modest to beg, and unable to labour from the inclemency of the season, or the infirmity of age and disease, open your hearts to them: open your coffers also, though the lock is nearly rusted with disuse, and the hinges are fixed through want of motion. I know the poor, narrow excuse for neglecting almsgiving. There is a parish provision, and there is a house for the poor. But will this satisfy the true Christian? He pays, it is true, a considerable rate. The law compels him. But is his heart concerned in the payment? Charity must be voluntary. Give something more than you are compelled to give, for your own sake; to do yourself good. Select your objects: select the sick, the aged, the lying-in woman, when female weakness endures pains at which stoics would lose their apathy, and which every one who has a right to be called a Man, must be eager to relieve; and let not an over-nice virtue be too scrupulous about the morals of the object; too often a paltry excuse of avarice. Talk not too much of immaculate objects. All that are wretched are deserving of relief from wretched fellow-creatures. Forget their failings in their misery, and be not extreme to mark what they have done amiss, lest God, when he is about to distribute mercies to thee, should examine first into thy deservings. The more wicked, the more miserable, and the more the object of a Christian's compassion.

Let him who sincerely desires to revive, or to maintain a lively sense of religion, omit no opportunity of partaking of the blessed sacrament. He will experimentally find that it is a source of comfort; that it strengthens and refreshes the soul, in a manner not to be accurately described, though powerfully felt by the sincere believer. I will caution the pious Christian against too anxious a curiosity in

examining this, or any other holy institution, which contains in it something of mystery. The safest method is to acquiesce in all received practices and opinions which do not evidently contradict both reason and Scripture. Faith implies a submission of the pride of human judgment. He who will not communicate till he has examined every particular respecting the sacrament with the eye of philosophy, will, it is probable, be too much elevated with the pride of reason, to be able to receive the sacrament with that awe, that sincerity and devotion, which are necessary to produce its best and most durable effect, Growth in Grace.

But the performance of these ordinances will not be sufficient to promote a due degree of Christian perfection. Private meditation, and sincere piety in the closet, are absolutely necessary to raise and preserve the ardour of religion. Without some degree of ardour, I fear, religion will be ineffectual to secure salvation. The coolness which many controversialists have displayed in the essential concerns of religious duty, while they have treated each other with unchristian virulence, is a circumstance which raises in the mind a suspicion of insincerity. When religion is considered merely as a science, it seems to extend its influence no further than the schools, and to possess no power over life and conversation.

Dismiss that frigid, languid, and cold reserve, which would disgrace an honest heart in the common transactions of human life. Let our bosoms glow with devotion. The love of God, the love of our fellow-creatures, the love of our duty in general, and the love of every thing excellent, must partake that warmth which is characteristic of all sincere affection, or how can it be denominated Love!

Let us then devoutly pray to the God of mercy to open, to warm, to melt our hearts by the influence of his Holy Spirit. May he vouchsafe that refreshing influence on all who are assembled within these walls, on him who preaches, and on them who hear! May he not only inspire us with a taste for devotional pleasure, but strengthen, as well as warm, our minds, and give us resolution to practise the duties, while we love and adore the excellence of religion! May we never forget, that the natural consequence of a sincere fear and love of God, is to keep his commandments! Without an earnest endeavour to give this proof of our religion, I fear we shall, with too much justice, incur the imputation of hypocrisy, or irrational enthusiasm.

And here let me be pardoned, if I trespass on your time in adverting to the season of the year. It suggests reflections which tend, in a peculiar manner, to enforce religious instruction. The reflections on the commencement of the new year are, indeed, such as arise spontaneously in the mind of every man of thought and sensibility. The silent, yet rapid, lapse of time, the shortness of life, are common topics; but though information may be superfluous, admonition may be useful. The most important truths, because they are obvious, pass unnoticed; like the great source of light and heat, which rises and shines on many who never admire the glorious luminary.

One year more we have just closed. It is gone irrevocably, as the years before the deluge. How many important and unexpected events have happened in it! Let us pause a moment in the retrospect. How many of our friends and relatives have finished their course in it, and now sleep with their fathers! And whether all of us, who are now assembled here in

health, shall live to meet again at the commencement of another year, is known only to him, to whom the past, present, and future are expanded in one unbounded scene. The probability is, that some of us shall fall asleep; that many changes in health, many vicissitudes of fortune, may take place; that our sorrow may be turned into joy, and our joy into sorrow. Such are the probabilities.

It is certain that this world is passing away from us rapidly. You see this in the book of Nature; how soon shall the rose-bud be full blown, and then wither and fall to the ground. Year after year glides away, too often without reflection. Of nothing do we take so little notice, as of the few years we have to live. We see a long perspective—an extensive view-drawn by the flattering pencil of Hope; but we see not the pit-falls that lie under our feet; and while we are looking at a distance, we sink, and are seen no more.

Plain,

In this state of instability, walking on the brink of a precipice, how shall we fix our troubled minds; where find rest to our weary feet; on what shall we anchor the frail bark? On the firm ground of religion. Let every year advance us more nearly to Heaven, as it brings us nearer to our dissolution. Fear God, and keep his commandments. unrefined, but solid and substantial, advice! Keep it with anxious solicitude, and beware of that philosophy and indifference which are prevailing in the land, diffusing misery of all kinds, and terminating in madness and suicide. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for as this is the whole duty, so it is the WHOLE HAPPINESS OF MAN.

SERMON X.

ON CONFORMITY TO FASHION AND THE CUSTOMS OF THE

WORLD.

ROMANS, xii. 2.-Be not conformed to this World.

"It is impossible to admit this doctrine," exclaims the man of the world. "Am I forbidden to conform to the world? Absurd and reprehensible precept! It is the business of a polite education, and the study of every man of sense, to acquire such habits as qualify him to conform to the world with gracefulness and address. I look around," continues he," and see the ablest and most celebrated among mankind labouring to please the world, by complying with all its extravagancies. On the other hand, I see those who are singular in their opinions and conduct, however virtuous and innocent they may be, the objects of censure and of ridicule. I conclude therefore, that the Christian religion does not command a non-conformity to the world; or if it does, that this is one among the internal evidences of its want of foundation."

Such probably are the ideas of a worldly-minded man, on hearing the text repeated. But however he may deceive himself with false reasoning, it is evident to every candid mind, that the text forbids conformity to the world in plain and express terms, and without the possibility of evasion. Be not conformed to this world. Language cannot more directly utter any prohibition.