things, ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Here, we are distinctly told, that if we be so happy as to perform those moral and virtuous actions, which the apostle enumerates in the former part of the chapter, (and to which I have already referred) however in themselves insufficient, to procure pardon and acceptance with the Almighty, yet, they will in mercy be regarded as evidences of our true belief, and for the sake of Jesus Christ, be admitted on our behalf at the day of judgment. But let not this encouraging language of the apostle lead any to presumption. Take heed that you "receive not the grace of God in vain," and so neglect that "great salvation," which is offered you through the blood of Christ.Numerous and powerful, are the enemies which war against your soul: and if you relax at all, in your exertions to repel them, or grow faint in the hour of conflict, they will gain the mastery over you, and the devil will lead you captive at his will. But beware, lest you confide in your own imperfect strength, to resist such a host of formidable assailants as will beset you. Of your

E

selves, you can do nothing: but God's "grace is sufficient for you;" his "strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Pray, then, most fervently and frequently for the powerful aid of his Spirit; and so long as you are willing to confide in that sacred strength, it will never be withheld from you, but will cooperate with your humble, though sincere endeavours, to "go on unto perfection." " Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are called1:" and finally you shall arrive, through a Saviour's merits, at that happy, glorious, and holy place, where you will dwell in the presence of "him, that sitteth upon the throne 2," and in the blessed company of angels and archangels, for ever and ever.

1 1 Tim. vi. 11, 12.

2 Rev. v. 13.

SERMON IV.

OBEDIENCE BETTER THAN SACRIFICE.

1 SAM. XV. 22.

"And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burntofferings and sacrifices, as obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

WE read, in the seventeenth chapter of the book of Exodus, that when the children of Israel had escaped from their Egyptian bondage, they were waylaid and attacked by the Amalekites, a people descended from Esau; upon which, Moses commanded Joshua to "choose out men," and fight against them; and "Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." Their chastisement, however, did not end here; but their utter annihilation was eventually the consequence of their insolent conduct, as appears from the fourteenth verse of the same chapter. "And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for

a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua; for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." This Divine injunction, was subsequently renewed on the entrance of the Israelites into the Holy Land, as is mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy, where, they are commanded to "blot out the remembrance of the Amalekites from under heaven," and to be careful not to "forget it." And in the chapter before us, Saul is commissioned by Samuel, to put into execution the former sentence against them.

The prophet, after reminding him of what "Amalek" once did to Israel," how he had "laid wait for him in the way," when he " came out of Egypt;" issued the fearful edict of the Almighty in these words: "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."

This, indeed, was a severe sentence; and has given offence to certain false and sceptical reasoners, who, wise in their own conceits, have

1 Vide Deut. XXV.

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been so bold as to arraign Providence in this, and in other similar instances, of the manifestation of the Divine anger against offenders. But surely it is not for weak and short-sighted mortals, to question the justice of the Supreme Being, as to the means employed by him to mark his detestation of the iniquities of his creatures. the contrary, it behoves us, with all submission, to suppose, that when such a tremendous infliction of heaven's wrath, as is here recorded, is visited on a people, it may be done for the allwise and all-merciful purpose of warning other nations, by the sad example of their punishment, against incurring the vengeance of the Almighty.

There can be little doubt, I should conceive, in the mind of any unprejudiced and humble inquirer into the revealed will of God, that, as in every other case therein related for our edification and instruction, so in the one more immediately under consideration, there were but too just grounds for the infliction of the severest chastisement. And it were well, my friends, if we were always content to submit the weakness of our imperfect understanding to the deep and secret counsels of the Most Highest; and in all his dispensations, whether directed immediately