sions; and, engrossed with the pursuit of these, they think and act as if the present life were the only, the final state of their being; as if its enjoyments were full and permanent, and the only enjoyments of which their nature is capable; and as if no higher destiny awaited them beyond the world, which is soon to pass away. They eat and drink, not considering that to-morrow they must die," and that after "death is the judgment a."

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There is an opposite view of the present life; not, indeed, so common, or so dangerous, but equally erroneous. Dwelling only on the uncertainty and vanity of the world, on its numerous disappointments and sorrows, and especially on the corrupting tendency of many of its pleasures, and on the temptations to which all its joys expose us, there are some persons who regard the present life as in no sense the scene of enjoyment. Even moderate indulgence in its innocent pleasures is denounced as criminal; and the necessary preparation for another world is considered as entirely incompatible with our gratification in the present.

Both these extremes, I say, are erroneous. The former, that which considers the present world as the only source of enjoyment, exhibits a view of life contrary to dailyexperience, dangerous to our virtue

Heb. ix. 27.

and real happiness here, and fatal to our prospects of bliss hereafter. They, indeed, who consider the present world as the only source of their felicity, and desire no greater happiness than that which indulgence in its pleasures affords, will find that they have fatally erred. Happy, indeed, would it be for them, if, like the brutes, who with them make sensual pleasures their only pursuit, they could lie down and perish. But there is a spirit within them which never dies. This they have disqualified for the pure society of the blest, for the holy presence of their God. Degraded and polluted, it is fit only to "dwell with the devil and his angels," the spirits of darkness and of woe.

But, though the contrary opinion, which would shut up to man all sources of happiness in the present life, be not equally fatal in its consequences, it is still a dangerous error. For it represents our gracious Maker, as having endowed us with powers and propensities which seek for gratification in the objects around us; and yet made it criminal in any degree to indulge them. Such a Being must appear our tormentor, not our comforter; a tyrant who smites us with his rod, not the heavenly Parent, who crowns us with his mercies. The homage which we render a being, thus adverse to our happiness, must be the constrained homage of fear, not the cheerful service of a grateful heart. To represent our Almighty Maker and Sovereign as displaying enjoyments which pow

erfully solicit us, and yet demanding of us entirely to renounce them, is to clothe his character with terrors, and his service with a gloom, calculated to deter us from rendering homage to the one, and from engaging in the other.

When we reflect on these erroneous views of human life, and on our danger in adopting or inclining to either the one or the other; and when we consider that our eternal destiny is made dependant on our conduct here, we must be deeply impressed with the importance of forming a correct estimate of our present existence of so "numbering our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom."

In order that we may form this estimate, let us briefly review and contrast the enjoyments which this world affords, and also its disappointments and

sorrows.

The gracious Author of all good hath connected numerous joys with our present existence. Our senses are made the inlets of pleasure. The eye, ranging through the rich and beautiful scenery with which nature is clothed by its beneficent Author, conveys elevated delight to the soul. Pleasant to the taste is the endless variety of food and fruits which the earth bears for the sustenance of man; and every other sense finds, in some of the objects of nature, appropriate gratification.

Contemplate man as an active being; and you find many sources of enjoyment opening to him.

He has powers which impel him to that activity which is necessary to his support and comfort; and he finds in it happiness. The Author of our being has made industry a law of our nature, and essential to our present existence; and he hath also mercifully made it a source of enjoyment. And, as activity in the pursuit of the objects of the world affords us pleasure, so this also arises from the attainment of the objects on which our powers have been exercised, and to which our exertions have been directed. When these objects are laudable, and laudably employed, they never fail to confer a portion of happiness. Riches afford the means of innocent gratification, of providing for the comfort of those dependent on us, and of enjoying the exalted luxury of dispensing happiness to others. Stations of power, of confidence, and of honor, when accompanied by talents and virtue, become, from that consciousness alone, the source of enjoyment to their possessor; and, furnishing him with the means of extensive usefulness, he may derive from them exalted gratification,

Contemplate man in his capacity as an intellectual being, and you behold pleasures within his embrace still more elevated. The enjoyment

which the mind derives from the exercise of its powers, transcends all the enjoyments of the body, as far as the faculties of the one exceed those of the other. The exercise of the understanding, in the acquisition of knowledge, confers a pleasure

pure and exquisite. The gracious Father of our spirits, in endowing us with intellect, and in qualifying that intellect to explore the almost infinitely varied and boundless views of knowledge, has opened to us a source of happiness, in the present life, as pure and elevated as it is exhaustless.

Contemplate man in his social relations, and you behold him possessing new sources of enjoyment. When we indulge in the exchange of thought and feeling with congenial minds, and with those united to us by the ties of friendship and kindred, our hearts glow with emotions of the purest and most exquisite pleasure. Of these joys, indeed, may be said, almost without poetic embellishment, they constitute the only

it

Bliss of Paradise

That has survived the fall..

Rise still higher in the contemplation of man's character, and you behold still higher enjoyments afforded him. He posessses powers which qualify him for knowing, for loving, and for serving the gracious Author of his being, and fountain of all good. Even in the world, "cursed" as it is for his sin, it is permitted him to hold converse with heaven. In spirit he can ascend to the throne of him who is the Creator of the universe, the Preserver of his life, the Benefactor of all creatures, the source of mercy, of grace, and felicity. Confidence in the favour of that God who