us remember, that as their characteristics and their natures differ now, so are their destinies and their bearings upon the future still more awfully separate from each other; for the one is the narrow way that leadeth unto life, the other the broad way that leadeth to destruction. It is, indeed, most true, that to live, even here in God's world, is to walk in ways of pleasantness and paths of peace; while, to live in man's world, is to wander, we know not where, without repose to the heart, or solid satisfaction to the mind. But there is a difference between these two states, infinitely greater than any present loss or gain: for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. Man's artificial systems will all run rapidly to ruin: but the Divine economy is as fixed as the pillars of heaven, and as unchangeable as God himself.

If we enter into God's world, that is, if we enter on a religious life, a joyful eternity has begun. The sun which rises in that hemisphere, never goes down, but rejoices as a giant to run his everlasting course. While all that is important is on the balance, the question for each of you to determine is, into which scale you will throw yourself and all your treasures. Remember, that the one scale will descend

into that place of darkness, out of which there is no redemption: while the other scale will ascend higher than these visible heavens, into the light and glory of God's presence.

Such is the kingdom of heaven, cómmencing here, and endless as eternity, which Christ has opened to all believers. It is the purchase of his blood: and he now pleads that bloodhis pains, and wounds, and sufferings for the salvation of his people. Yes, my brethren, he ever liveth to make intercession for them. He offers, at this moment, his prevailing prayers to God, that they may be admitted into the realms of light; that they may behold his glory; that the shame of their transgressions may be covered with his righteousness, and that they may be clothed with those celestial robes which are washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.

If any of you who hear me, feel that you are in bondage to this present evil world, and desire to pass over into the kingdom of God's dear Son, know that it is not by mere outward movements, by acts or changes visible to the eye of man ;-it is not by traversing wide seas and frowning deserts, that this transition is to be effected. No; the way is easy-the word is nigh thee. The whole is an inward act of the mind. It is, in the secret chambers of the

soul, to repent of what is past, and to believe God's promises for the future.

And now, picture to yourselves some miserable captive, pining in the dark retreat, the chilling atmosphere, the hopeless gloom, and tomb-like silence, of those inexorable walls, which consign their victim over to a living death. Imagine to yourselves the voice of deliverance to reach his ears, and to awake him from a night of long despondence; and that one stood without, and called to him that his prison doors were open, that he might come forth and embrace his friends, and breathe the vital air, and smell the freshness of nature, and walk through its varied fields, and behold the glories of the sunshine and the day. Such, my brethren, is but a faint resemblance of that invitation which summons every soul in captivity to man's world, to pass from that bondage into God's world, and into the glorious liberty of his children.

your

hearts

Such is the call which I would now address to you. Turn, then, with all to God, and you will find him the light, the joy, and the enfranchisement of the soul.Exercise a living faith in Christ, and it will bring your moral nature in contact with his quickening Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. You will find that

Second Series.

I

Spirit touch new springs within you, and awaken a sense of immortality which you never felt before. In a word, you will find religion a participation of the divine nature; inward and substantial happiness; a joyful assurance of future glory; a tasting of the powers of the world to come.

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SERMON VII.

1 John v. 7.

THERE ARE THREE THAT BEAR RECORD IN HEAVEN, THE FATHER, THE WORD, AND THE HOLY GHOST: AND THESE THREE ARE ONE."*

"All Scripture," says one of the sacred writers, "is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine," no less than "for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.' From this character of holy writ, two inferences will naturally follow. First, that whatever doctrine is expressly laid down therein, or may be proved thereby, we are implicitly to receive, however mysterious it may appear, or however beyond the reach of human reason to discover or to explain. Se

*A subject which has been handled so frequently, so ably, and so fully, as that considered in the following Sermon, does not leave much room for originality. In particular, the author is indebted, for the matter of some of the paragraphs, to Bishop Horne's Discourses on the "Creation of Man," and the "Trinity in Unity."