can only make the advance for which it is prepared, and in the other it cannot be thrown back far beyond the point for which it has ripened. There is a spirit in the earth, and destined to rule the earth, by which the poor, the mass of mankind, shall be blessed, and which will make them heirs of the kingdom of heaven, the only universal and everlasting monarchy. In contemplating the destiny of mankind, we quicken our love for mankind. Our hearts overflow with that intense and yet expanded benevolence which makes man perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect. This love is perfection. As the imagination of Christ dwelt on the glorious vision of a redeemed world, he was strengthened to accomplish the world's redemption. The universal good thus becomes our own individual good; it is realized in our minds, longed for by our hearts, and striven for with our energies. This is the spiritual life in us, an emanation of Almighty love. And so we ascend towards, as well as trace out, our own destiny in that of mankind. The full, proportionate, and perfect development of our nature is that for which we were called into existence; that which the gospel stimulates us to realize as far as possible here, and promises us in ampler measure hereafter, when, by the transformation of death, this mortal shall put on immortality. And it is God who is working all this; in us and by us; in others and by others; he is all, in all; the universal spirit, and in that spirit the universe is blessed. Let our bosoms glow with his love, and our voices sing his praise, making melody in our hearts.

10*

SERMON VIII.

THE LAW OF LABOR.

2 THESSALONIANS iii. 10.

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

The First Epistle to the Thessalonians seems to have been so interpreted, as to induce the expectation that the end of the world was at hand. This expectation was the occasion, or the pretext, of various disorders. Amongst other evils was this, that some of the disciples abandoned their worldly occupations, and claimed support from the funds, which had been, it is probable, collected only for the maintenance of the poor. They thought they had only to exist till the great convulsion came. The apostle, having first explained that this speedy anticipation was a mistake, proceeds to reprobate the irregularities which had resulted. He especially reminds them of the example he had set, and the precepts he had given, before that urgent occasion for their application had arisen. While with them, he had labored with his own hands, and had commanded 'that if any would not work, neither should he eat.' They had, therefore, been rebuked by anticipation-by

language and by conduct which was not got up for the particular emergency, but which had internal evidence of its arising out of the permanent spirit and general principles of the Gospel. The rebuke was the better adapted to impress their minds with a sense of its truth and justice. Often has this early instance of the errors and wanderings of enthusiasm been repeated or imitated, and it has been needful, like the apostle, to appeal to the plain and everlasting principles of morality.

And the apostle's maxim is a valid appeal to those principles. The laws of revelation are the laws of nature; and the precepts of Christianity are expositions of the dealings of Providence. The text declares concerning the individual, that which creation. declares of universal humanity. The earth is the Lord's, and he hath given it to the sons of men: and mankind collectively have a divinely chartered property in, and dominion over, the land, the waters, the air, and their various animate and inanimate productions; but it is only by labor that this gift is accepted, that this property is realized, that this dominion is exercised, and the treasures of the world rendered available for the purposes of support and of enjoyment. Profusely as earth pours forth her stores to the hand of industry, it is only to the hand of industry that she pours them forth; and notwithstanding the spontaneous fertility of some particular spots, it is true of the human race, as a whole, that if they did not work, neither could they eat. Without toil, all the palmy state and beautiful adornments of existence; all the memorials of the past and the prospects of fu

turity; all the overflowings of intellect, and the comforts of civilization, would disappear; the populous city would soon become a wilderness; marshes and forests would reassume their ancient reign over the wide lands redeemed by art and industry; the human race would dwindle to a few savages, whose subsistence would be not more wretched than precarious; and the world would retrograde, first to a moral and mental, and then almost to a physical, chaos. Human labor is the hand of the Lord by which, in nature's wilderness, gardens of Eden are planted, and watered, and stored with all that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, till, in their energetic fruitfulness, there grow the trees of knowledge and of life. And it is a wise and blessed condition of things. This necessity for labor has been the main-spring of human improvement. It has stimulated inventions, and conducted to discoveries, and developed sciences, and organized society. 'Labor and sorrow' may have been companions, but indolence and wretchedness would have been everlastingly associated. That companionship is only for a Dignity and joy are labor's offspring. The infinitely blessed being is a being of eternal and essential activity. The language of man's perfect exemplar was, 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.' The natural, the revealed, the moral law of labor, is a law of love.

time.

Very much of the happiness of the world, and of individuals, depends on this law of labor being rightly understood and cheerfully obeyed. It then becomes the abundant source of enjoyment and improvement

in the community, in the household, and in the church. To evade, break, or misapply it, is to produce injustice, degradation, and suffering. Yet by vanity, idleness, or selfishness, are these experiments incessantly made, and in spite of uniform failure, incessantly repeated. The opposite extremes of society both furnish instances, and both injurious to society and destructive to the individuals, of attempts to live without labor.

Heavy as is the pressure on the lower classes of the community, it is yet beyond doubt that great numbers have voluntary recourse to beggary or theft from impatience of the restrained life of regular industry, and the hope of obtaining a larger supply of their wants and desires with greater ease. It is useless preaching to such; they do not commonly present themselves for moral instruction. It may not be useless to preach concerning them to others, whose very opinions, properly expressed at proper times, may do much to mitigate, and ultimately remove the evil. Children of industry, respectable, thriving, moral, what would you think of yourselves, if some member of your own family were left, from very infancy, without any care to form his mind or heart; if every bad passion were allowed to grow unchecked; if he were turned out into the streets, to associate with the vilest, and catch every physical and moral infection; if, as might be expected, he soon sounded the depths of profligacy and iniquity; if to him all reputation was the admiration of successful trickery or violence, and all enjoyment, the indulgence of the grossest animal appetites; if to the thick