the loveliness of a summer landscape, than when winter with its mighty elements sweeps the forest of its leaves,-when the rushing of the storm is heard upon our windows, and man flees to cover himself from the desolation that walketh over the surface of the world.

If nature and her elements be dreadful,

man with all the power of its original as- | lessons from the quarter whence the human cendency,--till the deep, and the searching, heart derives its strongest sensations,-and and the pervading influence of the love of we refer both to your own feelings, and to God be shed abroad in our hearts by the the history of this world's opinions, if God Holy Ghost. This is the work of the great is more felt or more present to your imaMediator. This is the might and the mys-ginations in the peacefulness of spring, or tery of that regeneration, without which we shall never see the kingdom of God. This is the office of Him to whom all power is committed, both in heaven and in earth, who reigning in heaven, and uniting its mercy with its righteousness, causes them to flow upon earth in one stream of celestial influence; and reigning on earth, and working mightily in the hearts of its peo-how dreadful that mysterious and unseen ple, makes them meet for the society of Being, who sits behind the elements he has heaven, thereby completing the wonderful formed, and gives birth and movement to work of our redemption, by which, on the all things! It is the mystery in which he one hand he brings the eye of a holy God is shrouded, it is that dark and unknown to look approvingly on the sinner, and on region of spirits, where he reigns in glory, the other hand, makes the sinner fit for the and stands revealed to the immediate view fellowship, and altogether prepared for the of his worshippers,-it is the inexplicable enjoyment of God. manner of his being so far removed from Such are the great elements of a sinner's that province of sense, within which the religion. But if you turn from the pre-understanding of man can expatiate,-it is scribed use of them, the wrath of God its total unlikeness to all that nature can abideth on you. If you kiss not the Son furnish to the eye of the body, or to the while he is in the way, you provoke his conception of the mind, which animates anger, and when once it begins to burn, they it,-it is all this which throws the Being only are blessed who have put their trust in who formed us at a distance so inaccessi him. If, on the fancied sufficiency of a ble,-which throws an impenetrable mantle righteousness that is without godliness, you over his way, and gives us the idea of some neglect the great salvation, you will not dark and untrodden interval betwixt the escape the severities of that day, when the glory of God, and all that is visible and Being with whom you have to do shall en- created. ter with you into judgment; and it is only by fleeing to the Mediator, as you would from a coming storm, that peace is made between you and God, and that, sanctified by the faith which is in Jesus, you are made to abound in such fruits of righteousness, as shall be to praise and glory at the last and the solemn reckoning.

Now, Jesus Christ has lifted up this mysterious veil, or rather he has entered within it. He is now at the right hand of God; and though the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person, he appeared to us in the palpable characters of a man; and those high attributes of truth, and justice, and mercy, which could Before we conclude, we shall just advert not be felt or understood, as they existed to another sense, in which the Mediator be- in the abstract and invisible Deity, are tween God and man may be affirmed to brought down to our conceptions in a manhave laid his hand upon them bo h:-Hener the most familiar and impressive, by fills up that mysterious interval which lies having been made, through Jesus Christ, between every corporeal being, and the to flow in utterance from human lips, and God who is a spirit and is invisible. to beam in expressive physiognomy from a human countenance.

No man hath seen God at any time, and the power which is unseen is terrible. So long as I had nothing before me but Fancy trembles before its own picture, and the unseen spirit of God, my mind wandered superstition throws its darkest imagery over in uncertainty, my busy fancy was free to it. The voice of the thunder is awful, but expatiate, and its images filled my heart not so awful as the conception of that angry with disquietude and terror. But in the being who sits in mysterious concealment, life, and person, and history of Jesus Christ, and gives it all its energy. In these sketches the attributes of the Deity are brought down of the imagination, fear is sure to predomi- to the observation of the senses; and I can nate. We gather an impression of Nature's no longer mistake them, when in the Son, God, from those scenes where Nature who is the express image of his Father, threatens, and looks dreadful. We speak see them carried home to my understanding not of the theology of the schools, and the by the evidence and expression of human empty parade of its demonstrations. We organs,-when I see the kindness of the speak of the theology of actual feeling, Father, in the tears which fell from his Son that theology which is sure to derive its at the tomb of Lazarus,--when I see his

justice blended with his mercy, in the ex- I see it in his unaltered form when he rose clamation, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem," by triumphant from the grave; I perceive it Jesus Christ; uttered with a tone more tender than the sympathy of human bosom ever prompted, while he bewailed the sentence of its desolation,-and in the look of energy and significance which he threw upon Peter, I feel the judgment of God himself, flashing conviction upon my conscience, and calling me to repent while his wrath is suspended, and he still waiteth to be gracious.

And it was not a temporary character which he assumed. The human kindness, and the human expression which makes it intelligible to us, remained with him till his latest hour. They survived his resurrection, and he has carried them along with him to the mysterious place which he now occupies. How do I know all this? I know it from his history; I hear it in the parting words to his mother from the cross;

in his tenderness for the scruples of the unbelieving Thomas; and I am given to understand, that as his body retained the impression of his own sufferings, so his mind retains a sympathy for ours, as warm, and gracious, and endearing, as ever. We have a Priest on high, who is touched with a fellow feeling of our infirmities. My soul, unable to support itself in its aerial flight among the spirits of the invisible, now reposes on Christ, who stands revealed to my conceptions in the figure, the countenance, the heart, the sympathies of a man. He has entered within that veil which hung over the glories of the Eternal; and the mysterious inaccessible throne of God is divested of all its terrors, when I think that a friend who bears the form of the species, and knows its infirmities, is there to plead for me.

SERMON VII.

The Folly of Men measuring themselves by themselves.

"For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves; but they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."-2 Corinthians, x. 12.

repose in the mediocrity of their actual accomplishments, and of their current and conventional observations.

ST. Paul addressed these words to the an example, it is safe for him to allow in members of a Christian congregation; and himself an equal extent of indulgence; and were we to confine their application to to go the same lengths of laxity or transthose people of the present day, who in gression; and thus, instead of measuring circumstances, bear the nearest resemblance himself by the perfect law of the Almighty, to them, we would, in the present discourse, and making conformity to it the object of have chiefly to do with the more serious his strenuous aspirings,-does he measure and declared professors of the Gospel. Nor himself and compare himself with his felshould we be long at a loss for a very ob- low-mortals,—and pitches his ambition to servable peculiarity amongst them, against no greater height than the accidental level which to point the admonition of the which obtains amongst the members of his Apostle. For, in truth there is a great dis-own religious brotherhood, and finds a quiet position with the members of the religious world, to look away from the unalterable standard of God's will, and to form a standard of authority out of the existing attainments of those whom they conceive to be in the faith. We know nothing that has contributed more than this to reduce the tone of practical Christianity We know not a more insidious security, than that which steals over the mind of him who when he looks to another of eminent name for godliness, or orthodoxy, and perceives in him a certain degree of conformity to the world, or a certain measure of infirmity of temper, or a certain abandonment of himself to the natural enjoyments of luxury, or of idle gossiping, or of commenting with malignant pleasure on the faults and failings of the absent, thinks, that upon such

There is much in this consideration to alarm many of those who within the pale of a select and peculiar circle, look upon themselves as firmly seated in an enclosure of safety. They may be recognized by the society around them as one of us; and they may keep the even pace of acquirement along with them; and they may wear all those marks of distinction which separate them from the general and unprofessing public; and, in respect of Church, and of sacrament, and of family observances, and of exclusive preference for each other's conversation, and of meetings for prayer and the other exercises of Christian fellowship, they may stand most decidedly out

from the world, and most decidedly in with | busy politics of his corporation, triumphs in
those of their own cast and their own de- the consciousness of that sagacity by which
nomination; and yet, in fact, there may he has baffled and overpowered the devices
be individuals, even of such a body as this, of his many antagonists. But take him to
who instead of looking upwards to the the high theatre of Parliament, and bring
Being with whom they have to do, are him into fellowship with the man who has
looking no further than to the testimony there won the mighty game of superiority,
and example of those who are immediately and he will feel abashed at the insignifi-
around them; who count it enough that cance of his own tamer and homelier pre-
they are highly esteemed among men; who tensions. The richest individual of the
feel no earnestness, and put forth no strength district struts throughout his neighbour-
in the pursuit of a lofty sanctification; who hood in all the glories of a provincial emi-
are not living as in the sight of God, and nence. Carry him to the metropolis of the
are not in the habit of bringing their con- empire, and he hides his diminished head
duct into measurement with the principles under the brilliancy of rank far loftier than
of that great day, when God's righteousness his own, and equipage more splendid than
shall be vindicated in the eyes of all his that by which he gathers from his sur-
creatures; who, satisfied, in short, with the rounding tributaries, the homage of a re-
countenance of the people of their own spectful admiration. The principle of all this
communion, come under the charge of my vanity was seen by the discerning eye of
text, that measuring themselves by them- the Apostle. It is put down for our instruc-
selves and comparing themselves among tion in the text before us. And if we, instead
themselves, they are not wise.
of looking to our superiority above the level
of our immediate acquaintanceship, pointed
an eye of habitual observation to our inferi-
ority beneath the level of those in society
who are more dignified and more accomplish-
ed than ourselves, such a habit as this might
shed a graceful humility over our charac-
ters, and save us from the pangs and the
delusions of a vanity which was not made
for man.

Now, though this habit of measuring ourselves by ourselves, and comparing ourselves among ourselves, be charged by the Apostle, in the text, against the professors of a strict and peculiar Christianity; it is a habit so universally exemplified in the world, and ministers such a deep and fatal security to the men of all characters who live in it, and establishes in their hearts so firm a principle of resistance against the humbling doctrines of the New Testament, that we trust we shall be excused if we leave out, for a time, the consideration of those who are within the limits of the Church, and dwell on the operation of this habit among those who are without these limits; and going beyond that territory of observation to which the words now read would appear to restrict us, we shall attend to the effects of that principle in human nature which are there adverted to, in as far as it serves to fortify the human mind against an entire reception of the truths and the overtures of the Gospel.

And let it not be said of those, who, in the more exalted walks of life, can look to few or to none above them, that they can derive no benefit from the principle of my text, because they are placed beyond the reach of its application. It is true of him who is on the very pinnacle of human society, that standing sublimely there, he can cast a downward eye on all the ranks and varieties of the world. But, though in the act of looking beneath him to men, he may gather no salutary lesson of humility-the lesson should come as forcibly upon him as upon any of his fellow mortals, in the act of looking above him to God. Instead of comIt may be remarked, by way of illustra-paring himself with the men of this world, tion, that the habit condemned in the text is let him leave the world and expatiate in an abundant cause of that vanity which is thought over the tracts of immensity,-let founded on a sense of our importance. If, him survey the mighty apparatus of worlds instead of measuring ourselves by our com- scattered in such profusion over its distant panions and equals in society, we brought regions; let him bring the whole field of the ourselves into measurement with our supe- triumphs of his ambition into measurement riors, it might go far to humble and chastise with the magnificence that is above him, our vanity. The rustic conqueror on some and around him,-above all, let him rise arena of strength or of dexterity, stands through the ascending series of angels, and proudly elevated among his fellow-rustics principalities, and powers, to the throne of who are around him. Place him beside the re- the august Monarch on whom all is susturned warrior, who can tell of the hazards, pended, and then will the lofty imaginaand the achievements, and the desperations tion of his heart be cast down, and all of the great battle in which he had shared vanity die within him. the renown and the danger; and he will stand convicted of the humility of his own performances. The man who is most keen, and, at the same time, most skilful in the

Now, if all this be obviously true of that vanity which is founded on a sense of our importance, might it not be as true of that complacency which is founded on a sense

is worthy, and all that is respectable in general estimation. There is not a congregated mass of human beings, associated in one common pursuit, or brought together by one common accident, among whom there is not established either some tacit or proclaimed morality, to the observance of which, or to the violation of which, there is awarded admiration or disgrace, by the voice of the society that is formed by them. You cannot bring two or more human beings to act in concert without some conventional principle of right and wrong arising out of it, which either must be practically held in regard, or the concert is dissipated. And yet it may be altogether a

of our worth. Should it not lead us to sus- I. The folly of measuring ourselves by pect the ground of this complacency, and to ourselves is a lesson which admits of many fear lest a similar delusion be misleading us illustrations. The habit is so universal. It into a false estimate of our own righteous- is so strikingly exemplified, even among the ness? When we feel a sufficiency in the most acknowledged outcasts from all that act of measuring ourselves by ourselves, and comparing ourselves among ourselves, is it not the average virtue of those around us that is the standard of measurement? Do we not at the time, form our estimate of human worth upon the character of man as it actually is, instead of forming it upon the high standard of that pure and exalted law which tells us what the character ought to be? Is it not thus that many are lulled into security, because they are as good or better than their neighbours? This may do for earth, but the question we want to press is, will it do for heaven? It may carry us through life with a fair and equal character in society, and even when we come to die, it may gain us an epitaph upon our tomb-concert of iniquity. It may be a concert stones. But after death cometh the judgment; and in that awful day judgment is laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet, every refuge of lies will be swept away, and every hiding-place of security be laid open.

of villany and injustice against the larger interests of human society. It may be a banded conspiracy against the peace and the property of the commonwealth; and there may not be a member belonging to it who does not carry the stamp of outlawry Under the influence of this delusion, upon his person, and who is not liable, and thousands and tens of thousands are posting rightly liable, to the penalties of an outtheir infatuated way to a ruined and un-raged government, against which he is biddone eternity. The good man of society ding, by the whole habit of his life, a daily lives on the applause and cordiality of his and systematic defiance. And yet even neighbours. He compares himself with his among such a class of the species as this, fellow-men; and their testimony to the an enlightened observer of our nature will graces of his amiable, and upright, and ho- not fail to perceive a standard of morality, nourable character, falls like the music of both recognized and acted upon by all its paradise upon his ears. And it were also individuals, and in reference to which mothe earnest of paradise, if these his flatterers rality, there actually stirs in many a bosom and admirers in time were to be his judges amongst them a very warm and enthusiin the day of reckoning. But, alas! they astic feeling of obligation,--and some will will only be his fellow-prisoners at the bar. you find, who, by their devoted adherence The eternal Son of God will preside over to its maxims, earn among their compathe solemnities of that day. He will take nions all the distinctions of honour and of the judgment upon himself, and he will virtue, and others who, by falling away conduct it on his own lofty standard of ex- from the principles of the compact, become amination, and not on the maxims or the the victims of a deep and general execrahabits of a world lying in wickedness. Otion. And thus may the very same thing ye deluded men! who carry your heads so high, and look so safe and so satisfied amid the smooth and equal measurements of society, do you ever think how you are to stand the admeasurement of Christ and of his angels? and think you that the fleeting applause of mortals, sinful as yourselves, will carry an authority over the mind of your judge, or prescribe to him that solemn award which is to fix you for eternity?

be perceived with them, that we see in the more general society of mankind-a scale of character, and, corresponding to it, a scale of respectability, along which the members of the most wicked and worthless association upon earth may be ranged according to the gradation of such virtues as are there held in demand, and in reverence; and thus there will be a feeling of complacency, and a distribution of applause, and a conscious superiority of moral and personal attainIn the prosecution of the following dis-ment, and all this grounded on the habit of course, let us first attempt to expose the folly of measuring ourselves by ourselves, and comparing ourselves amongst ourselves; and then point out the wisdom opposite to this folly, which is recommended in the gospel.

measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves amongst themselves.

The first case of such an exhibition which we offer to your notice, comes so aptly in for the purpose of illustration, that homely and familiar as it is, we cannot resist the

introduction of it We allude to the case never think of the ignominy. They will of smugglers. These men, in as far at least enjoy the praise they have one of another, as it respects one tie of allegiance, may be and care not for the distant blame that is considered as completely broken loose from cast upon them by the public voice. They the government of their country. They will carry in their bosoms the swelling have formed themselves into a plot against consciousness of worth, and be regaled by the interests of the public revenue, and it the home testimony of those who are about may be generally said of them, that they them; and all this at the very time when, have no feeling whatever of the criminality to the general community, they offer a specof their undertaking. On this point there tacle of odiousness; all this at the very is utterly wanting the sympathy of any time, when the power and the justice of an common principle between the administra-incensed government are moving forth upon tors of the law and the transgressors of the them. law, and yet it would be altogether untrue But another case, still more picturesque, to nature and to experience to say of the and, what is far better, still more subservilatter, that they are entire strangers to the ent to the establishment of the lesson of our feeling of every moral obligation. They text, may be taken from another set of adhave a very strong sense of obligation to venturers, hardier, and more ferocious, and each other. There are virtues amongst more unprincipled than the former. We them which serve to signalize certain mem- allude to the men of rapine; and who, rather bers, and vices amongst them which doom than that their schemes of rapine should be to infamy certain other members of their frustrated, have so far overcome all the own association. In reference to the duties scruples and all the sensibilities of nature, which they owe to government, they may that they have become men of blood. They be dead to every impression of them. But live as commoners upon the world; and, at in reference to those duties, on the punctual large from those restraints, whether of feelfulfilment of which depends the success, or ing or of principle, which hold in security even the continuance, of their system of together the vast majority of this world's operations, they may be most keenly and families, they are looked at by general sosensitively alive. They may speak of the ciety with a revolting sense of terror and informer who has abandoned them, with of odiousness. And yet, among these monall the intensity of moral hatred and con- sters of the cavern, and practised as they tempt; and of the man, again, who never are in all the atrocities of the highway, will once swerved from his fidelity; of the man, you find a virtue of their own, and a highwho, with all the notable dexterity of his toned morality of their own. Living as they evasions from the vigilance that was sent do, in a state of emancipation from the law forth to track and to discover him, was universal, still there is among them a law ever known to be open as day amongst the isoterical, in doing homage to which, the members of his own brotherhood; of the hearts of these banditti actually glow with man, who, with the unprincipledness of a the movements of honourable principle; most skilful and systematic falsehood, in and the path of their conduct is actually reference to the agents and pursuers of the made to square with the conformities of law, was the most trusty, and the most in- right and honourable practice. Extraordicorruptible, in reference to his fellows of nary as you may think it, the very habit of the trade; of the man who stands highest my text is in full operation among these amongst them in all the virtues of pledged very men, who have wandered so far from and sworn companionship;-why, of such all that is deemed righteous in society; and a man will these roving mountaineers speak disowning, as they do, our standard of prinin terms of honest and heartfelt veneration; ciple altogether, they have a standard among and nothing more is necessary, in order to themselves, on which they can adjust a scale throw a kind of chivalric splendour over of moral estimation, and apply it in every him, than just to be told, along with his in- exercise of judgment on the character of flexible devotedness to the cause, of his each individual who belongs to them. In hardy adventures, and his hair-breadth mi- reference to every deviation that is made racles of escape, and his inexhaustible re-by them from the general standard of right, sources, and of the rapidity of his ever-suiting and ever-shifting contrivances, and of his noble and unquelled spirit of daring, and of the art and activity by which he has eluded his opponents, and of the unfaltering courage by which he has resisted them. We doubt not, that even in the history of this ignominious traffic, there do occur such deeds and characters of unrecorded heroand still the men who carry it on, measuring themselves by themselves, may

ism;

there is an entire obliteration of all their sensibilities,-and this is not the ground on which they ever think either of reproaching themselves, or of casting any imputation of disgrace on their companions. But, in reference to their own particular standard of right, they are all awake to the enormity of every act of transgression against it, and thus it is, that measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves amongst themselves, there is just with them