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If it were to grow remiss in its high functions, the sunken rocks, the treacherous quicksands, would soon be the scenes of frightful tragedies; or those worse foes to seamen than rocks or quicksands-ignorant or drunken pilots-yes, let pilots hear that; worse are they than the rock, worse than the quicksand, if they be ignorant or drunken-these would soon multiply, and make playthings of the life and property of thousands.

But we have no fears that this Corporation will relax in its industry, Let us rather, in conclusion, speak of the industry required from all in their spiritual capacity, as Christians, as candidates for the kingdom of heaven. It is not the representation of Scripture, however it may be the imagination of numbers, that religion is an easy thing, so that immortality may be secured with no great effort on the part of the sinner. The Christian life is likened to a battle in which we may be defeated, to a race in which we may be outstripped, to a stewardship in which we may be unfaithful. Who indeed, that thinks for a moment on the virtues required from us as Christians,-charity, temperance, meekness, patience, humility, contentment,-will imagine that a believer may be idle, finding nothing in his spiritual calling to exercise diligence? These virtues, we may venture to say, are all against nature, only to be acquired through strife with ourselves, and preserved by constant war. And though Divine grace alone can enable us whether to acquire or

preserve, it does not supersede our own efforts; it makes those efforts effectual, but never works in us but by and through ourselves.

Be then industrious in religion: we can tolerate indolence any where rather than here,-here where Eternity is at stake,-here where an hour's sluggishness may be fatal. We have no respect, indeed, for

the indolent man, let his indolence show itself in what form it may. One of your idlers, who sleeps away life, doing listlessly what he is compelled to do, and only pleased when he can be left undisturbed, hardly deserves the name of man,-man's characteristic is restlessness; restlessness foretels his immortality; and the sluggard, by his apathy, seems to destroy the mark, and silence the prophecy. But, if contemptible in other things, indolence may not be actually fatal: the indolent man may have wealth which secures him against want; and by the occasional exercise of rare talents, he may, even in spite of habitual sluggishness, attain to some measure of distinction. But an indolent Christian,-it is a sort of contradiction; Christianity is industry spiritualized the sluggard in religion would be a sluggard in escaping from the burning house, or the sinking ship, but who ever loitered when death was at his heels?

Let us work, then, "while it is called to-day;" "the night cometh when no man can work." The sentence of our text has gone forth, and all must submit, "dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt

return." There is no exemption for greatness, none for goodness. The path of glory, the path of science, the path of usefulness, all alike terminate in the grave. The time is at hand when all of us, though widely separated in earthly circumstances, must lie down together in the dust. But if dust we are, and unto dust we must return, immortal also we are, and over us death hath no abiding power. We will not, then, repine that sin hath brought death into the world; we will rejoice that Christ hath brought "life and immortality to light by his Gospel." Shipwrecked we must be: life is but a voyage, and every barque sinks at last, a broken and dislocated thing. But we have but to steer by the chart of the Gospel, and take as our pole-star the Redeemer, which is Christ, and the shattered vessels shall yet be found floating in the haven where we would be: body and soul are reserved alike for glorious destiny; the corruptible shall put on incorruption, the mortal immortality.

SERMON V.

THE SHIPWRECK.

JONAH i. 4, 5.

"But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep."

You will probably all remember how it came to pass that Jonah was brought into these perilous circumstances. In his character of a prophet, he had received directions from God to hasten to Nineveh, and to announce the near ruin of that mighty and idolatrous capital. But Jonah probably thought that he should be treated with insult, if not put to death, by the Ninevites: he, therefore, resolved to disobey, and, embarking in a ship bound for Tarshish,

'Preached before the Corporation of Trinity House, on Trinity Monday, 1846.

directed his course to the opposite quarter from that enjoined him by God. But God had his eye on his rebellious servant, and would not suffer him to proceed undisturbed in transgression. Lord as He is of the elements, so that He "bringeth the wind out of his treasures," He could raise a sudden and mighty tempest, and thus effectually intercept the disobedient Prophet. And this, we read, He did; the storm which overtook the vessel being evidently of no ordinary kind, but such as forced the mariners to a conviction, that, from some cause or another, the anger of an incensed Deity pursued them.

Now if it were in the power of circumstances to make men religious, there is no class of persons with whom we might expect to find more of piety than with mariners, those who "go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters." Well might the Psalmist say, and the hearts of many in this assembly can respond to the words, "These men see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." There is no portion of the globe so wonderful in its manifestation of divinity as the ocean. Whether it sleep beautifully in the tranquillities of an unbroken calm, or be wrought by the hurricane into madness, it is a more stupendous object, wakening sublimer thoughts, and prompting to loftier musings, than the most glorious combination of valley and mountain.

If, then, any part of this creation is to bring men into acquaintance with the Creator, to teach them

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