2. If you return to God, you will find him ever ready to receive you —
[As, on the one hand, no one ever found mercy without repentance, so neither, on the other hand, was any true peni- tent ever rejected. Search the Scriptures ; not a syllable will be found to discourage a sinner's return to God. Nations have always found mercy when they sought it earnestly ; and of individuals, not one was ever rejected who turned unto God in sincerity and truth. What greater encouragement then can any man desire ? There is the word, yea the oath, of Jehovah pledged, that none shall seek his face in vain. Beloved brethren, only seek him with your whole hearts, and he will assuredly be found of you.]
3. Inconceivable will be the difference between those who are prepared to meet their God, and those who meet him unprepared —
[Think of an impenitent sinner, when summoned into the presence of his God : how glad would he be that the rocks should fall upon him, and the hills should cover him from his sight! But this cannot be. He must appear; he must answer for himself; he must receive his doom ; he must take his portion " in the lake which burnetii with fire and brim- stone." View, on the contrary, the true penitent, the humble believer : behold him coming forth with joy to meet his recon- ciled God and Saviour: he stands before his tribunal with unshaken confidence : " he knows in whom he has believed." While the other anticipates in the frowns of his Judge the miseries of hell, he receives in Emmanuel's smiles an earnest and foretaste of the heavenly felicity. This alone is sufficient to shew the importance of being prepared. We need not follow them to their different abodes : their comparative hap- piness at the first meeting of their God is abundantly sufficient to enforce this exhortation upon all, " Return unto the Lord, from whom ye have deeply revolted ! "]