XVIII.

ordered mind, a good conscience, and a SERMON cheerful submission to the will of Heaven. You know not what shall be on to-mor-row. But there is one who knows it well; for his decree hath fixed it. To him look up with reverence; and say, "Not

my will, but thine be done; what thou appointest is ever wise, and just, and good.” Seek to fulfil the part which he hath assigned you; to do the things which he hath commanded you to do; and leave all the rest to him. Whatever to-morrow brings forth, let it find you employed in doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with your God; and then you shall meet to-morrow without fear, when you meet it without the upbraidings of guilt.

If it shall bring forth to you any unexpected good, prepare to receive it with gratitude, temperance, and modesty. If it shall bring forth evil, prepare to receive it with manly fortitude. Let no events any kind derange your equanimity, or shake your constancy. Contract your desires, and moderate your hopes. Expect not more from the world than it is able to

of

afford

SERMON afford you.

XVIII.

Take it for granted, that what is naturally mutable, will one day change; that what was designed to be transient, will pass away.-Look forward to futurity without impatience. Be not desirous to know it. It belongs to God. Let him bring forward the events of the world, in his own way. Imagine that you continually hear those words, which our Lord once addressed to Peter, when he was inquiring about what was to happen to a fellow-disciple, What is that to thee? Follow thou me. Amidst all the uncertainty of future events, this road of clear and plain duty lies before you; follow Christ, and enquire no farther. Seek no crooked path, in order to avoid impending dangers. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left; but commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in bim, and he shall bring to pass the desires of thy heart.

V. BUILD your hopes of happiness on somewhat more solid and lasting than what either to-day or to-morrow are likely to produce. From what has been said, you may clearly perceive, that he who

rests

rests wholly upon this world, builds his SERMON house the sand. This life, by means

upon

of wisdom and virtue, may be rendered to a good man, a tolerable, nay a comfortable state. But he who expects complete happiness from it, will be greatly deceived. Man in his most flourishing condition,. were much to be pitied, if he was destitute of any higher hope. Rolling from change to change, throughout all the days of his life, with a dark and unknown prospect always before him in futurity, what would avail a few short interrupted glimpses of happiness, which, from time to time, he was permitted to enjoy? Can we believe, that only for such a state as this, man was designed by his great and good Creator? -No: Let us bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to bis abundant mercy, hath begotten us again into a lively hope, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Here is the Rock on which the mind, however tossed by the storms of life, can securely rest. Here is the object to which, a wise man will bend his chief attention, that,

XVIII.

XVIII.

SERMON after having acted his part on earth with fidelity and honour, he may be enabled, through the merits of his Saviour, to look for a place in the mansions of eternal and untroubled peace. This prospect is the great corrective of the present vanity of human life. It gives significancy and importance to its most transitory scenes; and, in the midst of its mutability, discovers one fixed point of rest. He who is habitually influenced by the hope of immortality, will be able to look without dismay on the changes of the world. He will neither boast of to-morrow, nor be afraid of it; but will pass through the varieties. of life with a manly and unbroken mind; with a noble superiority to those fears and expectations, those cares and sorrows, which agitate the multitude.-- Such are the native effects of Christian faith and hope. To them alone it belongs, to surmount all the discouragements to which we are now exposed; to render our life comfortable, and our death blessed; nay, to make the day of our death, better than the day of our birth.

SERMON XIX.

On following the MULTITUDE to do

EVIL.

EXODUS, Xxiii. 2.

Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.—

IN

XIX.

N this world, we are placed as com- SERMON panions and assistants to one another. Depending, for most of the comforts of life, on mutual intercourse and aid, it was necessary, that we should be formed to desire the company, and to take pleasure in the good-will, of our fellows. But this sociability of man, though essential to his present condition, has, like many other good principles, been unhappily warped from its original purpose; and in the pre