Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/204

200 to gain the favor of God by his outward observance of it, seeking to be justified by the law, that condemns him as a transgressor, and continually cries:—"Pay that thou owest"—settle up for your past follies. Let us suppose that you are now blameless so far as may relate to your outward deportment. What is to be done with the follies and vanities of youth? What amends can you make for your past thoughtless indifference, and criminal negligence of God and of his claims upon your undivided service? You must remember, that his law requires a line of perfect, unfaltering obedience from the time of our accountability to the end of life. Its terms are rigid. Its language is:—"''Do this and live." "The soul that sinneth it shall die,''" Ah, self-righteous man, you are in a dilemma. You must either enter and make good your plea at the bar of your judge, of perfect obedience on your part, or humbly fall at the footstool of mercy, sue for pardon, and plead