that blight upon the earth, from which labour and indigence and privation spring. And yet it is not in these-not in the severity of labour nor in the straits of poverty that real unhappiness consists : indeed under all the calamities and trials of life the pious and godly mind may be upheld: moral evil is the thorn which rankles in the side, and causes the wound which cannot be remedied or mitigated, till its source is removed.

I look (for example) to the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis, and find one who is leaving his country and his home, his whole fortune and his sole companion the staff on which he leaned a mother too, who loved him but too well, is forced to conquer nature and hasten his departure. This is one of the sore distresses of life: the separation of those who are dear to each other: the departure from the home we have known, and the country we have loved. If we trace this case of unhappiness to its cause, it arises from sin. It arises from the practice of deceit in one, and in the indulgence of revenge in another. Jacob is forced to fly, because he has supplanted his brother of his birthright: because Esau is waiting for an opportunity to slay him.

I look to the twenty-first chapter of the first book of Kings, and find the picture of a monarch who comes home to his house heavy and displeased, and lays him down upon his bed, and turns away his face, and will eat no bread. Here too is unhappiAnd bere too is sin under another form: the form of covetousness. Ahab has been disappointed in his desire to possess Naboth's vineyard.

ness.

Again, I turn to the thirty-eighth Psalm, and read these words: "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh by reason of thine anger: neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burthen, they are too heavy for me."

The complaint is from David. It is not pain, it is not poverty, it is not the loss of those dear to him, which cause these mournful words: he is grieving, because he acknowledges his transgressions, and his sin is ever before him. And what would these and such as these require, that their sorrow might be turned into joy, their mourning changed for peace? A nature which shall not sin: a nature which shall not be overcome by evil desires: a nature which shall not covet what God has not permitted: a nature which shall not be capable of envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness: a nature where the flesh shall not lust against the spirit, or a law in the members war against the law of the mind: a nature, in short, wherein dwelleth righteousness: dwelleth, not as now, a guest brought in, admitted into the heart, yet often finding itself a stranger, as one not in its native home: not as now, even at the best, soon disturbed as a bird from the resting place it has chosen, and forced to flee away; but where righteousness dwells as in its own birthplace.

Neither is it a man's own sinfulness alone which brings him unhappiness in this world. How much of what is suffered comes from the sin of others!

shall never be dissolved. "Heaven and earth shall pass away;"" but he that doeth the will of God, abideth for ever. 9

LECTURE LI.

HEAVEN THE ABODE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

2 PETER iii. 13.

13. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous

ness.

"The heavens," we are assured, "shall be dissolved; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."

Is it then the same with the righteous as with the wicked? With the Christian, as with the scoffer? With the faithful who persevere unto the end, as with the unstable who in time of temptation fall away? This is far from God's intention: and St. Peter does not fail to encourage the brethren by reminding them, that the day of destruction of the wicked is the day of salvation to the people of God. Nevertheless, notwithstanding this revelation concerning the end of the world, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. For "this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life." This is the 91 John ii. 17. See also Isa. li. 6.

11 John ii. 25.

hope set before us: this expectation has made us what we are, followers of Christ Jesus: that, as his followers, we may inherit his kingdom.

It is interesting and important to observe the way in which St. Peter describes the heavenly kingdom for which Christians look. He does not here speak of it as a place "where is fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore;" he does not attempt to represent its glories, by figuring to our minds gates of pearl, and streets of gold he does not even make mention of the absence of all sorrow, "where they shall hunger no more, not thirst any more, neither shall there be any more pain:—but he simply speaks of a new world, wherein dwelleth righteousness. He states this, and this alone, as if this were all, and this all-sufficient.

And truly, speaking thus, he speaks as one who had gone through the ranks of mankind, and the abodes of human nature, and had learnt what causes misery, and what real happiness consists in. He speaks as one who had entered into the recesses of his own heart, and had discovered what was needful to its peace: and then he describes heaven as a place wherein dwelleth righteousness.

This world would have been free from all calamity, if there had been no unrighteousness. If the heart of man had remained uncorrupt, all things else would have remained as they were at first pronounced by their Creator, who surveyed the works of his hands," and behold, they were very good." With sin came death; came all the pain and woe that leads to death, and attends it. With sin came

2 See Rev. vii. and xxi.

How many families are made miserable from the conduct of those who ought to be their stay and comfort! What wretchedness did Jacob suffer from the wickedness of his children! David, too; was there any sorrow like the sorrow which he felt for Absalom? St. Peter, like all the early Christians, knew much of this: so that if, as St. Paul writes, "in this world only they had hope, they were of all men most miserable:" reproached by their friends, cast off by their relations, despoiled of their goods, reviled, defamed, imprisoned, tormented and this for the Gospel's sake; because they would be faithful to their God and Saviour. Who can wonder that Peter, who had suffered all this, and was writing to those who suffered it, should represent heaven as the place wherein none are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for therein dwelleth righteousness: " there the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are

This, says the apostle, is what we look for. We look for it according to divine promise. Even if there were no promise, we might look for it with hope for whilst we see around us a vast multitude who do even as they list, neither fearing God nor regarding man; yet we also see others who follow after holiness, and set God before them: and our reason forbids us to believe, that the righteous should be as the wicked: that God should make no "difference between those who serve him, and those who serve him not." But we have still firmer ground to stand upon: we have the assurance of the Son of God himself, that "whosoever heareth his words, and doeth them, shall have eternal life:" and