found. Prove whether this be not the case. Examine the matter. Bring it to the test. What have been the plans in which you have looked for happiness? Say, have they answered your expectations? Have you found happiness in them? Do you find in them a rest for your soul?

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Speak you first, who are following worldly pleasures: who place and seek your enjoyment in sensual gratifications, in frivolous amusements, in folly, vanity, and vice; say, do you find in these things real, inward, substantial peace? Is your soul fully at ease in the midst of these delights? We know that it is not. If you will own the truth. you will confess, that notwithstanding your seeming mirth, your apparent enjoyments, you are not really happy. You find a vacancy your soul, which these pleasures cannot fill. You are secretly dissatisfied with yourself. Your own conscience at times condemns you. You shun serious reflection. You dare not to look into your own heart, and closely to compare it with the word of God. You often run into company and riot in order to get rid of your thoughts, and to fly from yourself.-Surely this is not happiness. This is not rest. It is to labour and to be heavy-laden, however little you may own or feel it. The service of sin is a hard service. It destroys present peace and

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precludes future happiness; while it has this evil especially belonging to it, that the wretched captive sees not his misery, and even loves his chain.- How different would be your state, if you would comply with the direction in the text! If you would come to Christ, and take his yoke, you would find the happiness which you are in vain seeking in sinful and worldly pleasures. True religion, heartily embraced, and diligently followed, would yield a satisfaction, and a delight, to which you now are strangers.May He, who calls you to Him, incline your hearts to come. So shall you find rest unto your souls!

Let those speak next, who are seeking their happiness in the pursuit, or in the possession of worldly wealth. You, my brethren, are aiming to be rich; at least to do well, to prosper in the world. You are striving to advance yourselves and families. You are labouring to lay up much goods for many years. But are you really happy, while thus engaged? Do you find in these things full satisfaction and solid peace? No. You find that they are unsatisfying. The fancied good, which you are following, is frequently not obtained; and when obtained, it seldom, it never answers the expectation which you had formed of it. One trouble or another comes with it, which takes

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nearly all the comfort which you had hoped to draw from it. You find vanity written on every wordly enjoyment. Yet still you cease not from the pursuit. Your thoughts and talents, your days and nights, are anxiously employed in following the shadow, which continually escapes your hold, and disappoints your grasp. Surely this is to labour in vain, and to be heavy-laden to no purpose. Come ye also unto Christ, and make trial of His ways and promises. Come, as you have seen, you are required to come to Him, in faith and obedience, and you shall find the truth of His word; you shall taste a happiness, which, while it fully satisfies, will never cloy. Freed from your present anxieties, and subject no more to such continual disappointments, you shall find a solid, and a lasting peace in your soul. Christ will give you rest. In a sense of his love and favour, in his promises of grace and pardon, in fellowship with the Father and with the Son, in the consolations of the Holy Spirit, in the hope of eternal glory, you shall find a source of peace and joy; such as the world cannot give, and such as it can never take away. Call to mind the power, the faithfulness, and the mercy of Him, who has said, "Take my yoke upon you, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." May His Spirit convince you of the heavy

yoke which you now endure; that so you may prefer his light and easy burden!

But there is one description of persons, to whom the text applies with very peculiar force, and who, in an especial manner, are concerned to listen to the gracious invitation here vouchsafed. They are those who labour under a sense of guilt; who, being heavyladen with the burden of unpardoned sin, are afraid of the wrath to come. My brethren, the time was when you felt nothing of this kind. You were whole in your own esteem. If you said that you were a sinner, you did not feel that you were one. But it is not so now. Your eyes have been opened. Your conscience has been awakened. You are sensible that God has a long account against you. You have broken His holy laws. You have slighted the Gospel of His grace. You have contracted a heavy debt, and have nothing to pay. Thus your "sins have gone over your head as a sore burden; they are a heavy burden, too heavy for you to bear." You know not how to get rid of it. You try, but try in vain, to satisfy the demands of conscience. You endeavour, it may be, by self-imposed duties and severities to make amends for past offences. You resolve to sin no more. You shun bad company and evil practices. But notwithstanding all these attempts, the bur

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den still remains. Your sense of guilt increases. The load of unpardoned sin hangs heavier on you. You daily become more conscious of your own inability to remove it. You are indeed heavy-laden, and groan, being burdened. But what says Christ in the text to you, and such as you? "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." Here is your remedy. In Christ is a cure for every disorder; a balm for every wound. He will take away your burden. By coming to Him you shall be set free. That pardon, which you so greatly need, is laid up for you in Him, and in Him alone. He shed his own precious blood to purchase it. He will freely bestow it on all who come to Him for it. They shall have “ Redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Come then to Him, my brethren. Look to Him alone for the removal of your guilt. "He bore your sins in his own body on the Cross." "Take His yoke upon you and learn of Him; and you shall find rest unto your souls.' Being justified by faith, you shall have peace with God, through Jesus Christ." Doubt not his willingness to receive and help you for He hath Himself called you, and promised to receive you. "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Distrust not His truth and faith

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