gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." He went up in a cloud, he shall come in the clouds.

2. That Christ will come back suddenly. The whole Bible bears witness to this. (1.) In one place it is compared to a snare which suddenly entraps the unwary wild beast: "As a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth." (2.) Again, to a thief: "The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." (3.) Again, to a bridegroom coming suddenly: "At midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh." (4.) Again, to the waters of the flood. (5.) Again, to the fiery rain that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. (6.) And here, to the sudden coming home of the master of the house: "Ye know not when the master of the house cometh." Now, my dear friends, I am far from discouraging those who, with humble prayerfulness, search into the records of prophecy to find out what God has said as to the second coming of the Son of Man. We are not like the first disciples of Jesus, if we do not often put the question: "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" But the truth which I wish to be written on your hearts is this, That the coming shall be sudden, sudden to the world, sudden to the children of God: "In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." "Ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning." Oh, my friends! your faith is incomplete, if you do not live in the daily faith of a coming Saviour.

V. Watch: "And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." -Verse 37.

1. Ministers should watch. This word is especially addressed to the porter: "Watch ye, therefore." Ah! how watchful we should be. Many things make us sleep. (1.) Want of faith. When a minister loses sight of Christ crucified, risen, coming again, then he cannot watch for souls. Pray that your ministers may have a watching eye always on Christ. (2.) Seeing so many careless souls. Ah! you little know how this staggers the ministers of Christ. A young believer comes with a glowing heart to tell of Christ, and pardon, and the new heart. He knows it is the truth of God, he states it simply, freely, with all his heart, he presses it on men, he hopes to see them melt like icicles before the sun; alas! they are as cold and dead as ever. They live on in their sins, they die in their sins. Ah! you little know how this makes him dull, and heavy, and heart-broken. My friends, pray that we may not sleep. Pray that your carelessness may only make us watch the more.

2. Christians should watch. Ah! if Christ is at hand, (1.)

Take heed lest you be found unforgiven. Many Christians seem to live without a realizing view of Christ. The eye should be fixed on Christ. Your eye is shut. Oh! if you would abide in Christ, then let him come to-night, at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning, he is welcome, thrice welcome! Even so, come Lord Jesus. (2.) Take heed lest you be found in any course of sin. Many Christians seem to walk, if I mistake not, in courses of sin. It is hard to account for it; but so it seems to be. Some Christians seem to be sleeping, in luxury, in covetousness, in evil company. Ah! think how would you like to be overtaken thus by the coming Saviour? Try your daily occupations, your daily state of feeling, your daily enjoyments, try them by this test: Am I doing as I would wish to do on the day of his coming?

3. Christless souls, how dreadful is your case? Death may be sudden-oh! how awfully sudden it sometimes is. You may have no time for repentance-no breath to pray! The coming of the Saviour shall be more sudden still. Ye know neither the day nor the hour. You know not God; you have not obeyed the Gospel. Oh! what will ye do in the day of the Lord's anger?

SERMON LXII.

LOT'S WIFE.

"But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."— Gen. xix., 26.

THERE is not in the whole Bible a more instructive history than that of Lot and his family. His own history shows well how the righteous scarcely are saved. His sons-in-law show well the way that the Gospel is received by the easy, careless world. His wife is a type of those who are convinced, yet never converted-who flee from the wrath to come, yet perish after all; whilst the angels' laying hold on the lingering family, is a type of the gracious violence and sovereign mercy which God uses in delivering souls.

At present I mean to direct your thoughts to the case of Lot's wife, and to show the following

Doctrine.-Many souls who have been awakened to flee from wrath, look behind, and are lost.

I. Many flee, under terrors of natural conscience; but when these subside, they look back, and are lost.

So it was with Lot's wife. She was not like the men of Sodom,

intent upon the world and sin, quite unconcerned about their souls. She was not like her sons-in-law; she did not think her husband mocking; she was really alarmed, and really fled; and yet her terrors were like the morning cloud and the early dew, which quickly pass away. When the angels had brought them out of the gates of Sodom, they said: "Escape for thy life, look not behind thee; neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." And as long as these dreadful words were ringing in her ears, doubtless she fled with anxious footstep. The dreadful scene of the past night; the darkness; the anxiety of her husband; the pressing urgency of the noble angels; all conspired to awaken her natural conscience, and to make her flee. But now the hellish roar of the wicked Sodomites had ceased; the sun was already gilding the horizon, promising a glorious dawn; the plain of Jordan began to smile, well watered everywhere as the garden of the Lord. Her sons-in-law, her friends, her house, her goods, her treasure, were still in Sodom; so her heart was there also. Her anxieties began to vanish with the darkness; she determined to take one look to see if it were really destroyed; she "looked back from behind him, and became a pillar of salt."

So is it with many among us. Many flee under terrors of natural conscience, but when these subside, they look back, and are lost.

Some people pass through the world without any terrors of conscience, without any awakening or anxiety about their souls. (1.) Some are like the men of Sodom, intent upon buying and selling, building and planting, marrying and giving in marriage. Or they are greedy upon their lusts, and they have no ears to hear the sounds of coming wrath. As a man working hard at the anvil hears no noise from without, because of the noise of his own hammer, so these men hear nothing of coming vengeance, they are so busy with the work of their hands. (2.) Some are like the sons-in-law of Lot. Yon shrewd, intelligent man of business thinks that ministers do but jest. We seem to them as one that mocks. They are so accustomed to see behind the scenes in other professions, that they think there must be deceit with us too. And when they can point to an insincere, ungodly minister, then their triumph is complete. These shrewd men think that ministers put serious words into their mouths, as other men put on suits of solemn black at funerals, just to look well, and to agree with the occasion. They think that ministers put frightful things into sermons just to frighten weak people, and to make the crowd wonder. Now these shrewd men are seldom, if ever, visited with terrors of conscience. They slip easily through the world into an undone eternity. (3.) Some, again, slumber all their days under a worldly ministry. When God, in judgment, takes away the pure preaching of the Word, and sends a famine of the bread and

water of life, their souls grow up quite hard and unawakened. They grow proud, and cannot bear to hear the preaching of Christ; they stop their ears and run; they hate, they detest it. These souls often pass through life without the least awakening and never know, till they are in hell, that they are lost souls. (4.). But many worldly people have a season of anxiety about their soul. A dangerous illness, or some awful bereavement, or some threatening cloud of Providence, stirs them up to flee from the wrath to come. They are quite in earnest: they lay by their sins, and avoid their sinful companions, and apply diligently to the Bible, and attempt to pray, and seem to be really fleeing out of Sodom; but they dure only for a while; their concern is like the morning cloud and the early dew-it quickly passes away. The sun of prosperity begins to rise; their fears begin to vanish; they look behind, and are lost.

Are there none here who can look back on such a course as this? You remember when some providence awakened you to deepest seriousness; some sickness, or the approach of the pestilence, or some fearful dealing of God with your family, or the approach of a sacrament, made you anxiously flee out of Sodom. O how different you were from the gay, laughing, unconcerned world! You did not think ministers were mocking then. You read your Bible, and went down on your knees to pray very earnestly. But the storm blew over; the sun began to rise, and everything around you began to smile. You began to think it hard to leave all your friends, your sins, your worldly enjoyments, and that perhaps the wrath of God would not come down. You looked back, and this day you are as hard and immovable as a pillar of salt. "Remember Lot's wife."

Learn two things:

1. That an awakening by mere natural conscience is very different from an awakening by the Spirit of God. No man ever fled to Christ from mere natural terror. "No man can come to me," saith Christ, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him." Seek a divine work upon your heart.

2. Learn how far you are from the kingdom of God. You are quite lost. You are unmoved and unaffected by all we can say. You do not weep, you do not beat upon the breast, you do not flee, though we can prove to you that you are lying under the wrath of the great God that made you. Yet you do not stir one step to flee. Oh! how like you are to the pillar of salt; how likely it is that you will never be saved.

II. Many flee when their friends are fleeing; but they look back

and are lost.

So it was with Lot's wife. Of all the things which helped to awaken that unfortunate woman, I doubt not the most powerful was the anxiety of her husband. If she had not been anxious, I

doubt not she would have been as stupid and unconcerned as her neighbors around her. But when she looked upon the anxious countenance of her beloved lord; when she saw how serious and earnest he was in pleading with their sons-in-law, then she could not but share in his anxiety. She had partaken of all his trials, of all his prosperities and of all his troubles, and she would not leave him now. She clave unto him, she laid hold on the skirt of his garment, determined to be saved, or to perish with her husband. So much for the amiable and interesting affections of nature; but nature is not grace; natural affection carried her out of Sodom, but it did not carry her into Zoar; for she looked behind him, and became a pillar of salt.

Now, there is reason to think that this is true of some in this congregation; that they flee when their friends are fleeing, but look back, and are lost.

Nothing is more powerful in awakening souls than the example of others awakened to flee. (1.) It was so in the case of Ruth, when she clave to Naomi, saying: "Where thou goest I will go." (2.) It was so in the case of the daughters of Jerusalem, when they saw the bride in anxious search of her beloved: "Whither is thy beloved gone, that we may seek him with thee?" (3.) It is foretold that it shall be so in the latter day, when "ten men shall hold on the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying; We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you." (4.) It was so in the time of John the Baptist, when many of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized, and John said: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

There is something very moving in the sight of some beloved one going to join the peculiar people of God. When he begins to flee from his old haunts of pleasure, no longer to laugh at wicked jests, no longer to delight in sinful company, when he becomes a reader of the Bible, and prays with earnestness, and waits with anxiety on the preached Word, it is a very moving sight to all his friends. No doubt, some are made bitter against him; for Christ came to set the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; but some are awakened to flee along with him.

Are there none here who were moved to flee because some dear friend was fleeing? (1.) Is there no wife that was awakened to flee with her husband, but grew weary and looked back, and is now become like Lot's wife? (2.) Is there none here that was made truly anxious by seeing some companions anxious about their soul? They wept, and you could not but weep; they felt themselves lost; and you, for the time, felt along with them. They were very eager in their inquiries after a Saviour, and you joined them in their eagerness. And where is all your anxiety now? It is gone, like the morning cloud and the early dew. You looked behind, and are now unmoved as a pillar of salt.