madness, than abandoned to vicious courses." It was on the same principle one of old sounded that note of warning among the young men of his day: "The Lord wil. call us to a strict account, both for PRINCIPLE and INTEREST of those talents he has intrusted to us!" Impressive, dreadful thought! Young man, let it enter into thine ear, and sink down deep into thine heart, never to be removed! 5. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. There is some talent in those productions you have come to hear my opinion of. Devils love the fun you have had over them. Samson made sport for the Philistines.Judges 16: 27. Odd if it turns out that some poor, backslidden Samson, whose eyes the devil has put out, has largely contributed to this sport for the devil and Philistine sinners. Stand from under, there! Get out of the way! Fly from backslidden Samson! He will bring down some crashing judgments upon your heads. Expect no good luck in his company. Fly from him fast as your fears and your feet can carry you! O that the TRUTH of God might this night reach him, as the power of God did Samson, in the memorable calamity! For, should he be smitten down by it into repentance, he might in his fall bring down to the ground the pillars of wickedness which support more than one "Hall of Science,"--falsely so called,-when the cries of the wounded might reach the ear of Heaven, not to be returned with doleful echoes, as in hell, but with answers of pardon, healing, salvation! 6. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. What answer shall I return to him that sent me? Is it one of repentance? Alas, is it rather one of persistence? What shall I say before you fly from this awful place? Let me drop this word in the ear of every one of you: "Those who employ their TALENTS in contriving methods to sin, God shall hereafter employ his WISDOM to contrive methods to punish." Are you all of one mind? Do not some of you falter? - almost upon the point of detaching yourselves from this confederacy of sin. "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, follow him."-1 Kings 18: 21. You, like those of old, answer not a word. You need not; the answer looks out of your subdued faces. Lead the way, ye bold, ye penitent, ye resolved! Here is a great Saviour for great sinners! Mercy was first offered at Jerusalem to his murderers. I offer mercy, through his precious blood, to you his caricaturers, who, if you could not reach his person in heaven, have tried to pierce his influence, his name, his character, and his image, in his children upon earth. With a full heart and full eyes, I offer pardon in full through him who died for you. But you must apply to Jesus himself for the pardon. I cannot dispense it. No human being upon earth can absolve you; only Jesus can! He is both able and willing, and now. Come now to Jesus. Ho, ye despairing and disconsolate, come! The ocean that covers pebbles covers mountains also in its depths; so the blood covers great sins, as well as small sins,- as the world has it, though it would be difficult to prove there is any such thing as small sins, unless we could prove there is a small damnation in the bottomless pit! Come, then, come as you are. Cast away your weapons of rebellion. Let mercy be your plea. Plead the merits of his blood. Come and kneel with his friends here at the footstool of mercy, while we sing, "Come, humble sinner, in whose breast A thousand thoughts revolve,- CHAPTER XXI. WARNINGS TO SINNERS. A SERMON. "WHO hath ears to hear, let him hear.". 13: 43. 1. Your attention! Matt. In To all whom it may concern. English history tells us of a great freshet in the river Severn, producing an inundation which invaded the country around, laying extensive portions of it under water. one place it was observed that dogs, and cats, and hares, and rats, swam off for dear life, all in company, and congregated upon a small piece of ground the water had surrounded, but not covered. There they abode peaceably together, forgetting their natural antipathy to each other, as if aware of their common danger. Well, so it is now in Huddersfield. This revival is inundating the whole town; and sinners that fought like dogs and cats have laid aside their mutual antipathies in their struggles for dear life to some rising ground of common infidelity, which, God knows, is always low enough; but it affords them a slight chance of escape from this flood of salvation which is sweeping everything before it. And how peaceably they behave towards each other now, scowling only at the revival-flood,— agreeing to oppose the revival only, at all risks! But its waves rise higher and higher, undermining their positions, and one after another of them is swept off from his companions, cries safely, for mercy, is saved, is changed in nature, and lan I a new creature, on Immanuel's ground! Glorious sight, to see one and another and another thus saved, and lifting up their hands in prayer for a like salvation to those they left behind! Turn to the forty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel's prophecy, and you will find a revival symbolized. An angel of the Lord conducted the prophet to where the symbolical waters were issuing from under the temple of God; where he measured them at the distance of one thousand feet, and the waters were ankle-deep; a thousand feet more, and they were knee-deep; one thousand more, to the loins; another thousand, and they had become a river. To wade now was out of the question; he that would pass over must swim or drown. But, mark! Wherever the waters flowed, everything that moved in them became they healed; - healthy and lived, where all was death! The prophet saw the river of Gospel salvation,- such as has reached this town, and is inundating it. Sinners who are dead to God and to divine influence try to escape from it; but it follows them, overthrows them, submerges them,and in their submersion they pass from death unto life,lands them on the Rock of Ages, new creatures in Christ Jesus! These are facts. Were I to request it, thirteen hundred saved sinners, and more than six hundred purified believers, would stand upon their feet this instant, as witnesses to the fact, all the saved of the Lord during the last twelve weeks! Hallelujah! 2. And now, once again, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." A man in Germany said that some ministers of Jesus are storm-birds of misfortune to SINNERS;meaning that if they were not converted under their minis |