lieved a lie. But when God offers us this Physician, to cure our souls, alas, how few put their trust in

Him!

"I know not," you again say, "if Jesus is willing to heal me. I doubt not his power to heal, for He is omnipotent: but what hope dare I entertain that He will exercise that power in my behalf?" I reply, trust Him and try Him. Unless you do so,

you must be saved.

you must perish. If you do so, Granting, for the present, that there is but a chance cf salvation-though it is sad to be obliged to speak thus,-yet, if the only other alternative involves the certainty of destruction, common prudence must lead you to the Saviour. "It may

be, He will have mercy." You may have little hope of relief from Him; but you can have no hope of relief from any one else.

There are other and stronger reasons to induce you to go to this Divine Physician. Do not his invitations assure you of his willingness? You do not, I trust, think it possible that the Saviour would give an invitation to all men which He did not in truth wish all men to accept? Yet He invites every sinner to come to Him, and is con sequently grieved, yea angry, when they do not

come.

"Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Do not his commands, as well as his invitations, convince you of his willingness? The commands which are given to men generally, are given to each man particularly. When God gives the general command, "Thou shalt not steal," he commands you not to steal, and wishes you to be honest. "But this is his commandment, that ye believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ." And if He commands you to believe, He wishes you to believe; that is, to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ, "the Saviour of all men, specially of those who believe."

Is He

How can you doubt his willingness? merciful? and will He not delight in showing mercy! Is He holy?—and will He not delight in making you holy! Is He the Prince of Peace? -and will He not delight in giving you peace! Is He Love ?-and must not love seek love alone as its own reward, and delight in shedding it abroad on every heart that will receive it! The willingness of Christ to give every blessing is certain; your willingness to receive the blessing is the only difficulty. Not in Him, but in you

to save.

The

alone exists the barrier to your salvation. willingness of Christ to save is one with his power But remember his own solemn declaration and affecting words to Jerusalem, "How often would I have gathered you, but ye would not." I read of many who came to the good Physician, weary and heavy laden, for rest; but I read of none who departed without having obtained the desired blessing. No sincere soul ever carried away a burden from the feet of Jesus, except the pleasant burden of a weight of gratitude and love. On one evening, we are told, "when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick, with divers diseases, brought them unto Him, and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them!" Merciful Physician how willing was He to heal them! Equally willing is He to heal now; for "He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Let us take one instance out of many, showing his mercy and love towards the poor and needy, and their ignorance of, and want of confidence in, his mercy and love. When he came down from the mount of Transfiguration, a poor distressed father met him with his sick boy. He had asked the disciples, during their Master's absence, to heal him; but

they could not. He now comes to Christ. He gives a touching history of his child's sufferings, telling how he foamed and gnashed with his teeth, and pined away, and how the foul spirit cast him into the fire and water; and then he asks the Saviour to help him, saying, "If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Now, observe this man's state of mind; he thought the only barrier to his son's recovery was either the Saviour's inability or unwillingness, or both. He had tried the servants in vain, and so his confidence in Christ, the Master, is shaken. "If thou canst," &c., that was with him the only difficulty. But the Saviour shows him his error, by asking, "If thou canst believe ?" as if He had said, "It is not if I can, but if thou canst. It is certain that I can save, but canst thou trust? Canst thou confide in me?" This was the real question to be settled between the afflicted father and the Saviour, as it is now the great one to be settled between the anxious sinner and the Saviour. Not, Will the Saviour heal me? but, Can I trust him for healing? The distressed father is thus obliged to feel, that if there was anything to prevent his child's recovery, that obstacle was in his own breast. Accordingly,

there begins a great struggle within between faith and unbelief. He can hardly believe in Christ's power and mercy. Was it indeed true, that he could do this for him, and help him? Is the recovery of that miserable boy "possible," if he trusts? But if he finds it difficult to exercise this trust in Christ, he finds it still more difficult to return to his unhappy dwelling, with his child unhealed. The conflict ends in a flood of tears, as if from the thawing of a frozen heart under the warm beams of Divine love, and he cries, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" His confidence is weak, but it is real. The Saviour bends over the boy, who, cast down by the foul spirit to the ground, is writhing in agony, and, lifting him up, He restores him in health to his father! Is there no hope for you in such a Saviour?

But perhaps there are other reasons which prevent you from being saved, that may be profitable for us to examine. May not your indifference arise from thinking that you are not in danger? But, if there is no danger, how is it, that the disease under which you labour, is described in such remarkable language in Scripture? Is there no danger in