giving this rein to their evil propensities. To those who are yet pure from its delusive dominion, I would say,-shun it as you would a serpent,avoid its contamination as you would a pestilence. If you once suffer it to gain but the smallest power over your habits, adieu to peace of mind, to health, and to respectability. No longer will your days be spent in cheerful labour, and your nights in tranquil repose. Debt and ruin will stare you in the face, your body will be feverish and diseased, your mind fretful and unhinged. Despised by men, you will tremble at lifting up your heart to God. You will become hateful to yourself, burdensome to your connexions, a prey to every villain, a dupe to every knave, and an outcast of society.

Lastly, I would impress on you all how many safeguards to virtue are lost by a violation of that divine command "Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day."

It is a most consoling reflection to the minister of religion, while dwelling on the failings of human nature, to find one bright spot where his

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eye may rest with satisfaction, and I have much pleasure in saying I do not think the profanation of the Lord's day can be said to prevail to any extent in this parish. Still I fear there are many who do not fully see the necessity of being systematic and regular in their observance of it. To them I would address these my concluding observations. Every act of religion must, if performed in purity of heart, draw us nearer to the sacred fountain of holiness and virtue, the oftener we approach the footstool of Almighty power in private devotion, the happier and better shall we feel for it. The more frequently we manifest publicly the adoration we pay to the divine majesty of God, the more faithfully shall we obey the command which says "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven." The subject very naturally leads me to remind you that one of the great public occasions of an open manifestation of our christian faith is now near at hand, in the celebration of the Lord's supper on the festival of Easter, a season which is more particularly prescribed by law, and sanctioned by custom, for the attendance of every devout mem

ber of our national church on this its most solemn rite. I shall therefore entertain a lively hope that no one, who has the welfare of religion and good morals at heart, will omit any opportunity of showing that, however irreligion and profaneness may be supposed to be gaining ground, there are still in this place many who fear their God, and are anxious to lose no opportunity of manifesting their observance of those holy and simple rites the church of England prescribes to her followers. Finally, may the Lord of all power and might, who is the author and giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of his name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of his great mercy keep us in the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord, &c.

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SERMON VI.

FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY.

1 CORINTHIANS XIII. 13.

AND NOW ABIDETH FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY, THESE THREE; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS CHARITY.

THE remarkable union of simplicity and majesty which we find in the sacred writings, cannot but strike the attention of the most careless reader; doctrines of the most sublime tendency, and truths of the greatest import, are offered to our consideration in language so plain, so clear, and so convincing, that it is only wilful blindness which can mistake its meaning. By this method the most humble capacity may receive instruction, and the most cultivated intellect find subject of delight and admiration.

Of all the sacred peumen, none can surpass, I may almost say none can, in this respect, equal the Apostle Paul. To all the fire of inspiration, he adds all the graces of literature, and even through the medium of a translation, we meet with many of those striking beauties which the scholar knows so well to appreciate in the masterly original. The education of St. Paul accounts for this superiority, brought up, as he tells us, at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the most learned of the Jews, his mind was doubtless early stored with the treasures of science, and these acquirements fully account for the superior elegance and sublimity which pervade his style, and ornament his precepts.

The short chapter of which my text forms the concluding verse, affords us a beautiful specimen of the elegant and nervous simplicity of which I have been speaking. The engaging picture the apostle has presented to us of that christian grace, charity, is painted in such lively colours, and with so faithful a pencil, that our time will be well occupied in considering the different lights in which he has placed this amiable virtue, and in