prepared for you from the beginning of the world."

But it may be asked, are we never then to welcome the cheering sound of human praise? -Never to receive encouragement from the approving smiles and kind commendations of parents, masters, brethren, friends? Nothing could be further from my thoughts than such a sweeping assertion as this. God is indeed the Judge, from whom all true honor, praise and glory can proceed. To stand clothed in the garments of Righteousness in His sight, to receive praise of Him, through the merits of His dear Son,-should be the one constant. aim and effort of our lives. But His judgment comes not yet; it shall be made known only at the end of the world; and yet He has graciously appointed certain messengers, as it were to meet us in our pilgrimage through life, and speak the language of encouragement as if from Him. Our desire of glory, if it be sanctified and renewed by the Spirit of God, can indeed only be satisfied with one object-God himself our Maker and our King. But it is so ordered by His providence,

that many states and relations of our present life may, if we will, remind us of that glorious Voice which shall one day declare the sentence of every human being in righteousness and true holiness.

Let me then, in conclusion, very briefly point out how our natural love of praise may be exercised on earth, without becoming an instrument of the flesh to minister to our corrupt will; how it may be engaged on the side of our salvation by the power of the Holy Ghost. In a word, then, this can be the case with those alone who are accustomed to think soberly and fearfully of God's Presence in all places and at all times. In order rightly to receive encouragement from the approbation of those friends whom God has given us, we must be accustomed constantly to draw near in secret to God Himself. The abiding consciousness that we can never for a moment withdraw ourselves from His heartsearching Eye, is absolutely necessary as a preservative against the desire of Vain-glory. If we are accustomed often to realize to ourselves His mysterious Presence, and often to reflect that the true value of everything in heaven and earth is

neither more nor less than that which it has in His unerring sight-then we shall take care, first, that those whose approbation we prize and welcome, be only such as He allows, and that the words or works for which we gain it, be only such as are acceptable to him: secondly, that we never willingly accept praise for conduct which has not been ours; and thirdly, that we never make an ostentatious display of what we imagine to be good in us,-especially that we do not this where we might so cunningly do it as to avoid all appearance of contemptible vain-glory in the sight of men.

Thus every occasion of our receiving praise from men should be an occasion also of the closest examination of ourselves; for if it be not, then we indulge one of the strongest desires of our nature at the great risk of allowing it to follow its own corrupt bent, and ministering to our evil passions; but if it be, then we shall indeed find much in our conduct to condemn and repent of—much questionable glory that we have sought from the lips of those whose praise God will not confirm-much simulation to deplore,-much ostentation to despise; but at

the same time, by contrasting the littleness and fallaciousness of all human praise with the perfection of His Knowledge, we shall learn to set a stricter watch on all that we think and say and do, and so prepare ourselves for that awful Day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, and all other Praise but that of God shall be accounted utterly vain.

SERMON X.

THE THOUGHT OF DEATH.

Heb. ix, 27.

"IT IS APPOINTED UNTO MEN ONCE TO DIE."

HERE we have a doctrine of the Holy Bible which even the most hardened unbeliever will not venture to contradict.

It is appointed unto
This is God's

men, sooner or later, to die.

Word; and all men, even the enemies of God, confess it to be true. All men believe and con

fess that they must die.

Now considering that all men know this, it is astonishing that so very few out of the whole