The wages of sin is death, and the sting of death is sin. O wherefore, then, should we ever be guilty of those things whose end will be our destruction, whose bitter fruit will be our eternal ruin! rather let us resolve and endeavour, by the grace of God, to lead such lives as will, through Jesus Christ, make us pleasing in His sight; striving more and more, the longer He spares us, to work out the salvation of our souls. By repentance for all that we have done amiss, by guarding against being ever guilty of the same again, by fervent prayers to the Almighty for His blessing and forgiveness, by faith in our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer, by love to God and goodwill to all mankind, we must seek for the kingdom of heaven. Thus we shall pluck the sting out of death, and be able to give up our souls in peace, whenever it shall please God to require them from us.

They who live in the Lord, doing His holy will, and in all things, whether of great or small consequence, keeping His commandments, and preserving themselves, as far as poor mortals can, without spot and

blameless, shall at last depart hence in the Lord; in His favour, under His protection, in the sure and certain hope that they shall, for His sake, be pardoned and accepted.

Grant, O God, in Thy merciful goodness, that we may experience this to our great and endless comfort! Grant that in the full enjoyment of the glories of Thy kingdom we may find how true are the words. written in Thy book, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours. For Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

SERMON XVIII.

REV. vii. 9, 19, 11, 12.

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen : Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

BLESSED be God, the Author and the Giver of every good and perfect gift, in His great and boundless love to us, His sinning and unthankful creatures, He has left nothing undone, no means untried, which His wis

dom and His mercy could devise, to bring us nearer and nearer to Himself, to make us set our affection on Him alone, to love Him with all our hearts, and, by so doing, to secure to ourselves that eternal weight of glory which He wishes every soul that He has made to partake of. The blessings and enjoyments which attend us in this life only, would be sufficient, if we were as thankful as we ought to be, to make us love that gracious Father through whose goodness we receive them. For though He does not see fit to bestow them upon us all in equal shares, yet the man who has least of this world's goods, has more, much more than he ever has deserved, or can deserve. Dust and ashes cannot even live without his Maker's leave: what claim then can he have upon His bounty? and, being sinful, what good can he deserve? But what small and trifling proofs of God's loving kindness to us are the gifts and enjoyments bestowed upon our bodies here on earth, compared with those other mercies which concern our souls both here and hereafter for ever!

Mankind were at first made to be eter

nally happy: and when our first parents, through their folly and unthankfulness, had broken the only commandment which their Maker had laid upon them, God, who foresaw how all men after them would follow their sad example, and, if left to themselves, would be eternally lost instead of being eternally saved, promised that He would send into the world one who should redeem His people from their sins, deliver us both from the bondage of them and the punishment that was due to them, and destroy the power of the evil one.

When

the fulness of time was come this merciful promise was performed-and Jesus Christ, the spotless Son of God, the Lamb that was to be slain for the sins of the world, came down to visit us in great humility, took our fleshly nature upon Him, and bore our punishment in His own body upon the cross. We may best conceive the greatness of His love and mercy, by considering, that, if Jesus had not thus suffered for us, the just for the unjust, we must all have perished miserably and everlastingly.

Besides this, God has preserved to us,