In that day "the Lord will judge the world in righteousness." He will not assign the distinctions of his kingdom to splendid and public merit, while retired and humble virtue will lose its due reward. He will not regard the persons of the powerful and the great, of those who have been exalted by the rank or fame or wisdom of this world, but will view with an equal eye, and consider with impartial justice, his faithful servants in every state and condition of life. Above all, He will search out every secret thing; He will penetrate into every retirement; He will dive into the recesses of the heart; He will discover in what degree the inward motive has corresponded with the outward profession.

Here, then, is that knowledge afforded in the Gospel of Christ, which the unassisted reason of man never could attain; and, compared with which, all that the heathen knew of the destinies of man beyond the grave was vague and ignorant conjecture. Here are life and immortality truly brought to light; a resurrection from the sleep of death to all; a resurrection to immortality of happiness to those who have been faithful servants of their Master's will. Of those who heard the words of truth delivered by the Apostle, there were "some that mocked when he spake of the resurrection from the dead *."

* Acts xvii. 32.

This doctrine, it seems, was too hard for their understandings; they were filled with the false pride of fancied learning; their minds were choked with deep-rooted prejudices; many mistaken notions were to be corrected, and many rregular affections to be expelled, before they could be brought to bow to the religion of Jesus. Unwilling to listen further to those truths, which they were ill prepared to receive, they seem to have interrupted the Apostle in the thread of his discourse, and to have prevented his bringing to the intended conclusion those reasonings which he had begun; while others, struck with the importance of that which he had preached to them, expressed a desire to hear him further respecting "this matter." Happy was it indeed for those amongst them who did hear further to the purpose of conviction, and in whom this conviction operated to the firm establishment of their faith, and the practical amendment of their lives.

But, while the Apostle addressed this awful truth to the Athenians, he addressed it also to us; he addressed it to the disciples of our common Saviour and Redeemer in every age. And we, who have imbibed the doctrines of Christ from our earliest years, and who ought to have the avenues of our faith stopped by no counteracting prejudices, are destitute of all excuse, if we "make a mock" at these things, if we listen

to them with careless indifference, if we do not embrace them with our inmost feelings, and apply them closely and forcibly to the regulation of our lives. A resurrection from the grave to a day of impartial judgment, when the doom of every soul of man will be fixed for an eternity! Here is indeed a truth which may well rouse the hearts of all to the most serious consideration; which should stir into action every torpid feeling of our nature; which should impel us, by motives the most urgent that can act on reasonable beings, to press forward with eagerness towards the prize of our high calling. With this knowledge of the destiny which awaits us, confirmed, as under the Christian dispensation confirmed it is, by proofs the most indisputable, we behold in a clearer light the great ends and purposes of our being; our prospects become enlarged beyond the narrow circle which bounds our present life, and extend themselves into an infinity which knows no limits. We are no longer beings born only to inhabit these scenes of earth, the frail creatures of a passing hour, the subjects of decay, corruption, and infirmity. We feel ourselves the destined heirs of immortality; we find ourselves placed in a state of infirmity and imperfection here, only that we may be prepared for abodes of endless glory, and purity, and perfection hereafter. With these exalted views and

opening prospects of immortality, with these animating hopes to gild our passage through this our earthly pilgrimage; how is it possible for us to remain deaf to the voice of truth, to slight the calls of religion and of conscience, inviting us to pursue with steadiness those our best interests which lie beyond the grave? Surely every active feeling must be stirred within us, every virtuous motion must be quickened, every desire of our souls must be purified and exalted. We must resign all unworthy and inordinate attachments to "the life which now is," for the great anticipations and exalted hopes of "the life which is to come."

SERMON XIV.

RIGHTEOUS OVERMUCH.

ECCLES. vii. 16.

Be not righteous overmuch.

THE observation, that all virtue and excellence lie for the most part in a golden mediocrity; that, as well in matters of moral duty, as in the theories of taste and of art, the rule of right is to be found between two extremes of wrong, is too common to be worth repeating, and too obvious in its general import, to require illustration.

But it may well be thought that the precept of inspired wisdom, which has been cited in` my text, relates to a subject, in which there can be no danger of advancing to a faulty extreme. How, it may be asked, can any human being become "righteous overmuch?" How can a being, who feels himself to be the weak and imperfect creature of an all powerful and all perfect Creator, who knows that he depends on His

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