man be thought to derive from the finest concert of music, whose ear is not attuned to the harmony of sweet sounds? Or what allurements can a library stocked with the choicest productions of genius, in every branch of science and elegant literaturewhich to a person of cultivated understanding and refined taste is a source of such exalted satisfaction -be conceived to have for one whose mind has not been prepared, by previous cultivation, for the intellectual repast? What entertainment, more

over, could such an one either receive from, or communicate to, a society of individuals devoted to literary or scientific pursuits? Instead of contributing to each other's gratification, would they not, on the contrary, be irksome to each other? How then is it to be imagined that "the good things of the Lord in the land of the living," that those pure, spiritual and sublime delights which ravish the souls of the just made perfect, can have any attractions for those whose minds, gravitating perpetually to the earth, "mind not," to use the language of the Apostle, "the things that are above"? Or how can they be deemed to be suitable associates who have nothing in common to recommend them to each other? No, my friends; that can never be. To be qualified to relish the enjoyments of heaven, there must be a heavenly frame of mind; and to be fit members for the society of its inhabitants, there must be a correspondence of dispositions, an identity of views, a community of interests, a similarity of inclinations.

To persons devoid of these

qualifications, heaven itself would cease to be heaven, and their admission into it would disturb, with discord, the harmony of the blessed. Now these qualifications are the precious fruits of the divine influence of that Holy Spirit of whose descent upon his disciples, our blessed Saviour, as I have already observed, declared his Ascension into heaven to be an indispensable condition. He, alone, can enable us to disengage our affections from the unsatisfactory and perishable things of earth, and "to seek the things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God." He, alone, "by pouring the love of God abroad in our hearts," can cause us to delight in contemplating his divine perfections, and impart to us a relish for "the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." He, alone, can so harmonize our minds and hearts with those of the choirs of blessed spirits, as to prepare us here on earth for their happy society hereafter in heaven.

Let it be remembered, however, at the same time, that the influence of the Holy Spirit will be ineffectual upon our souls without our own co-operation with it. For although our blessed Saviour has himself assured us," that his Heavenly Father will give the good spirit to those who ask him," (LUKE, c. xiv. v. 13.) and "that to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound" (MATT., c. xxv. v. 29.); yet he has also denounced the most dreadful woes against the unprofitable servant, who, by his negligence and supineness, has

allowed the talent intrusted to him by his Lord to remain unproductive and fruitless. “Cast_ye," said he, "the unprofitable servant into exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (MATT., c. xxv. v. 30.) And the same Apostle, who informs us that "God worketh in us both to will and to do," has likewise exhorted us "to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling." From these and innumerable other passages in the Sacred Scripture, it is perfectly evident, that the grace of the Holy Spirit, unaccompanied by the concurrence of our own exertions, will never beget within us that heavenly frame of mind which is suitable to the enjoyments, and congenial to the dispositions of the happy society of the just made perfect. If, therefore, you wish to become hereafter "partakers of the lot of the saints in light," you must walk, whilst you are here, like children of light; you must accustom yourselves, by faith "to see, as through a glass, in a dark manner," that when "face to face" the beatific vision shall burst upon you in a flood of glory, and "you shall see even as you are seen," you may not, like the obscene birds of night, which shun the light of day, be painfully affected by it, but be duly prepared to exult for ever with transports of joy in its everlasting effulgence, carrolling harmoniously, with your partners in bliss, the praises of him "who was, who is, and who is to come." Like children of light, "you must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them: for the

fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth." (EPH. c. v. v. 9—11.) c. v. v. 9-11.) Avoiding, that is to say, with caution, and fearlessly reprobating the defilements of sin of every description—which, by darkening the understanding and corrupting the heart, render those who are polluted by them unfit for admission into those pure abodes, which "nothing defiled can enter❞—you must endeavour, on the contrary—by the mortification of your passions, the government of your tempers, the purity of your intentions, the gentleness of your manners, and the discharge of every social duty-to acquire, to cultivate, and to improve such settled habits of soul, as, when perfected in glory, will be suited at once to the joys of heaven, and to the blissful society of its glorious inhabitants.

Many, I know, there are who fondly persuade themselves that although during life their minds may have been wedded to the things of earth, and heaven in a manner shut out from their thoughts, yet, if, at the eve of their dissolution, they have an opportunity, as they imagine, of making their peace with God, by having recourse to the Sacrament of penance, and of complying with such other rites of the church as are usually administered on that awful occasion, they will be ultimately admitted "into the joy of their Lord." But this, my friends, is a most deplorable delusion. For, although it be allowed that, by a miracle of grace, an habitual sinner may be transformed, in his last moments, into a saint, of which we have one solitary example recorded in the Sacred Scripture-yet, St Paul in

forms us, that "what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap; for that he who soweth in the flesh, of the flesh also he shall reap corruption; but that he who soweth in the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." (GAL. c. v. v. 8.) Neither let the religious formalist "take the flattering unction to his soul," that because he abstains from scandalous excesses which would disgrace him in the eyes of men-that because, moreover, he is laudably exact in the discharge of his sacred duties of public and of private worship, and punctual in the observance of the ordinances of the church, he is therefore duly qualified to be a fellow-citizen of the saints in heaven; whilst, by the irritability of his temper, the severity of his judgments, and the asperity of his censures, he is a perpetual cause of uneasiness, of discord and animosities to his fellow creatures upon earth. The peace and concord of the mansions of bliss are incompatible with the character of such turbulent inmates.

Think not, my friends, that the preparatory discipline, which I have represented to you as necessary to enable you to acquire such habits of soul as the nature of the enjoyments and the character of the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem essentially demand, will operate to the detriment of your temporal interests. It will require you, it is true, "to seek, in the first place, the kingdom of God and his righteousness;" but having secured that point, it will oppose no obstacle whatever to an upright, diligent, and vigorous prosecution of your earthly

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