throne beam brightly and warmly upon your soul, not all the workings of past prejudice, nor the warnings of friends, nor the fears of reproach, nor the solicitations of sense could arrest your sacred purpose of going unto Christ, that you might have life! How little then would the emoluments of this world appear! How tame and valueless any approbation save the approval of God! Eternity would absorb every minor consideration, and you would estimate every thing by the standard of a higher world! Then the grace of Christ, then the blood of his atonement, then the perfection of his righteousness, then the solicitations of his love, and the guidance of his Spirit, and the purity of his precepts; these would become the subjects of intense and of incessant meditation; and you would turn away with contrition and honest sadness of heart from the terms of reproach under which you had contemned the truth; and you would identify the blessed doctrines of holy mercy and grace with the highest wisdom of God, and with the fullest felicity of your nature.

But there are some, I trust, here present, to whom such a result is not a subject of distant speculation, but of actual enjoyment. My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me." Of this Shepherd they can affirm, each to the other:-" Whom having not!

seen ye love, and though now ye see him not, yet, believing, you rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Fellow Christians! fellow travellers through the wilderness of this world, you know the worth of the life which Christ imparts. You have listened to the voice which invited you, and you have believed the heavenly word, and you have received Christ into your hearts, as life, and truth, and salvation. with a generous joy.

"of the travail of his

Over you he rejoices

He sees in your case soul, and is satisfied."

Rejoice then in Him, and again I say rejoice." Joy with you is the exercise of reason as well as of grace. The foundations of your peace are laid deep in the wisdom and power of God, and the building which rests upon them shall never fall! The winds may try it-the storm may beat upon it, but it is fixed upon a rock! Around that "rock of ages" the waves break harmless! Live then by faith, and expect the glory yet to be revealed.

And charge it upon yourselves, I earnestly entreat you, "to walk worthy of God, who hath called you into his kingdom of glory." The child of God will be anxious to resemble his Father. Every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as He is pure." Upon your humble, and simple, and holy walk with God will depend more or less the measure of

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your peace in communion with him. He is a holy God, and it is in the pursuit of holiness that you will find sweet "fellowship with him." Remember that you are "not your own but his, that you should glorify him in your bodies and your spirits, which are his." As faith is a light from heaven, it guides your steps towards heaven. Religious opinions are in themselves dry and marrowless; but if they be the decisions of God received into the heart by faith, then they become food and substance to the soul. God purifies the heart by faith. By his promises he makes the soul "a partaker of the divine nature." Every sinful temper and emotion, deliberately indulged, is therefore destructive of inward peace. As a cold vapour, it dims the glass through which the soul is wont to look forward into eternity, and to contemplate the visions of God. Quit yourselves therefore "like men, and be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." Act as those who expect their Lord's approach, and who know and feel that it is the pure in heart alone who can see God."

Let it be likewise with you a subject of deep anxiety to remove, as far as possible, every stumbling block in the way of others. of others. As the children of God, you have a share in the solicitude of God to bring others into the fellowship of his Son. But men are unfortunately too

pro

prone to estimate religion, less by a reference to its own worth, than by a reference to the moral effects which it produces in those who fess to receive it. Therefore the apostle says, "Let no man lay a stumbling block in the path of his brother;" and a greater than the apostle has said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Children of God! obey this word. The cause of your Master is in part in your hands. He says, "Occupy till I come." Let the generous effort of self-denial then be ever yours. faithful to his wishes; glorify him before others. By kindness, by courtesy, by patience, by meekness, by consistency, by courage, by faith, by justice, by integrity, advance his interests in the world. He is worthy of your service, your devotedness and your love.

Be

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SERMON III.

THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE.

2 COR. i. 12.

"FOR OUR REJOICING IS THIS, THE TESTIMONY OF OUR CONSCIENCE, THAT IN SIMPLICITY AND GODLY SINCERITY, NOT WITH FLESHLY WISDOM, BUT BY THE GRace of god, WE HAVE HAD OUR CON. VERSATION IN THE WORLD, AND MORE ABUNDANTLY TO YOUWARD

THERE are pleasures of memory as well as of imagination; and if our recollections can be consecrated to God, they become equally with our hopes auxiliary to the highest purposes of religion. The early convert to genuine Christianity, who through the divine grace, has dedicated his faculties, and yielded his affections to God, through an unbroken series of useful occupations, has thereby laid up a treasure of remembrances, to which he will often recur with gratitude and delight. He has been preserved from great crimes, and he has cultivated incessantly Christian virtues. His combats have been honourable, and the scars which he exhibits, have been received in the service of his