Their

to ascertain the state of their souls? prayers may perhaps occupy, taking the morning and evening together, five or ten minutes. Instead of being devoutly said, they may be said without either thought or feeling. The day may be wholly spent in self-gratification. There may be no desire to remember God, no purpose of doing His will, no regret for infirmities and forgetfulness, no sorrow for sin, no longing after holiness, no advance towards heaven. And this, my brethren, is sometimes all the religion, yea in some cases, it is more than all the religion, which persons accounted respectable possess. But can this be all that God looks for at their hands? Can they satisfy themselves, that this is either to do all to the glory of God, or to be working out their salvation with fear and trembling?

And it is the same with their gratitude for the mercies of God in the great work of human redemption. Oh! if men rightly appreciated these mercies, they would rejoice in the Lord always; they would delight to speak good of His Name; their language would be, "Praise the Lord, O my soul, As long as I live will I praise the Lord, yea, as long as I have any being, I will sing praises unto my God." Their grateful inquiry would be, "What reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits He hath done

unto me?" Then, of the Holy Communion they would constantly partake, shewing forth in faith and love the Lord's death until His coming again. Then they would understand the Psalmist's words, "I was glad when they said unto me, we will go into the courts of the Lord, our feet shall stand in thy gates, O Jerusalem." But is it so with many of those who are accounted respectable? Have they any delight in religion? Do they, so much as on the Sunday, join with their voice, when the praises of God are sung? Do they uniformly attend at the Lord's Supper? Is it joy to them, and not a task to come to the Lord's House? Let their own hearts furnish an answer. And sure I am, that answer will warrant all that I have said about its being quite possible for a person to be highly respectable, and yet at the same time to be a stranger to the realities of religion; and that therefore it is quite possible that men reputed respectable may in the end be rejected by their Saviour.

What then, my brethren, I would press upon you in conclusion, is this: that you should judge of your spiritual condition—that is, how far you are in a state of grace and safety-by some better test, than that of your living a quiet, inoffensive life. The test you should refer to is the feeling of your heart both towards God and man,

and the character of your behaviour in your daily life. Love to God and glad devotion to His service; love to man and unfailing readiness to do him good, these graces are indispensable if you would have a well-grounded hope of salvation. Oh! trust not then to your respectability in the eyes of the world, but look to the state of your hearts, as subject to the knowledge of God. Ever remember, that true religion consists not in merely embracing the creed of the Church, or in adopting the forms and phraseology of Christianity. It is something more than the profession of new principles or the acquisition of new hopes; it is a real abiding of the soul with God by the power of faith; devout communion with Him in prayer and praise; an habitual consciousness of His presence; a joyful assurance of His favour, an entire surrender of every thing to His will. Oh! be assured that to live to God is a great reality. It is not the work of the fancy. It is not the fictitious result of artificial effort. It is a constant, solemn, true, soul-sustaining intercourse with Him, in whom "we live and move and have our being." It is a widely different thing from that conventional kind of religion, that Sunday devotion, that religion of coldness and stiffness and barren proprieties with which so many are satisfied. Difficult it is, if not impos

sible, to convey to those, who have never made trial of it, a proper understanding of its real nature. Those only know its blessedness who have attained this knowledge by happy experience. To the real life of God in the soul all others are strangers. See then whether you have any such knowledge as this of the nature of true religion. Be not satisfied with such a measure of religion as will just suffice to make you respectable. But seek for something deeper, more powerful, more full of life and joy and peace than this. Seek for that kind of religion which will bring you into direct, personal and happy communion with God; and that measure of it, which will raise you above the world, make you walk worthy of your high calling in Christ, and qualify you for the inheritance of the saints in light. Let your religion be characterized by that length and breadth, that depth and height, that power and fulness and all-pervading virtue, that it may impart to you joy in the time of health, comfort in the time of trouble, hope in the hour of death, and confidence in the day of judgment.

SERMON VII.

ASCETICISM NOT HOLINESS.

1 ST. PETER i. 15, 16.

"But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy."

As one great object of Christianity is to provide a remedy for the mischief of the fall, so while it teaches us the necessity and blessedness of holiness, it furnishes us also with the means of attaining to it. The transmission of a sinful nature from the first transgression of Adam, through all succeeding generations, is a fact not more mysterious than undeniable. We are naturally inclined to evil. Our readiness to sin is not to be ascribed to the force of example, or to a deficiency of education. We do not require to be instructed in its ways, nor are arguments needed to induce us to commit it. Indeed it is not more true that naked we all came into the world, than it is that we all are born in sin. In after life a visible difference may exist between one man and another.

K