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cumstances attending it, in their vivid and proper colours; or when it refuses to inculcate this great truth, that by our faith we shall be saved, but by our actions we shall be judged: and, that at his final judgment, " God will reward every man according to his works." But awful as the view of this great day must be to all, let it yet be ever uppermost in our minds. It is the link between the present and the future, between the kingdom of trial and the kingdom of glory. If in our youth we suffer ourselves to forget it, in our old age we shall rarely be able to remember it. While thy conscience then is, comparatively clear, while thy account stands unburthened with habitual sin, look onward to the day, when that account must be for ever settled; "Rejoice, O young man in thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, but remember that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment."

SERMON X.

JAMES i. 12.

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath prepared for them that love him.

HAVING considered the terms of that discipline and trial to which we are exposed, and the nature of those rewards and punishments which follow our final judgment, it will now be my endeavour to shew, that most of the difficulties in which both our opinions and our duties are involved, will be cleared away by just and scriptural views upon these subjects.

To suppose that these, or any other considerations will resolve every doubtful case, or that the mysteries of providence will become matters of demonstration, is at once childish and absurd. If by taking the events of life in a new point of view, we are enabled materially to enlarge the sphere of our vision, and to throw into the back ground those difficulties which once interrupted

our prospect; every thing is done, which in the present state of our intellectual powers, we have a right to expect. If difficulties, however, cannot be wholly removed, it will be highly satisfactory to know the reason of their existence. This will readily be effected by the consideration of our discipline and trial. To a state of moral and intellectual probation and improvement, proportionate difficulties must of necessity be attached. It is the difficulty, or obscurity, which in every case constitutes the trial. But when the one is present and pressing, the other distant and doubtful, there is not only a choice, but a trial. Our real attachment to the distant object is proved, by the very distance and obscurity in which it is placed; various qualities of the mind are thus brought into action, which could not otherwise have had room for exertion. Men are seldom so infatuated as to err when good and evil, with the immediate consequences of each, are clearly presented to their choice. It is the predominance of present gratification over the distance of future recompense, that is chiefly the cause of our transgression. And when our inclinations to the present gratification are strong, we are always ingenious enough to involve the consequences of their indulgence in obscurity. Even in the affairs of the world around us, we see the same line of conduct pursued continually.

When the labours of the present hour are directed to the acquisition of a future object, be it honours, wealth, or power, how many difficulties do we raise, and how many obstacles do we interpose, when indolence or sensuality are gaining the ascendancy over our minds. Here then we discern the difference between one man and another, between him who will persevere in his pursuit through uncertainty and danger, and him, who meanly sacrifices the prospect of all that is good and great, to the difficulties which his own selfishness either raises or magnifies. Between the rewards of earth and of heaven there is a strong analogy, in respect to the obscurity in which they are both involved, and to the trial which in both cases that obscurity creates. When we complain that the ways of providence, even under the Gospel, are dark and mysterious, we must remember, that this very darkness and mystery constitute the trial, both of moral obedience, and of Christian faith. It is thus that our souls are disciplined to view the attributes, the government, and the providence of God, "as through a glass darkly," that our own weak and imperfect vision may thus be gradually strengthened, and thus prepared for the revelation of perfect light. Notwithstanding, however, general difficulties must remain as essential to a state of probation, there are various

points of view in which our prospect is cleared, when we consider ourselves the creatures of discipline and trial. In the different ages of life we clearly see the hand of God by these several gradations, leading the soul onward, and preparing it for heaven; even in the earliest stage of the understanding, we find a soil peculiarly adapted for the reception of the good and evil, which should hereafter spring up into a harvest of immortality. "Suffer little children," says our Lord," to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God." The analogy between the growth of worldly and religious knowledge and exertion in the ardour of youth, and in the strength of maturer years, is too obvious to be here enlarged upon. But in age the analogy, in practice at least, generally fails. We speak of the calm repose of declining years, and of the satisfaction which every great and good man must feel in reviewing the exertions and the glories of his better days; and so he might, if he were really great and good. But too true it is, that all the weaknesses of the human mind at that season of life are constantly displayed, from the absence of those better powers, which in the previous stages of existence, to some degree at least, abated their influence. Disappointment, fretfulness, jealousy, and discontent, yet remain and increase, to em

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