316 UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION which surrounded 'him, -howwould he have gloried in that light and immortality which the gospel-revelation has brought to light ! -- but with what unspeakable rapture 'would he have learned that He who revealed the life could give it, that He who promised immortality could be- stow it ! With what obedient transport would he have heard this touching apos- trophe, at once a strong reproof and a tender invitation - " Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life ! " -Ye philosophising cavillers, who live in the meridian splendour of this broad day, " howwill you escape, if you neglect so great salvation ?" But if pride, the dominant intellectual sin, keeps the sceptic aloof from the hu- miliating duties ofdevotion ; the habitual indulgence of the senses, in another class, proves an equal cause of alienating the heart from prayer. The man absorbed by ease and enjoy- ment, and sunk in the relaxing softnesses of a voluptuous life, has a natural dis-
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