We

thing of the will of God we must know something of the mind of man. A growing acquaintance with its laws has rectified many pernicious mistakes, and will rectify more. It is beginning to explode that most injurious dogma of the voluntary nature of belief, which has been the cause of so many imputations of vice, and assumptions of privilege, of the agonies of despair, and the atrocities of persecution. If we knew the law of the Lord, in the regulation of mind, we should not offer motives to the will in order to influence the conclusions of the understanding. should also advance more rapidly in the improvement of education and of legislation. A sound mental philosophy, generally understood, would destroy religious bigotry; would deliver the soul from a host of vain regrets and vain expectations; would enable us to show our love to our neighbor in the way that would most deeply penetrate into his heart and soul; and would guide to the formation of purer and nobler characters in the rising generation than the world has yet produced. Christ's power was that he knew what was in man.' Self-knowledge is self-veneration, because it is the perception of a power to bless, and

of the mode of its exercise.

In social being, 'the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.' Every one, on looking within, must feel that it is the will of God that he should aim at his own happiness. But the more observantly we look around, the more must we be impressed with the conviction, that our own happiness is the most enhanced by the largest promotion of the happiness of others. Exclusive selfishness leads unfailingly to

suffering. What is the progress of society, but in succession to take one and another class of human beings into its account, who before were trodden down and disregarded, and thereby to augment the happiness of the whole? Here is the source of a growing happiness, and, therefore, it is a growing righteousness or virtue in individuals. Feudal barons were

not so happy in the despotic command of their retainers as the chosen leaders of intelligent and free men in their patriotic struggles. The proprietors of men were not so happy in the relation of owner and slave, as the wealthy are now in that of master and servant, a voluntary connexion for mutual advantage. Indians are not so happy in compelling their women to ceaseless drudgery, as they were to treat them like equal companions. Parents were not so happy in the ancient unquestioned power of life and death over their offspring as Christian fathers and mothers with all their responsibilities. That in each case the class which is raised becomes happier, nobody can doubt; but a moment's reflection will show that what was the privileged class becomes all the happier by the progress from a system of gross selfishness towards one of benevolence and equality. And we also see that this is the natural progress of things-Beautiful law! which thus refines self-love into social, making it the means of a higher enjoyment than selfishness ever conceived-'perfect, converting the soul!'

And so it is in religion, which is not a set of prescribed, unmeaning, arbitrary forms, but a rational homage to our Maker, rendered as we find it most conducive to our spiritual good. The law of

God as to human destiny is, that we are regenerated by death to immortality. And this converts the soul; changes it to purer notions of its interest and a loftier sense of its dignity; and gives a stronger impulse to its beneficent energy. This completes, perfects, and crowns all the rest-this sheds the last and strongest light on the actions which must be the means of ulti"mate happiness; and which, therefore, are the law of the Lord for our conduct here. It shows us, together with, and above the rest, how by knowledge, truthfulness, purity, love, and energy, we shall find for our souls, peace and rest, bliss and glory. May it ever inspire our grateful adoration of Him, who in the character of the supreme legislator, so beautifully displays himself as the universal Father! Amen.

SERMON V.

WISDOM AND FOLLY.

ECCLESIASTES vi. 8.

For what hath the wise more than the fool?

Why, it appears by the very question, put as it is by the writer, in gloom and bitterness of spirit, that he hath at least this more-melancholy preeminence though it be that he sorrows with a deeper sorrow, regrets with a keener anguish, has a larger capacity of suffering, and, gazing over the wider regions of his mental vision, may behold multiplied forms of evil, and behold them with an intenser pang. No fool, no unthinking creature of this world, ever felt the doubtings and the dark despondings of the writer of this book, the gifted King of Israel, whose name the child is taught to lisp as that of the wisest man; and whose fame the East has preserved in the wildness of its traditions, and the West cherishes by the veneration of his writings. This book, which records the principles in which at length he rested, and intimates the peace which at length he attained, records also his mental aberrations, conflicts, and sufferings; and they bear their proportion to the multitude of his acquire

ments, the extent of his comprehension, the energy of his will, and the depth of his emotions. Here, then, is the question answered; answered at first in a way that seems to mock the questioner, and applaud the folly of the fool, and shame the wisdom of the wise; but which ultimately, and by consequence, reverses the primary impression, and reconciles us to the constitution of nature, the dispensations of Providence, and the destiny of man. In certain states or circumstances of existence the inevitable reply is, that the wise hath more, far more suffering than the fool; but a superior suffering implies a larger capacity; and a larger capacity implies a higher aggregate of enjoyment, a nobler kind and amount of happiness. If the capacity be an inference from the suffering, the happiness becomes in turn an inference from the capacity. If the lamentation be justly applied to Christ, "Come and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow;' it was precisely for the same reason that, compared with his glory, all other loses its lustre 'by reason of the glory that excelleth.' A less elevated mind than his could not have been so agonized; the very acuteness of his sufferings demonstrated the number and power of the qualities in him which are the materials and the architects of ultimate felicity. So, in the gradations of animal nature, the means by which the superior classes can compass and enjoy so much more than the inferior, are the very apparatus by which suffering is sometimes inflicted, of which those inferior natures can have no conception. ery development of the nervous system might be rendered subservient to the illustration of this fact.

Ev