those, who thus injuriously close the door upon the young and the foolish, did but recollect and try to practise the rule, to please their neighbour for his good to edification, how many more would be induced, (under God's providence,) to try those paths they now anxiously avoid; how many more would covet that felicity they now shun as a desolation!

And whilst there is no point of view from whence this kind of conduct shows favourably; there is one instance of its operation, injurious in the highest possible degree, since it oftentimes gives a tone to the mind, which no efforts in after life are able to correct. I speak, particularly, of the practice of bringing up children with gloomy and repulsive views of the nature of religious feeling, instead of fostering those opposite emotions of pleasure and delight, which religion, rightly instilled, never fails of producing in their susceptible minds. Who can look on and behold, without the deepest sorrow, every buoyant and animated impulse of the young spirit fettered and tied down, and every light and winged imagination suppressed, in the name of religion; of that religion which emanated from a God of love, and which claims, as its own, the

full exercise of all the noble and generous emotions of the soul it was given to bless? These natural impulses of the young spirit, this readiness to expand itself to all that is kind and engaging in others, this interesting season of life, when selfishness and all the social wickedness of our nature are hardly known, whilst open-hearted candour, and unsuspecting confidence abound; this is the very time, and these are the very instruments, by which the child may be drawn to transfer its young affections from earth to heaven, and to love the ways of righteousness, from finding them ways of pleasantness and peace. Instead of this, a rigid dry morality, a code of harassing and vexatious forms, or a law of conduct uninfluenced by the stimulus of affection, is set before them; the God of love is shown to them as the God of terror; and all that should prove lovely to their youth, and profitable to their manhood, the very Bible itself, is made a source of dissatisfaction and dislike. This, my brethren, is not the way to edify; this is not the way to build them up in the hope of the calling set before them; nor to make them know the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints: this is not to make them love God, and serve him in

love; nor is it to convince them, by their own happy experience, that no joy, no consolation, no blessing, no honour, is equal to that joy and that peace which Christian godliness imparts.

I now very unwillingly turn from this subject; to which, indeed, I have been drawn more by the purpose of illustrating the drift of St. Paul's words in reference to ourselves, than from any hope of doing it the justice it demands but in doing so, I would earnestly impress upon you, my brethren, the practical application of the apostle's words; for they enunciate a principle, from the diligent observance of which the most precious fruits of holiness may be expected to flow. Whether in the ordinary business and cares of this life, or in the more awful and interesting occasions which pertain to eternity, "let every one of us please his neighbour, for his good, to edification." Let us study by what means we may assist in adding one further Christian grace to the noble superstructure of our neighbour's soul; and, as one means thereto, let us ever remember the apostolic injunction to please our neighbour, for his good, in all innocent and allowable things. Try, my dear brethren, not only to feel how good to the soul the knowledge of Christ is, but to labour

also to make others participate in the same knowledge, through the reflected brightness of your inward felicity; and never let it escape your recollection, that every time you repulse a seeking, timid spirit, by the unnecessary harshness and austerity of your manner, you incur the danger of preventing the approach of an immortal soul to the knowledge and the salvation of our God.

SERMON V.

CHRIST CRUCIFIED SADNESS TO THE

BEHOLDERS.

[GOOD FRIDAY.]

ST. LUKE, Xxiii. 48.

All the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.

THE remembrances which this day of humiliation presents to us, my brethren, come so thickly to our minds, that it is not a little difficult to fix resolutely upon some one of them, to the exclusion of the rest. All the great and precious results of that voluntary sacrifice, which we com