strengthens, receiving back the bliss it creates around, this, and this only, is everlasting life.

It was Christ's love that so often disarmed the misled and frantic multitude, that shielded him so long against the fierce vindictiveness of the authorities, that drew around him a devoted band of followers, renouncing all things; and of peasants and fishermen made moral heroes and religious sages, apostles, martyrs, the world's instructers and examples. It was the in-dwelling in their hearts of this self-same principle that made their characters as disciples correspond with his character as their master; that expanded to his teachings their untutored minds; that obliterated their prejudices, and purified their desires, and transformed them into his glorious image. This made them say so confidently of their future progress, 'we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' And this is the Christian principle, which, whenever it can be deeply rooted in young hearts, shall make the tree of life grow on earth as in the Paradise of God, and herald the true millennium, the real reign of Christ.

3rd. The manifestation of the principle of goodness must always be modified by the state of society in which we live.

As the principle is everlasting, so will be its most elementary manifestations. And these constitute so much of morality as is properly called everlasting. Amongst the most obvious of these are the Jewish commandments cited in the text. Such things as fraud and falsehood, rapine and murder, and want of due respect and gratitude to parents, ever have been,

and ever must be; sins.

But these, as we have al

ready seen, are but a poor husk and shell of righteousness, which he may have, who, even while Christ loves him, can yet turn back to dwell with Mammon. As virtue is the means of happiness, and as society with all its institutions and diversities of civilization and manners, must largely modify the way in which here we can make either ourselves or others happy, there must needs be a corresponding modification of what constitutes virtue. That which was the test of goodness to the young man in the text would now but be the demonstration of folly. 'Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor.' That would have been his noblest way of promoting human happiness, his shrinking from which showed that he was devoid of the principle of goodness; but the man who should do this now would do only mischief to all parties. He would not secure any real advantage to the poor, he would exercise no moral power over the wealthy, he would only attract the pity or the derision of the entire community. He who loves the poor, will now find better ways of serving them and mankind. By promoting their education, their industry, their personal prudence, and their social rights, he will be following Christ in what the state of society makes the path of usefulness. This now is virtue. To make a literal observance of Christ's direction, virtue, we must turn the world back again, to before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the promulgation of Christianity. The different condition of families,-for households without slaves and a despotic master, are a novelty since those days; the different condition of

political society,-for that so many of the people should have a portion in the solemn responsibilities and wide influences of legislation, by representative government, is a novelty since those days; the very different state of mankind as to knowledge, for the means of its rapid diffusion, and of the discussion of all its facts and principles, i. e., the consequences of the invention of printing, is another novelty since those days; these are differences which make novelties also in the list of those virtues and vices which powerfully bear upon human happiness or misery. They affect our opinions and our modes of disseminating them, our actions and their consequences. Free inquiry, the great theological virtue of these times, could have little scope, when the divine miracle was seen, and the divine messenger was heard. Patriotism could do little more than sometimes draw the sword for national independence. The duty of reading was a brief duty when the possession of a manuscript was almost that of a little fortune. Man can now do nothing for his fellow-creatures in some cases, where then he might have benefited them; much, in many cases, where then he could do but little; and perhaps, much more in some, where then he could have done nothing at all. Fully to develope this, would be to preach an entire system of moral philosophy, of which, after all, every reflecting individual would perceive some modifications suggested by his own individual circumstances. I have accomplished my purpose, if I have only stimulated your minds to cultivate the principle of goodness, and study its details, ever keeping in view their object,—the production of

human happiness. For what is the summary of the whole matter? "The first and great commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, thy mind and strength." And the second is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets:' and on these also depend individual salvation and social usefulness. They are the foundation of earth's improvement and heaven's blessedness.

SERMON IV.

THE LAW OF THE LORD.

PSALM XIX. 7.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

By the law of the Lord,' in the Old Testament, and by similar expressions, as his 'statutes, precepts, testimonies,' &c., we are usually to understand the institutions of the Mosaic dispensation. These were to the Jews a divine code; complete in its requirements and sanctions; commanding some actions, prohibiting others, and annexing appropriate rewards and penalties. These terms did not designate their Scriptures as a whole; they did not ascribe either inspiration or obligation to any of them; but simply to those legislative enactments of which a certain portion of their Scriptures constituted the authentic record. The rest was history, exhortation, poetry, or prophecy; but this was the law, the will of God, the law of the Lord. It is this which David compares with the laws of God in nature; the principles according to which the sun shines by day, the moon rules by night, and the stars revolve in their courses. He finds in it similar marks of wisdom, power, and benevolence. He traces them to the