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especially for their salvation. We were not created for ourselves; and if we have been converted, it was not for our own happiness only, but for the sake of others. God requires that in the performance of every act of benevolence in our power we glorify his name. And every sinner we are the means of converting is another spirit brought in submission to his feet, and arrayed in the beauty of his own holiness. We are to live for usefulness. Having received his bounty ourselves, we are to be the almoners of that bounty for the world. Having had sown in our own hearts the good seed of the word, we are to cast abroad that seed with an unsparing hand. Having ourselves been illumined by the light of Divine truth, we are to be the beacon-lights of the whole earth, "shining as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life." And how many spheres of active, useful labour present themselves! There is your own household; the sabbath school; the visitation of the sick; the proclamation of the gospel from the pulpit; and innumerable modes of christian usefulness besides, in one or other of which you may employ your energies. Select your sphere; occupy it, and occupy it well. Seek in what you do, not your own praise, but God's, and you will have the honour and the joy of glorifying his name.

This, then, is the great object of life. And there are motives of sufficient power to induce you to make it the supreme purpose of your being.

You will thus secure the highest satisfaction and happiness. Whatever end you propose to yourself, this is your ultimate aim. You would gratify that restless craving of the soul, of which you are ever conscious. But in none of the pursuits which we have contrasted with the great object of life will you attain your desire. Pleasure, even supposing it were lasting ás eternity, which you know it is not, would still be insufficient to satisfy the longings of an immortal mind. You may adorn yourself with a garland of earth's fairest flowers; but there are thorns beneath its roses, which will wound your brows, and fester there. You may pluck the most tempting fruits of earthly delight, but you will find them only "apples of Sodom,"

Wealth and prosperity

and your teeth will grind on ashes. are equally poor. There is many a palace of splendid misery. The music of human applause soon loses its sweetness; and how often does "the fickle reed of popular breath" change its note, and execrate those whom it so lately praised! But seek the glory of God in the formation of a character like his own and in the performance of his will, and your mind will be filled, Conscience will be at peace. You will know that you are approved of God. You will "walk in the light of his countenance;" and that will put into your heart an unspeakable and enduring joy

You will not live in vain. How many have lived in vain ! They have done nothing to promote the great ends of life. Nay, millions have only lived as the pests of society and the scourges of their race. Far better would it have been for the world if some, whose names will perhaps be held in honour for ages yet to come, had never lived. You are living in vain if you are not living for the glory of God! This is a solemn thought! All those powers of intellect, and all those opportunities of usefulness, conferred upon you in vain! Employ them for God, and your life will be redeemed from its uselessness and vanity. You may never know on earth the good you will be permitted to accomplish; but "the day will declare it !" You will be enabled to do something which shall bless the world; something which shall aid, in however small a degree, in advancing that time when the earth shall be radiant with the splendours of unclouded glory, and something which shall make meet the souls of your fellow-men for "the inheritance of the saints in light."

You will imitate the noblest examples. The best and greatest men that ever lived have been the men who kept this object most prominently in view; and they were great and good in exact proportion to the degree in which they gave it the pre-eminence over every motive besides. We need but mention the names of a Moses, a Daniel, a Paul, and-to come to more recent times-of a Brainerd, a Carey, a Martyn, a Williams ; men who, though compassed with infirmity and liable to sin,

yet sought the glory of God in the conversion of immortal souls, and the restoration of a world to his image and his love. There was a greater than all-the Son of God-whose meat and drink it was to do the will of his Father, and who could say, as he looked back on his earthly course, as no one else could ever say, "I have glorified thee on the earth." We are commanded to be "followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises;" but we are especially to "follow in the steps" of our Redeemer and our Lord. Like him, then, let it be the object of our life to glorify God.

God says,

You will obtain the most enduring honour. "Them that honour me I will honour." There is reward on earth; but there is a greater reward in heaven for those who are trusting, not to their good works, but simply and entirely on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, Ephes. ii. 8. The monuments which record the deeds of those whom the world honours will soon crumble into dust; but they who are honoured of God will be "had in everlasting remembrance." The Christian is taught to expect a real and unfading immortality; the immortality of everlasting honours and of enduring joy. Every effort put forth for God will be acknowledged, and every soul which you are the means of converting will be a radiant jewel in your crown of life. "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” Covet these honours; and, that you may secure them, "glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are his," by living a consistent, holy life, agreeably to the precepts of the gospel, 1 Pet. i. 15.

You see, then, the true object of life, and some of the motives which should engage you in its pursuit. Are you not now prepared to say, "That object shall henceforward be MINE?"

J. F. SHAW, BOOKSELLER, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, AND
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON; AND

W. INNES, BOOKSELLER SOUTH HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.

London: J. & W. RIDER, Printers, 14, Bartholomew Close.

THE GRAVE OF LAZARUS.

Is there anything more instructive, more impressive, than a grave? True, there are multitudes who approach it without reflection, and heed not its monitory suggestions, but no one can stand by that dreary receptacle of departed man, and let his thoughts follow where the providence of God leads, without finding himself at once instructed and admonished. What is the condition of that immortal spirit which once animated the body that sleeps beneath these clods? whither has it fled? and by what mysterious process was it dislodged from its earthly tenement? Perhaps it was a beloved friend. Ah, the voice which once fell upon my ear in accents of kindness is hushed; the countenance that once beamed with joy has the seal of corruption impressed upon it; the heart that once warmed with gratitude heaves no more, beats no more, is as still and cold as the clods that cover it! Is there any light from heaven that shines upon the grave? any hope of being redeemed from its dominion? any certainty that an event which seems so appalling can be the harbinger of immortal blessings? What are my own relations to the grave? what my prospects beyond it? To the destroyer I must inevitably bow, and in the same darkness must make my bed; and the death-worm must feed upon me, till my heart and my flesh are consumed. But will this spirit within me, that is active in this train of reflection, then be in a state of conscious activity, or will it have fallen into the gulf of annihilation? Will this body be waiting for the resurrection of life, or be bound over to the resurrection of condemnation ?

I have said that the grave is a place at which we may profit. Let me, then, for a few moments, conduct my reader to a grave -a grave that was rendered memorable by a display of the power and majesty of Jesus-the grave of Lazarus. Let me ask you to accompany me to Bethany, that we may find out the consecrated spot, and learn the lesson which it teaches.

Come, then, to the grave of Lazarus, and behold an affecting monument of the apostacy and ruin of man.

Man in his original constitution was designed to be immortal; and had not sin entered the world, death, as it now comes upon us, had never been known. But sin came, and death came after it; and, as all men are sinners, so the destroyer has a commission that reaches to the whole human family. He has lifted his standard in the centre of the earth, and has proclaimed the certain subjugation of all the generations of its inhabitants. Wherever there are human beings, there are graves; and the graves will multiply and multiply, till the sound of the last trumpet opens them, in preparation for the Judgment.

As there was at the grave of Lazarus, so there is at every grave you visit, a fellow-mortal who has gone through the agony of dying, whose countenance has been changed by a process, which no one can explain, whose whole frame is gradually falling into a state of dissolution. Corruption and the worm are at their work; and each, amid the darkness and the loathsomeness of the sepulchre, is saying to that lifeless corpse, "Behold in me thy mother or thy sister!" You can stand by a grave, where you see nothing but the cold clods or the green turf, and perhaps be but little affected by the spectacle; but let that turf and those clods be removed, and let the narrow house be opened and the shroud be taken away, and let what is actually passing beneath it meet your eye, and you will see that which will make you start back with horror. Yet you see nothing but the ravages of sin. This is the monster which owns death as its legitimate offspring. Every grave proclaims in the ruin which it encloses, that sin is that abominable thing which the Lord abhorreth.

But it were well if all the desolation which sin has occasioned were seen in connexion with the grave; if it had done nothing more than destroy temporarily, the union between soul and body, and left the latter to become the prey of corruption and the tenant of the sepulchre. But it has done more; it has brought ruin to the soul as well as the body, introducing darkness into the understanding, disorder among the passions, and death to the whole moral man; and it has fitted the soul for a receptacle still more gloomy than that which entombs the body, for a region of living death, over which hangs the blackness of darkness for ever. All the misery of the body and the soul, all the misery of this span of being, and of an interminable duration, owes its existence to sin. How great an evil must that be which is the cause of such universal woe!

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