extend also to the life to come. " Be strong, therefore, and very courageous to observe and do all that he commands q." Honour him in your hearts : labour to advance also his in- terests in the world : account no sacrifice painful that he requires at your hands : but " be ready, if need be, to lay down your lives for his sake." " Be faithful unto death, and he will give you a crown of life."]
<i Josh. i. 7.
Rom. xiii. 11. Now it is high time to aioake out of sleep : for now is our salvation nearer than ivhen we believed.
SO contracted are the views which many have of the Gospel, that they account nothing worthy of that name, except what relates primarily and expressly to the great subject of redemption. But the Gospel comprehends duties as well as privileges: nor can any minister preach it aright, if he do not guard his audience against every species of sin, and inculcate the performance of every kind of duty. Nor are any persons to be excepted from such pastoral charges. The Apostles themselves needed to be warned against hypocrisy a and a recurrence to corrupt habits b: and they also in their turn have transmitted similar warn- ings to the Christian world in all ages. It was to " believers" that St. Paul addressed the words before us : and I conceive myself to be discharging a most solemn duty whilst I call your attention to, I. His injunction —
Every believer is prone to relapse into a state of stupor —
[The " wise virgins slumbered and slept," no less than the foolish0. The Church of Ephesus, too, amidst their many exalted virtues, needed to be reproved for having " left their first loved." And who does not feel that the caution given to "the children of light" in the Thessalonian Church, is appli-
a Luke xii. 1. b Luke xxi. 34—36.
c Matt. xxv. 5. d Rev. jj. 3? 4>