souls. The world, which has so often disappointed or betrayed you, and of which you so often complain, is still your chief good. chief good. Your fellowship is with mammon and his deluded followers. And what does such a communion promise you ? The enjoyment, perhaps, of sensual pleasure, the accumulation of wealth, the distinctions of rank, or the honours of fame. But consider, I pray you, that these are transient as the morning cloud, and as the early dew. Life itself is a vapour that appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away." So that, could you enjoy this world to the full measure of your desires, how like a dream, short and shadowy, must still be your happiness! But this is not the worst view of your case. man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.' "The friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Do not, I beseech you, continue to be so engrossed with the cares of this life, or so devoted to its sinful pleasures. Let me entreat you to remember and feel the momen

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tous truth, that "we are all by nature children of wrath, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts;" and that nothing but the sovereign grace of God can "deliver us from this power of darkness, and translate us into the kingdom of his dear Son." He alone, through the influence of his Spirit on our hearts, can bring us into fellowship with himself, and with his Son Jesus Christ. unless we thus enjoy communion with God here on earth, it is inost certain we shall be for ever banished from his presence in the future world. Unless we here become "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God," it is most certain we shall never be admitted to "the general assembly and church of the first-born in heaven." Unless here we are renewed in the spirit of our minds, and possess that supreme love to God and good-will to men which form the very essence of the Christian character, it is most certain-as certain as the declaration of God can make it-that we must take up our abode for ever in the prison of despair, "prepared for the devil and his angels." To that place, Benevolence, under all its attractive forms, will for ever be a stranger. All will be selfishness and sin. The malignant passions which here harass our peace, and fill with bitterness the

heart in which they reside, will there have full scope. Each will be the enemy of the other, and the torturer of his own breast. As you value, then, your own souls, as you would escape, my brethren, from this society of wretchedness and woe, and secure your admittance into the paradise of God, among the spirits of just men made perfect, where all is love, and peace, and joy,-now, while it is called to-day, now, by repentance toward God and faith in a crucified Redeemer, enter into fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus

Christ.

20

DISCOURSE II.

MATTHEW Xi. 30.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

WHEN our Saviour uttered these words he did not mean to say, that his disciples would be free from all trouble. He did not intend to propose to them a complete security against the cares and misfortunes of life. He did not wish to represent the religion which he taught, as requiring of its professors no sacrifices, or as exposing them to no evils. Meek and forgiving as was his own character, he foresaw that this could not protect him against the malice of his foes, and that his heart, which was full of kindness to all around him, must soon pour forth its blood upon the cross. What else, then, could his friends expect? "The disciple," said he, "is not above his master, nor the servant above his

lord." "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his house. hold?" When he invites us to come unto him, therefore, it is to meliorate our condition indeed, but not to render it perfectly happy in this life: -it is that we may cast off the yoke which the world imposes upon us, and wear his which is comparatively easy to be borne:-it is that we may enter upon a more delightful service than that of the slaves of sin; yet a service not without its pains and trials:—it is that we may find rest unto our souls, but a rest not complete and uninterrupted on this side the grave. The life of the Christian must indeed be a life of self-denial; and yet it is comparatively a happy life. His condition is not without its cares and sorrows, and yet it is the most desirable of all conditions. Behold a paradox, my brethren! which the world always makes matter of wonder, and sometimes of ridicule, but which is capable of being defended on the plainest principles of common sense. The force of these principles is admitted in every thing that relates to the daily concerns of life, and yet we are too apt to reject them when applied to the concerns of the soul. A man who wished to secure any earthly benefit would be thought a fool if he did