uncharitable censure of your brethren, your unkind misapprehension of their conduct, and your bitter animosity at every fancied neglect: withdraw your claim to the blessing. Your religion is not that of the Bible: your morality is not that of the Gospel: your hopes do not "enter within the veil." There is something in my doctrine, which yet reremains to be discovered by you there is something in my spirit, of which, as yet, you are ignorant. "Have I been so long with you; and yet, have you not known me?"

Such would be the language of Jesus Christ, to those among us who have never felt conviction of sin, and knelt before the cross with deep contrition, and with earnest prayer for pardon to those, who, while they profess to be humbled under a sense of their unworthiness, show by their conduct to their fellow-sinners, that they are as proud, as relentless, and as unsubdued, as if the truths of the Gospel had never been presented to their understandings, and the example of a mortified Redeemer proposed to their imitation.

Such

Such would be the language of Jesus Christ such is his language, in the words which I have now been considering. When we read the declaration in the text: "blessed are the poor in spirit;" let us compare it, with our own characters; let us make it the touchstone of our own conduct. Let it 'lead us to investigate our religious opinions, and to try the foundation of our hopes. He who, to a serious examination of his own heart, and a diligent perusal of the word of God, adds fervent and unwearied prayer to the great fountain of truth; will, sooner or later, bring his principles, his feelings, and his conduct, into conformity with the Gospel of Christ. He will renounce every false ground of hope, every imperfect and erroneous system of moral conduct. He will cherish every temper and disposition, which our Saviour has pronounced to be "blessed," knowing that, of such alone it is declared, that "their's is the kingdom of Heaven."

SERMON II.

Second Beatitude.

5TH CHAP. OF ST. MATTHEW, 4TH VERSE.

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."

IF the religion of Jesus Christ, were intend

ed to flatter the pride, and soothe the feelings of nature, it would speak a very different language. It would talk to us of continual self-complacency, of gratified desire, of success in our worldly pursuits, and of satisfaction in worldly pleasures. If many of our Saviour's hearers were taught, for the first time, the nature of his doctrines; we may imagine the surprise, and even the incredulity, with which they would listen to him. Long accustomed to consider temporal advantages as the only proofs of the Divine approbation, and to look to human enjoyment

*

enjoyment as the recompence of their labours; they would start to be told, that what they had been used to prize highly was undesirable, or at least dangerous; while that which is contrary to natural feeling, was a mercy in disguise, and the surest token of the favour of God. They would see, indeed, that the preacher of this mortified religion, was himself an example of the humbling truths he taught. They would see that his life, was, a life of sacrifices; of painful duties; of indifference to the happiness of this world; and of meek and quiet resignation under all its disappointments and sorrows. But they would be anxious that he should bear his cross alone. "Let the founder of our religion enjoy his pre-eminence of sorrow, but let his followers be exempted from the melancholy privilege. Let them, pass cheerfully and happily through the pilgrimage of life; and having tasted of all its pleasures, enjoy the crown of him, who was perfected through suffering." It would require a deeper insight into the doctrines of Christianity, to recon