THE SCEPTRE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Α SERMON. PSALM xlv. 6. (Bible Version.) Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. UPON an occasion like the present,-when we are not met together under the usual circumstances of attendance at the Sanctuary,-when we are not called upon that one day in seven, which our Creator and Redeemer hath sanctified to His own especial service, to join with the multitude of them that keep Holyday, and to press with our fellow worshippers in the footsteps of them that are glad when it is said, "let us go into the House of the Lord,"-It seems that it will not be unseasonable, if we confine the short remaining portion of this morning's service to the contemplation of subjects, at once in keeping with the occasion of our meeting, and under God's blessing profitable to us, who are linked by closer associations than an ordinary congregation presents. For what is the occasion that thus assembles us? It is not a mere Festival that summons us from our homes, and bids us lay aside our wonted callings, -Joyous and glad as the thought undoubtedly is, that in the Ministers of Justice we recognise the punishment of wickedness and vice, and the maintenance of true Religion and Virtue. It is not an appeal to your sympathies, for some cause of suffering humanity, or scheme of Missionary enterprise at home or abroad. But it is the Anniversary of your Civil year, the Death-day of your past year-the Birth-day of your new year. And as at its beginning, by assembling in this House of Prayer, you acknowledged the only true source from which all blessing on your plans and deliberations could spring, that God "from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, all just works do proceed," even so now at its conclusion, you are not found unwilling as a Body to acknowledge that "honour due unto His name," who is the "Blessed and only Potentate," who is " far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name, that is named not y in this world, but also in that hose delegates all Civil authoThrone endureth for ever and |