The same exercise, which will augment the misery of the lost, will exalt and swell the happiness of the saved. I mean recollection of the past. The redeemed will look back with admiring and adoring gratitude and praise. For they will see the way in which God did lead them, and what wisdom and goodness were in all his measures; how he blessed, even when he smote the deepest into the heart; how he made tears to sparkle with joy, and groans and cryings to rise into shouts and praises. President Edwards wrote a book which he styled "The History of Redemption," and it is full of warm interest and luminous instruction. But he knows more of that subject now; for heaven is a better place than earth to study the history of redemption. It will be undoubtedly the theme and study of eternity; and all the redeemed will rejoice in the theme and study; and they will look back upon its progress, and dive down into its mysteries, and soar up to its heights, and exult unspeakably-and then, when they look upon the author and finisher of the work, upon him who took them from perdition and lifted them to glory, they will rejoice, still again, and still more intensely for

ever.

This furnishes us with another of the peculiar elements of the blessedness of the redeemed-love to Christ. Even here on earth the flame sometimes glows with sweet and ravishing intensity. It did in the bosom of Paul, and hence we hear him speaking of "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height," of the love surpassing knowledge. Whitfield burned with it, and exclaimed, "I want more tongues, more bodies, more souls for the Lord Jesus Christ." The martyrs burned with it, as the flames were kindling about them, and cried with their last breath, "None but Christ! none but Christ!" Rutherford of Scotland, who suffered for the sake of Jesus, seems to have been almost continually overwhelmed and consumed with this love; and in his letters he tasks all the extravagancies and hyperboles of language, to express his experience of its intensity and power: he says, "The very dust that falleth from Christ's feet, his old ragged clothes, his knotty and black cross, are sweeter to me than king's golden crowns and their worm-eaten pleasures;" and he was happy in bonds and afflictions, because he had in such energetic experience the love of Jesus. If such on earth, what will it be in heaven, before the throne? What ardor of love! What extatic joy! That the redeemed in heaven will surpass in happiness, those who never sinned, perhaps we are not altogether warranted in saying. Still there is something that seems to encourage such an idea. All the common sources of bliss, we may suppose, will be open to them; and then, there will be this in addition, the retrospect of danger and recovery-the theme of redemption. They will sing a new song, and no angel can learn it, or feel its power of ecstacy, because no angel has

been rescued from sin. It is the song of redeeming love, and they will sing it endlessly, with interest ever new, growing, untiring, and joyful.

Thus we see how high they will rise, rapt even to the third heaven, and what glories unutterable, eternal, they will have who receive and obey the Redeemer revealed; and on the other hand, how low they will sink who despise this grace-even to the pit of interminable wo-the dwelling place horrid, the prison strong, of the devil and his angels.

I close with a single remark-namely, The coming of Christ into the world has imposed upon all very solemn und weighty responsibilities. No one can escape from these responsibilities. Christ will have a mighty influence on your destiny, and you can do nothing to hinder it; nor can you do any thing against Christ. Whatever you may attempt in hostility to him, you will only injure and wound yourself. "It is hard to kick against the pricks." If you dash your foot upon a rock, you hurt not the rock-you hurt only yourself. If you act wrong, you are ruined; if right, you are saved. And is it not of great consequence to be saved from such a doom, and wo and flame as will overtake the neglecter of Jesus? Then act right. Do to-day what a retrospect from eternity will approve. As a first thing, an imperative indispensable duty, believe on Christ; with a penitent confiding heart receive the atonement he has made, follow the example he has set, and obey the laws he has given, and holiness will be your characteristic, and life eternal your portion. Jesus is reasonable in his requisitions. For all that he has done, he asks in return only the love of your heart, and the service of your life. Bought as you are with blood, give him without delay your love and your service. As he came to save your soul from death, give him your soul for salvation. Leave it, I beseech you, no longer in peril. It is too precious to keep in prolonged exposure to irretrievable perdition. You take care of other things; Oh take care of this-the precious, deathless soul-destined to sing in heaven or wail in hell. My hearers, remember you live in Christ's world, surrounded by light and love. You are raised high on the very pinnacle of the temple of God's mercy. this eminence you do not plunge down to death. behold the hand reached down from heaven to take you. It is Jesus' hand; for I see there the prints of the nails. He offers to take you. Will you refuse? On that height, at once of mercy and danger, held by life's brittle thread, poising and balancing over the gulf, with the waves of fire rolling and dashing beneath, and Jesus beseeching above, can you refuse? Oh, seize that hand divine, and it shall raise you to life, and purity, and endless glory.

See to it, that from
Look upward, and

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 IN 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 CHR. SPECTATOR.

"We do not hesitate to say, that Mr. Dickinson has adopted one of the happies 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."

FROM THE NEW-YORK OBSERVER.

"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."

FROM THE LADIES' MORNING STAR.

"The excellence and value of this work ought to commend it to the patronage and devout attention of every family."

THE AMERICAN

TERMS NEXT PAGE.

NATIONAL PREACHER.

OR

ORIGINAL SERMONS-MONTHLY.

EDITED BY REV. AUSTIN DICKINSON.

Office at the Bookstore of JOHN S. TAYLOR, 151 Nassau-street, New-York.

CONTENTS OF No. 5, Vol. XI. —OCT. 1836.

Two SERMONS:-"The Harvest past;" by Rev. E. F.

CUTTER.

"Carelessness about Religion unreasonable," by Rev. D. M'GHEE.

NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN S. TAYLOR, THEOLOGICAL AND SUNDAY SCHOOL BOOKSELLER, Brick Church Chapel, 151 Nassau-street.

West & Trow Pra.

POSTAGE-One Cent and a half, not over 100 miles.

Two Cents and a half, any distance over 100 miles.