through the Spirit of grace, he may rise again? Not preach the Gospel, because that secret influence, which Christ Himself compares to the wind, of which none can see the approach or the departure, is not by us described as a palpable sensation, or visible conversion, of which the first moment can be told, and calculated to a certainty by those who presume themselves the elect of God? Not preach the Gospel, because we do not insist on those dark points of predestination and election, where the human intellect is bewildered and overpowered,

And finds no end, in wandering mazes lost?

Not preach the Gospel, because we think it not all to improve the faith and hope of our hearers, but dare to remind them that the greatest of all these is charity! Not preach the Gospel, because we warn men that they have no part in God's forgiveness for Christ's sake, unless they learn to forgive one another's injuries! Not preach the Gospel, because in labouring to make them better Christians, we wish, if possible, to make them also better children, better parents, better neighbours, and better friends! Oh! if thus we are condemned as not preaching the Gospel, our appeal must be from the caprice of men to that unchanging Being who inhabiteth the praises of eternity, and by whom every man, whether preacher or hearer, will one

day be judged, not according to his talents, nor according to his learning, but according to his truth and sincerity of heart.

In that truth and sincerity, my brethren, I have this day delivered, fearlessly, and without caring for the approbation of any party, those general principles which I conceive to be the true elements of Christianity. On them all my sermons have been founded. In the development of them consists the soul of Christian preaching. But, whether you adopt this view of Christianity or another, I have one parting request to make: never fear to avow your own opinions, but bear meekly with those of others. Infidels bring up intolerance as a charge against Christianity. The charge is false, but our conduct should prove it so. Christianity is tolerant, but Christians often are not. The time indeed is gone, we trust for ever, when fire and sword were the arguments of those in power, and when a slight difference in abstract points made men liable to the scaffold and to the stake. But the embers of that spirit yet remain. There are still those who, if they dared, would be Lauds and Gardiners again. We are all apt to forget the obvious truth, that, in religion as in politics, our neighbour is no more bound to think with us, than we are to think with him; to his own Master let each stand or fall. He who made the heart alone can know the tone of each chord, the bias of each

spring; how far our errors are wilful, how far involuntary; when deserving of mercy, and when calling for justice.

Yet learn to distinguish between toleration and indifference. To avoid the intimacy of professed infidels, except when you may hope to do them good, is no violation of Christian charity. Your faith may be firm now; but you know not how long they will let it remain so. And if they rob you of your dearest hopes, what other consolation can they offer you instead? The fleeting joys of time are a miserable substitute for the prospects of eternity. Yet those principles, which have hitherto resisted sophistry, may not be proof against the shafts of ridicule. Boldly maintain your faith. Whosoever denieth Christ before men, him will He deny before the Father and before His angels.

In his life this distinction is beautifully illustrated. When He saw the money-changers making the house of prayer a den of thieves, He indignantly chased them from the temple. But when a multitude insulted Him in a certain village, and the disciples would have called down fire from heaven

'Who made the heart, 'tis He alone

Decidedly can try us;

He knows each chord its various tone,

Each spring its various bias.

Then at the balance let's be mute,

We never can adjust it;

What's done, we scarcely may compute,

But know not what's resisted.

BURNS.

to consume it, He calmly said: The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Why this severity in the one case, and this indulgence in the other? Because the one was ignorance, the other wilful blasphemy. Christian, in this, as in all things, take thy Master for thy guide. Keep, if thou canst, the unity of the spirit; but keep it in the bond of peace.

And now, friends and brethren, I have done. I have trespassed at great length on that indulgence which I shall never have to crave again, for I have felt a lingering pleasure in dwelling on these, the last admonitions of a friend. The principles of your faith will hereafter be explained to you by another, and earnestly do I pray that God's blessing may rest on his endeavours. May he never shun to declare unto you all the counsel of God! May he be more fortunate than I was in my earnest and repeated endeavours to impress upon your minds that, when an institution is ordained by Christ himself, it is not, it cannot be, a matter of indifference whether you attend to it or not. May he rejoice in witnessing a far better attendance at the Lord's table, than I have done during the twelve years that I have lived amongst you'. For myself, I have but one

To those who have hitherto thought lightly of the Sacrament, I beg to recommend two admirable sermons of the Rev. H. BLUNT, from the perusal of which it will be difficult for them to rise, without a secret resolve to leave no longer unregarded so essential a part of their Christian duty.

word to add. If there be any here who have ever offended me, I freely and from my heart forgive them; and if there be any who have, or who think they have, just cause of offence against me, I here ask their forgiveness. To the few who have been here ever since the consecration of this chapel, and to all those who for years have so indulgently borne with one who, laden with infirmities like themselves, could never have presumed to utter words of reproof, but that he felt he was preaching from higher authority than his own, even from the counsel of the great Jehovah-to those, in parting, I return my especial thanks.

"And now, brethren, I commend you all to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified'." May you never forget your allegiance to Him, and to Jesus Christ whom He hath sent! May you keep his saying, that you may never taste of death! May he who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!" May ye be kind to one another, tender - hearted, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you! May you so live, and so die, as those who look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the

2

1 Acts xx. 32.

Epistle and Gospel of the day, 5th Sunday in Lent.