concerns; whilst, by its happy influence over your minds, it will, at the same time, prevent that carefulness expressly recommended by St Paul in his epistle to the Romans, (Roм. c. xii. v. 11.) from degenerating into the uneasiness of worldly solicitude, which, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, he as positively censures. (1 CORR. c. vii. v. 32.) Nor will it, in any manner, contribute to add to the troubles, or to detract from the comforts of your probationary state. I am persuaded on the contrary, that the effect will be, in reality, the very reverse. For, from whatever source your troubles may arise, whether from the visitation of God, or the malignity of man; from bodily infirmity, or from mental distress; from the casualties of life, or the ravages of death; your resignation to the divine will, and the equability of your temper will greatly tend to mitigate them; whilst blended with the pleasures of the devout affections, accompanied with a conscience exempt from reproach, and attended by the good will of those whose happiness you seek to promote, your comforts, will, I am convinced, be prodigiously augmented. And oh ! the joys, the ecstatic joys,—— oh! the pure, the boundless, the everlasting transports of delight which await you beyond the grave, when, your earthly tabernacles having been dissolved, your disembodied souls will wing their flight to the regions of blessed spirits, of the wise, and of the good of all times, and of all countries, there "to hold high converse with them," and to enjoy with them, throughout eternity, the ineffable "things

which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man (to conceive), but which God hath prepared for them who love him!" Surely, my friends, the consideration of so immense and permanent a remuneration should induce you to submit to any state of preparatory discipline, however rigorous it may be, if necessary, to fit you for the possession of it. For what proportion is there between the severest hardships, afflictions, and troubles, of this transitory life, and the never-ending joys of the next? Courage! then, my poor, afflicted, and distressed friends, courage! I say; suffer not the clouds of dejection and sadness to darken your future prospects. Do not allow them to blot out from your sight those "glorious things which are said of thee, O city of God!" Let them not be permitted, like the cloud mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, which received the blessed Jesus out of the sight of the Apostles, to intercept the view exhibited to you, through the medium of faith, "of that same divine Author and finisher of faith,' who, having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God." (HEB., c. xii. v. 2.) “Think," on the contrary, oh! "think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself," as the Apostle exhorts; "that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds." (HEB., c. xii. v. 3.) And comfort yourselves with the assurance of the same Apostle, that, if you suffer with him at present, you will be glorified with him eternally

hereafter. And that "the present tribulation, which is momentary and light, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory." (2 CORR., c. iv. v. 17.)

In conclusion, my friends, let me call your attention to the words addressed by the Angels to the Apostles, who, when a cloud had “received their Divine Master out of their sight," still continued to gaze, in an ecstacy of admiration upon it, yet bright, it may be presumed, with the irradiations of his glory, as the skirts of the horizon are seen illumined by the reflected rays of the departed sun. "Ye men of Galilee," said those celestial messengers, "why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven." Oh! remember then, my friends, that this same Jesus, whose Ascension into heaven we this day celebrate, will descend again from it at the awful day of final retribution, in great power and majesty, to judge the world; that the just will then be placed on the right hand of the judge, and the wicked on his left; and that by an irrevocable sentence which will then be passed, you will be associated eternally with the former, in the regions of bliss, or linked for ever with the latter, in the regions of despair and misery. And let the serious contemplation of that final issue of all earthly things stimulate you to co-operate with the Holy Spirit, in acquiring that heavenly temper of soul which may qualify you "to become hereafter partakers of the lot of the saints in light.”

SERMON IV.

FESTIVAL OF CORPUS CHRISTI.

ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SACRAMENT OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE SOULS OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE IT, IN THEIR APPROACH TO THE SACRED MYSTERIES.

GOSPEL. John, c. vi. v. 56-59. At that time: Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall live for ever.

THE words of this day's Gospel are part of a discourse delivered by our blessed Saviour at Capharnaum to the multitude who had followed him thither, after they had been miraculously fed with bread, in the wilderness, by the supernatural operation of his divine power. And, as it was his usual custom to avail himself of circumstances which incidentally occurred in communicating his instruction, he took occasion, from the recent miracles which the multitude had witnessed, to elevate their minds to another species of food, with which it was his intention to provide his faithful followers for the nourishment of their souls. "Labour not," said

he, “for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life, which the son of man will give you." The food to which he alluded, he afterwards declared to be his own flesh, representing it figuratively under the appellation of bread. "I," said he, "am the bread of life; I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews, however, unable to conceive the possibility of realising an assertion so incomprehensible to their understandings, were very naturally induced to exclaim, "how can this man give us his flesh to eat?" To this exclamation our blessed Saviour replied in terms, which instead of softening, corroborated, on the contrary, that assertion, and which evidently indicated that they had rightly apprehended his meaning; since he emphatically averred-and that, too, with the most solemn asseveration-that an actual participation of his flesh and blood, revolting as it was to their low conceptions, was nevertheless indispensably necessary for maintaining within them the principle of life. "Then Jesus said to them, amen, amen. I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.' But, that they might not imagine that the principle of life of which he spoke, was that which quickened their corporeal frames, he added,that the vital principle to which he alluded, was a principle of a higher order: that it would impart