Sheep are proverbially prone to wander; and the farther they proceed, the more are they bewildered, and the more unlikely to return. Alas! the resemblance is but too exact. To exchange obedience for transgression, that is, to exchange peace for anguish, is superlative folly; but such folly has existed, does exist, and may be ours. Christians, although renewed in the spirit of their mind, carry about with them, in the remnant of corruption, a principle of departure from the living God. Take away, or suspend the influence of his grace, and the work is done the most enlightened and tried believer goes astray the next moment. The examples proposed in scripture for our humiliation and warning, are not of obscure and dubious professors, but of men eminent for their faith, and eminently favored of God. How far the regenerated may go, it is not for us to conjecture, and it would be madness to try. That they shall not finally perish, is one of the plainest promises of the Bible. But between the circumspection of grace and the damnation of hell, there is ample room for sinning and for chastisement. To lose your comfort it is not necessary that you lose your soul. Even within the boundaries of pardon, there are a thousand deviations from duty sufficient to mar your peace, and bring you under the rod. No inconsistency can be traced

between the Lord's forgiving his people, and his taking vengeance of their inventions. How many afflicted have borne witness to these truths! How do our own hearts smite us for our aberrations from the straight path of God's commandments! And how sad is the condition of those who, duped by the deceitfulness of sin, have left their first love, and gone away after vanity! Lost attainment, forfeited joy, withering graces, barrenness, leanness, lameness, and a long train of kindred miseries, follow the steps of disobedience. If the end be not destruction, it is because the issues from death belong unto the Lord our God. The eye of the Shepherd is continually upon the track of his wandering sheep; and in the critical moment when they are ready to be torn or dashed in pieces, he interposes for their help, takes them up in his arms, and carries them back to his pasture and his fold.

The manner in which he conducts this interposition may be concisely stated in the three following particulars :

(1.) He comes upon them, for the most part, by surprise. In a course of backsliding, and often in the very acts of provocation, when nothing is farther from their thoughts than his presence and reproof, he speaks to their consciences. "What dost thou here?" with a voice which recalls the memory of a thousand mer

cies, and awakens them from their slumbers Their eyes open, and the dream is at an end. The seducing vision has fled, and the realities around them are realities of guilt and horror. They stand before him abashed and petrified, unable either to escape or to apologize.

(2.) He communes with them about the nature and aggravation of their sin. His former kindnesses come into remembrance, and are contrasted with their ungenerous requital. His forgotten love, his injured sacrifice, his grieved Spirit; their own experience, and profession, and vows, rise up, and present each a separate accusation. Ah! who can tell the amazement which then seizes them? the bitterness of their self-reproach? the depth of their self-abhorrence? O my God, is their contrite moan, O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God. Hapless prodigal! Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way? Sin with impunity we cannot. Our remorse and compunction belong to the discipline of our Father's house: for he hath said, that if his children forsake his law, and walk not in his judgments; if they break his statutes, and keep not his commandments; then will he visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes: Nevertheless, his loving-kindness will he

not utterly take from them, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail. These chastenings, therefore, of the Lord, though painful, are in mercy, that we may not be condemned with the world. Their degree and continuance are regulated by his wisdom; but whenever they have accomplished their purpose, when they have vindicated the purity of the gospel, have turned the sweets of iniquity into wormwood and gall, have shed new charms over the beauty of holiness, the way is prepared for binding up the broken heart; and, then,

(3.) The good Shepherd restores peace to his mourners. For he leads them, by faith, to a renewed application of his blood for pardon: and he pardons most freely. I am pacified, saith he, I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done. This, O this melts the heart. Such paраtience! such compassion! such forgiveness! All the springs of contrition are opened at once; Rivers of waters run down their eyes; they throw away with disgust the idols which they had laid in their bosom, and turning their fect unto the divine testimonies, say, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. They now regain the fellowship of their Savior's death, and crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts. Their languid graces revive; precious faith, and all the other powers of the new man resume the sway; and their smell is as the smell of a field which the

Lord hath blessed. I will heal, saith he, I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely : for mine anger is turned away from them. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olivetree, and his smell as Lebanon. The blessed influence extends through them to their fellowbelievers and their fellow-men: they that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Jesus had, from the beginning, prayed for them, that their faith should not fail; and now that they are converted, they are qualified, by the varieties of Christian experience, to strengthen their brethren.

Thus he restoreth their souls; and when restored, does not turn away from them to do them good. For,

2d. He conducts them in the course of their future obedience. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Here we must satisfy an inquiry embracing the nature of that course which the restored of the Lord pursue-his interference to preserve them in it-and the reason of his interference.

(1.) The nature of their course is indicated by the phrase, paths of righteousness.