than any spiritual blessing; that they have derived much more comfort from them, than from the means of grace or the hopes of glory. Now it is exceedingly mischievous to the character, to be in this manner living in a state of falsehood and self-deceit; to be repeating a set of words, and fancying that we repeat them truly, when in fact, they are a lie in our mouths every time we utter them, because our hearts do not agree with them. It is often said that the lives of Christians are no better than those of unbelievers: nor is it at all to be wondered at of the great body of those who call themselves Christians, because they are unbelievers in their hearts. They really do not know what the Gospel is, nor are they at all the happier for it ; they cannot, therefore, be thankful for it, nor look upon it as the means of their everlasting salvation. The means of grace and the hope of glory, which are the two great blessings of the Gospel, and which are the things so fondly desired by good men in the old times, are to many of us, words without a meaning, words which awaken in the mind no clear thoughts or lively feelings. The means of grace are every day neglected or thrown away with indifference: the hope of heavenly glory never enters the mind many a man from one end of the year to the

of

other, unless he happens to be seized with an illness and then, it is not so much any lively hope of Heaven, as an attempt to persuade ourselves and others that we have it, in order to conceal our rising fear of Hell. That this is the truth, every man's experience, who has seen any thing of the world around him, will surely

be able to confirm.

The means of grace to the soul, are like the means of health and strength to the body; and at such a rate would a true Christian value them. The body requires food and clothing, and exercise and rest; and every man feels the importance of satisfying these wants. Nay, they are well called the necessaries of life; as without them we cannot so much as live. We should, therefore, very justly reckon a man a madman, who was to be careless about these things; and it is in fact, the great business of our lives to provide ourselves with them. We are ever taking thought what we shall eat, and what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed. But the wants of the soul do not so easily win our attention; the love of our spiritual life, the love of life eternal, is not half so strong within us as the love of our natural life. The meat and drink of our souls, their raiment, their exercise, their rest, all that is required to keep

them in health and vigour, how easily do we consent to part with this! I knew a case of a person who was going to live abroad, and when this purpose was mentioned to one who was a sincere Christian, his first question was, what means of grace were likely to be met with in the country to which his friend was going. This was said in private conversation, to a common friend; it was spoken quite naturally, just as much so as any of us might have asked about the healthiness of the country, whether provisions were cheap or dear in it; what was its society, and what its general conveniences of living. It was the simple question of a true disciple of Christ, who was used to think the soul of more consequence than the life which now is; who was accustomed to look upon the kingdom of God and his righteousness, as on things which we were most concerned to seek, and which it was of the first consequence to secure the means of gaining. Such a man, it is likely, if he had lived amongst those prophets and kings, of whom our Lord speaks in the text, would have desired, like them, to see and hear those things which we do see and hear now. But people say that the soul can do better without its support than the body, or that they can always take care of it themselves, let them go

where they will. They would not say so, if they marked the changes in their soul's health, with half the attention that they do those of the body. A day's hunger, or a day's cold, or half a day's sickness, or a night's want of sleep, speak loud and plain enough to all; but many days of want of appetite for heavenly things, many days of want of earnestness about our duty, of indulged idleness, of cold or half dead charity; these are only observed by the quickened eye and lively conscience of him who really believes that his main business every day, is to make himself fitter for heaven, as he is every day drawing nearer either to it or to hell. It is because we do not watch narrowly all these wants and sicknesses of the soul, that we think the means of curing or preventing them are little needed; it is because they give us no sensible pain, and fill us with no fears for the future, that we do not watch them narrowly. In fact, our souls are by nature far weaker and more sickly than our bodies, and, therefore, they require much greater care. Therefore, every means of grace that we have, we should make the most of: and not the best man alive is furnished with one more than is needful for him. But though the best of us cannot afford to spare any of the means which God has given us, yet

But it

the worst of us will find that they have enough, if they will but carefully improve them. Every one of us, I say, has the means of grace put within his reach, sufficient to save his soul, if he will. To all who hear me, is the Gospel set forth every week in this place; and I speak it boldly, when I say, that no one in this parish is so ignorant as not to know that he ought to come here. I am supposing now the case of those who possess the very fewest advantages; those who cannot read, and who have no one at home to read to them, or to tell them what they ought to know. Even these can come to Church, and they know that they should come. will be said, that if they do come, they cannot understand what they hear; that our Church service and our preaching can only do good to those who know something of the Gospel already. I know very well that a very ignorant person cannot understand all or even the greatest part of what he would hear in Church, but still he would understand something: it might be a very little, but still some drops of the water of life would be mixed with the stream. Now let us remember how Christ himself dealt with the multitude: "without a parable spake he not unto them." Do we think that all who heard him understood all that they heard? We