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ment, with implicit and unbounded faith that he will work all for their good. To those who thus with humble faith renounce their own ways, and say, "Not my will, but thine be done," he soon causes a light to spring; he gives them a hope,-a hope of the particular kind of good things which he has in reserve for them. Thus saith St. John: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Here is the hope of the Christian, that he shall be made like the Saviour; that he shall see him and shall always enjoy his presence: and St. Paul tells us, that we are come to the heavenly Jerusalem,-to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." This is the Christian's hope, that he shall be like the Saviour,-that he shall enjoy the everlasting presence of God, and the society of angels, and of just men made perfect. He has his eye raised above the earth, and fixed upon objects far above mortal vision, but not out of the sight that God has quickened and enlightened and, in comparison with the glories that shall be revealed, earthly pleasures dwindle and melt down into nothing.

Thus abideth hope instead of knowledge. Like the patriarch in days of old, who said, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory;" who was told, "thou canst not see my face, and live but thou shalt stand upon a rock (and that rock was Christ,) and it shall come to pass, when my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover thee with mine hand while I pass by, and will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my skirts, but my face shall not be seen :' thus are we in a cleft of a rock, and his hand covers us, and we see the dim light of his skirts as he passes by ; but our flesh rests in hope that we shall one day see his face.

But this is not all.

When your child has made some

considerable progress, and, resting on faith and animated by hope, has acquired larger faculties and greater knowledge, and has actually employed that knowledge in an active life, and used it for its proper purposes,— then you can say to him, 'Now you need not merely rely upon my word;' now you need not even feed upon hope; but now feel and know of your own experience the beauty and delight of the discipline to which you have submitted.

And thus does our Father deal with us in a future world. Faith and hope will be no more; they will both have done their duty, and we shall bid them farewell for ever. we shall then see the things that we believed, and enjoy the things that are hoped. But charity or love never faileth, for love will live and increase to all eternity. In love, we have actual and present experience of the future joys of the presence of God.

Now

we believe, not because of thy saying,-but we have known and tasted it ourselves. We are expressly told that God is love: he is not only boundless in love, but it seems to be almost his very essence. It does not say, love to this one, or to that one, but-love.

It is love that delights in God,-in communion with him,-in meditation upon his attributes and his dispensations, in the imitation of his perfections; "that suf fereth long and is kind; that envieth not, vaunteth not itself, and is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." Thus, through love, shall we indeed bear the living stamp of Almighty God upon our hearts; and heaven will be already begun in our souls. Thus shall we learn something of the glories that are to come, -something that shall be at once both a pledge and foretaste. And thus also shall the wicked, and the worldly, and the carnal man, obtain a foretaste of the horror of hell,-and of the cup that he is to drain. If, instead of a faith, that throws him upon the Lord Jesus Christ, he has a trust in himself, and in his worldly pos

sessions, for happiness; if, instead of a hope that raises his eye to heaven, his thoughts go downward to the dust upon which he treads, and his heart is the abode of carnal, and worldly, and malignant passions and desires, -this man can form some conception of the fearful region of misery. He can conceive the opposite of that love which constitutes the happiness of the blessed spirits above he can conceive a scene of everlasting selfishness and suspicion; of multitudes of evil beings, without one link of affection to unite them; but the everlasting scowl of hatred is upon their brows, and the curse upon their lips. This may be a faint anticipation of those terrible scenes.

We are here, then, in a state of education for heaven; and we may now form some conception of the desperate infatuation of those men who leave this mighty work for the listlessness of old age, or the agonies of a dying bed! It should be nothing less than the business of an education, an education that begins with a faith, that can only rise from a deep sense of our own unworthiness and danger, and that our sins need the blood of the Son of God;-that proceeds to a hope, which raises the eye and the heart from earth to heaven, and changes all our views; and then proceeds to charity, which stamps upon us the image of the pure and holy God.

SERMON XIII.

ECCLESIASTES, viii. 11.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

If we had seen one of our neighbours struck dead by a flash of lightning, just after he had been committing one of our favourite sins, it is to be supposed it would make a serious impression upon our minds. If we afterwards beheld two or three more of our acquaintances blotted out of life in the same way, and for the same reason, we should probably begin to bring the case a little more home to ourselves. If there were afterwards another, and another, and another; and we were in the habit of seeing God's wrath executed every day, the moment it was provoked, it is surprising what a change we should presently observe among all the careless and bold-faced sinners of society: drunkards shrinking from the flowing bowl, as if it were filled with poison; fornicators and adulterers rushing from the threshold of the house of sin and debauchery, as they would from the flames of hell; liars, swearers, and blasphemers setting their finger upon their lips, lest they should perish before the evil word was fully pronounced; thieves, misers, and extortioners, flinging away their darling profits, lest they should be struck dead as they

touched them.

Then too, when men should see sentence executed speedily against evil works, they could not think of the

sin without thinking of the punishment along with it. How cautious should we find them of venturing too near sin, even in their tempers and conversation: we should see a man turn pale whenever an evil thought or an evil wish came into his mind, for how could he tell but that the thunderbolt would fall at that moment, if he ventured to indulge it? Then should we see men watching and praying, that they might not fall into temptation, who never knew what it was to pray before; and, it is probable, that those who were witnessing the wrath of God coming down every day upon the heads of sinners, in fire and brimstone, would be so sensible of their danger and their weakness, that they would renounce all trust in their own powers and their own righteousness, and seek for his glorious strength, who is able to shelter us from the storm and the tempest, and to give us the victory over sin, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and to make us more than conquerors, through him who loved us, and gave himself for us.'

:

It seems to be very plain, that something like this would be the case if God were to interfere every day to execute sentence upon evil works. Now mark the difference only observe with what perfect ease men' can bring themselves to indulge in sin, as a matter of common and ordinary occurrence, as naturally as they partake of their sleep or their meals: and they go into the way of temptation, and approach the brink and the borders of sin, and say, there is no danger!

Now what can be the reason of this astonishing difference? For every man seems to think that he would refrain from sin if he knew that at that instant he should' stand the consequences. What can be the reason of this difference? Is it that men have calmly made up their minds, after enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season, to resign themselves quietly and contentedly to the "Worm that never dieth, and the flame that is never quenched?" This can hardly be the reason: it must be something else—and what is it? The Psalmist has informed us in few words: "The wicked hath said in