with power from on high, and to render it effectual for the salvation of your souls. You should bear in mind, that, " though Paul should plant, and Apollos water, it is God alone that can give the increase ;" and you should judge of your profiting, not by the pleasure with which you heard, but by the insight which you have gained into the evils of your own heart, and the ability that has been imparted to rectify your errors. As God in the appointment of ordinances seeks the conversion of your souls, so should you in attending on them ; " receiving with meekness the engrafted word," and praying that, as it is able, so also it may be effectual, to save your souls alive d.]
3. What should be the one object of your whole lives —
[What is there of any importance, compared with the sal- vation of the soul? I do not hesitate to say, that the care of the soul is the " one thing needful." If there were no future state, men might go on in their own ways without much con- cern. But, when there is an eternity awaiting us, — an eternity, either of happiness in heaven, or of misery in hell ; when our destination to the one or other of these depends entirely on our conduct in this present life ; and when no man knows that he has another day to live ; I see not how any doubt can exist in the mind of a rational being, that the care of his soul should infinitely outweigh all the concerns of time and sense. True it is, that when men act according to this truth, they are derided as enthusiasts : but there is no man who, in his deli- berate judgment, does not see, that " the fear of the Lord is the very beginning of wisdom." Regard not then the scoffs of foolish and ungodly men ; all of whom, if not in this life, yet in the next at least, will applaud your wisdom. As for the angels, they, though in the very presence of their God, will not be so occupied with the glories of heaven, but they will have their joys augmented when they shall behold you turning into wisdom's ways. I pray you then to be in earnest about the salvation of your souls. If God has appointed an order of men on purpose to promote your welfare, and has suspended their salvation on their fidelity to you, and has taught them to consider success in one single instance as a rich recompence for the labour of their whole lives, surely it does not become you to be careless and indifferent. I pray you, awake to a sense of your condition : think how great a work you have to do, and how short and uncertain is the time wherein you have to do it : and now, ere it be too late, " turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"]
* Jam. i. 21.