nature, which by motion are preserved in their na'tive purity and perfection, their sweetness and their 'lustre, rest corrupting, debasing and defiling them, 'and that in like manner the preservation and im'provement of our faculties depends on their constant 'exercise."

But if it be allowed, as it must be, that man was created for some great purpose, the next and the anxious enquiry must be what that purpose is. And among those deep things a part of which we may know, we may know assuredly, by a little consideration, enough of the purpose for which we are created, for our practical guidance.

First of all we shall come to see that it must be a moral purpose for which we are created, For in speaking and thinking of this great subject we speak and we think in vain, if we do not embrace the whole family of man in our speculations. It is idle to assign as a fit object of human pursuit, any object from which a large portion of the human family are excluded. This consideration of itself, would exclude all purposes which are purely intellectual; and no others can come into competition with a moral purpose. promotion of our own glory, the furthering our own advantage, and other purposes like these cannot be worthy of an Immortal Being, so richly endowed by a beneficent Creator.

The

But for intellectual purposes, they who can really exist, are few in number. Few, I mean, are gifted by nature with such faculties as enable them to pursue in

Barrow.

tellectual researches to any great extent. And of those few, how many are disabled by want of opportunity, by want of cultivation, by poverty and by infirmity. Few indeed are they so richly endowed that they can exercise their intellectual powers when their zeal is damped, their vigour diminished, and their course impeded by the weakness of the body; or when the mind is recalled from the proud flights of imagination, or the depths of abstruse research to the distracting cares of daily life, and condemned to the sufferings and the impatience of want.

Nor must it be forgotten that the wisdom of our Heavenly Father has decreed that an overwhelming proportion of his creatures should in one form or other toil as well as pray for their daily bread, and should have a large portion of their time and thoughts consumed in the practice of the business and profession to which their circumstances have consigned them. The purpose then for which man was created, must be one which can be pursued amidst the toils of active life, under the pressure of poverty, and on the bed of sickness, at home and abroad, by day and by night, by the lightsome heart of youth, and by the infirmity of age. It must be one which shall be worthy of the highest range of intellect, and yet not beyond the sphere of the lowest in its proper measure and degree. And such requirements as these cannot be satisfied by any but a moral purpose.

This conclusion indeed is confirmed and justified by considerations drawn from other sources, and chiefly by this, that no other than a moral purpose can sa

tisfy the desires and feelings of man.

For he is a

being compounded of a moral and intellectual nature, and his life is no life, if both are not educed and exercised. Now it cannot be denied that in the execution of a moral purpose, the most exalted powers of the intellect may be, and often are called upon to bear their part, while the moral feelings may contribute nothing to the free range of the intellect. No doubt, a gratification of the most exquisite kind may be derived from such a range of the intellectual powers. But we must not do God or man the injustice of saying that the being will be calm or at rest except for a time, if his moral feelings are allowed to run waste or to lie fallow. For a time, the heart may be kept quiet, but after a time there will arise a bitterness which will vex us in the midst of our enjoyment, there will arise earnest and restless cravings and longings after something not possessed, an uneasy and undefined, it may be, but nevertheless a constant sense of dissatisfaction with our own condition, a sense that we are not fulfilling the purposes for which we were created, nor holding that station in the rank of being for which God designed us.

I have allowed, as I am bound to do, how deep is the interest of intellectual research; I must add that I am equally conscious of its dignity and its

1 It will not, I trust, be imagined that I mean here to maintain that the intellect will not be improved, nay! that it is not to derive its highest improvement from the improvement of the moral frame. I have endeavoured to show the contrary in several parts of these Sermons. All I mean to say here is that men may cultivate the intellect to the utter neglect of the moral frame, as in instances like Voltaire.

usefulness. But while it is pursued not in subordination to a moral purpose, but by itself and for itself, let its advocates carry its pretensions as high as they will, when weighed in the balance, it must be found wanting. It will be found wanting in that tender and affectionate recognition of the wants of our common nature, wanting in that kind sympathy with them, wanting in that lively perception of the unspeakable value of our moral dispositions and their capability of improvement, without which man is not man, without which the human character however sharpened, tempered and polished by intellectual exercise, however wide its grasp, and however subtle its penetration, wants its best charm, its connection with humanity, its tenderness and its love. I speak of intellectual research in its best and purest form, yet pursued for itself alone; how much stronger is the case against it, if alloyed, as it sometimes is, by the admission of base and selfish objects, by ambition, by the love of gain, by obedience to the call and command of the passing hour and the ignorant multitude. What do we discern here of the character and conduct of a being framed by an Immortal Creator, to be as Immortal as Himself, and endowed with vast and almost unbounded powers of improving and exalting himself and his brother men?

If we descend below this point if we take into our view any besides intellectual employments, the question becomes of yet easier resolution. Honourable as may be the pursuits of honest industry, right as may be the anxious care to provide for

warm

our own households, and to raise ourselves and our families in the scale of civil society, can a rational and immortal being be satisfied to stop here? Can he know what God is and what man is? Can he believe that all these precious endowments of head and heart, thought and penetration, and courage and perseverance, and and lively affections were given to enable him to gather wealth, and having gathered it, to die? Is that a worthy employment for the rich gifts and graces which a gracious God hath showered in such rich profusion on His creatures? Shall a rational and immortal soul pass away from this scene of trial and leave no trace of its existence but the wealth which it has spent its glorious faculties in acquiring? Shall no ear bless when it hears? no eye when it sees give witness to him? no grateful tongue record that this is he, who in the spirit of the gospel which he professed, rescued me from the miseries of want, and the yet deeper and more deadly misery of sin'? and leave no void behind him, no record or trace of his existence but the riches which he has collected ? What is the awful warning which Scripture gives to such a man? I speak not only of that bitter reproof of his folly which it utters, when in reproaching him with setting his affections on perishing creatures, it asks of him, if this night his soul be required of him, whose shall all these things be'? I speak of that yet more solemn warning which reminds us of the time when we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God, and give an account of the talents committed

Shall he die