is just as much accountable for these dark views and this gloomy state of mind, as he who maliciously sets himself at work to destroy the peace of another. The crime may not be so great, but it is nevertheless a crime.

Turn next to the profligate and abandoned man-the victim of intemperance or sensuality. He takes too but one view of human life; he sees good in nothing but the indulgence of appetite. And what I would urge is that it is at this point his accountableness begins. It is for this darkness of the mind which he might have made "a lamp to his feet and a light to his path," nay more, which he may make now, if he will only wake up from this spiritual sleep and look out on the universe of God, it is for this very darkness that he is to blame. We must go back to the beginning, if we would see the cause of a great deal of sin in the world, and man's ability to avoid it. If we look over the long list of crimes which blacken the annals of the world, we shall find they can all be traced to some mismanagement of the thoughts that might have been avoided. Will you tell me that the motive is wanting, and that the blindness is natural? I do not believe it. The most ignorant savage that wanders in the wilderness who has eyes to see and ears to hear, who can talk to you of green fields in another life and of the great Spirit that is there presiding, has motive enough for his virtue. The great difference, my friends, lies here; his virtue is not of so high an order as yours, and consequently his guilt is not so great. Still vice and virtue are two things to him just as much as they are to you. And it is this distinction-this knowledge of right and wrong, howev

or different it may be in different individuals, which is motive enough; and if you will point me to a man who has it not and never did have it, you must point me to one who is not a moral being, and of course can suffer no such thing as moral consequences.

We may here make a very useful and important distinction, that we should always bear in mind-that it is not the first rising of desire in our bosoms which is sinful. For our appetites and affections are those which God gave us, and he meant them for our good. It is for their abuse-for their excess, that we shall be called to an account. Wrong thoughts and wrong feelings may rise in the mind and pass off leaving the man innocent. It is in the indulgence of them that the iniquity consists -the suffering them to continue when we know they are wrong.

But it is not from apparent consequences merely that I would urge this right conduct of the mind. There are consequences more to be dreaded which man may not discover. There may be neglects and wrong courses whose effect is purely internal. Envy and pride may be rankling in our bosoms when all is fair without. Our duties to ourselves-our self-examinations may be entirely neglected, and we be faithful to our fellow-men. Above all, our duties to God-the devotions of the closet-that incense which Christianity requires to be offered up on the altar of a man's own heart, may not be thought worthy of a moment's attention, while the externals of religion may be regularly performed. It is in this way that the intellectual, the moral, the religious progress of the soul may be hindered, and the moral man chained down as it were, while the outer man is esteem

ed and honored. It is in this way that "the light that is in us becomes" gradually "darkness," "and how great," says the Saviour, "must that darkness be!" Let us remember, brethren, that though these things may be hidden from the eyes of man, they are not, they cannot be hidden from the judgment of God, for God judgeth not as man judgeth.

Let us be exhorted then, by the duties which we owe ourselves-by our feelings of self-respect of selflove, of self-interest; by the relations in which we stand to our fellow men, as members of the same community, as brethren of one human family; and above all as Christians, as citizens of the same household of faith, and as fellow-travellers to the same spiritual kingdom-having one faith, one hope, one Father, let us be entreated to "keep our thoughts with all diligence, for out of them are the issues of life."

Are we commanded to rejoice always? Are we to rejoice in trouble, and disappointment, and poverty, and affliction, and death? This is the christian duty enjoined by the Apostle. Rejoice in the Lord always.' But is there any foundation for continual rejoicing? Certainly. It is laid in our very nature. Our Father created us for ever-increasing and never-ending happiness. This is evident from our various capacities for enjoyment, and from the manifold means provided for their innocent gratification. This is evident from the paternal character of our Creator, and from the commands of his revelation. For surely a Being of infinite love could not have made rational beings for misery, or required them to perform duties for which they were never designed.

But what can make us always joyful? Conformity

Among the last acts in the life of the lamented author of this discourse was the fulfilment of a promise given previously to his sickness, that in the course of the year he would furnish a sermon for this publication. In the selection of the manuscript he was influenced by the conviction that it contained preeminently, as he said, 'the true doctrine.' It was a doctrine by which his own character was formed, and the effects of which were witnessed in his whole deportment.