say, "This year thy soul shall be required of thee!" What if God should say to you as to the barren figtree, "Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none : cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground ?"-Has not this been exemplified in innumerable instances? What, if God should dash to pieces your schemes! or, what is worse still, if he should suffer them to succeed-saying, "Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone!" If, instead of darkening the prospect, he should let you succeed, but send leanness into your soul! Psalm cvi. 15.

My dear hearers, you seek happiness in vain, but as you seek it like Moses! Thank God, that there is provision made in Christ Jesus, and his Gospel, for this high privilege! He hath said to every soul of us, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. i. 18. I therefore pray God the Holy Spirit to help you this spiritual things.

new year, especially in

2ndly. But I believe, and rejoice to consider, that there are those here who, like Moses, have true illumination of heart, and who do believe that wealth, and peace, and happiness are alone from God: who, if they are not engaged in undertakings like Moses, have yet a vast undertaking before them in the salvation of their souls; who consider the danger of error, and that even in the Church they may perish in ignorance and vanity, and go through all its services with hardness of heart, unless they have the Spirit and presence of God with

them.

I speak then to such to those who consider it their special privilege to have God with them: who, like Moses, consider it their personal security, and a special

means of separation from the world, and preservation from its errors. I say, therefore, such seasons as these are useful. It is most useful, when entering into a new year, to review the past. How instructive have been the political events of the past year! but the most interesting thing is to take a review of our own lives. Returning seasons are useful in calling us up to reflection; in leading us to seek fresh direction; in exciting us to the correction of past errors; and to form, in the strength of God, fresh resolutions, that we may rely more on God. Prayer, like that of Moses, is our best defence on all occasions.

There is not a man among us that can have any conception of what we may have to meet in a single day!* But in all contingencies, if we can but offer in faith the prayer of Moses-if we can say, If thou wilt but go with me, keep me, direct me, hide me in the secret of thy tabernacle ;--then, who is he that shall harm me?

"Ill tidings never can surprise

His heart, that fix'd on God relies,

Though waves and tempests roar around.
Safe on the Rock he sits and sees

The shipwreck of his enemies,

And all their hope and glory drown'd."

Now a wise man will be endeavoring to put up this prayer for himself, and his family, on entering this new year: and, as a benevolent man, anxious for the welfare of the nation, and of the Church, he will endeavor to be an intercessor for others. He will come to God as a God of Providence, a God of love, and a God of grace, and plead as Abraham. When the eye of a perplexed soul is turned to the right object, he may rest satisfied for God is ever the hearer of prayer.

* 1803.-Expected invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte.-ED.

3rdly. We may make especial use of the text, as we are dying creatures, passing on from time to eternity. Death is driving his ploughshare over the earth, because sin has entered our world. And shall man be caught by a few splendid vanities, intended only to mock him, when he must be so soon hurried off the stage of life! Should not his first thoughts be directed to an Almighty Friend, who shall guide him through life, be with him in the valley and shadow of death, and afterwards receive him to glory? It was such a Friend that Moses sought when he said, "If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence." In catching sight of such a friend, Job lifts up his head and says, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." With the prospect of such friendship and help, we may safely meet all the events of time and eternity.

THE BETTER PART.

Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from

THE world is a miserable judge of religion: they think it madness or melancholy; they tell you that there is no need for so much of it; forgetting that it is said, "Seek first the kingdom of God." To such as are desirous to honor Christ, and cleave to him, the text is full of encouragement: the Lord seeth not as man seeth he looks at the heart. We have here,

:

I. THE CHOICE OF MARY.

II. THE LORD'S APPROBATION OF HER CHOICE.

I. MARY'S CHOICE. What was it that Mary chose?

She chose salvation by Jesus Christ: she was determined to gather up every word that fell from her Master's lips. When we are obedient to our heavenly calling, we may be said to "choose the good part." No good cometh naturally into the heart: Mary did not choose it of herself: it was the work of the Holy Spirit. While the Greeks counted these things foolishness, and the Jews were stumbled; and while the worldling cared for none of these things, see this woman catching the opportunity, sitting down, and seeming to say, O thou Light of the world, let me but sit at thy feet! and if Martha-though a godly woman, and my sister,-loses herself in the bustle and business of the day, yet, by the help of God, I will seize the occasion-the opportunity for no other such may offer!

A Christian's object is the "one thing needful." The worldly man has ten thousand objects; his business -his pleasure-his credit-his fame; but a true Christian has but one object; every other is comparatively nothing to it. "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" A Christian knows the value of the good creatures of God, but he does not put them in the place of God. He is not inattentive to the duties of his station, but he will first observe the duty he owes to God; he will never substitute earthly things for heavenly. He knows that God can do without any of his creatures, but none of his creatures can do without him.

That may be called true illumination, which perceives the better part and pursues it; which perceives religion to be not merely a case of necessity, but a superior good-the one thing needful-the better part: better than the wisdom of the Greek; better than what the rich fool proposed to himself in pulling down his barns to build greater; better than the state and splen

dor of Dives, who was clothed in purple and fine linen: better than the poor unmeaning professor, who cries, "Lord, Lord!" It appears from our Lord's words that Mary had a sense of security; a conviction that what she had chosen should never be taken from her.

Religion, my dear hearers, is not only a spiritual, but a rational thing. What, asks the Christian, what is there besides, that shall not be taken away? The Christian is the only man that cannot lose his riches: death cannot touch them. He is the only man who has any thing to set the sole of his foot upon.

Mary chose "the better part" with determination and decision. She esteemed the words of Christ as above all the maxims of mere morality. She also chose with certainty, as if she had said, As for me, I will go to the Source for wisdom. Let others consider what is the fashion-what is the thing highest in the world's estimation-I will sit at his feet; I will give up my own opinion; I will take the means to the end. “The Way, the Truth, and the Life," is before me; and every truth that falls from his lips is more precious than gold; another such opportunity may never offer: therefore, I will not let it slip! Let us now consider,

II. THE LORD'S APPROBATION OF MARY'S CHOICE.

What a mercy it is that Christ is our Judge; and while he will speak for us, we need not be anxious to speak for ourselves! Let us learn to leave our character in the hands of Christ. "Jesus said, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." As if he had said, I must tell you, that no worldly care, no temporal concern, must be brought to bear upon this. This alone is THE GOOD THING, Jer. xxxiii. 14;