cares vex no more, God will "wipe every tear from every eye." There friends will meet, and we shall go to those who cannot come to us. There, at the right hand of the Majesty on high, is all that the presence of Infinite Goodness necessarily involves. And all this, which imagination could not exceed in its most daring flight-sober reason approves and confirms the evidences of its truth, and the perfections of God unite to assure us of its reality. The desires and faculties of the human soul fully coincide with this glorious revelation; and the teaching and mission of Jesus, completed by his death and by his resurrection from the dead, give most plain, most satisfactory proof that, in cherishing these hopes, in encouraging this faith, we are not misled in following a fable cunningly devised, but are pursuing objects alone worthy to engross our highest powers, our warmest affections. If, therefore, we are really intent upon securing our happiness, shall we not be, with Christian faith, of one mind in frequently occupying our thoughts with this most cheering theme, in anticipating the joy and glory that will be revealed when the obscurity that hangs over every thing in this life will be done away? Shall we not unite in the holy efforts to make our calling and election sure? Shall we not set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God? With what grateful delight did Moses view the promised land which he was not permitted to enter! With how much greater rapture may our minds be filled, if they are directed to those joys which our heavenly Father hath prepared for all who love him! Were there perfect exemption for any age of life from the stroke of death, yet here is a prospect worthy our contemplation through all the allotted space of our pilgrimage on earth, for it exceeds all that earth can give, as much as heaven is above the earth on which this mortal life is passed. And assuredly, when a full conviction of the truth of religion takes possession of the mind, when the thoughts are not engrossed, as they too frequently are, with the trifling cares and pleasures of this nether world, a close and perfect unity will prevail in the minds of Christians in their devout contemplation of the end of their faith, of the completion of their course, of that crown of glory which will adorn the brow, of that white robe-the emblem of the righteousness which alone can dwell in the presence of Infinite Purityof Heaven with all its glory and all its power, to make us wise, perfect, and happy, relieved from ignorance, and purified from all imperfection and sin. DISCOURSE XXII. THE MIND. 2 CORINTHIANS xii. 2: WHETHER IN THE BODY I CANNOT TELL, OR WHETHER OUT OF THE BODY I CANNOT TELL. THE complicated structure of the human frame has been in all ages the deserved object of wonder and admiration. It has for a long period been the subject of deep and careful scientific research. The inquiries, anatomical and physiological, that have been carried on with the greatest success, have been interesting, not merely to professional men, to whom this knowledge is subservient to skill in the healing art, but also to all the studious and intelligent; for, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, appears more fully when we penetrate some of the secrets of our structure, and the more we know, the more are we filled with admiration of the wisdom which every part displays. What nature has accomplished so perfectly, and the God of nature has made at his command, how long has it taken mankind to under stand! and still their knowledge is imperfect, much remains to be explained, and will doubtless appear as wise as what is thoroughly understood. But with all their experiments, with all their observations, with all their reasoning, one great secret has not yet been found out. The organization has been minutely explored; the circulation of the blood has been carefully traced; the ramifications of the nerves have been accurately mapped; their subservience to sensation and voluntary motion has been revealed and demonstrated; but what life is, though the vital functions are known, remains as profoundly hidden from all our knowledge, as completely baffling all our prying curiosity and all our persevering study, as the mysterious Self-existence from which it proceeds. It enters, and the vegetable grows, the animal thrives, the ordinary action of chemical agents is suspended during its residence in the matter which it animates. It departs, and all that had life decays, is decomposed, and rapidly returns to dust. But during its residence in all around us, in ourselves, in generation after generation, it is invisible, unsearchable; like its great Author, past finding out. If life, possessed in various degrees and kinds by the different parts of organized nature, remains unknown, it is no wonder that the soul, the intellect of man is a mystery which we cannot penetrate, which has not been revealed, perhaps which cannot in our present state of existence ever be under stood. Most unphilosophical and untrue is the the nerves. 66 assertion, that it is merely the result of organization, that it is material, that thought is the vibration of That mechanism is not life is confessed; can we believe that mechanism can cause thought? In one sublime instance we know that MIND exists without body, that it is eternal, infinite, perfect, unchangeable, because it has no dependence upon what must always change, upon what can be influenced, upon what can decay. The properties of matter are all we know of matter itself; the properties of mind are of a totally different class; and they assure us that when man became "a living soul," something was superadded to the frame, which, in its peculiar structure, placed him at the head of those living things which God had formed. What that something is, we shall in vain try to explain; and we only expose our ignorance when, of matter, which has extension, inertia, divisibility, and other qualities, we assert that, in certain modifications, it possesses the power to reason, to think, to perceive and understand. Men are be guiled into the belief of the homogeneity of man, by observing the great dependence of the mental powers on the corporeal frame, and the intimate connexion which subsists between them through every stage of life. When the body is feeble and immature, in infancy and youth, the mind is weak and childish; in perfect manhood, and during the |