ks_?"[70] Has the Holy Spirit taught
you, as it taught them, that you are sinners by nature, and in a state
of condemnation? Have you heard God's voice behind you, declaring that
"He can by no means clear the guilty?"[71] And are you able now
joyfully to say, "I heard Thy voice, and I was afraid, because I was
naked, and _I hid myself_?"

Are you, like them, really "hid" _within_ the gates? The manslayer of
old required to be _within_ the refuge-city. Even if he were but one
footstep without, the avenger of blood could cut him down. It did not
matter _how_ near he was, if he was not _inside_ the portals!

And so it will avail you nothing to know about Christ, and hear about
Christ;--to survey the strength of the city's walls, the glory of its
battlements, and the beauty of its palaces. It is "_the righteous who_
RUNNETH _into it_," who alone is "_safe_."

What more, in closing, have I to say, but to repeat the solemn word,
"_Haste thee, flee for thy life_!" Every hour you put off, the time is
shorter; the avenger is nearer; the chances of escape are fewer. There
is no time for delay. I say this to the very youngest. I say more. As
young feet can run fastest, so it is with young souls. You will never go
to Jesus so easily as now. Let nothing keep you back. It is said that on
digging up the ruins of Herculaneum, (the city that was buried under the
lava of Mount Vesuvius,) the body of a man was found in an upright
posture, in the act of running out of the door of his house to escape
destruction. He had a bag of gold in his hand. Others had escaped in
safety. But this miser loved his gold more than his life. He had
returned to fetch it, thinking he would have time enough to escape the
terrible doom; but the burning stream overtook him. He was encased in a
living sepulchre.

It was one, too, of the saddest incidents connected with these Cities of
Refuge of old, when some poor, breathless, panting fugitive--just when
he was in sight of the city--when he had almost reached the gate, sank
exhausted. Or perhaps the case of some other who had lain down weary to
sleep, but who had been startled by the avenger at his side, and the
drawn sword gleaming before his eyes;--years after, the pile of stones
marking the spot where his blood had been shed.

But, oh, sadder, sadder far, for any, young or old, to perish within
sight of Christ! To suffer the love of sin, or the love of pleasure, or
the love of the world, to make them "too