christians to let their light so shine before men, that others may glorify their heavenly Father? If we look around us in the world, do we not see many instances of the blessed effects which spring from a religious life? And if we

I AM not yet twenty-two years

of age; have been brought up to labor on a farm from my childhood, and have had the privilege of a tolerable good common school education. It is now a little more than two years, since I humbly hope I was brought out of natures darkness into God's marvellous light; from the bondage of sin and Satan, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. then lived in a place where many of the children of men were crying after God, and the children of God appeared to be eating bread at their heavenly Father's table. I now live in the same place.

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But alas! How are the mighty fallen? How has the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed? The few, the mourning few now adopt

the language of the Psalmist, "Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. For every one speaketh vanity with his neighbor." O Christians, you who have an interest at the throne of Grace, who have the spirit to make intercession for you, with groanings which cannot be uttered, do intercede for Zion. Pray for a careless and backsliding people. For Zion's sake, hold not your peace, and for Jerusalem's sake, do not rest!

Who knows but what your prayers will prevail, and we shall again see such times as in months past, and as are now seen in many places. These are the feeble desires of one who hopes he has just begun to breathe the Christian air.

and the only way to expect divine assistance, is to be in the constant, and diligent use of those means which God himself hath instituted. And what are the means? I answer, "watch and pray." These are means which no Christian can dispense with. No Christian can thrive or live without them. They are his life, his breath, and his soul's delight. Besides these there are numberless other duties that God enjoins upon his creatures, which it is their highest interest to perform. Particularly this mentioned by the holy apostle, "Exhort one another daily "lest any be hardened through "the deceitfulness of sin." This is very plain. Christians ought always to be exhorting one another, because they live in a very ensnaring world, and are in extreme danger of being drawn into sin. They must exhort one another.

The Christian life is compared to a warfare, and the com

Several things have induced me to write something for this Magazine. One is I am young; of an ordinary education, and but little experienced in religion. And by my coming for-parison is very striking. When ward in this way, I hope that a person is converted he is then some, yea very many able wri- a soldier in Christs' army. He ters will be provoked to contri- then begins to fight for Christ. bute largely to the support of He looks upon Christ as his lawthis valuable work. Another ful sovereign, and rejoices to be reason which induced me to in the hands of such a glorious write, is I hope that God will king. He feels the cause of make it a means of animating, Christ to be his cause; and enlivening and encouraging when Christ is injured he is insome of his dear children to live jured. He is always surroundmore agreeable to the truth, anded by the enemies of Christ, and thereby promote the declarative glory of his holy name.

An Address to Professors.

YOU who are professors, ought always to live to the glory of God while you tabernacle in the flesh. You have engaged to do it by divine assistance,

sometimes they appear to have overcome him. But he will finally triumph over them, and come off a conqueror, and more than a conqueror through Jesus his once crucified but now ascended Lord. And though the Christian is so much attached to his master's cause, yet he is so completely hemmed in by ene-.

mies, that he frequently sees Christ wounded through his neglect; yea further, he is sometimes surprised, and confounded to find himself fighting against his dearest Lord, and strengthening the hands of evil doers. Such things serve to teach him that he is dependent. Self-dependence is one of the most dangerous enemies the Christian has to encounter in his warfare. A person may think he is almost wholly freed from it when he is almost wholly under its power. Now Christ is able to give the Christian a better knowledge of his heart. But the Christian is too apt to be depending upon his own wisdom. Christ knows this. Therefore he suffers us to learn by our own painful experience, that in him only is our help to be found. He gives us, sometimes, an earnest desire to keep the whole of his holy law, and to be holy even as he is holy; and then suffers us to fall into a cold indifference, that we may learn not to depend on past experiences; neither upon any of the frames of our hearts. Though it may appear to us we are exalted almost to the third heaven, as the apostle was; yet to teach us not to depend upon these desirable frames of heart, we are perhaps soon suffered to fall into some sin, or a thorn in the flesh is given us, or a messenger from Satan is sent to buffet us that we may not be exalted above meas

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us to glorify the Father by bearing much fruit. And that we may depend on grace alone to enable us to serve God accepta→ bly with reverence and godly fear.

This is the only way in which such creatures as we are can be prepared to join the hosts of heaven. We must pass through this world of discipline. We must drink the waters of affliction with which this world is overflowing. We must feel the evil nature of sin, and realize the awful consequences of sinning. We must hate sin with a perfect hatred. We must loathe and even abhor ourselves on account of sin, and flee from every appearance of evil. We must strive against it. We must overcome it. For he that overcometh shall inherit all things. What a glorious promise this is to those who finally overcome ! It is not made to those who strive against sin, but don't do it effectually, though they may thus strive their whole life time. It is made to those only who overcome sin; who have the power of sin subdued within them: Who mortify the deeds of the body, and are crucified (or dead) to the world, and the world is crucified to them Who bear about in their bodies the image of the Lord Jesus: Who are risen with him, and seek those things which are above where he is. Such will certainly inherit all things, for they have complied with the condition on which salvation is offered. They will not be disappointed. But let us beware lest we deceive ourselves. Our hearts are extremely deceitful. It is quite agreeable to our corrupt natures, to think that we are something

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