ΤΟ

Mrs. Frances A. Murray,

BAPTIZED SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 27, 1855,

IN CHEERFUL OBEDIENCE TO HER DIVINE MASTER;

AND TO

Mrs. Louisa B. Betancort,

BAPTIZED SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 22, 1855,

AND MADE TO REJOICE, THEN AS NOW, IN THE HOPE OF

BLESSEDNESS ETERNAL.

DISCOURSE IX.

NEGLECTING THE "GREAT SALVATION."

"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation ?"-HEB., ii. 3.

THERE was once a King who gave a marriagefeast to his well-beloved Son. He sent out invitations in abundance to the wedding; but those whom he invited did not come. Again, he sent forth his messengers, to tell them who had been bidden to the wedding: The feast is prepared; the oxen and fatlings are killed, "and all things are ready come unto the marriage." They who were bidden were subjects of the King; they had received many favors at his hands, and had enjoyed the special friendship of his Son. But, notwithstanding all this, they "made light of" the invitation of their Sovereign: they turned a deaf ear to the voice of his messengers, “and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise." Some did worse than neglect

his invitation: they rejected it with scorn; and, seizing the King's servants, "entreated them spitefully and slew them." The monarch heard of this shameful ingratitude, and "was wroth." Sending forth his armies, he destroyed those who had murdered his messengers, "and burned up their city." Not a soul was left alive; they who neglected the King's invitation, no less than they who ill-used his servants, perishing amid the flames in one common destruction.

The King who made this marriage-feast, was Jehovah; the Son, in whose honor it was given, was Jesus of Nazareth; they for whom it was prepared, were God's chosen people, the Jewish nation. The same wedding-feast stands ever ready, under the Gospel dispensation, for all that will accept the invitation of Heaven's gracious King. God invites to it every day by His chosen messengers; sending forth His servants to proclaim, every where, and unto all men, "Come unto the marriage." In some places, even now, the messengers are ill-treated and slain; and every where their invitation is made light of by many, or regarded with disdain. Men hear it, and go their ways, "one to his farm, another to his merchandise." But God puts His seal upon

them—the seal of condemnation, which dooms them to everlasting destruction from His presence and from the glory of His power. They die, they go hence, and receive their "just recompense of reward."

The wedding-feast of the Gospel is the feast of salvation. The banquet has been prepared for all men; and all are invited to come, to eat, and be filled. God spreads this heavenly feast for us. He has long displayed it before our eyes; and His messengers have long invited us to enter the banqueting-house, and feast upon the oxen and fatlings so richly provided for us by redeeming love. The cup of salvation is freely uplifted to our thirsty lips; and we are kindly asked to drink its sparkling waters until our soul is fully satisfied. A few accept the invitation, enter gladly within God's banqueting-house, and eat with joy the marriage-supper of the Lamb. Far more-by much the greater number of those who hear the message which bids them comemake light of the gracious invitation of Heaven's kind King, and, excusing themselves for noncompliance, neglect the wedding-feast which the Father has prepared. Week after week, day after day, they hear the invitation, "All things