you

which were appointed for your eternal happiness; nay, that you even valued a morsel of bread more than the salvation of your soul? Even in the midst of spiritual blessings you sought only the bread that perisheth; perhaps you gained it, but now that the world hath passed away, it avails you nothing. You must hunger and thirst for ever. No earthly possession has followed you beyond the grave, and have not that bread of life or that living water which alone can satisfy your immortal spirit. Brethren, notwithstanding our utmost efforts to grasp all the world can give, when at last we find that our days are numbered, we shall be able to say no more than the patriarch Jacob, "Few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage." This is the universal testimony of every child of Adam. But what then remains? Were we indeed created in vain,—created only to pass our lives in a vain shadow, and then return to our dust? Blessed be God, we have better hopes.

This world is but the portal of a blessed immortality. There no evil shall enter, and our happy days shall have no end? And why is this? Because God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. Christ, our Saviour, took upon himself our nature, though without sin, that he might suffer for us, and endure reproach, and buffetting and spitting and scourging, and the death upon the cross, and the heavy wrath of God. He died to purchase heaven for us; he died that we might live for ever.

But if these things be indeed so, is it possible that any can hear the words of life and be careless about so great salvation? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, who now wait to give you a new heart, and a right spirit; all invite you to come; will you turn from God, and follow the inclinations of your own sinful nature? will you reject the Saviour who loved you, and gave himself for

you? No, you cannot. Your rocky heart must melt, the tears of repentance must flow; you must say, in the language of the returning prodigal, I will arise and go to my father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned before thee. O! let it be indeed thus with every one that now heareth of hope and mercy, and let not the feeling be transient and pass away; but beseech God that he may give you his holy Spirit, that you may this day begin to live, not for this world, but for another and a better. You have not found a sinful course to be a happy one, nor earthly pleasures worth the pains of the pursuit. Fix, then, your hearts and your eyes on heaven; pray for pardon of past years of sin and carelessness; pray that all which is written against you in the fearful book of God, may, through a Saviour's merits, be blotted out; plead his atonement, be fervent, be humble, be penitent, be persevering, and you will never regret the days you spend in the service of God, nor say that you have hoped in him in vain.

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SERMON XII.

GENESIS xlvii. 13.

"And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine."

In considering, last Sunday, Jacob's answer to Pharaoh, I endeavoured to direct your minds to reflections on the shortness of life. But Jacob spake of his days having not only been "few," but also "evil." He spake truly; his days had been much afflicted. We have seen the heavy trials. he endured on account of the jealousies and deception of his sons. We remember, too, that he was in early life obliged to

leave his father's roof, that he might not be a victim to his brother Esau's revenge; and that he was ill-treated and deceived by his uncle Laban. We cannot doubt that he also endured many other sufferings which are not related; besides contending against those spiritual enemies which every holy man has to encounter, and to overcome which, requires much self-denial, much striving, much

prayer.

My Christian brethren, we too have reason to speak of this life as being a season of trouble; and perhaps we may be thinking that our own lives have been more embittered by suffering, than is generally the case with the children of God. Some of you may have been severely tried; your troubles may have been many and heavy. When you take a retrospect of past years, you see disappointments and losses, pains and sickness: from men, ingratitude and a return of evil for good; dear and near friends and relatives taken from you, whom you expected would in the decline of life