A DISCOURSE.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.. 1 Cor. v. 1.

That we are mortal, and that we are soon, very soon, to enter the eternal world, is a truth which no individual of our race has the hardihood to deny. The truth may have no practical influence upon either the heart or the life, yet every man admits it, and every man also admits that it is a truth of the last importance. A truth with which he ought never to trifle-no not for a moment.

We are met here this morning from different quarters, and of different ages, and we are all met in one assembly for the first, and for the last time, on this side eternity. We were never all assembled before in any one place, and we will never again all meet in any other place till with our eyes we shall see the dead small and great stand before God.

It is our wisdom, not our folly, to have this great and important fact frequently brought home to our hearts as well as to our understandings. We are soon to close our eyes forever upon all the beauties of this lower world.-We must soon give up to other owners these profitable farms, and these elegant and commodious dwellings, and these extensive commercial speculations. We must soon part with all these useful and agreeable companions—and these bodies of ours, so active and so curiously organized, are soon to be laid in the dust. And where will the soul, the better part, then be-? Shall it wing its way into the regions of bliss-to the mansions in the skies-and make one

of the innumerable company who drink of everlasting pleasures? or shall it descend to the blackness and darkness of eternal death-?

Among those wise men who, by constantly keeping thé fact of their mortality before them, have made this fact subservient to the noblest of purposes, the apostle Paul holds a distinguished place. He habitually remembered that he was mortal-and therefore did not consider any of the sufferings to which he was exposed in the present life, as of any great account. "They were but light afflictions, and only for a moment. The sufferings of the present life were not worthy to be compared with the glory which was to bę revealed." He was mortal-his bodily frame was soon to be dissolved-but in this dissolution he was not to be the loser. Suppose I am killed-suppose my body crushed in the service of my master! What then! "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

Should the worst come to the worst-the worst which can possibly happen is intimately connected with the very best thing which God has to bestow. The worst that the wicked can do to a faithful servant of our Lord, is to send him to heaven. In the very worst possible case the faithful servant of our Lord has the advantage, as much as a building of God is beyond a mere tabernacle, or an hea venly house is better than an earthly, or that which is eternal is better than that which may be dissolved.

These bodies of ours are fearfully and wonderfully made. The muscular arm-the sparkling eye-the expressive ́countenance-the nimble limb-all proclaim their divine workmanship. But the whole structure is only tem porary. We dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust; and we are crushed sooner than the moth.

Ever since sin came into the world this beautiful and apparently strong fabric has been in its best state crazy and tottering, and the inhabitant has frequently much to do to keep it in only tolerable repair. It must be daily proped by food. It must be fenced by raiment from the injuries of the weather, the very changes of which sensibly effect it-and the aid of the physician, with the experience of a thousand years, must frequently be called in. And yet after all, there is no keeping of it standing beyond a small number of years. If outward troubles, like so many storms, do not overturn it--if it is not crushed by the innumerable accidents of the moment-it is but for some pro-. vision to miss its proper channel, or a few drops of blood to run out of their proper vessel-it is but for some string to crack by frequent use, or some small passage to be choaked up, or some small portion of the usual food not to produce the usual effect--and it falls all at once. The dust returns to the dust as it was, and from the most lovely and enchanting object, it is in a few hours transformed into the vilest and most loathsome.

Among the many causes which produce the dissolution of the fair and stately building-the action of the mind,-the action of the inhabitant upon the clay tenement, is none of the least. We have all felt the effects of this action.Grief preys upon the animal spirits, makes us forget our daily and necessary food, and in a few days or months crushes the whole frame. Intense application' of any kind, gives an unnatural impulse to the animal fluids, raises the. pulse to the rapidity of fever, and by beating and beating on every fibre, soon leaves the whole system a wreck. And if to these are added great anxiety for the fate of some fayourite object, and a continual vibration betwixt hope and fear, betwixt the highest joys and the most pungent sor rows, the strongest constitution with which ever mortaļ

was endowed, unless supported by some counteracting principles, will not last long.

And of all the occupations of man, the ministerial office, when sufficiently understood, and entered upon with becoming spirit, produces the greatest action of the mind upon the clay tabernacle. Here there is the most intense application, for the whole soul is engaged. And here the labour is of such a kind, that all the varieties of hopes and fears of joys and sorrows, are continually operating upon the man. And to this point we would particularly turn your attention at this time. And in illustra ting it, we shall simply glance at a few obvious factsfacts so obvious that it will require very little stretch of thought to make the suitable application.

Christian friends and fellow mortals, we watch for souls, each of whom is of more value than a world-we watch for those souls for whom the Son of God laid down his life. And we watch for those souls, as those who are to give an account; and who are to account for the loss of souls, at the peril of the loss of their own souls.

We are the representatives or agents of Jehovah in his great work of reconciling the world to himself. We are ́entrusted in a great measure with the execution of the most glorious of all God's plans the plan to which all his other works of creation and providence are made subser vient.

The final result of our labours can never in any case be a matter of indifference. It is in every case either a soul saved, or a soul lost. To one we are the savour of death unto death, and to the other savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? And who is there, who being daily and hourly impressed with a sense of this vast responsibllity, has not his mind agitated with hopes and fears, with joys and sorrows, far beyond any thing which is felt in any of the other departments of human life? The

apostle himself, when he determined to know nothing as mong them to whom he laboured, save Jesus and him crucified, was with them in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

But again. Those souls, for whom we ought to travail as in birth, are not generally sensible either of their own yalue, or of their own danger-or of the value and suitableness of the salvation which is offered to them in the gospel. They weary men, and they weary our God also. They daily give occasion of grief to those who in some measure feel for their situation, and they daily grieve God's good and Holy Spirit. "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." "How shall I give thee up Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim?Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together."

And how often are the most flattering prospects of ministerial success blasted? This or the other individual gives some evidence of being awakened. The servant of souls enters with exquisite feelings into all the supposed feelings of the supposed convert. He weeps with him when he weeps, and he partakes also largely of his joys. But after a few weeks or months of alternate distress and alternate joy, he returns again to the world, or he sinks down into a cold and lifeless profession. And the servant of souls has now to weep by himself, for the object of his grief cannot enter into his feelings. Hear the declaration of an apostle, 2 Cor. xii. 20, 21. "For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not; lest there be de

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