them with coldness and distraction; who can be satisfied if their worldly affairs prosper, though their souls be unsanctified and unpardoned; who seek riches for their own sake, and not as the means of benefitting others, and advancing their salvation. It is a crime which sometimes (as was the case with Lot) is found in a degree, in those who have laid up their treasure in heaven, and who prefer God and holiness to all the enjoyments of earth. But in them these remains of an inordinate attachment to riches are hated, lamented, resisted, and so far subdued, that they do not habitually prevail against the interest of God and salvation. This is a sin which calls for bitter tears-which brings with it great sorrow-but which yet may be consistent with piety. In others this sin is predominant. Instead of being so affected by a lively practical belief of the joys of heaven, as there to lay up their treasures, they esteem the riches of this world as the foundation of their felicity, and consider themselves happy or miserable in proportion as these are augmented or diminished. This is a state of mind utterly inconsistent with salvation.

Professors of the religion of Jesus, are there any of you to whom any of these traits will apply? Pause and consider your guilt and your folly. How inconsistently do you act with the holy vocation whereby you are called; with your exalted hopes and your sublime destination! Shall the heart which ought to leap by its meditations and desires, to the throne of God, and be employed as angels are, and taste the delights which archangels enjoy,-shall this heart contentedly grovel in the dust? Were the eagle, instead of fixing his eye upon the sun, and soaring above the clouds, to come and crawl with the earthworm, it would be a spectacle far less inconsistent.

Whilst God is on your tongue, and the badge of Jesus worn by you, let not your heart be immersed in earth. This anxious desire of accumulating riches may lead you to apostatize from God. Judas, Demetrius, Demas, a thousand other shrieking ghosts, elevate a warning voice to you from the infernal pit. Even if this awful effect be not produced, this temper will mar all your comforts and wither all your joys. An eclipse of the divine light may surely be expected when this earth gets between your soul and the sun of righteousness. Have you ever enjoyed the presence of God, and had the emanations of his love flowing in upon your soul, and his reconciled countenance manifested to you? You then cannot but be affected by this consideration; for you have then felt in a day's, an hour's, converse with God, more than the world can ever bestow. Remember in what terms those Scriptures, which you profess to receive as the rule of your practice, speak of this sin. Let your heart quake within you, while you hear James [iv. 4.] denouncing it as spiritual adultery, and "enmity with God," and Paul proclaiming that it is "idolatry." Reflect, how much you harden sinners in their guilt by your worldly lives; and can you bear to place a stumbling block in their way, over which they shall plunge in eternal despair? Remember what agonies you are laying up in store for self-what woes you are preparing to besiege your bed of death-what store of self-reproach you are providing for the hour of your dissolution! After a worldly life, you cannot then expect the divine consolations; and even if you should "be saved as by fire," your soul will probably depart shuddering, trembling, doubtful of your future destiny. Be awakened then, believers, and, as you value your own felicity, or the

your

interests of religion, acquire a greater indifference to the objects of earth; strive to get the world more out of your heart, and to trample it beneath feet.

your

The importance of this subject will be a sufficient apology, my brethren, if I have too long detained you from the history which we are considering. Lot, then, animated by covetous desires unworthy of his character, removed to the plain of Sodom. Were his hopes there answered? No: he had many causes of sorrow, and his expectations of gain were frustrated. While Abram dwelt in holy peace and sacred tranquillity, enjoying the visits of God and of his angels, the heart of Lot was perpetually pained by the scenes of wickedness and impiety which he every where beheld. While the possessions of the patriarch daily increased, and the blessing of God upon him made him rich, Lot was stripped in a moment of all his possessions, and himself taken captive. Delivered by the courage of Abram, he again returned to the seat of wickedness; and, at its destruction, again lost all his property, and escaped only with his life. How often are men thus disappointed in their worldly expectations! And how miserable are those who have no other ground of confidence!

It is an honourable trait in the character of Lot, that, instead of partaking in the sins of Sodom, he openly reproved them, and mourned for them. "He was vexed," says St. Peter, "with the filthy conversation of the wicked: for that righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds."

What a reproof does his conduct present to those who, when they are in the midst of profane scoffers,

blush to profess their attachment to the Redeemer; to those, who, instead of faithfully reproving those vices that are sanctioned by custom, basely connive at them; to those who satisfy themselves by living as the world does, and quiet their concience by the consideration that they go with the multitude. Had Lot thus acted, he would not have escaped the infection of guilt, and would have perished with the inhabitants of Sodom.

The iniquities of this and the neighbouring cities were now full; and the patience and long-suffering of the Lord, which had so long been exercised towards them, were exhausted: the cry of their sins had ascended to heaven and called for vengeance; the day of mercy was passed, and the divine indignation was just ready to burst on these devoted places. To save Lot and his family, the Lord miraculously interposed. The same angels who were the messengers of vengeance upon the guilty, warned him of the coming judgment, and urged him instantly to flee from it. He hastened to warn his sons-in-law of their danger. But hardened in guilt, they mocked him as a fool and a madman. Lamenting their obstinacy, weeping over their ruin, and at the impending destruction of so many relatives and acquaintance, Lot still lingers. The angels, by a gentle constraint, draw him from the city, and bid him, without delaying, or casting a look behind him, to flee to the mountains. At his supplications, he is permitted to enter into Zoar, a small neighbouring city; and its inhabitants, who would otherwise have been involved in the common ruin, are spared at his request. So true is it that "the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much." This deliverance of Lot is improved by Peter for the consolation of believers. "The Lord

knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations." [2 Pet. ii. 9.] However perilous and afflictive your situation may be, cast yourself upon his care, rely on his providence, and you shall not be disappointed. He who missioned his angels to pluck Lot out of Sodom, shall send these same heavenly ministers to guard and defend

you.

As soon as he was safely sheltered in Zoar, the work of desolation commenced. The inhabitants continued thoughtless and secure, deriding the vain fears and gloomy apprehensions of Lot. "They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." [Luke xvii. 28, 29.] Who will not tremble at beholding this catastrophe, and acknowledge that the Lord is indeed a "consuming fire?" Say not that we are uninterested in this event. The Redeemer himself presents it as an emblem of the carelessness and stupidity of sinners; and his holy apostle tells us, that they were "set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." [Jude 7.]

But though Lot was delivered from destruction, yet still dearly was he punished for that covetous spirit which had led him to Sodom. His possessions were lost; his family had yielded to the temptations around them, and become a source of anguish to him; his sons-in-law and his wife had perished; and his daughters, who had been preserved for his sake, appear to have been little calculated to give comfort to his declining years. After remaining for some time in Zoar, terrified, perhaps, by the iniquity of the place, and fearing that it also would sink under the divine vengeance, he fled to the mountains,