hout Him,
ye cannot be concerned with the sufferings of His name and members.
Refuse not; reject not His offers, when He calls you to Himself. It is
hard to say if some of you shall have an offer again. _Now_ is the
acceptable time--_now_ is the day of salvation. He is _now_ spreading
his net, and will ye not come about the net's mouth, that a catch of you
may be gotten. He is proclaiming unto you that He hath invincible power,
though managed by apparent weakness. Oh, find you any of this
irresistible power of Christ? Oh, come unto Him who is the joy of
heaven, and it shall be a joyful time in heaven. He will have a good
report of you through heaven, if ye shall have it to say that some poor
lad or lass hath put a crown upon His head in such a place. But oh, how
sad will it be, if Christ shall have it to say, 'I gave offer of myself
to a people like stocks and stones, but they would not hear!'"

On the duty of devoting the best to God's service, in another discourse,
he thus forcibly reasons:--

"Observe, that it cannot but be a great injury against God, and procure
a curse, when people employ not their best things in His service. This
is clear from the words, 'Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock
a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing.' So
men that employ not their best things in the Lord's service, believe it,
they are chargeable with this. He calls for your best things in His
service, and not that you should spend that upon your lusts. Ye are
called to employ the best of your time in his service; and many of you
give Him but the refuse of your time, or at least, He gets but your
by-time for His service. But ye should give Him the best of your time
and strength, and your hearts--all should be employed in his service. Do
not say that you do the best that you can; for I am persuaded that there
is none of you but may do more for Him than ye do. Do not say that ye
improve the talent that He hath given you to trade with, for ye but
misimprove it; and the best of you, we fear, come short of improving it.
If ye improve it, ye should find it increase upon your hand, and you
would appear like his children. But because people do not improve their
time and abilities to lay them out for God, it procures a curse. For
though our obligations go far beyond our duties that we do, yet when we
do not lay out all our abilities for Him, and do not bestow our love,
our affections, and our time, and all