fear? If Christ be formed within you the hope of glory, you may go on your way rejoicing. True, you must die; and you know not how soon or how suddenly; but your Saviour is sitting at the helm of the universe, and you may confide in him. He will bear you forward through the anguish of disease, and irradiate your expiring hour with the light of a promised immortality. Yes, more: He will watch over your slumbering dust, and present you before the throne of the Father, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. He will open to you the portals of Heaven, and wipe all tears from your eyes, and raise from your golden harps the sublime and triumphant anthem - Worthy is the lamb that was slain, through an endless eternity. O! who that thinks of this would not be a Christian? Who can look at the majestic and animating scene, and not exclaim, with the ancient prophet, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

SERMON XXXII.

"They are a nation void of knowledge, neither is there any understanding in them.

"O, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end."

Deut., xxxii., 28, 29.

THIS is the language of Moses, the illustrious legislator of antiquity. It composes a part of his valedictory address to the people of Israel, after conducting them to the frontiers of the promised land. The whole transaction took place a few hours previous to his death, and carries about it the solemnity which an expectation of such an event would be likely to inspire. Just before resigning his command to Joshua, he assembled the weeping pilgrims who had forty years been conducted by his care in their travels, and breathed to them his last and most impressive exhortation, to which our text belongs.

Mark, my hearers, the fidelity of this venerable saint. He tells the Israelites all the enormity and all the ingratitude of their sins. Then mark his affection. He pours out a devout aspiration to God, that they might be reclaimed to a saving penitence. Such, and such only, is the way in which a herald of the Divine mercy can testify a real attachment to those who sit under the droppings of his ministrations. Now, having read two verses for your meditation to-day, we shall offer a single explanatory remark upon each, and then proceed to the subject which they were meant to introduce.

The first verse runs, "They are a nation void of know. ledge, neither is there any understanding in them." This phraseology is far from retaining its original import. In the Hebrew, the idea conveyed is that they are morally insane

-that they have a disorder at heart analogous to mental derangement. As to the second verse, the proper translation appears to be: O, that they were wise; then they would understand this; then they would consider their latter end; -and the expression of understanding this, refers back to the charge of moral insanity, which sinners, untaught by the light of God's spirit, are unable suitably to comprehend. If, therefore, the language of Moses were paraphrased into a single sentence, we should read, "O, that the impenitent had true wisdom; then would they know the fatal distemper which is seated in their hearts; then would they begin in earnest the work of preparation for death and eternity." Let this be assumed as the sense of the passage.

The inquiry which, on the threshold, comes most prominently up, is, What is that wisdom on which such consequences are said to depend? Do not suppose I mean to answer this question in conformity alone to my own views. Do not imagine that I will repeat to you the word repentance, or religion, or Christianity, as if either of them made up of course the attribute about which we are inquiring. No; let us go fairly and logically to work. We will follow a course of reflection which no one can object to, and, lead where it may, we will go along with it, and abide the issue. In the outset, then, that wisdom is plainly the safest, which derives its origin from the safest source. Collect the most profound plans which human ingenuity ever devised, and you see them baffled every day. Not all of them together can ensure happiness. The intellect of man is at best but feeble, and its proudest achievements are often grounded in error. But where is the remedy? Why, if the infinite God has proclaimed a system of designs for our happiness, there is a remedy. There is something which can be looked upon without a feeling of distrust. Whatever it proposes is secure: we may lean upon it with confidence, for the most

obvious and consoling of all reasons in the world, becausə the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Again: That wisdom is confessedly the best, which has the best object in view. What is the amount of all those projects which a common consent has put in motion for the benefit of mankind? It is simply this: To be happy we must launch out into sensual indulgence; to be honorable, we must keep a pistol or a poignard; to be good, we must be no worse than others. Is there any cure for such an evil? If there be, let us bid it welcome. Here is a book, bestowed by the inspiration of the Almighty, which offers to lay the axe at the root of the tree; which aims, by cleansing the leprosy of our hearts, to correct the excesses of our sins, and to restore to the desolated bosom of man the pure and purifying image of his Maker.

Again: That wisdom is evidently the noblest, which brings about the noblest results. Admitting, then, that we pass over the whole range of human invention, we arrive only at enjoyments of an inferior kind. The splendors of wealth-the refinements of luxury-the laurels of applause -this is what the world confers on its favorite votaries, and only on them, for the great mass of men are strangers even to this. Revelation opens, beyond the trifles of sublunary temptation, a higher destiny. It stretches forth the hand of mercy to save our souls; and just so much as the soul surpasses the body in its claim to our anxieties, just so much do the disclosures of Revelation transcend the little schemes of our earthly policy.

Once more: That wisdom is assuredly the most to be prized which is the most lasting in its duration. We may allow the pleasures of the world to be a thousand times greater than they actually are, and yet they dwindle to nothing, when the damping reflection comes in upon us,

that we can hold them only for a moment. The grave rifles us of all temporal blessings, and that, too, frequently without finding us in the attitude of preparation for the catastrophe. If there be any thing which will last beyond the grave, it is the inheritance which the word of God bestows. That will survive the changes of time. It will outlive the desolations of the universe-it will abide through a neverending eternity. Housed in an everlasting habitation, the saint will rejoice forever, with no vicissitudes to endanger his happiness, and no reverses to interrupt the triumph and the glory of hereafter.

By this time, then, I presume, my hearers, you are convinced that true wisdom is only another term for the religion of the Bible; and if the considerations I have named to you carry the least weight along with them, I may safely challenge the most inordinate lover of the world to resist the conclusion. But I have not yet done with this branch of the subject. Wisdom, indeed, is religion; but it is not religion in the abstract, nor religion in its external decencies and embellishments, but religion in the detail of its experimental operations. What is it to me, that God has offered mercy to the sinner, if I have never complied with the conditions on which it is dispensed? What is it to me that a Saviour is provided, if I have never made him mine by that personal act which distinguishes the criminal pardoned from the criminal condemned? No: there is a mighty cleansing, which must be put forth upon the heart; there is the process of a deep and serious repentance; there is the business of closing in with the overtures held out to us, and of setting our seals as one of the parties to the transaction-all these things it is which constitute on our part that wisdom which cometh from above. Now, about this high and transforming attribute, we are told in our text, that it produces two results; It makes us "under