may commune with mind; and the spirit may renew the works of love and the joys of benevolence which it left on earth.

Again, there is consolation to be derived from the views of heaven which have been stated, in circumstances of frailty and mortality.

Why should we fear death? Why should we shrink from the wave that is to bear us to a better country, to a shore of better promise, to the company of the just made perfect, to the abodes of the happy and the good? Why should we be melancholy at the absence, or inconsolable at the death of those who are dear to us? These temporary losses, to the pious soon be made up in an eternal union.

and just, will The good and

faithful servants of God, the benevolent and forgiving, the pure and heavenly in their minds, are all tending to one state, are all destined to one land. What if it please God that some should arrive sooner than others? What if the breeze of yesterday hath borne one away? What if the wind hath passed, and he is gone! Tomorrow waits for us. There is but a moment's interval, compared with the periods of futurity; there is but a moment's interval, and then if we are united in Christian friendship we shall be united forever. Let us think more of the state to which we are going. Let this world shrink in our estimation to the point that it is; and let the boundless and the eternal regions of faith rise before us, and invite us to their abodes. Come, ye afflicted, ye bereaved, ye weary and wandering and tempted! Ye pilgrims and strangers! hasten to your everlasting home, and let hope cheer your hearts and lighten your footsteps in the way.

But our view of heaven stops not with consolation. It opens the prospect of boundless happiness-of a happiness at once the most generous and immense, and the most personal and particular. For if heaven is a social state, then shall we meet there the good and wise of all ages. We shall embrace all the advantages that could arise from having lived always upon earth and with the greatest and best men of every country. We shall know those whom we have only seen through the dim revelations of history. We shall become familiar with those minds that have spread a light over all the ages that have succeeded them.

There is sometimes a feeling in laying aside the biography of a distinguished and deeply interesting individual, that almost amounts to sadness. It is a feeling as if the kind of temporary acquaintance which the book supplied to us, was brought to a close; it is almost as if a friend or companion were lost to us. But our doctrine encourages a better hope. We may meet him again. If heaven is a vast society or fellowship of the holy and happy, then shall we see in it all the good and great; we shall be moved and thrilled by the wisdom of the eloquent; we shall gather strength from the thoughts of the devoted and earnest; we shall commune with those soaring minds, which the earthly tabernacle could scarcely hold down. We shall go and thank the patient sufferers for virtue and religion, or the wise teachers who enlightened us and turned us to righteousness; we shall behold them as they shine in their spheres of light-Prophets and Apostles and holy men shall we reverence and love, and Jesus the first born among many brethren shall we approach,

and see him as he is, and cast our crowns at his feet, and say worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive riches, and power, and honor and glory and blessing.'

In fine, all that has been excellent and glorious on earth, the collected treasures of ages, the wisdom and worth of all past generations, and of all generations to come shall be ours for an intellectual and spiritual possession. Ours to contemplate shall be the fidelity of the steadfast, the virtues that flourished in secret, and that the world never saw. Ours to venerate and love shall be the martyr's constancy and the sufferer's meekness, the illustrious deeds of patriotism, the generous acts of charity, the more glorious self-denials of patience and humility,-ours to profit by all the beneficence of those who have blessed the world-all the wisdom of those who have enlightened the world, all the greatness of the earth transformed to all the glory of heaven shall be ours for an unchanging and everlasting possession. Behold, Christians! your inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away; the inheritance of men's virtues that shall live and flourish forever and ever.

D.

USE OF FORMS AND MEANS IN RELIGION.

It is a very general remark, that there is in most men a disposition to go to some extreme, both in opinion and conduct. To what the disposition should be ascribed, it may not be easy to determine, unless it be to the idea that there is something more decided and pos

itive, and therefore of greater value, in an extreme, than in a moderate half-way course. There is undoubtedly some truth too in the common observation, that excesses of one kind often create a disgust which drives men to the opposite excesses; though we are inclined to think this is not so often the real cause of error as an apology for something which needs an apology, and can find none better.

It is not however with the origin of the disposition, that we are at present concerned. We wish only to note its operation, and do what we can to check it where it tends to evil. And this we would do with particular reference to one subject-the use of forms and means in religion. It is one of the subjects, on which more perhaps than on any other, men have always been inclining to some extreme. This has been seen in all periods of the church and in all places, and has raised up as formidable an obstacle as almost any with which religion has had to contend, among her professed friends. We see it in the peculiarities of the different sects in our Saviour's time, in the extravagances of the first and middle ages, and indeed of every age.

By a portion of the community, religious means are spoken of and used, as if in them consisted the life of religion, and in their observance the whole duty of man. It seems to be with them the one great concern, to be always ready and always abounding in the use of external means. It occupies a large place in their conversation and a great portion of their time. If they do not expressly say it, you might fairly infer from their conduct, that they view this multiplication of out

ward observances as indispensable to salvation. To be not merely remiss in this, but even prudent and moderate, is regarded by them as unquestionable proof of a mere worldly wisdom, a dark mind, a cold heart, actual unconcern about religion, daring and dangerous presumption. The state of religion in any particular place, the faithfulness and piety of particular churches and individuals, the presence of God's spirit, are considered to be in proportion to the number of religious meetings appointed and attended, the number of persons taken into the church at one time, and the degree of attention given to the forms and institutions of religion generally. To express a doubt of the correctness of this mode of reasoning and acting, is downright heresy. To suggest that by a little moderation all the good might be secured, while the evil and the danger of evil would be avoided; to talk thus calmly on the subject, is to be lukewarm, equivocal, unfaithful to the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom.

Such is the opinion, and such the practice of one part of the community. There is another part who get as far from this as possible. Either from honest conviction, or disgust at what they see in others, or real indifference, they speak and act, as if the forms, the means, all the externals of religion were of no importance. They consider it as a mark of weakness and superstition to give so much time to religious means, to show so much zeal and ascribe so much value to them. They might have been, say they, and no doubt they were necessary, in the beginning, in the intellectual and moral poverty of the world, when men were groping in darkness, and all their conceptions of Divine things