our soul-God REQUIRES this public dedication. He must not only have the enlightened approval of the head, and the loyal allegiance of the heart, but the cordial embrace of the hand; and we dare not refrain from the expression of an opinion, founded, we believe, upon the requirements of the law of God, that so long as you keep aloof from his people, and are not united with some branch of his visible church, YOU ARE NOT

SAFE-YOU ARE IN DANGER.

We believe in the present state of the antagonist armies of truth and error-Neutrality is Opposition. "He that is not for us is against us," and the transition is a very natural one to the belief that connection with some visible branch of the Church of Christ is necessary to salvation. We neither limit nor specify-God forbid that we should trammel the conscience of any one-but as right-hearted Methodists, Methodists from conviction and preference, we should be guiltily wrong if we dared not recommend our own.

It is not our business, it is not our wish to make proselytes. We would not descend from our elevation, we would not leave our vantage-ground to do it. "We have not so learned Christ." With other churches we have no quarrel. We regard them-all who hold the head-as "houses of the Lord," and heartily do we wish them God speed. "Let there be no strife between our herdmen and theirs." But we differ somewhat in our notions of spiritual agriculture, and haply it is our vocation to reclaim some waste lands that they would

not think worth the tillage. You will not blame us, therefore, if while we do not disparage their communion, we prefer our own. Broad principles of philanthropy, however expansive, never root out the love of home. He is a churl, who cannot warm himself at any hearth but his own; and he is only half a man, who is not, after all, loudest in praise of his own ingle nook, and of the comfortable blaze that mantles from his own fire. Upon you we have a claim. You are haunted by no scruples as to the validity of our orders, or the purity of our doctrines. By your attendance upon our ministry, you have accorded us your free and generous preference. "If we are not apostles unto others, yet doubtless we are apostles unto you." Be no longer outer court worshippers. Bind yourselves to us by a tenderer tie. Come into our church. Approach the inner shrines of our worship. Attach yourselves to our Class-Meetings, and you will find them to be as the upper room,” renowned for the rushing wind and for the cloven tongues of flame.

Now, dear friends, what is your decision? Bring all your objections, all the thousand excuses which the unwilling heart coins; the fear of man-the inconsistency of professors-the dread of ridicule-the apprehension of falling-the repugnance to declare God's dealings with you; weigh them in the balance of the sanctuary, and ask yourselves, I entreat you, in the name of God, and under the impression of his eye, "Shall I deem these apologies sufficient in the article

of death, and when the light of eternity shall flash upon the doings of time?”

Dear friends, our task is done. This address has been written in many weaknesses, and in much prayer. Read it in a similar spirit, and ask God in the secrecy of your communion-closet, to teach you his will. Change is the great law of the present state of being. The autograph of decay is graven upon temple, and tower, and time. Our friends have faded and fallen in our sight-"who hath not lost a friend?" Ourselves are dying creatures. He who writes, and you who read, will speedily pass to the judgment. Already the broad shadow of eternity looms upon us; under that shadow meditate and decide. Everything around you seems to urge a recognition of the vast importance of the claim. The wiles of the enemy-the deceitfulnes, never yet fathomed, of the human heart-the perils of the yet untravelled future--the awfulness of wandering onward, agonized and without a praying friend-the blessings of Christian communion-the helpfulness of rich and mellow experience-the absolute requirement of God-all, as with the voice of many waters, swell the forcefulness of our last appeal, which we now fling forth upon your souls, and may heaven clothe it with power:

"COME WITH US, AND WE WILL DO YOU GOOD, FOR THE LORD HATH SPOKEN GOOD CONCERNING ISRAEL."

PUNSHON'S

SERMONS.

I.

MEMORIES OF THE WAY.

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments, or no."-DEUT. viii. 2.

A PECULIAR solemnity would be attached to these words in their original utterance, especially in the mind of the person who uttered them, for they were spoken under the shadow of approaching departure. Last words are proverbially impressive, and these were among the last words of the veteran Moses to the people of his charge and love. There had grown in his heart a strong affection for the children of Israel during his forty years' administration of their affairs. He had watched over them with fatherly tenderness, and had guided them through the intricacies of the desert, to the borders of the promised land. Often had he been wearied by their murmurings, often had he been provoked by their unbelief. He had been alternately the

object of their mistrust and of their confidence, of their jealousy and of their enthusiasm, and yet their very waywardness only seemed the more warmly to endear them; and, with a love stronger than death, he loved them unto the end. Aware that, by his unadvised speaking at the waters of Meribah, he had barred his own entrance into Canaan, and animated with a passion for the welfare of his people, intenser as the time of their separation drew nearer, he gathered them upon the plains of Moab, and in solemn and weighty words retraced the path they had trod, warned them against their besetting dangers, and exhorted them to fidelity in Jehovah's service. In the midst of this advice, the words of the text occur, summoning them, so to speak, to take a mental pilgrimage over all the track which they had travelled, and to connect it with beneficial uses which might influence their future lives. Such a review of the past is always wise and salutary when it is conducted in a becoming and prayerful spirit, and to such a review of the past, therefore, it is that we invite you to-day. We may not unprofitably accompany the children of Israel in their review of the way which they had trod; we may learn lessons in their company which may effectually benefit ourselves. In order that we may preserve some sort of system in our contemplations, we will notice, in the first instance, the remembrance of the way; secondly, the purpose of God's providence in the journey; and, thirdly, the uses of the memory.