sorrow for his sins, and has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been born again. Thus,

2. He has a title to an inheritance with them that are sanctified. "He that believeth hath everlasting life." "In heaven" he has "a better, an enduring substance." There he will "rest from his labors." There he will sin no more. There he shall have no more "sorrow," for "God shall wipe all tears from his eyes." Yes, Christian friends, faithful is he that promises. You shall "be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." Though your pilgrimage may be long and dreary, you shall safely "pass over Jordan." You shall go up to "Mount Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon your heads." You shall be companions of those "who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." You shall sing anthems of redemption, with the "spirits of just men made perfect ;" and your adoring voices shall unite with "the innumerable company of angels," in shouting, ALLeluia, for the Lord God OMNIPOTENT REIGNeth.

3. Consider, that if you do not die the death of the righteous, are lost forever.

you

"Except ye repent, ye shall all perish. He that believeth not, shall be damned.-Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. They that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." What language can be plainer or more awful? And yet how are these scriptures "wrested!" With what indifference or contempt do multitudes treat "the wrath to come!" Surely "the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead!"

How infatuated are those who claim a part in the felicities of heaven, in consideration of natural gifts or qualities, or earthly attainments and distinctions! What can be more irrational than an anticipation of joys at God's right hand, while the heart is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law or the gospel? Men may gather in crowds around the biers of the favorites of wealth, beauty, genius, learning, power; they may chant peace to the departed, in their dirges and requiems; they may celebrate talents, qualities, or achievements, in the lofty notes of funeral eulogium; they may pour out their hearts like water, in their wailing lamentations; but all this incense

of panegyric will not give to God a ransom for him who died a despiser of the cross, and an enemy of all righteousness. He must "perish, and that without remedy." "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his soul?" O with what emotions will many whom the world has honored, behold the righteous, the humble follower of Jesus, in the kingdom of heaven, and themselves thrust out!

I cannot close, without distinctly reminding you, my hearers, that a wish to die the death of the righteous-however sincere and ardent it may be, is no evidence of fitness to die such a death.

I cannot doubt, that thousands who hear the gospel, wish to secure the heaven of the gospel. They continue in a course of impenitence, waiting a more "convenient season" to prepare to meet their God. They have more flowers of sin to gather and enjoy, before they can find time to go to the garden of God, and obtain the fruit of the tree of life. Thus they live and thus they die. O how many have been constrained to say--"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!"

How was it with Balaam? Were not his wishes expressed in the beautiful language of the text? Yet does not an apostle tell us, that he loved the wages of unrighteousness, and was rebuked for his iniquity? And was not the church of Pergamos obnoxious to severe censure, because there were those among its members, who held "the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication?" Such was the man who wished to die the death of the righteous and to have his last end like his! And have not many, in every age of the church, cherished the same wish; and notwithstanding all their intentions and hopes to the contrary, died at last the death of the impenitent, unbelieving, and unregenerate?

My friends, you must live the life, if you would die the death, of the Christian. Whatever may be your present hope, be assured, that unless "Christ is in you the hope of glory”—your hope will perish, when God taketh away the soul. If you bring not forth fruit unto repentance, you plainly evince that you are trusting to a refuge, which the hail will sweep away, when God shall lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet.

When the good man can look back upon years spent, in some humble measure, according to the principles of the "faith once delivered to the saints," he may approach his grave with an unfaltering When the prevailing purpose of his soul has been to glorify

trust.

God, he may feel "ready to be offered," and with humble confidence may anticipate a "crown of life" in the day of the Lord Jesus. O, has he been valiant for the truth and gloried only in the cross?—Then may he hope to see, in his last moments, as did the dying Payson, "the celestial city full in his view;" to have "its glories beam upon him, its breezes fan him, its odors wafted to him, its sounds strike upon his ears, and its spirit breathed into his heart."

"Sweet is the scene when virtue dies,
When sinks a righteous soul to rest;
How mildly beam the closing eyes,
How gently heaves the expiring breast.

So fades the summer cloud away,

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er,
So gently shuts the eye of day,
So dies a wave along the shore.

Triumphant smiles the victor brow,
Fann'd by some angel's purple wing;
O grave where is thy victory now?
Invidious death where is thy sting?

A holy quiet reigns around,

A calm which nothing can destroy;
Naught can disturb that peace profound,
Which their unfettered souls enjoy.

Farewell, conflicting joys and fears,

Where light and shade alternate dwell;
How bright th' unchanging morn appears!
Farewell, inconstant world, farewell!

Its duty done, as sinks the clay,

Light from its load the spirit flies,
While heaven and earth combine to say,

'Sweet is the scene when virtue dies.'"

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE.

"Allow me to express my decided approbation of the object and plan of the National Preacher. It has opened a new channel for the religious influence of the press. It gives a durable form to a selection of able discourses; and probably gains for them a more attentive perusal, by distributing them, not in volumes, but in smaller portions, at regular intervals of time. The execution, so far as I have observed, is such as to satisfy the public expectation."

FROM THE REV. ASAHEL NETTLETON.

"I have read, as I have had opportunity, the Numbers of the National Preacher with great satisfaction. I regard it as a work peculiarly desirable to clergymen, and at the same time, as worthy of a place in every intelligent family."

FROM THE PRESIDENT AND PROFESSORS OF AMHERST COLLEGE.

"Mr. Dickinson has a clear and discriminating mind; and is himself at once an able writer and preacher. Having spent four years at the South and West, and become extensively acquainted with Ministers and Christians of different denominations; and having at the same time, an intimate knowledge of the religious state and wants of New-England; perhaps no man is better qualified to make a powerful and salutary impression on the public mind, by combining, (and in a sense directing) the talents of our most eminent divines in his Monthly Preacher. "Most sincerely do we wish him the co-operation of those whose name and influence may make the work a blessing to many thousands."

FROM PROFESSORS OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

"The plan, proposed by the Rev. Austin Dickinson, of publishing a Monthly Series of Sermons, from the pens of respectable ministers of different denominations of Christians in the United States, is one, which, in our opinion, may be rendered highly interesting, and extensively useful. We do therefore willingly recommend the undertaking to the patronage of the Christian community.

FROM THE QUARTERLY CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR.

"We do not hesitate to say, that Mr. Dickinson has adopted one of the happiest expedients hitherto devised, for eliciting that diversity of gifts,' in the Christian ministry, which infinite wisdom and benevolence have bestowed for the edification of the body of Christ, and for bringing sinners to the foot of the cross."

PREACHER TO MANY NATIONS.

The NATIONAL PREACHER, which has been published for eight years in New-York, besides being widely circulated in our own country, and to some extent in England, is also read with interest in China, in India, in South America, and in the far distant isles of the Pacific. The following extract of a letter from the Sandwich Islands shows how the work is regarded on the other side of the globe:

"This plan of calling forth the varied talents and united energies of cotemporaneous preachers, and bringing their happiest efforts before millions of our fellow men, even while the authors, warmed by their own exertions, are still on their knees, imploring a blessing on the truths they have sent forth, appears admirably adapted to promote the strength and harmony of the churches, to facilitate their highest attainments in knowledge and piety, to excite them to that course of benevolent action which the present state of the world demands, and to supply, to some extent, the spiritual wants of multitudes who are not favored, statedly, with the pulpit and pastoral labors of any minister of Christ. The National Preacher deserves the confidence of the world. May this highcommissioned messenger of Christ be received with thankfulness and joy by tens of millions of our race. May the Divine Author of all the valuable gifts in the church copiously shed down the graces of his Spirit upon the contributors to this evangelical publication, that their writings may be worthy of the enlightened age in which we live, and such as hundreds of millions may be edified to read, when the pens of the writers are exchanged for harps of gold."

From the New-York Observer.

NATIONAL PREACHER.

This periodical has, from its commencement in 1826, been regarded as a standard work; and, afforded as it is, at the low price of one dollar a year, and sustained by some of the ablest writers of our country, we should expect it would continue to have an extensive and increasing circulation.