Whenever, then, the tempest of temptation rages fiercest, and all its wildest waves are dashing over thee; still, however deep the gloom or wild the storm, still keep the eye of faith strainingly fixed on Jesus; and all will be safe; the tempest may be around; but there shall be peace within. Remember it was when Peter, while walking on the stormy waves, withdrew His eyes for a moment from Jesus, and fixed them on the raging billows, He began to sink then look unceasingly to Jesus ; but if believer, like Peter's, thy faith begin to fail, and terror to overwhelm thy soul, still, even in terror, cry unto Jesus, "Lord, save me, I perish ;" and He who never yet heard the anguished cry of His people unmoved, He who has been near thee and watching thee with tender interest all the time, He who has allowed the storm to rage so fiercely only to make thee know more of His unslumbering watchfulness, and almighty power, that thou mayest rest more securely on His faithfulness and care, He will stretch forth His hand to uphold thee; and rising in all the majesty of the Redeemer's love, with that Voice which heaven, earth, and hell, obey, He will say to the stormy waves, "peace, be still;" and suddenly there will be a great calm, even that "peace of God, which passeth all understanding." And now I would address myself to those amongst you, in whom the stupendous display of the Redeemer's love which

this scene unfolds, excites no gratitude, and the appalling exhibition of Satan's power which it presents, excites no alarm; for I cannot but fear there are such here present. How awful, how affecting is your condition! You profess to believe that in love for you the Son of God endured that mysterious conflict with Satan, on which angels looked with rapturous amazement, at seeing their Almighty King manifesting such love to sinful man; and yet you look on this scene coldly and carelessly, and feel within your soul no stirrings of thankfulness, and lift up from heart no songs your of praise. Oh! with what mingled astonishment and sorrow must angels contemplate such ingratitude as this. Again, you profess to believe that you have an invisible, most malignant, most subtle, and most powerful enemy, who is continually watching and plotting for your everlasting destruction; spreading before you the snares, and assailing you with the temptations, which he knows to be most adapted to your peculiar taste and temper, and thus most calculated to accomplish his diabolical purpose, even the eternal ruin of your immortal soul. And yet, amazing infatuation, so far from fearing this tremendous enemy; so far from flying for protection to that Almighty Redeemer, who can alone deliver you from his destructive grasp; so far from watching and praying lest you enter into his temptations, you eagerly rush into them, flinging back the out

stretched arm of a compassionate Saviour, and hurrying onward to destruction, as if you were impatient to be eternally undone; or perhaps you pray in the morning, "lead us not into temptation ;" and then your whole conduct through the day turns that prayer into a mockery of the living God; for how do you act? You plunge into the very same society and scenes, the very same pursuits and pleasures, you persevere in the very same thoughts and desires, reading and conversation, which you have found over and over again, by melancholy experience, successful in triumphing over every halfformed purpose of repentance, and seducing you into rebellion against the authority, and transgression of the commandments of your God. Why, why are you thus enamoured of destruction? Why thus in love with eternal death? Why will you thus lift up a suicidal hand against your own soul, and even combine with Satan himself to accomplish its everlasting ruin? Oh! that I could find some image to illustrate your danger, if haply you might thus be startled into a sense of your most perilous condition, and be led to cry out earnestly and immediately to Him who is both willing and able to save you, with an everlasting salvation. Picture to yourself a man, stupified with sleep, or staggering with intoxication, hurrying along the brink of a precipice, at the base of which roars a raging ocean, while his greatest enemy, with implacable hatred,

watches and tracks his footsteps, longing for an opportunity to dash him over the precipice into the yawning abyss below, and you have a faint, a very faint image of your own danger, while stupified by earthly solicitudes, or intoxicated by earthly pleasures, you are hurrying along the slippery edge of the precipice of temptation, while Satan tracks your steps, with unrelenting hatred, watching and waiting till the moment comes, when, the patience of a long-insulted, yet long-suffering God being worn out, he will be allowed to dash you down into the yawning abyss of everlasting destruction and despair. Do you ask me why does Satan thus hate you, thus thirst for your blood? The subject is shrouded in deep mystery; we only know enough to warn us-enough to make the Son of God, as a deliverer from such an enemy, a welcome and a precious deliverer indeed. Satan was once in heaven! he knows, for he once enjoyed, its blessedness, and its glory; and he can appreciate their value by their loss, for by rebellion he has forfeited them for ever; and now the only solace his tormented spirit can ever feel, the only joy his fiendish heart can ever taste, is to draw away from the heaven which he has himself lost, and drag down into the hell into which he has himself been plunged, as many of the children of men as he can first seduce into sin, and then keep away from the Saviour, that he may thus make them his slaves, to be ruled by him on earth, and his victims,

to be tormented by him for ever, in that world of woe, "where the worm dieth not, and where the fire shall never be quenched!" And how does he seek to accomplish his hellish purpose? By the very same means by which he accomplished the fall of our first parents; by temptation! As a tempter he first appeared in our world;-in this character he wrought the ruin of yet unfallen man, and in this same character he has carried on his assaults-Oh! with what fearful success-against the successive generations of the children of fallen man. He presents some forbidden fruit to their view; he induces them to gaze on it; he makes it appear lovely in their eyes, a thing to be much desired, till the hand is eagerly stretched forth to grasp it; a voice is then heard, which cries: "Beware, touch not, eat not, lest ye die!" but the tempter says, "fear not, you shall not die; God is too merciful; he has threatened indeed, but he will not execute." What is the result? Satan is believed-God is disbelieved; you make Satan the spirit of truth, and the blessed God a liar; you stretch forth your hand; you seize the forbidden fruit; you eat, and do not immediately die; therefore you eat again, and again, with less remorse, less fear each time, till perhaps you come to eat without any remorse, any fear, at all! This is the tempter's triumph; now he has succeeded to the uttermost; now, if divine grace do not interpose,