enemy rests in the bosom of Abraham, may there be no drop of water to cool my thirst!

I beg you to remember, as sincere Christians, that there are many occasions in life where it is possible to effect by forgiveness every object which you propose to effect by resentment. It is possible, by forgiveness, to open the mind of an enemy to a sense of his injustice, it is possible to excite his admiration, to conciliate his affection, and to turn his heart. This is true Christianity, and it is high and difficult Christianity, and it is human nature in its most beautiful aspect. Who did me this kindness? not my kinsman, not my brother, not my child, not mine own familiar friend, but mine enemy - the man whom I have been pursuing with inveterate malice, and for whose soul I have been preparing every variety of affliction. While I have been doing the work of the devil, he has been praying to God for me; and been labouring for my happiness, while I have been labouring to blacken his reputation and to embitter his life. I will arise and go to that man, and say, "I have sinned against Heaven and against thee, and I am not worthy to be called thy friend."

It is well worthy of attention to a serious and devout Christian, who is always looking to the inward man, and always pressing forward to the prize of the high calling, that while other duties are only made the object of separate precepts, this duty of forgiveness of injuries is the very condition upon which we are permitted to prefer any petition to the throne of grace. It is not said simply, Thou shalt forgive him that trespasseth against thee, but we are made to say, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us." Here, then, is the history of a Christian who indulges in the violent emotions of hatred and revenge. You live on with a load of passion and folly on your own heart, knowing your sins, trembling at your sins, daily asking pardon of God for them, and yet without one atom of

mercy for the passions, the follies, and vices of others. You implore the Being above, and you threaten the being beneath; the very prayer you use condemns you: you place the Redeemer, Jesus, between you and Omnipotence-you, who have never forgiven, nor redeemed, nor wept, nor listened, nor lifted up, the bruised, contrite, repentant spirit! What! when the great book of your life is laid open before you, when all your pretences are weak, when all your artifices are disclosed, when all your excuses fail, and before the congregation of nations you fall down before the judging angel, and with groans and tears, and with the place of torments before you, say to the judging angel that you were but a weak, frail, and powerless mortal, and try to awaken in the beings of heaven their own native feelings of pity!—but says the heavenly Judge to you at that moment, "Did you pity? Had you mercy on weakness? Did you forget while you lived? Did you forgive? Did you earn this pardon for your own trespasses by pardoning the trespasses of others?" This will come as sure as you live and have your being - all this must come; forgive then in time, and lay up treasures in the book of God. A right expression this, and one of frequent occurrence in the Bible: "Laying up treasures in heaven;" and perhaps there may be some persons here present who may deride this expression, and perhaps they may despise me for using it; but if there is a day of judgment there are treasures in heaven; there are records which ensure the mercy of God; there are remembrances which plead for the intercession of Christ. Every charitable act is a treasure; gentleness and kindness are treasures ; every act of forgiveness is a treasure; and I counsel the lowest and the poorest man here present not to hear this language as a matter of course, and of daily repetition, but I counsel him to believe that these are real treasures, and I counsel the richest men here present to consider themselves as bare and destitute, if they have not laid

up these treasures. Your day will come, let the good believe; your day will come; be patient, trust firmly in the promises of the Gospel; give up the bad passions of hatred and revenge. You are hastening to your reward, as the seed is hastening to its fruit. You must see that all this is a preparation for another world. Your day is coming, forgive, and ye shall be forgiven!

There is this collateral advantage to be derived from the Christian lesson I have thought it my duty to give you this day, and that is, that he who keeps a clear mind, and is disposed to forgive injuries, is less likely to commit them; for being in the habit of accounting with himself, he is more likely to reflect upon the consequences of actions, having experienced all the pain and indignation which the injuries of others have inflicted upon him; remembering the odious light in which the guilty person has appeared to him, the punishment he might have inflicted, the effort it has cost him to forbear, and the deep satisfaction he has felt when that effort has been crowned with success, he is not likely to change his high seat of religion for the path of sin; he is not likely to offend his Saviour by committing against others those trespasses, which, in obedience to that law, he has forgiven when committed against himself. Physicians tell you that there are certain signs and appearances which indicate the presence of discase before the patient is disabled by it. So there are signs which show to the moral and religious teacher that the soul is dark, and that the lamp of the Gospel is not burning and shining within. You are not Christian if you hate, you are not Christian if you revenge: they are feelings which do not belong to the Christian climate, which has none of these fierce blasts, but is always temperate and gentle. If you feel these bad passions, if you cannot master them, if they hurry you away, be exceedingly alarmed for your soul. God is not with you; you are wandering from your Redeemer, you are not of the family of Christ,

and therefore don't wonder at the vehement anxiety with which preachers guard you from irascible passions, -and be assured that prayers, and professions, and all outward demonstrations of faith, are vain, if you do not steadily rule all those violent passions, whose inroads upon human happiness it is the constant object of the Gospel to restrain. I have much more to say on this subject than it will be possible to say in my present discourse, and it will be necessary to resume it on some future occasion. To say too much upon it will not be easy for a minister of the Gospel. In every occasion of this life our blessed Saviour preached forgiveness of injuries to Sadducee, to Pharisee, to Gentile, and to Jew; to rich and to poor. Mercy to others, if you wish for mercy, was his doctrine. God forgiveth the forgiver: he that smiteth shall be smitten. So, our blessed Saviour taught, and dying as he lived, prayed for his destroyers"God forgive them, they know not what they do!"

23

SERMON III.

ON THE ARMOUR OF GOD.

EPH. vi. 13.

Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand in the evil day.

Nor part, but the whole armour of God not for purposes merely defensive, but for purposes of victory and offence. Not armour which covers one part of the body, and leaves the other open to wounds and to aggression, but a coat of mail, which no sword can cleave asunder, no weapon can penetrate, no strength can shiver, which carries you through the battle with victory, and from the battle with safety, which makes you perilous to an enemy, and a tower of strength to the cause in which you are engaged. This is the armour of God: with these weapons the soldier of Christ combats for eternal life.

so frequently in the What is it but an relax? When can say that death will

I need not tell you why life is Scriptures compared to a combat. eternal struggle? When can we we say, I am safe? When can we not surprise us, that disease will not lay us waste, that wealth is secure, that reputation is safe, that base and degrading passions may not lay us waste? Show me the man who can put off his armour, and fold his arms in careless ease, and fling himself on the flowery earth, and say, I have nothing to fear! In an instant the enemies to human happiness may be upon him, and he may wake to pain, to distress, and to death. Take,