9thly. Once more:- Night" is synonymous with DISTRESS; and of this there shall be none in the future state of the righteous. There, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things will then have passed away." Every spring of affliction will have been dried up; and no single sigh shall disturb the breast of one inmate of the courts of the Temple of the Lamb. The night of their grief is ended, and " morning without clouds" has dawned upon them: all is pure and unmixed felicity-perfect and everlasting blessedness. We cannot conceive the happiness of the Lord's people in His eternal kingdom: " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."

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Here then let us pause!Thought must here be foiled; language must here be incompetent. We cannot soar to the heights of that felicity, nor describe the riches of "the inheritance of the saints in light." But the scriptural report of " that good land” should animate us to seek to enter into the promised rest. Be persuaded, beloved brethren, by what you have read and heard, to set your hearts and affections on things above! Here you dwell in the region of " night;" and though

some light may beam upon your path, yet ignorance, imperfection, danger, and sorrow, are the constant attendants upon all of us, in this world of darkness. It is no more possible to be completely happy upon earth, than it is to stay the sun in his course, or to hinder the returning shadows of evening. No change of clime or place-no condition, pursuit, age, situation, or enjoyment in this world-can enable you to say, "No night is here." But in true religion you may enjoy the dawnings and the anticipations of eternal day. Christ says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest: —a present peace, a present joy to those who seek Him and again He . I am says, the light of the world: he that followeth Me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Be anxious, therefore, brethren, to become true and faithful followers of the Saviour; for it is only by this means that you can attain to the glories of celestial day. And let the real Christian be supported by the glorious hope of all this joy and happiness, amidst the ills and trials of this present evil world. Soon, every cause of anxiety and suffering will cease, and the believer will enter into rest. Let him therefore "press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus:" and, as the heir of eternal light, let him "cast off the works of darkness." Hypocrisy, deceit, suspicion, concealment, and every dark and light-shunning principle and practice, are utterly at variance with the character and condition of that state where night shall be no more. Let us therefore, as candidates for immortal glory, renounce whatever is inconsistent with the high object of our highest efforts, and, even in this world, "walk as children of light, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord."

THE happiness which our Maker intends for us, must be different from that which we are disposed to seek; because our tastes are totally diverse from those objects, and those pursuits, which belong to unfallen intelligences. If it be true that God is not in all our thoughts" before conversion; if it be true that "we are then lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God;" it is very plain that this was never meant to constitute our delight, or the end of our being. We then fall short, not only of the perfection of our nature, but of all the good that the Creator intended for the creatures of his mighty hand, which alone can supply, and in fact does alone supply all their wants and all their desires, as far as agreeable to his sovereign wilt. We then live, not as it was meant rational and spiritual beings should live; but according to a certain course, which God has never blessed, though he allows it for good and wise purposes. In his word it is called "the course of this world;” and if what we read of it be true; then it follows that it must be a wicked course; because the world lieth in wickedness. But if he has never blessed that course-which it is extremely improbable he ever will do-then it must lead men further and further still from him, and consequently from holiness. And since our natures are SO constituted that we must have something as an occupation, or what we call an object; something to interest the mind, and put in action our various energies; this must be supplied in the method which most pleases. It is supplied. search after pleasure commences. A new bias is given to the faculties;

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they are aroused from lethargic contentment; they are to be henceforth busied in seeking for enjoyThe enjoyment may be

ment. selfish; but self is to have her reign. It may be the very essence of ungodliness; but life is short and its pleasures are not to be thrown away, but seized, rather at the hazard of forgetting God. It may be opposed directly or indirectly to God's word; its tendency to debase all that is noble in us, most clearly disclosed there; the peril, consequently of adhering to that course fearfully revealed; the folly is obviously manifest; the madness of hazarding so much for the sake of so little may

assiduously obtrude itself, till

conscience becomes wearied of her

office. It may occur again and again, that perhaps the heart may soon be hardened by God himself, and then the course of this world must draw me to utter ruin for this world and the next. Instances may be remembered, at the time; such as the example of Pharaoh, whose heart was ultimately hardened after a long course of obduracy; or that of Judas, who though smitten by worldly remorse, was not penetrated by the repentance that God will bless, and who died, therefore by an accursed end. These and many more instances may present themselves ; but all is in vain: the course of this world has its pilgrims to the land of the shadow of death; worldly pleasures appear so en> chanting and so adapted to the carnal mind, which is mistaken for the original disposition that would have been ours had we not fallen; worldly business appears to have such claims upon us, upon our time, our attention, our cares, our

every energy. And thus we are held by a grand delusion. What is it? Can it be that pleasure is not made for man; can this be the reason of our mistake; the head and front of our offending. Not made for them? Then there is on this earth an astonishing waste of pleasure. His Maker has absolutely lavished his never-failing bounties; man cannot, if he would, shut himself from them entirely; as one of our poets has said- They are scattered up and down, and he who seeks may find them.' Not made for him! Then for whom? For those angelic, unseen visitants, who are employed on their errands of mercy, ministering spirits to them who are or shall be heirs of salvation; for these are they made? But some among our race do enjoy those pleasures, and find them extremely well suited to the nature which God has given them. However worldly men may make light of these pleasures which have not the zest of worldly pleasures as they think, still there are some who find them truly blest, and receive them with thankfulness, because they believe such favours to be sent them for their use from their heavenly Father. They believe aright; they are sent, and sent for them. Pleasure is made for man, because all man receives is from his Maker, and therefore meant for him; consequently this is meant for him, and made for him. If men vitiate their tastes, so that this pleasure is null and void to them, whose fault is it but their own. They know, or they ought to know, that God intends them to be occupied in some way; and if they choose the bad instead of the good; they alone are to blame. God has told them most plainly that what they esteem excellent is little valued in the sight of Infinite Wisdom. He has told them, and they ought to have known it long before, that what

they mean by pleasure is not what he means by it; but what they imagine will prove a real blessing, at least for this life, is but a vain shadow, and will at last draw them to utter ruin, and a cursed death. He has told them that in him they live and move and have their being, and that in his presence is fulness of life, and pleasures for evermore. That is what they want, or what they ought to wish and desire. It is or ought to be absolutely and pre-eminently necessary. It ought to seem so to one and all. All ought to wish for happiness; to seek after pleasure. But it is not pleasure apart from God; not happiness which enthrones self, and puts up other gods before the Lord. It is not pleasure, or any means to it, to live in time as if there were no eternity.

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In the world," said the Saviour, who has shewn himself a prophet as well as a priest and king, the world ye shall have tribulation." And yet his disciples were to be of good cheer; in other words they were to be happy and enjoy pleasure in a degree. "Be of good cheer," he adds, " for I have overcome the world." They were to have tribulation-they were to suffer persecution-as all must who will live godly in this present evil world. They were "to suffer affliction with the people of God.”

Now if this were the case of Moses, (as it was the case of those disciples) the question occurs, how came it so, where was the immediate necessity; where was the expediency; what was the good designed. It was an alternative. There was a choice implied. There was a present advantage; there was a present peril; there was a distant blessing; there was a distant curse. Moses was to choose; on what was he to decide; how to form his judgment? How was he to know which alternative might prove a real blessing, which a curse equally real? equally real? It was no trifling

question. It was no common occasion of manifesting his true disposition. No common degree of candour was required in silencing the voice of temptation. There was much to be overcome. Prejudices so early imbibed in Pharaoh's alien court might dispose him at least to let things remain as they were. His brethren were Pharaoh's acknowledged bond slaves. Their tasks, they were so accustomed to, that use had made them ready at them; and none else could do them so well; and where else could such a host of unpaid labourers be found. Use had by that time passed into a law. They were, in fact, Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and if they were his property, to use most lavishly and wantonly, why it was no more than what was common in those early ages, and would that it were passed into dissuetude in the age in which we live. It might be argued that the king's property was certainly national property, and therefore doubly inviolable. Besides, how were these bond-slaves to escape? Was it likely that he, above all others, should be the instrument? True, his preservation might seem to him miraculous. He was delivered from the monsters of the Nile, and from the wrath of the king; he was raised to be a man of note; he was in comfortable circumstances while living, subsequently in Pharaoh's court; but why should he hazard all in taking such a rash step for the sake of those whom contempt and slander had made their own. And then when he dwelt with the Priest of Midian, after being forced to flee from the face of Pharaoh; though his dreams of ambition might have been rudely dissipated, still there at least he might hope for ease, if not distinction. But God had "heard the groanings" of his people, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with

Isaac, and with Jacob. And the Lord said to Moses as he kept the flock of Jethro, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters, for I know their sorrows. Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." And thus Moses was led to interest himself in that affliction, to partake of it, to choose it rather than "the pleasures of sin for a season.'

Moses, in this particular, was, doubtless, an eminent type of Him who bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows, who endured the cross, and despised the shame. If Moses were in this sense made conformable to his brethren in all things, so was our Lord in all things but sin. And then if Christ be the grand pattern to believers, their choice must be like his, their portion the same. If affliction be this portion, it must be more blessed than that which their Lord did not accept, and could not. Again, if this portion be chosen, it must be instead of the pleasures of sin, because they are contrary one to the other, and men cannot have both. Moses chose the one, and let alone the other; it was necessary, it was expedient, it was highly beneficial that he should make that choice. It was necessary that he should come to a decision one way or another, because his Maker had appeared unto him, and bade him make a choice. But this was not all: he was sent to gather the elders of Israel together, and declare how Jehovah had visited his people; and therefore he was told which portion to choose. His duty was to obey in strenuous faith; but it was pointed out only, and not forced on him; he was dealt with as a free agent, as much as other men are dealt with; and he might