done and is doing is enough to give us repose amid all the unfathomed secrets of the soul and the destinies of man,-that all our own systems of thought on these infinite subjects are worse than insignificant,—that in all his labours and sufferings the present and eternal good of every human creature was the object ever nearest his affections,-and that the faith which he requires from us in return for his works of mercy and restoration is not the unproductive faith of opinion, but the warm trust and dependence of the heart.

In another view-Do we inquire what are the duties to which religion calls us? These words likewise proclaim them, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Can there be any more powerful call upon us to work also? Are we to sit still in this stupendous system of divine activity? Are we to conceive ourselves religious by the help merely of ceremony or sentiment? And are we not summoned to work in the great duties of the Christian life,-to labour in correcting the wanderings and disorders of our inmost souls; firmly and conscientiously to discharge the offices of our several callings, and to imitate, within our little yet important sphere, that divine bounty and mercy which are ever working for the good

of all men, and to which, in this season of redeeming love, our thoughts are more peculiarly awakened?— Yes, my brethren, these are the works by which we too may become fellow-workers with God and our Saviour, and while to these we direct our aim, let us again pray to "Almighty God to give us grace, that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which his Son, Jesus Christ, came to visit us in great humility,―that, in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost now and ever. Amen."

DISCOURSE II.

ON THE WANT OF UNIVERSALITY IN DIVINE

REVELATION.*

GENESIS Xviii. 25.-Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

AT this time, when we are contemplating the coming of our Saviour into the world, it is not unusual to endeavour to place in a clearer light the evidences of his divine authority, or to remove the prejudices which may somewhat obscure it. Among the latter, the unequal distribution of the Gospel over the different nations of the earth is apt to strike the mind with peculiar force when it begins to make any extensive survey of the state of human affairs; and when we compare, with the limited progress of the religion of Christ, the reign

Preached in Advent.

of superstition and imposture everywhere around it, we cannot but wonder that a Revelation, the import of which is announced to be of such infinite importance to mankind, should still be left in a state of such imperfect advancement. This prejudice has often been caught at by those who unhappily employ themselves in misleading the unwary; and although it has as often been exposed by sounder and more pious inquirers, it is yet of importance to examine it from time to time, that we may meet the commemoration of our Saviour's advent with a full conviction of the truth of his claims, and may not have our minds bewildered with difficulties which vanish whenever they are fairly contemplated.

In the examination of this subject, then, we may, in the first place, remark, that, in the system of human affairs, there is no equality of division with respect to those things which we are in the habit of considering as the most important. There are scarcely any of the gifts of God which do not fall, in very unequal proportions, among different individuals, ages, and nations. We find men in all conditions of poverty or affluence, knowledge or ignorance, moral and intellectual attainments; and al

though the picture may often strike us with some degree of surprise, and we may feel ourselves incapable of explaining it, yet it seldom happens that we regard it as indicating any want of just allotment on the part of the Deity, or as leading to the supposition, that, in any case, he does otherwise than right. On the contrary, when we inspect this arrangement a little more closely, do we not find, in the very distinctions among men, the bonds by which they are more closely united,—the dependence in which they are mutually kept by means of their mutual wants, and the progress and improvements which are made in society by the incitements and emulation which run through the whole? At all events, that it is upon this system of a great diversity in gifts and talents that the world is conducted in the usual course of God's providence, is a fact obvious to daily observation, and there seems no reason, then, that we should not expect the same system to prevail in regard to religious advantages. There seems no reason either for our supposing that, in a spiritual sense, the wants of some and the riches of others will not be a far better means of binding the hearts of men closely together in the ultimate progress of the system of revelation, than if these