great teacher, Earth, to the mind of the Christian enquirer, and such its corroborative testimony to the truth of the inspired statements. What idea do such teachings furnish of the designs of Providence, and of those works and wonders which are to display the divine glory, and be the occasion of the wonder and admiration. of intelligent creatures through those never-ending ages that are yet to be sent forth from the centre of his own eternity?

LIFE A TIME OF PROBATION.

"That the present life is a time of trial, or probation, is admitted on all hands, with very few exceptions. This doctrine is gathered from the dispensations of Providence, the dictates of reason, and the testimonies of Scripture. And a state of trial implies, that there will be a time of review, or examination, when the probationers will be rewarded, or punished, according to their works. But this time cannot come till the state of trial is finished. But it must come either in this, or a future world. That men cannot be rewarded or punished for their conduct in this world, is certain from the fact, that their probation lasts as long as their lives. The threatened penalty, as well as the promised prize, is placed at the end of life. Those, therefore, who absolutely fail, must be such as finally fail; but no one can finally fail, till the last sands of his probation are run out; for, until that time, there is an opportunity to return. If a master allow a servant three days in which to perform certain works, whatever may be the conduct of the servant during that time, he is not properly accountable, and punishable, for the non-performance of those works, till the time allotted him has expired. It is equally true, that the present life is a state of probation, and not of retribution; and, as a state of trial implies a time of retribution; and, as the retribution must succeed the probation; and, it having been already shown that our probation and lives generally close together; it follows, of course, that there is a future state; that man has a conscious existence after death; and that the awards of justice are reserved till the final closing up of life, when they will be fully revealed. The fact, therefore, that we are here probationers for eternity, is proof in point that the soul is immortal, and that man is destined to a future state of existence."

SERMON LXXXII.

BY REV. WILLIAM N. SLASON,

PASTOR OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH, LAKE VILLAGE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

DIVINE AND HUMAN THOUGHTS.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Isaiah lv. 8.

A true friend will not flatter us to our present injury, nor deceive us to our future ruin, but will speak the truth in love. Thus the inspired writers-the best benefactors of our race-every where carefully divide the word of truth, and give each one his proper portion in due season. The Bible has a distinguished excellence above all human compositions, in that it speaks of human character and human actions as they really are. It calls things by their right names, without the least flattery or disguise. It discovers to us the vanity of the world, and the fading nature of all its glories. It makes repeated discoveries of the nature of that eternity into which the learning and philosophy of the world have ever been unable to penetrate. It becomes, then, every minister of this word to weigh carefully the characters of men in the balances of truth, without courting the favor or fearing the frowns of the world.

Our text asserts, that our thoughts and ways differ widely from the thoughts and ways of God. But, though the assertion of the text may, in many respects, be of universal application, (for even the children of God must necessarily view things in a vastly feebler light than they are seen in the mind of the Creator,) yet it was mainly designed to apply to the impenitent.

For the children of God, in so far as they can become acquainted with the character and will of the Redeemer, delight to think the same thoughts and to do the same things. And, sometimes, even the adversaries of religion, when constrained to witness the splendor of its triumphs, find their understandings and their consciences to be on the side of truth, and are compelled to yield a

kind of involuntary homage to the doctrines of the cross. From this state of mind, however, they generally soon recover themselves, and stand out again with prevailing resistance to the truth. They see things not in the same light in which they are viewed by the Creator of the world. They, take their observation of things from the low grounds which they have selected, and view every object through a very imperfect and distorted medium. God's observation is taken from the throne of the universe, where the uncreated glories of heaven burn and dazzle around him with insufferable brightness. Nothing, however minute its formation or remote in its location, can escape his vigilant and all-piercing eye. He sees all things distinctly in their real light. With one comprehensive glance he looks through immensity, and encompasses the great circle of eternity. All his works are perfectly known unto him from the beginning. Man's condition is in the dust. Here, we are loaded with temptations, fettered with infirmities, and pressed down with iniquities, which bias our decisions, and cast a shade over our most exalted faculties. But in nothing do we so unhappily differ from the great Author of light as in our estimate of the value of earthly things, and of that moral excellence which constitutes a soul fit for the heavenly felicity. May I venture to solicit the attention of the hearer for a few moments, while I may particularize several things in which this difference seems to consist. And,

I. THE RICHES of the world, WITH THEIR CONCOMITANT APPENDAGES, DAZZLE THE EYES OF MORTALS, AND ARE ESTEEMED AS THE HIGHEST GOOD AS THE CHIEF GLORY OF MAN.

Attracted by the splendors of wealth, the lofty mansions, the gaudy equipage, the glittering robes of worms, men have paid to their fellow men that homage which was due only to the Creator of all things. Those, even, who seem to despise the elevation of others, and would gladly pluck from their heads the last gem of their glory, give but another proof how deeply the love of wealth is implanted within themselves-a distinction which fortune forbids then to attain. Surely the love of money is the root of all evil. Its sways, by the touch of its hand, the votaries of earth; it warps the decisions of jurists, and urges the political demagogue to measures antagonistical to the public welfare. With God, however, it possesses no such energy. He would utterly contemn the wealth of the Indies, if offered to him to swerve his infinite decisions

in the government of the universe. The gold and silver of the rich man were valued by him as nothing on the day of his death.

They failed to procure a release from the pit, or to soften, for a moment, the anguish of his soul among the infernal fires. He was rich, but he had not the true riches of the kingdom; and Jesus Christ had prepared in heaven no golden seat for him. The beggar died; and, though veiled in poverty, was conveyed by an escort of angels to the paradise of God. His earthly sun set in darkness; but, as the last shadow disappeared, a new light dawned and brightened upon his soul; it was the light of heaven. A flood of uncreated glory shone upon his pathway to the skies, and opened before him the meridian splendors of eternal day. Yet, fool-hardy mortals, regardless alike of the monitions of conscience and the warnings of God's word, will waste, in profusion, the blessings of his providence, and consume every thing upon their lusts. They look upon Christ as "a root out of dry ground;" and the stringency of the humbling, self-denying doctrines of the cross are entirely incompatible with the pleasures of a high-bred life. The language of such is, "let us drink the pleasures of sin to-day, for to-morrow we may die." And yet how little do they realize the import of their own words-we may die. To-day, they may be flushed with the hopes of future good, and may riot in scenes of earthly pleasure; to-morrow, a poisoned arrow may flit across their path, and prove withering to all their joys. And could the wicked see the number of their pleasures infinitely multiplied and extended, still the fact, that all must pass away, seems to write vanity on all the globe, and to dim the lustre of all its enchanting scenery.

Mutation is legibly written on every thing which we here possess or enjoy. How, then, must the most solid hopes of ungodly men waver and be marred by exciting fears of sudden and dreadful future changes. The office-work of a door-keeper in the kingdom of heaven will so far surpass the elevation of the most gifted on earth, as needs for its elucidation the calculations of an infinite arithmetic.

II. MEN HIGHLY ESTEEM WORLDLY AMBITION, BUT GOD ABHORS IT. An eloquent writer has well said, "that many sinful mortals have, at their death, been enrolled among the gods, who had trampled on the laws of God and man, overspread nations with carnage and

devastation, and filled the world with blood." Cruel conquerors have often received the applause of mankind, and have borne from the field of conflict those honors which more properly belonged to the benefactors of our race. Men have bestowed their uninterrupted praises upon the heroes of the battle-field from time immemorial. Stunned by the loud roar of musquetry, and the clamorous exultations of victory, the ear becomes deaf to the wail of misery, and passes by, unheeded, the groans of the wounded and the dying. Men love to reward a bold pretender; but modest merit is treated with neglect. That arrogance which seizes upon posts of honor and emolument, commands the admiration of the world, however wanting in wisdom and integrity. But God will consume, with the awful breath of his indignation, those military despots, who, like devils incarnate, have walked through the earth, spreading the fire-brands and arrows of death among the nations.

Akin to the war-spirit of the conqueror, is that mock heroism called bravery, which affects to meet with indifference the ills of life, or even to grapple unflinchingly with the iron hand of death. They rush with yells of maddening fury upon the territory of the king of terrors! They sink among the damned, to be seen no more till the heavens shall be dissolved. But this is the heroism of the fool. It has not one single element of that calm resignation which is the support of the dying Christian. It more fitly ranks men among savages, than with civilized society. Such have no fear of God before their eyes.

III. GOD REGARDS THE BIBLE AS THE BEST BOOK FOR MAN—AS THE TRUE AND ONLY RECORD THAT HE HAS GIVEN us of his SON.

But men are more easily captivated by the sallies of human wit. A romance-a novel-an obscene jest―any thing, no matter what, if it only sparkle with here and there a lively flash of human wit.

Men spend their hours in novel reading, to the eminent danger of their souls;-to the loss of their temporal and eternal felicity. They offer us the apology—"why, the author is a man of talents, and his work throughout bears the marks of a masterly hand!" One has well replied, that, "If distinguished mental powers were worthy of homage, when employed for wicked purposes, then would satan be honored in heaven and on earth. But if he is worthy of human dread and caution, so are those men who abuse and prostitute their mental powers in the same manner."