not duly considered; they are not left upon divine record, to be slightly passed over, as words of no importance. Then let me persuade you to reflect on the passage before you. Perhaps you have never thought seriously of him who gave you breath, and who may this day take it from you-awful then must be your case. You are really in open rebellion against God-under the law, a child of wrath; and, while in a state of nature, you are in a state of unbelief, which is the worst of all sins, for "he that 'believeth not shall be damned." Your sins are already numerous; and depend upon it, if you are not washed in the blood of the Lamb, they will, at the day of judgment, sink you deep in everlasting misery.

Remember then thy Creator ere it be too late, who now kindly invites you to come, and reasons with you, saying, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. i. 18. Attend to his kind invitation. Do you feel secretly inclined to turn unto the Lord? It is the Spirit's operation. O do not smother it. Improve the favourable moment: it may never return. Cry unto the Lord, and he will deliver you. None ever came unto him, and went away disappointed.

Consider what a merciful, though a just God you have to deal with; he is not only merciful in preserving you to the present day, and withholding the hand of divine justice from plunging you into the lowest depths of misery; but he is merciful, beyond expression, in offering you a free pardon for all your sins, through the merits of Christ's atoning blood: a pardon whereby you will be enabled to stand at the day of judgment, clad in the robe of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But how different the scene, should you still continue to reject God. If you are determined, notwithstanding the awful denunciation of his anger, and the almost irresistible power of his inviting love, still to persevere in iniquity, still to wallow in sin and filthiness, how will you be able to meet relentless death? And with what horror will your affrighted soul shrink back from an unavoidable, and what is still more awful, a neverending eternity? O solemn, dreadful thought! Perhaps you may have read (though not with considerate solemnity) the following lines of Dr. Watts:

What horrors seize the guilty soul
Upon a dying bed!

Lingering about these mortal shores,
She makes a long delay,
Till, like a flood of rapid force,
Death sweeps the wretch away.

Then swift and dreadful she descends
Down to the fiery coast,
Among abominable fiends,
Herself a frighted ghost.

Hard and impenetrable is the heart that shudders not at those lines. Reflect my child, "thy soul this night," (Luke, xii. 20.) may be "required of thee;" and art thou prepared? Art thou ready to give an account of the things done in the body, before the awful tribunal of heaven?

King Hezekiah, a favourite with God, who continually lived in his love and fear, and forgot him not, required a solemn warning, in order to prepare him for the great and everlasting change; and shall not you, that have lived in destructive forgetfulness to the present moment, require some friendly admonition? Consider that what I now tell you is such; and know this, that I shall be clear of your blood, should you still persist in sin to your own destruction.

But will you be slow to receive salvation, offered to you by our blessed Saviour? Can you, regardless of his kind invitation, still live without embracing the call of his almighty love! Can you refrain from crying out in bitterness of soul, "O ever blessed Jesus, shall I hear the voice of thy pitying love, and attend not? Shall my proud heart still remain untouched? Take it, O my Saviour, vile and hard as it is, I would resign it to thee, do thou be the sole possessor of it. Refuse it not, O Lord, I beseech thee; take it-cleanse it-purify it—and may this ever be its language, 'Draw me, and I will run after thee'." Cant. i. 4. O, how would the blessed Jesus rejoice at hearing such words as these from your lips! Such is his all-forgiving temper! Such is his wonderful condescension and mercy! He loves them that love him, and they that seek him early shall find him.

THEATRICAL EXHIBITIONS.

THE Theatre is an amusement which occupies much of the time and attention of multitudes in our large cities and populous towns; and, unhappily, attendance on this place of resort is not by any means confined to such as are commonly called the dissipated and licentious. Many sober citizens think themselves justified in appearing within its walls; and even some professed christians are seen in that school of vice and debauchery; and a few of them openly and systematically attempt to vindicate the practice. How this has happened, it may be a point of some difficulty to ascertain: for nothing is more certain than that the ancient Pagans always condemned Theatrical exhibitions, as immoral in their character, and as utterly improper to be countenanced by the virtuous and decent part of the community. And it is equally certain that the Christian Church, in all ages, in which even a tolerable adherence to christian principle was maintained, has, still more pointedly, condemned and denounced them. Nay, in early times, all who frequented the Theatre, were excluded from the communion of the church, without respect of persons. But by some strange concurrence of circumstances, this evil, criminal and pestiferous as it evidently is, has crept, under a sort of disguise, into the Church of Christ; and has come to be considered by many, as an amusement lawful for christians! With respect to most other sins, which we are in the habit of reproving, they are freely and generally acknowledged to be such; and when any of those who belong to the communion of our churches fall into them, they are dealt with as the circumstances may require. But we have here the strange phenomenon of a great and crying sin, which some professed christians not only indulge, but which they openly endeavour to justify; to which they freely introduce their children; and, as if this were not enough, in behalf of which they take serious offence when the ministers of Christ speak of it in the terms which it deserves. Rely upon it, Reader, this practice will not

stand the test of examination. It is corrupt and indefensible throughout; and the more speedily you become convinced of this, and act accordingly, the better will it be for yourself, and the better for society.

Fellow mortal! be persuaded to attend seriously to this subject. Turn not away from it. It is a most important concern. And if there be in the practice in question all that evil which there may be demonstrated to be, it certainly will not alleviate the load of your guilt to be obliged to say, that, though warned, you refused to consider the subject.

Theatrical exhibitions, then, may be shown to be criminal, and productive of much evil, in a great variety of respects. Bear with a sincere friend to your temporal and eternal happiness, while he endeavours, with all plainness and fidelity, to state them. And,

I. To attend the Theatre is a criminal waste of time. You will not dare to deny, that every moment of your time is given you by the great Author of life; and that you must render an account to Him for the manner in which you spend it. Neither will you deny that life is short; that there is much important work to be done; and that no one can be sure that he has another day or hour to live. To creatures situated as we are, every hour that passes over us must be incalculably, nay infinitely momentous; because we know not but there may be suspended upon it the destiny of our immortal souls, and all the never-dying interests of eternity. Placed in circumstances so solemn as these, can any rational, conscientious man consent to sit for a number of hours in a playhouse, attending to amusements which, to say the least of them, are as perfectly vain and frivolous as they can be? Can you appeal to the great Searcher of hearts, and say that you think this is right? Can you say that it is acting as an accountable and dying creature ought to act? No; the most determined advocate of the Theatre that lives, would not dare to say this. He would be shocked at the thought of seriously adopting such a principle. Either, then, the scriptural precept to redeem time, and the scriptural rules for disposing of time, must be utterly rejected; or theatrical amusements must be pronounced criminal. Either men are not accountable for the manner in which they spend their time, and are not bound

to devote it to the glory of God, and the promotion of their own moral and spiritual benefit; or it is a grievous sin to squander precious hours in an amusement, of which the lightest censure that can possibly be passed upon it is, that it is wholly unprofitable.

II. But we may go further. Theatrical entertainments are not merely unprofitable;-not merely a criminal waste of time;-but they also directly tend to dissipate the mind; and to destroy all taste for serious and spiritual employments. Let me appeal to the experience of those who have been in the habit of attending the Theatre, whether this amusement is not strongly unfavourable to every thing like a religious frame of mind? When you return from the playhouse, after witnessing the most decent play that was ever exhibited, have you any taste for prayer, for reading the Scriptures, or holding communion with God in any sacred exercise? Is there not something in the sentiments uttered in the theatre; in the scenery displayed; in the dress, attitudes, and deportment of the performers; and in the licentious appearance, and libertine conduct of many of the spectators, which is calculated, to say the least, to expel all seriousness from the mind; to drive away all thoughts of God, of eternity, and of a judgment to ccme; and to extinguish all taste for spiritual employments Need we wait for an answer? Every one who has the least experience on the subject, knows that these things are really so. He can bear testimony that few things have a more direct tendency to give the mind a vain and frivolous cast; to make it familiar with licentious images and objects; to destroy a taste for devotion; and to banish that spirituality which is at once the duty and happiness of the christian.

And will any man who means to stand on christian ground, venture to deny, that whatever has this tendency must be criminal? That whatever draws off the heart from that which is sober, useful, and pious, and inspires it with a prevailing taste for the gay, the romantic, the extravagant, the sensual and the impure, cannot but be deeply pernicious? Alas! the Theatre does not instruct a man how to live, how to suffer, how to die. It does not tend to inspire those serious, practical sentiments which become one who remembers that he may be called to-morrow to quit this transient scene. On the contrary, its direct and only ten