solitary sinner, his conversion from the error of his way, has greater charms in the view of angels than even the spectacle of their own happy society, or that of all those saints on earth who persevere in pursuing the way to life eternal. And if the mere contemplation of this change is so sweet to angels in heaven, oh, how sweet must the experience itself be to the penitent!-for he it is who tastes that the Lord is gracious,-who tastes the unspeakable comfort that arises from the pardon of his sins and peace with God; he it is who goes on from strength to strength, from smaller to larger discoveries of the blessings that are in God and his Christ; he it is that comes to God, comes to Jesus the mediator, and to the blood of sprinkling; to the general assembly and church of the first-born; to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to an innumerable company of angels. Hence none ever experienced this change indeed, who did not consider it far above every other event of his life: he may have experienced many other changes, and some of a very pleasing kind; he may have passed from a state of poverty and hardship to a situation of affluence and every earthly comfort; or he may have been raised up from a bed of pain and sickness to the enjoyment of ease and health: but, if he is a true christian, if he has ever been a true penitent, his conversion is an event that can never lose its importance in his regard; the season of his first repentance is an æra in the records of his memory; it must always appear as a brilliant spot in his retrospect; it hallows the place and the

hour that witnessed it; it lays him under a deeper, a more sacred obligation to the minister or the friend that was the honoured instrument of producing it, than he can entertain towards any inferior benefactor. And well it may; for it is a change of which the happy consequences shall endure for ever: all other benefits are temporal and transient; this alone is eternal: its value will be just as great when thousands of ages shall have passed away as it was at the first moment. Do you suppose those penitents, who occasioned this joy in heaven at the first preaching of the gospel, have found any abatement in their happiness by the lapse of eighteen centuries? No, my brethren! that happiness is just as fresh as on the day when they first entered into the joy of their Lord. The experience of eternity has rather increased than diminished its value. It is repentance that changes the whole aspect of things, whether present or future. The conviction that we have repented, that we have experienced that real, vital conversion which places us in a state of friendship with the Author of our being, this conviction lightens all afflictions, brightens every prospect, gives peace in the hour of death, and, at the last day, amidst the wreck of elements, amidst the dissolution of the material heavens and earth,— the spark of celestial immortality that was first kindled in repentance, will emerge from the darkness of the sepulchre, and shine for ever in the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness! Ah, my brethren! the time is

coming, and may be very near, when you will have nothing left to do, but to lay down your head on your death-bed pillow; and then, it is probable, if not before, yet then, you will begin to feel the force of what has now been suggested on the subject of repentance. In that hour, the least apprehension that you are a real penitent,—the faintest hope that you have laid hold on Christ with a true heart, will give you far more satisfaction than any event that ever occurred to your attention. Oh, then, let none dismiss this subject with indifference: let none have listened to this discourse without being prevailed upon to retire this evening, and in the stillness of his chamber, and the solitude of his soul, to pour forth a fervent, importunate prayer, that he may be numbered among those penitent sinners who here occasion joy in heaven, and who will hereafter obtain eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

XVIII.

NATURE AND DANGER OF EVIL COMMUNICATIONS.

[PREACHED AT CAMBRIDGE, IN AUGUST, 1826.]

1 Cor. xv. 33-Be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners.*

THIS passage is taken from a heathen poet, Menander, and shews that Paul was not unacquainted with the literature of the pagan world.

*This sermon has been prepared by collating and blending the notes of the Hon. Mr. Baron Gurney with those of Joshua Wilson, Esq.

By this he was peculiarly fitted for some parts of his work, being destined to bear the name of Christ before princes, magistrates, and philosophers, especially in the Roman and Grecian parts of the earth. The maxim accords with universal experience, and was worthy, therefore, of being adopted as a portion of those records of eternal truth, which are to be the guide of mankind in all succeeding ages.

The connexion is not that in which we should have expected such a maxim to be inserted, it is in the midst of a very affecting and instructive view of the resurrection of the dead, and the life everlasting; but the occasion of it was this: the Corinthians had received, from the intrusion of false teachers, principles which militated against that great doctrine. They had been taught to explain it away, and to resolve it merely into a moral process which takes place in the present world; interpreting what is said of the resurrection of the dead in a mystical and figurative manner. The apostle insinuates, that it was by a mixture of the corrupt communications of these men with the christian church, and the intimate contact into which they had permitted themselves to come with them, that they had been led off from the fundamental doctrine of the gospel, and rejected a primary part of the apostolic testimony. "For, if there be no resurrection of the dead, then," as he observed, "is Christ not risen, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain ; ye are yet in your sins.” *

* 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14, 17.

We see, that, notwithstanding the apostle had planted pure christianity among the Corinthians, and had confirmed it by the most extraordinary miracles and supernatural operations; yet, such was the contagion of evil example and corrupt communication, that the members of the Corinthian church, in a very short time, departed from the fundamental articles of the truth, as it is in Jesus Christ; and hence we may learn the importance, nay, the necessity, of being on our guard in this respect, and of avoiding such confidence in ourselves as might induce us to neglect the caution here so forcibly expressed. "Be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners."

Among the first things accomplished by our blessed Lord after his ascension, was the organization of the christian churches by his word and spirit through the instrumentality of his apostles. These he placed under suitable laws, appointing proper officers, and regulating them by the simple maxims of mutual love, forbearance, and charity : and no doubt the great design which he had in thus forming christian churches was to furnish room for the cultivation of a social spirit, without that danger of infection which would spring from it in a world abounding with evil examples, and actuated by evil maxims. Knowing that man is naturally a social creature, and prone to unite with his kind, he was pleased to form a select society wherein the exercise of the social affections might tend to the purification of the heart, the sanctification of the character, and the perfecting of man