"but the sorrow of the world worketh death." 2 Cor. vii. 10. Had I been permitted to stop here, I should have added my witness to the feelings of those weary satiated beings, who finding that all the good, and all the pleasure they have panted to gain, perished in the using, have frowardly courted the gloomy recesses of misanthropy, and from the inmost solitude of the spirit sent forth wild lamentings, and bitter despondency!

When the sense of personal transgression, and the sight of original sin devastating the world first seizes on our understanding, and appals our affections; it requires a divine preceptor to reveal a scene beyond the earth, and plant a hope which cannot wither!

Who will show us any good, the least portion of real good? is the anxious query of every reasonable soul. The research is boundless, aimless, and fruitless, until a higher guide than reason shall take the querist by the hand, and discover to him eternal mines of grace and glory. In conducting this discovery every individual is led by several paths; differing in difficulty, and varying in aspect, according to the wisdom of his instructor, but the result is

alike to all; and were every traveller towards Zion, to recite the adventures of his journey, the issue of every fear, and the influence of every hope, would manifest "His praise who called them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God."-Acts xxvi, 18.

The conviction of original sin with its consequent in actual transgressions, was evidenced to my mind after I apprehended the unmitigated demands of the law. It was the view I received of the holy God in the mirror of his holy commandment, which sentenced me to be a sinner, and on a footing as it respects God's justice, with every criminal whom I pitied or despised.

Superficial knowledge of the gospel, had led me to suppose, that when Christianity was promulgated, its offers of mercy abrogated the severity of the law, in short, made it void, by substituting a desire to obey, and accepting penitence for frailty of omission, in place of those rigid exactments, and eternal penalties, which were the terms of the Mosaic proclamation. The preaching I attended taught this inference; and thus I had undulated on the

wave of error and regret, drifting with fearful incertitude, but found no safe anchorage for my soul.

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As the spear of the law was driven into my heart, forthwith the blood of the covenant, and the water of regeneration flowed over the wound. When the iron enters into our soul, we are brought to cry out under the sufferance Lord, save or I perish," for it is the application of the law to our conscience, not the mere perception of its righteousness, which admits a child of God into the doctrine of scripture. The law is our schoolmaster, by whose vigilant discipline we are taught our need of Christ. "That we might be justified by faith." While we are ignorant of the spirituality of the commandment we are ignorant of our need of Jesus.

Sin is so legibly traced on every thing earthly, that no condition beyond the helplessness of infancy, exonerates us from a reasoning conviction of its results. You cannot open a book to read the testimony of the dead, or listen to the confirmation of the living, whether they wear the gaudy coronet of fame, woven of ambition and wealth; or the laurel circlet of

wit and learning, whether their existence is extinguished on a darksome pallet of straw, or passes away amid a cloud of flattery; without additional evidence to the universal sway of sin. But the sagacity of intellect, and the corroboration of experience cannot suggest, no, nor even desire a remedy!

While the tenour of holiness is at variance with their pursuits the world frets and toils on the foam of iniquity, anxious to achieve the rescue of some frail possession, and having watched it reach the shores of time, they are regardless if the breakers overwhelm their soul! Posthumous fame, the very vacuum of hope, riches hoarded for posterity, whereby avarice swindles his votaries under the name of liberality, of present contentment; these, and deceptions as glaring as these, are practised upon mankind by the enemy of his peace, in league with the darkened affections of his heart, and the sinful passions of his nature.

There is no similitude of imagery to convey the reality of such a state. Paul, in the language of the Holy Ghost declares, that " We are dead in trespasses and sins."-Eph. ii. 1. Yet even this represents but a shadow of the fact,

for temporal death is itself only an emblem of spiritual death, and the Lord the Spirit gave the figure, to convey to our minds an idea of the lifeless position of every unregenerate soul. The definition must not be measured by its dimensions, but by its analogy.

Thus was I brought acquainted with the plague of my own heart, and bowed beneath the ministry of condemnation. I saw sin not coming to me, as an external agent, but dwelling in me as an inherent adversary. A waste and howling desert seemed around, and I wandered on its confines to contemplate the vast ocean of eternity whereon I must embark.

With heartach and headach, I one morning found a few words which were uttered by Jesus; and they were wafted across the scene of my spirit, like summer breezes after a tempest. The words were so few, that no memory could lose them, and so simple, that they might be repeated by a lisping infant. "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. xi. 28. The invitation was so gracious, the knowledge of my ailment so adequate to all its symptoms, and the remedy so full of miracle and tenderness, that