been frequenting the house of prayer, and however frequently you may have used the petition to which I refer, you are still in darkness, and in the shadow of death; and still in that condition, which makes the words of our blessed Saviour to Nicodemus too applicable to yourselves—" Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must be born again."

I. I would, in the first place, consider the import of the declaration, that "the night is far spent, and that the day is at hand." The expressions, "night" and "day," are variously used in the holy Scriptures. We read, (St. John, ix. 4,) that when our blessed Lord was about to open the eyes of the man who was born blind, He said: "I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work." By the day," is here evidently meant this present state of existence; and by "the night," the future. Now St. Paul uses the same words, but in a different meaning. He calls this life the night, and the future life the day.* Both me

* A remark of the Rev. Mr. Simeon. Though quite unknown to him, I venture here to express my

thods of speaking are very striking, and well calculated to illustrate the instruction conveyed in them. St. Paul's words, however, are at present before us; and to them our attention is to be now more particularly directed.

Now surely, with great propriety, may our present state be called "night;" for it is indeed a condition of great darkness and gloom. Look at man, while he is unrenewed by the Holy Ghost; and what is he? He is in darkness; yea, he is "darkness" itself. Though the light of the gospel shines round about him, yet he comprehends it not; nay, he loves the darkness in which he is involved, and not unfrequently mistakes it for the light of day. He is blind, and yet he says that he sees. He is of the world; and in a Christian land, the world generally calls itself Christian; but it knows nothing of Christ, nothing of his religion.

very great respect for that honoured and most laborious minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, and also my hope that his declining days may be brightened by the consolations of that gospel which he has been permitted to preach so successfully to others. I thankfully acknowledge many and important obligations to his excellent writings.

They who are in this state may be very learned, in the common acceptation of that word: they may be in possession of all the information requisite in their particular calling in life: but they are unacquainted with every thing that is vital, every thing that is interesting in religion: and though they think the contrary, yet to a spiritual eye, their ignorance is conspicuous, in all they say, and all they do. They are perfectly unaware of their own real character; they have no know. ledge of the nature of the salvation of the gospel; they are strangers to the transforming influence of the divine Spirit; their affections are devoted to the earth; and the subjects in which they feel the most lively concern, and those which lead them out in the greatest activity of body and mind, are not those things which either directly or indirectly tend to the honour of Him, whose unlimited claim upon them they dare not deny; but those which are connected with this present life, in its pleasures, profits, or conveniences. Now this is to be in darkness indeed. And yet this is the condition of the great mass of the professedly Christian world; by their great numbers

keeping each other in countenance under their desperate circumstances, and standing unconcerned on the very brink of ruin. Oh! brethren, if we were at liberty to prophesy smooth things to you; (but we are not at liberty to do so,) and if we might speak to you the language of deceit, and thus tamper with the high question of your salvation, we might flatter you by calling you all, without exception, our "Christian brethren." But when it is recollected what is implied in that peculiar distinction; when we think of the spiritual resurrection; the devotedness of soul; the singleness of eye to the divine glory; the exhibition of the mind that was in Jesus; and, of consequence, the sanctity of character, which it includes; the fidelity which we are bound to observe (how frequently soever we may sinfully depart from the obligation,) to our Lord, and to you, forbids such a proceeding. It demands of us, with all affection, but, at the same time, with all plainness, to express our fears, that there are too many of those who hear us, of whom it might be truly said, that they are "in darkness even until now."

My dear brethren, the sovereignty of grace; the right that God has to do what He will with his own; the gracious manner in which He is known to exercise that right; and the assurance we have, that without the exercise of this divine sovereignty, no sinful soul could ever be finally saved, is our great encouragement in layingbefore you the everlasting gospel of salvation. These were the things which made the Redeemer, in the days of His flesh, rejoice; these things will be celebrated, when the harps of the blessed are tuned to that seraphic song, "Salvation to our God, and the Lamb:" and these are the things which uphold our hands, in regard to the office to which we are called; because we know that there is not one amongst those to whom we are permitted to speak, so dark, unfeeling, and dead, but, for anything we can tell, that person may be the very next we hear of being brought into all the light, and all the life, and all the lovely sensibilities of the religion of the Bible. It is a hope, too, that warms our hearts, and cheers our spirits, that there are many amongst you, who have been translated out of the kingdom of dark