How often are you in fear of the very things you deny? How often in racking suspense? “What if there be an hereafter? A judgment to come? An unhappy eternity?” Do you not start at the thoughts? Can you be content to be always thus? Shall it be said of you also, “Here lies a dicer, long in doubt If death could kill the soul, or not? Here ends his doubtfulness; at last Convinc’d.――――But, O the die is cast!” Or, are you already convinced, there is no hereafter? What a poor state then are you in now? Taking a few more dull turns upon earth, and then dropping into nothing! What kind of spirit must you be of, if you can sustain yourself under the thought! Under the expectation of being in a few moments swept away by the stream of time, and then for ever “swallow’d up, and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night!” But neither indeed are you certain of this; nor of any thing else. “It may be so; it may not. A vast scene is behind. But clouds and darkness rest upon it.” All is doubt and uncertainty. You are continually tossed to and fro, and have no firm ground for the sole of your foot. O let not the poor wisdom of man any longer exalt itself against the wisdom of God. You have fled from him long enough: at length suffer your eyes to be opened by him that made them. You want rest to your soul. Ask it of him, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not! You are now a mere riddle to yourself, and your condition full of darkness and perplexity. You are one among many restless inhabitants of a miserable, disordered world, _walking in a vain shadow, and disquieting yourself in vain_. But the light of God will speedily disperse the anxiety of your vain conjectures. By adding heaven to earth, and eternity to time; it will open such a glorious view of things, as will lead you, even in the present world, to a peace which passeth all understanding. ♦ duplicate word “of” removed 66. O ye gross, vile, scandalous sinners, hear ye the word of the Lord. _Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn and live._ O make haste; delay not the time. _Come, and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.――――Who is this that cometh from |Edom|, with dyed garments, red in his apparel?_ It is he on whom the Lord _hath laid the iniquities of us all_! Behold, behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away thy sins! See the only begotten Son of the Father, _full of grace and truth_! He loveth _thee_. He gave himself for _thee_. Now, his bowels of compassion yearn over thee! O believe in the Lord Jesus, and _thou_ shalt be saved! _Go in peace, sin no more!_