out as a morning cloud," and " cast them all behind him into the very depths of the sea^" It is an express engagement of his covenant, that " your sins and iniquities he will remember no more^" Think, my Brethren, what an unspeakable merc}^ this is, and let it be your daily and hourly employment to abase yourselves before God, and to wash in the fountain of your Redeemer's blood.]
3. To those who are God's messengers to a guilty world —
[It is at the peril of the watchman's soul, if through sloth or cowardice he neglect to warn men of their approaching danger. Brethren, we must, like Elijah, put ourselves in the way of sinners, and bear testimony for God against them. This is a painful, but necessary duty. You admire the discharge of it in Elijah ; do not then disapprove of it in us. But we must " speak, whether ye "svill hear, or whether ye will for- bear." God's command is plain, " He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully*." O that every servant of the Lord might resemble this man of God ! and that instead of having to appear as witnesses against you at the bar of judg- ment, we might now find you obedient to the word, and have you in that day as " our joy and crown of rejoicing" for ever- more !]
r Mic. vii. 18, 19. ^ Heb, x. 17. * Jer. xxiii. 28, 29.
1 Kings xxi. 27 — 29. And it came to pass, when Ahah heard those toords, that he rent his clothes, and put sacJccloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and ivent softly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishhite, saying, Seest thou how Ahah humhleth himself before me ? Because he humhleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days : hut in his sons days will I bring the evil iipon his house.
MUCH there is which bears the semblance of religion, and which brings with it a present reward, whilst in the sight of God it is of no avail for the salvation of the soul. The hopes of the presump- tuous, the fears of the desponding, the joys of the hypocrite, and the sorrows of the worldly, are -of this kind. An instance of the last occurs in the
F f2