weighed in the balance with that sacred treasure. What object in nature is so celebrated as the _rose_, for its fragrance? the _lily_ of the vallies, for beauty? and the _sun_, for grandeur and utility? Yet, the pleasure, which the senses imbibe from the splendor of the one, or the perfumes of the other, is languid and transient, compared with the superior satisfaction which the enlightened soul feels, when contemplating the amiable perfections of that Redeemer, who was white in immaculate innocence as the lily; who, as the rose of Sharon, blushed in blood; whose sacrifice sends up an odor before the throne of God, that perfumes the heavens and the earth with the sweetest incense; and who as the Sun of Righteousness, risen with healing in his wings, irradiates and cheers a world, naturally sunk in misery and sin. From hence it follows, that there is a divine reality in true religion, of which the soul of a Christian is as sensible, as when the eye beholds a beauteous object; the mouth tastes delicious food; or the ear is charmed with harmonious sounds. To dispute or deny this, would be to rob Christianity of its essence, the gospel of its power, Christ of his preciousness, and the soul of its heaven upon earth; and to place the sordid gratifications of the epicure and the brute upon a level with the enjoyments of a Christian living in happy communion with his God, exulting in a sense of his favor, and anticipating the prospect of everlasting felicity. But what pleasure is comparable, then, with that of all the faculties of the mind, engaged in intercourse with a reconciled God? The _understanding_ is feasted with views of the unsearchable riches of Christ. The _will_ is captivated with sweet complacency in the plan of salvation through him. The _affections_ banquet on the sense of pardoning love. And the _memory_ is a repository of ten thousand sacred sweets, collected from that bed of roses, the scriptures of truth, and treasured up there, for the purpose of feeding and regaling each spiritual sense. Thus is the _whole soul_ feasted. And this is the feast of saints on earth; and this, the banquet of the skies. But, what endears the provision, and the God of all grace, who made it, is; that it is a feast for _sinners_—for sinners of the race of Adam—for the poor, the wretched, the guilty, and the undone—for those, who have nothing to pay, nothing to plead, and nothing to bring but misery and sin. And this leads me to consider, II. The extent and freeness of the invitation itself.