the accepted time; behold now is
the day of salvation. Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest
not what a day may bring forth. Beware lest you * destroy a soul for
which Christ died; and lest you have occasion at last to take up that
lamentation--"The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not
saved."

* Romans xiv. 15.

* * * * * *

SERMON XVIII.

Balak's inquiries relative to the service of God, and Balaam's answer,
briefly considered.

Micah vi. 6, 7, 8.

"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the
high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of
a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with, thousands of rams, or with
ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my
transgression; the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?--He hath
shewed thee, 0 man, what is good: And what doth the Lord require of
thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God?"

As mankind are endowed with reason, and profess to be governed by it,
their revolts from God are practical criminations of him: Therefore
his expostulations with his people of old, when they forsook him and
followed other gods--"What iniquity have your fathers found in me? O
my people what have I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee?
Testify against me." *

* Jeremiah ii. 5. Micah vi. 3.

Israel as a people were going away from God, and he condescended to
reason with them, and show them their ingratitude and baseness. To
this end, he reminded them of his past care of them, and kindness to
them, as a nation, from the time of their deliverance from bondage in
Egypt--"I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee
from the house of servants"--After just glancing at that deliverance,
he passes over the wonders wrought for them at the red sea, and in the
wilderness, and their numerous rebellions, while he was leading them
as a flock, and supplying their wants by a series of miracles, and
enlarges on an event which took place on the borders of Canaan, the
attempts made by Balak, the king of Moab, to prevail with him to leave
his people and go over to him, and help him against them, and his
faithfulness to Israel on that occasion--"O my people, remember now
what Balak, king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam, the son of Beor
answered him from Shittim to Gilgal; that ye may know the
righteousness of the Lord." *

* Numbers xxii