who are DEAD.
dark. You know not what a day might bring forth, much less a year. Oh! why not bring your soul's business to a point without delay?
Let every reader of this paper begin the great business of selfexamination. Rest not until you know the length and breadth of your own state in God's sight. Backwardness in this matter is an evil sign. It springs from an uneasy conscience. It shows that a man thinks ill of his own case. He feels, like a dishonest tradesman, that his accounts will not bear inquiry. He dreads the light.
In spiritual things, as in everything else, it is the highest wisdom to make sure work. Take nothing for granted. Do not measure your condition by that of others. Bring everything to the measure of God's Word. A mistake about your soul is a mistake for eternity! "Surely," says Leighton, "they that are not born again, shall one day wish they had never been born."
Sit down this day and think. Commune with your own heart and be still. Go to your own room and consider. Enter into your own closet, or at any rate contrive to be alone with God. Look the question fairly, fully, honestly in the face. How does it touch you? Are you among the living or among the dead?
"If your state be good, searching into it will give you the comfort of it. If your state be bad, searching into it cannot make it worse; nay, it is the only way to make it better - for conversion begins with conviction." - Hopkins. 1680.
2. In the second place, let me speak in all affection to those who are DEAD.
What shall I say to you? What can I say? What words of mine are likely to have any effect on your hearts? This I will say - I mourn over your souls. I do most sincerely mourn. You may be thoughtless and unconcerned. You may care little for what I am saying. You may scarcely run your eye over this paper, and after reading it you may
despise it and return to the world; but you cannot prevent my feeling for you, however little you may feel for yourselves.
Do I mourn when I see a young man sapping the foundation of his bodily health by indulging his lusts and passions, sowing bitterness for himself in his old age? Much more then will I mourn over your souls.
Do I mourn when I see people squandering away their inheritance, and wasting their property on trifles and follies? Much more then will I mourn over your souls.
Do I mourn when I hear of one drinking slow poisons, because they are pleasant, as the drunkard or the opium-eater - inch by inch digging his own grave? Much more then will I mourn over your souls.
I mourn to think of golden opportunities thrown away - of Christ rejected, of the blood of atonement trampled under foot - of the Spirit resisted; the Bible neglected - heaven despised, and the world put in the place of God.
I mourn to think of the present happiness you are missing, the peace and consolation you are thrusting from you, the misery you are laying up in store for yourselves - and the bitter waking up which is yet to come!
Yes! I must mourn. I cannot help it. Others may think it enough to mourn over dead bodies. For my part, I think there is far more cause to mourn over dead souls. The children of this world find fault with us sometimes for being so serious and grave. Truly, when I look at the world, I marvel we can ever smile at all.
To everyone who is dead in sins I say this day - Why will you die? Are the wages of sin so sweet and good, that you cannot give them up? Is the world so satisfying that you cannot forsake it? Is the service of Satan so pleasant that you and he are never to be parted? Is heaven