SERMON IX.

1 PETER iv. 18.

And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

THESE solemn and awakening words ought to come home to us all, brethren; for who is there among us, whom they do not concern? Who is there, that the Apostle's admonition does not reach? The manner in which the words are introduced, adds to their weight and solemnity. In the preceding verses, the Apostle is speaking of the Divine judgments, which, by the spirit of prophecy, he foresaw coming on that generation, and which were to fall on the Jewish people; and, in part, on the Christians and Church of God. "For the time is come, that judgment must begin at the house of God;" that is, the time is just at hand, when not only the ancient temple of God at Jerusalem should be laid waste and destroyed, but

the infant Church of Christ should be visited with heavy trials and persecutions; "and if it first begin at us;" if such severe discipline be exercised, even on the true servants of God and their Saviour, "what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?" and then he adds the text, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" They are the words of God, sent by the Spirit of God, as a loud and solemn call to a dead and sinful worlddead in trespasses and sins-to awake, and rise, and come to Christ, that they may have life. They should be regarded as a merciful warning (for all God's warnings and threatenings are meant in mercy), to numbers of poor, thoughtless, careless creatures around us, who are sleeping and dreaming on the brink of eternity; who, either never yet seriously considered their state and condition in this world, or what lies before them in that world to which they are rapidly hastening; who are either living in gross and open sin,-given up to the indulgence of some sinful passion or appetite, no matter what; or who, with a more decent and sober exterior, still have their hearts set on this world.

But there are those who have taken up a more just and serious view of religion, who may humbly hope that they have found Christ, and the way of salvation through him; who, through grace,

are walking in

Still,

that narrow way which leads to heaven. brethren, the text warns them that they do not think their work over, and lull themselves into some fancied and fatal security, under the notion that all is already safe, and settled, without the possibility of their being cast away. Without adverting to the difficulties of this greatly agitated question, surely we may say that all who loved their own souls, and saw and felt the dangers with which they are surrounded in this world of temptation, would for their own sakes be afraid of cherishing such opinions as these.

Brethren, there is an unhappy tendency in our nature to forget God, and the concerns of our immortal souls. This is too plain to be denied by any, however persons may choose to account for it. The best, the most renewed in spirit-they who appear in their general walk and conversation to be most under the influence of really gracious principles, who are desirous to live to God and their Saviour, find they cannot overcome it. They daily and hourly feel and lament the effect which the world has over them-that the things of time and sense, pressing upon them in all directions, continually prevent their souls from rising to spiritual and heavenly things, and chain them down to earth. Their cry and prayer to God is, "My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me,

according to thy word." But the ungodly, the wicked, the worldly-minded, do nothing to check this disposition of mind; they do not wish to check it, they give full scope to it. With the exception of some little, cold, outward, heartless attendance at church, for an hour or two on this day, which they call religion, during the rest of their time, they seldom or ever think on the subject; it is studiously excluded from the mind. They never read about it, they never converse about it, they do not like to hear the subject mentioned. Death, judgment, eternity, are gloomy, disagreeable, distressing topics. Brethren, is this even rational conduct? Is it, in any sense, worthy a thinking, rational creature, to be dancing and trifling on the brink of eternity? Or, if occupied in some graver way, like the poor earth-worm, to be lost and buried in the earth? We hear such persons talk of the mercy of God. They forget that God must be just, as well as merciful; that He is a holy, as well as a merciful Being; that there are threatenings as well as promises in the Bible. Or, they think, because the hand of God has yet spared them-because punishment has not yet reached them, it never will. So the royal Preacher found it in his day; so it is still. "Be

1 Ps. cxix. 25.

cause sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." But what kind of reasoning is this? what temper of mind does it show? Applied to worldly things, we can see at once the folly and madness of it: is it less so, when applied to heavenly things? When we hear of some poor wretched criminal (as, alas! we hear of too many, for there is a sad and fearful increase of crime among us), not yet, perhaps, passed the age of boyhood, narrowly escaping condemnation at one Assizes, and brought to trial at the very next, for the same crime, condemned, and at length executed; we all wonder at the blindness, the infatuation, the hardened and incorrigible state of his mind. But ask yourselves, brethren, how is he acting otherwise, who, after repeated visitations from the hand of God,-repeated instances of God's sparing mercy, in the midst of continued rebellion and forgetfulness, still goes on in the same course, returns to his old sins and habits without fear or apprehension; goes in and out of the furnace of affliction, and experiences all the vicissitudes of a long and chequered life, unchanged, unimproved; or, it may be, only confirmed in his habits of sin and

1 Eccles. viii, 11.