We have wondered at the lowliness of a man, who stood among his compeers like Saul among the people -to find him simple, gentle, generous, docile, humble as a little child—till we found that it was with great men as with great trees. What giant tree has not giant roots? When the tempest has blown over some such monarch of the forest, and he lies in death stretched out at his full length upon the ground, on seeing the mighty roots that fed him-the strong cables that moored him to the soil-we cease to wonder at his noble stem, and the broad, leafy, lofty head he raised to heaven, defiant of storms. Even so, when death has struck down some distinguished saintwhose removal, like that of a great tree, leaves a vast gap below, and whom, brought down now, as it were, to our own level, we can measure better when he has fallen than when he stood-and when the funeral is over, and his repositories are opened, and the secrets of his heart are unlocked and brought to light, ah! now, in the profound humility they reveal-in the spectacle of that honored gray head, laid so low in the dust before God-we see the great roots and strength of his lofty piety.

Would

Would you be holy? learn to be humble. you be humble? take my text, and, with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond, engrave it upon your heart; or rather pray-Holy Spirit, fountain of light, and giver of all grace, with thine own divine finger inscribe it there!

Would you be holy? you must be humble. Would you be humble? Oh! never forget that the magnet, which drew a Saviour from the skies, was not your merit but your misery. "Be clothed with humility,"

and ere long you shall exchange the sackcloth for a shining robe. What! although this grace may impart to your feelings a somber hue? Gray mornings are the precursors of brightest days; weeping springs are followed by sunny summers and autumns of richest harvest; and in the spiritual as in the natural kingdom- They that sow in tears shall reap in joy."

God glorified in Bedemption.

And I will sanctify my great name which was profaned among the heathen, &c.-EZEKIEL Xxxvi. 23, 24.

THE character of a government may be read in the condition of its subjects. Are they turbulent-in their habits lawless, in their religion superstitious? with coasts full of harbors, and mountains rich in minerals, with a genial climate and a productive soil, are they yet clothed in rags, housed in cabins, steeped to the lips in poverty? These are the certain signs of bad government. Fields overrun with weeds-fences falling into ruins the plough rotting in the flooded furrow-and hungry cattle bellowing on scanty pastures-these are the sure signs of bad husbandry. And yonder ragged family, who at school hours are roaming our streets-the unwashed face and tangled hair bespeaking no mother's kindness-hunger in the hollow eye, and pale, emaciated features--these are the sure and too common signs of an unhappy parentage. They suggest the picture of a home at the top of some filthy stair, or in some foul den of a cellar, where a miserable father, the neglected victim of disease and poverty, lies stretched upon the floor, oras is still more likely-where a brutal drunkard lives, the tyrant of his children, and the terror of his wife. Thus we judge of a sovereign by his subjects, and thus we see the husbandman in his farm, and the father in his family.

It may be-it were indeed unfair-to apply this rule to our Faith and its Founder. Yet men have done so, and will do so; and thus the cause of God and religion is made to suffer grievous injury at the hand of its nominal friends. By their coldness, their worldliness, their selfishness, their open sinfulness, the little apparent difference between them and those who make no profession at all-nay, sometimes, by their glaring inferiority to the latter in the blow and fruit of the natural virtues-professing Christians—like venders of a bad coinage, have exposed genuine piety to suspicion, and inflicted its deepest wounds on the cause of Christ. Seeing how, in natural graceskindness of heart-sweetness of temper-generosity— the common charities of life-mere men of the world lose nothing by comparison with such professors, how are you to keep the world from saying, "Ah! your man of religion is no better than others; nay, he is sometimes worse?" With what frightful prominence does this stand out in the answer-never to be forgotten answer-of an Indian chief to the missionary who urged him to be a Christian. The plumed and painted savage drew himself up in the consciousness of superior rectitude, and, with indignation quivering on his lip and flashing in his eagle eye, replied, "Christian lie! Christian cheat! Christian steal!drink-murder! Christian has robbed me of my lands and slain my tribe!" adding, as he turned haughtily on his heel, "the Devil, Christian! I will be no Christian." Let such reflections teach us to be careful how we make a religious profession; but having made it-cost what it may cost—to be careful in acting up to it. "It is better not to vow, than, having vowed, not to pay."

These remarks are suggested by the fact already adverted to in the previous discourses-that the interests of truth and the name of God suffered in Babylon, in consequence both of the miserable outward condition and still more miserable moral condition of the people of Israel. Reduced to bondage, sunk lower still--for, compared to a sinner, how free is a slave! -they exceeded their masters in crime, and went to greater excess of riot. The heathen-who overlooked the sins of which their misery was the righteous punishment-naturally enough concluded, that the God of a people so wretched and so worthless, must be a weak-perchance a wicked one. Thus God's name was profaned, and Jehovah himself dishonored, till the time arrived, when, arising to plead the cause that was his own, God sanctified his great name in the fortunes of his people, and in the sight of the heathen.

Passing over the special application of these words to the Jews, and looking at them in their prophetical connection with the scheme of redemption, I now remark

I. That God might have vindicated his honor and sanctified his name in our destruction.

He sanctified his name in the emancipation of his ancient people. When by one blow he struck the fetters from a nation's limbs, baptized them with his Spirit, gave them favor in the sight of kings, and brought back these weary exiles, with songs and gladness, to Jerusalem, then God was sanctified in the midst of all the heathen. His power, wisdom, holiness, and goodness, were illustrated in the renewed character, joyous homes, and happy fortunes of his people. Now, God might undoubtedly have sancti