rom destruction, causing him at once, to
rejoice and tremble!

Many of the children of God when they witness the security of sinners;
how they neglect the great salvation, and harden themselves in sin,
may remember when they did the same themselves and some of them, in a
higher degree than most of those who appear to be walking the downward
road.

Those who have found mercy cannot refrain from mourning over those
whom they see hardening themselves in sin; nor should they cease to
warn them from their way, and to cry to God in their behalf. But their
attention is not wholly taken up from home; it often reverts thither,
and stirs them up to grateful acknowledgments of divine goodness to
themselves. WHO is he that maketh me to differ from the thoughtless
sinner? is a consideration which often rises in the good man's mind,
while looking on the careless and secure. It is a proper and a
profitable consideration--tends to keep him humble and mindful of his
dependence.

Sense of past dangers serve to enhance the value of present safety.
The greater dangers we have escaped, and the more wonderful our
deliverances have been, the greater should be our love to our
deliverer, and the greater our care to make him suitable returns. If
we entertain just views of these things, such will be the effect.
Those to whom most is forgiven love the most.

By reflecting on the riches of divine mercy, we should stir up our
souls to love the Lord. If witnessing the unconcern of others, while
in the broad road, serves to excite us to gratitude for divine
goodness shown to us, "the wrath of man is thereby made to praise the
Lord." Such was the effect which a view of Israel's hardness had on
Paul--May all Christ's disciples cultivate the same temper.

III. In Paul's conversion we see God distinguishing among his enemies,
and calling one into his kingdom who was, from principle, a destroyer
of his saints. Paul was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee. No sect
among the Jews was more bitter against Christ--no other so eager and
active in their endeavors to crush his cause and subvert his kingdom.
Yet numbers of that sect obtained mercy. The same did not happen
respecting the Saducees. No instance of a Saducee brought to
repentance, can be adduced. Why this discrimination?

There may be reasons not revealed; but some are discernible.

The Pharisees "had a zeal for God, though not according to knowledge."
Saul, the Pharisee, "verily thought, tha