ing tempest."-an "everlasting fire"-an "unquenchable flame"-"whose smoke goeth up for ever and ever!'

What figures of speech could have been employed more terrible than these! Had it been called eternal solitude, that would have been awful; or eternal darkness, that would have been insupportable: but, how terrific............everlasting fire-in which the thorns, (the Christless sinner,) must dwell for ever, in that "pit," which St. John seven times calls " bottomless.'

Christless soul, I warn you, I solemnly and tenderly warn you, by this "everlasting flame"-by this "bottomless pit" by this "unquenchable fire of God's wrath"-flee from the wrath to come. Flee to Him, who is as willing, as He is also able to save the greatest sinner, and make that sinner for purity and for beauty of soul-like a "lily among thorns."

Pause one moment-thoughtless worldling, and compare your state and future prospects with those of the Believer in Jesus.

They are as "Lilies among thorns." Their life is now hid. Their glory doth not yet appear; but, in future ages, they will flourish in a kindlier soil and a more genial clime than that of earth! But what awaits you?. Now, you are as thorns

1. Rev. ix. 1—2—11.—xi.—7.—xvii. 8.- -xx. 1—3.

and briars fit only for the burning. It doth not yet appear what ye shall be even here. But this we know, that "whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap," &c.

Poor worldling, how little dost thou consider thy poverty and true wretchedness! Thou art selling thy precious soul for a few months and years careless gaiety and thoughtless indulgence!

of

Oh! how deeply will you mourn your choice!— The joy of the world and the laughter of fools is like crackling of thorns under a pot2—a sudden blaze and then darkness for ever!

Soon thy feasts will be over! The noise of the viol and the voice of singing men and women, will soon be hushed amidst the wailing of despair. Beauty, and rank, and splendour, will have vanished like a dream.

The voice of the Arch-angel and the trump of God.........The shout of the ransomed, and the wailing of the lost—will call thee at last to a sense of thy madness!

Then, what a reckoning awaits thee, if Christ finds you Christless......" He cometh! He cometh to judge the world."!!

What a sentence after that reckoning! A sennce which excludes you from Paradise, where the of Christ's garden flourish in eternal bloom—

1. Gal vi. 7-8.

2. Eccl. vii. 6.

a sentence which writes no

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new name" upon thy

forehead, nor seals you with the seal of the sons of God-but, a sentence which condemns you to the second death......which leaves to you nothing, save a dungeon of misery, on whose dreary walls are written thy condemnation in letters of fire, “lamentation, and mourning, and woe !"

Christless soul! why will you die, seeing God hath said, "I have no pleasure at all in the death of any sinner?"

Listen to this record of Divine mercy and love! Why should everlasting burnings be your portion? Jesus once suffered that it might be possible for God to deliver sinners like you from suffering. The pains of hell took hold on him......that they might never take hold of them which should believe on His name!

He was brought into the dust of death—as enduring wrath for sinners! How then can you think of neglecting such a salvation?

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?""

1. Heb. ii. 1-2.

Behold, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth —that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, "thou shalt be sated!"

3. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so my beloved among the sons. I sat down under

his shadow with great delight, and his fruit

was sweet to my taste.

The Church replies to the commendation of her Lord, by declaring His excellencies under a new figure.

"As the apple tree among the trees of the wood."

There are peculiar properties belonging to the apple-tree, which, in a figure, serve faintly to set forth the peculiar excellencies of our Beloved Lord. Although it is reckoned inferior in its appearance as compared with the oak of Bashan or the cedar of Lebanon, it is a very fruitful tree.

And, though Jesus, in the days of His flesh—when He appeared among men was without form or comliness, He" was full of grace and truth."

In Jesus, all the "fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily" He is Joseph's antitype, who is

1. Col. ii. 9.

called "a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.”

As a fruit-laden apple-tree, in the midst of the barren trees of the forest-abounding with luxuriant shade as well as the most delicious fruit, so is Jesus, manifest in the flesh, to the Believer's soul.

As the boughs, laden with fruit, bend towards earth, with the burden they carry, and so may be easily reached-so does He graciously bend down towards His people-giving them grace and strength to help in every time of need.

What is more beautiful to behold, than the apple tree, laden with rich and precious fruit, especially when placed in contrast with the wild trees of an Eastern forest? It is not indeed so majestic as the cedar, or so stately as the fir tree, but, when laden with fruit, is far more acceptable to the weary parched traveller, than either. It both furnishes a cool shade from the scorching rays of the sun, and provides delicious fruit, most sweet and acceptable to the pilgrim's taste.

And, see you not here, a lively picture of the God-man? When He manifested himself to the world-He came as a servant—as the reputed son of a carpenter. He was "like a tender plant springing up out of a dry ground," possessing, in outward appearance, but little either of the majesty

1. Gen. xlix. 23.