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direction and the government of wisdom, courage degenerates into rashuess, justice hardens into rigour, and becomes an indiscriminate good nature, or a blameable facility of manners. Where then is wisdom to be found, and what is the path of understanding? If you will trust the dictates of religion and reason, to be virtuous is to be wise. The testimony of all who have gone before you confirms the decision. In opposition, however, to the voice of religion, of reason, and of mankin 1, there are multitudes, in every age, who reckon themselves more ex cellent than their neighbours, by trespassing against the laws which all ages have counted sacred, the younger by the pursuit of criminal gratification, the old by habits of

deceit and fraud.

The early period of life is frequently a season of delusion. When youth scatters its blandishments, and the song of pleasure is heard, Let us crown ourselves with rose buds before they are withered, and let no flower of the spring pass away;" the inexperienced and the unwary listen to the sound, and surrender themselves to the enchantment. Not satisfied with those just and masculine joys, which nature offers and virtue consecrates, they rush into the excesses of unlawful pleasure; not satisfied with those fruits bordering the path of virtue, which they may taste and live, they put forth their hand to the forbidden tree. One criminal indulgence lays the foundation for another, till sinful pleasure becomes a pursuit that employs all the faculties, and absorbs all the time, of its vo

taries.

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There is no moderation nor government in vice. sires, that are innocent, may be indulged with innocence ; pleasures, that are pure, may be pursued with purity, and the round of guiltless delights may be made without encroaching on the great duties of life. But guilty pleasures become the masters and the tyrants of the mind; when these lords acquire dominion, they bring all the thoughts into captivity, and rule with unlimited and despotic sway.

Look around you. Consider the fate of your equals in age, who have been swept away, not by the hand of time, but by the scythe of intemperance, and involved in the shade of death. Contemplate that cloud which vests the invisible world, where their mausion is fixed for ever. When the sons of the Siren call you to the banquet of vice, stop

in the midst of this career, pause on the brink, look down, and, whilst yet one throb belongs to virtue, turn back from the verge of destruction. Think of the joyful morning that arises after a victory over sin; reflection thy friend; memory stored with pleasant images; thy thoughts, like good angels, announcing peace and presaging joy.

Or, if that will not suffice, turn to the shades of the picture, and behold the ruin that false pleasure introduces into human nature. Behold a rational being arrested in his course. A character, that might have shone in public and in private life, cast into the shades of oblivion; a name, that might have been uttered with a tear, and left as an inheritance to a race to come, consigned to the roll of infamy. All that is great in human nature sacrificed at the shrine of sensual pleasure in this world, the candidate for immortality in the next plunged into the irremediable gulf of folly, dissipation and endless misery. Cætera desunt.

SERMON XXVII.

DANIEL XI. 32.

The people that do know their God shall be strong.

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HE follies and vices, which disfigure human life, do not always proceed from a principle of depravity. The thoroughly abandoned, who sin from fore-thought and contrivance, who commit iniquity upon a fixed plan, and who are wicked merely from a love of wickedness, I hope and believe, are not a numerous class. The indiscretions and vices, into which men fall, I am apt to imagine, proceed often from a weakness of mind, rather than from a badness of heart. There is a certain feebleness in the springs of actions, a facility of disposition, a silliness of soul, which marks the character, and runs through the life of many men, as pernicious to them in the conduct of life, as a principle of actual depravity

could be. Persons of this class, properly speaking, sustain no character at all. They assert not the rights of an independent being, they make no original efforts of mind, but patiently surrender themselves to accident, to be guided by events, and to be fashioned by those with whom they live. They have not the strength of mind to stand alone, they dare not walk in a path unless beaten. Feebleness, fluctuation, timidity, irresolution, fill up the period of their insignificant days, and often betray them into crimes, as well as indiscretions.

This weakness of mind is not only pernicious, but criminal. There are mental defects that are inconsistent with a state of virtue. The Sacred Scriptures never draw the line of distinction between intellectual and moral qualities, but prescribe both as requisite to form the character of the righteous man. Hence a sound mind, as well as a good heart, is mentioned as an ingredient in the character of a saint. Hence, in the sacred books, religion and virtue go under the name of wisdom, vice and wickedness under the name of folly. Hence, intellectual qualities become the subject of divine precept, and we are called upon to be wise and to be strong, as well as to be holy and to be pure. In opposition to the feeble-minded, it is said in the text, that they, who know their God, or are truly religious, are strong, Religion, when rightly understood, and virtue, when properly practised, give nerves and vigour to the mind, infuse into the soul a secret strength, and, presenting a future world to our faith, make us superior to the dangers and temptations of the present.

To show what this strength is, I shall set before you some of the most remarkable scenes in human life in which the feeble-minded give way, and in which they who know their God are strong. This strength, then, inspired into the mind by the knowledge of God, makes us superior to the opinion and fashion of the world,-superior to the difficulties and dangers of the world,-superior to the plea sures and temptations of the world, and superior to desponding fears at our departure from the world.

I. It makes us superior to the opinion and fashion of the world.

To sustain an amiable character, so as to be beloved by those with whom we live, to maintain a sacred regard to the approbation of the wise and good, and to follow those things which are of good report, when, at the same time,

they are pure, and lovely, and honourable, is the duty of every honest man. But unhappily, the bulk of the world is not composed of the wise and good; religion and virtue are not always in fashion; to fix the rule of life, therefore, by the public approbation or dislike, is to make the standard of morality uncertain and variable. According to this doctrine, the Christian life would be the work of mere caprice, there would be a fashion in morals, as well as in dress, or what is virtue and vice in one age or country would not be so in another. In such critical cases, when truth is to be defended, or integrity to be held fast, against the current of popular opinion, the feeble-minded are apt to make shipwreck of the faith. The feeble-minded man rests not upon himself, he has nothing within to support him, he thinks, and acts, and lives by the opinion of others. "What will the world say?" is the tion he puts to himself on all occasions. Thou fool! look quesinwards, thine own heart will tell thee more than all the world. This pusillanimous deference to the opinions of others, this criminal compliance to the public voice, will make you lose your all, your soul.

Hence, in certain companies, men are ashamed of their religion. They lend a pleased ear to arguments that shake the foundations of their faith. laugh that is raised at the expence of all that they bold They join in the sacred and venerable, and themselves assume the spirit, and speak the words of profaneness, while the Leart often secretly agonizes for the liberties of the tongue. position to such characters, the man, who is truly reliIn opgious, performs his duty through bad report as well as through good. The applause of such fools as make a mock at sin he despises. His standard of moral conduct is his own conscience well informed by the word of God. He knows that the fashion of the world passeth away; and vice or folly is not recommended to him by being practised by others. He remembers the words of his Master, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed." He dares to be singular and good; " Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I "

II. This strength, inspired by true religion, makes us superior to the difficulties and dangers we meet with in the world.

The feeble-minded man is intimidated upon the slight

est occasion; he starts at difficulties, and shrinks from dangers, whenever they present themselves. Happy to catch at any subterfuge, he finds, or makes, a thousand obstacles to the discharge of his duty; and, when any thing great is to be done, "there is a lion in the way." What infinite mischief has his pusillanimity done in the world! How often, has the best and most generous cause been lost by the weakness of its defenders! How often have the most innocent and worthy characters suffered by the shameful cowardice of their friends! How offen have men purchased to themselves an inglorious ease,—an infamous tranquillity, at the expence of character, and conscience, and every thing great and good!

Very different is the character of him who is strong in the Lord. When he is assured he is in the right path, he sees no obstacles in the way. Nothing is difficult to a determined mind. Through the divine aid resolution is omnipotent. To the unwearied efforts of persevering cousage and art nature have yielded; and there is a ladder by which the heavens may be scaled. Through Christ strengthening him the man of God can do all things.No appearance of difficulty, no form of danger, no face of death, terrifies him from doing his duty. He gives up his possessions, his country, his parents, his friends, his wife and children, his own life also, rather than desert the post of honour assigned to him by Providence. "None of these things move me," saith an apostle, “neitheir account I my life dear unto myself, so that I may nish my course with joy. What mean you to weep and to break my heart? for I am willing not to be bound enly, but to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus."

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This was not the vain boast of men who were brave when the day of battle was distant, and who, in the midst of tranquillity, talked of despising danger. It was the speech of one who acted what he spoke. To the confirmation of it, we can adduce a cloud of witnesses, an host of martyrs, multitudes of all nations, and ages, and conditions, for whom the flames of the tormentor were kindled to no purpose: against whom the sword of persecution was drawn in vain; who held fast their integrity, though they knew death to be the consequence, and followed their Redeemer in a path that was marked with blood. Among these martyrs, doubtless, there were many who naturally

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