sel, gathered in the favoured seasons of childhood and youth, and gives up the thought of adding to them,from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.

But I must hasten to close the subject, which has employed this day, endeared to my own heart, and I hope also to yours, as the anniversary Sabbath of our union, associated as it is, with a thousand affecting recollections. For twenty-three years, it has been mine to preach the gospel, and yours to hear; with what fidelity on either part, the great day will disclose. 1 bless God they have been years of undisturbed harmony and friendship. There are few families with whom I have not wept, for nine hundred and fifty-six have in these years gone from us, to the great congregation of the dead. Two hundred and sixty-six have become communicants at the Lord's table; fifty-three have taken upon them the baptismal covenant; and six hundred and sixty-six subjects have received baptism. It is affecting to give this simple recital. I cannot look back upon the past, but with deep emotion. Would to God I might have done more for those who have gone to their great account. Blessed be God, that of many of them I can think with a lively hope that they are in glory. You, my friends, still receive my poor aid, in preparing to die-in preparing to live forever. O let us be serious in this momentous business. We shall soon follow the thousand, who have gone before us. It is a serious thing to die.

The prize to be

Let us preach and hear as for our own lives. Let us not forget the hints of this discourse. gained, is heaven and its eternal joys. If we lose the prize, unutterable woe will be your portion. So dreadful an issue of our union, God forbid. "Let us work while the day lasts, the night cometh in which no man can work.”

SERMON V.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

JUDE, 21st verse.

Keep yourselves in the love of God.

If we consider the rank, which our blessed Lord assigned to the love of God among the commandments; or the exalted happiness which results from this highest of the affections; or the influence it has upon every part of the christian character, it being the very life and spirit of every other affection and duty; or its absolute necessity to any well founded hope of acceptance with God, and of the everlasting happiness of his presence above; the motives, which should influence to the love of God, are certainly as great and affecting as can be addressed to a human mind. Every thing, then, which may in the smallest degree conduce to the beginning or increase of the love of God in the soul, becomes a duty of high importance. Although we are dependent on the powerful influence of the spirit of

God, to begin, and preserve, and increase this most precious affection, I need not say, that we are under the most solemn obligations to contribute our part to these important ends. If we are destitute of this affection, or, if existing, should it languish and die, the blame will lie with us, and the misery of outcasts from his love will be our just portion. Let me then beseech my hearers to lend their most awakened attention, while I suggest some of the best means of keeping themselves in the love of God; the best means of beginning to love God and of increasing in this exalted affection.

Nothing is more certain than that the current of the soul cannot set in two opposite directions at the same time; we cannot love God and at the same time love what he abhors. Now, God in his nature is entirely opposed to all unrighteousness, and is disgusted with all impurity, and abhors the lusts of flesh and spirit. "The carnal mind is enmity against God." Let me, then, say

That the first step towards the love of God, is to withdraw our affection from the things which oppose his attributes and will.

Is it possible that we should love the wages of unrighteousness, and yet love the justice of God, an essential attribute of his character, which will assuredly render to every one according to his deeds? Can we feel complacency in the divine purity, which cannot look upon sin but with disgust, and yet ourselves delight in pollution? It cannot be. The sins we indulge

That displea

Yet his laws,

will awaken in us a dreadful apprehension of his displeasure, so often as we think of God. sure, conscience will pronounce just. which we are constantly violating, we shall be likely to regard as severe and unamiable, if we cannot deny that they are just; and we shall think of the laws given with terror and even aversion. The consciousness of living in a way which is offensive to God, while there is no sorrow for it, and no repentance, must of course close the heart against the love of him. It is so between man and man. How commonly do you see, that when one man has injured another, he adds to the injury the sentiment of hatred. Observe them carefully, and you will perceive the injured person sooner inclined to friendly feeling, than the injurious, more ready to forgive than he to be forgiven. It is the same between man and his Maker. Guilt alienates him from the best of Beings. Every cherished lust, every act of sinful indulgence estranges his heart, more and more from God. "He is alienated from him by wicked works." But I may add, if the injurious person, in the case supposed, is at last reclaimed; if he returns penitent to his injured brother, and finds unlooked for candour and a kind embrace; then, his heart will melt into love, and his affection be lasting and ardent. Such is the case with the penitent sinner. Beholding the compassion which God extends to the wanderer, the generous pardon and joyful reception, with which he embraces, adorns and feasts him as a son, he dissolves