he has done and taught,-in a steady regard to all his precepts and promises; in that trust and dependence, which ignorance owes to knowledge, and weakness to wisdom, he who has received a benefit to the best and truest benefactor:-a principle then which may consist with much imperfection, and which, in our erring and disordered nature, must do so, but which, if it exists in truth, and is not either altogether discarded, or maintained in form and word more than in the living reality, will, through the power of the Son of God, save us from perishing, and bring us to "everlasting life."

These concluding words of the text, my brethren, present us with images of the deepest interest, and of the most awakening character. They, in the first place, warn us that we may perish;-that, if we neglect the methods of divine appointment by which we are called to "glory, and honour, and immortality," and either imagine that we may obtain so high a prize by our own ignorant and misdirected efforts, or, what will be the more probable result, lose all thought and concern for it in the avocations, the pleasures, and at last, in the sins of the world, the natural consequence must be the final loss of our own souls, that most incalculably

valuable of all treasures, however little we may now be disposed to prize them. How grievous, too, in that day, will be the reflection, that this loss might have been prevented by such wise and salutary exertions as would have conferred upon us much more gratification in themselves than all those wayward or sinful habits for which we discarded them, that we were not left to ourselves in the great work of our salvation,-that all the labour and heat of the day" had been borne before us by One who is "mighty to save,”—and that all that we were expected to do was to follow him in trust and confidence, and to take upon us his "easy yoke," and to carry his light burden!"

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It is by walking in the steps of this Divine Leader and Saviour, or by returning to them, if we have left them, that we shall "save our souls alive." And what, finally, is that great salvation? What is the image which the last words of the apostle leave with us? 66 Everlasting life!"-Compared to this object what is the world and all its glories? If we had them all, they must all terminate; or, if we had them all for ever, they are unworthy of the perfection to which the soul of man is called, through the only begotten Son of God, to aspire. Before such

a prospect, can the allurements, the sins, the occupations of these few and evil days stand for ever in our way, and never yield to the impression of the genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness? These will always indeed obstruct his light and heat in a degree sufficient to humble us in the dust before the cross of Christ, while we are enclosed in this body of sin and death. But, my brethren, let us at this auspicious season date the commencement of our better and everlasting life. From this hour, when another year of our lives is leaving us, and our course on earth is continually shortening as we proceed,-when we see, too, those whom we revered and loved year after year passing into eternity before us, let us fix our hearts and affections more and more on those immortal promises which, commencing in the song of angels around the Babe of Bethlehem, were afterwards proclaimed by Him to a redeemed world from the elevation of his Cross, and were for ever confirmed when he rose from the dead," the first fruits of them that sleep." Let us call in our affections, if not from the world itself in which we habitually live, and in which this season of mutual congratulation and joy refreshes all our purest and best social sympathies, yet from the

corruptions and debasement of the world: Let us feel that we can only pass through life well and hopefully, if we pass through it as the disciples of the Son of God, and that, in his blessed steps alone, we shall find that way in which we cannot perish, but must become the inheritors of "everlasting life."

DISCOURSE VIL

ASPECTS OF HUMAN LIFE AS PRESENTED IN THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL.*

HEB. vi. 12.—That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

WHEN We have commemorated, my brethren, with thankfulness and joy the birth of our Saviour, and the introduction of his pure and spiritual religion into the world, it is wise and pious in us to contemplate the prospects afforded us under this divine dispensation, and the duties which are consequently incumbent on us. The promises of the Gospel we shall find to relate principally to a future state of existence. The prospects of its followers in the present life are of a very varied description, sub

*Preached after Christmas.