his redoubled prosperity; but in utter destitution of them, let us still have his righteous confidence

though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.' If good report proclaim our righteous efforts, let our ears drink

in (though not too fondly) the pleasant music; but through evil report, with all its harshness, discordancy, and threats, let us hold on, unflinchingly. Though no angel ever came, the patriarchs yet beckoned in the fainting stranger, and welcomed him to their tent, and brought out the repast, and spread his couch. The duty had no contingency upon the miracle; nor has any duty upon coincidences, which may be beautiful and delightful, but which are not certain, are not promised. There is enough which is certain, and is promised. Heaven hereafter, and its hope here, can do their work upon the heart and life without auxiliaries. They can arm for trials; sustain under calamities; and if the world be never friendly, why they will overcome the world. This is the true Christian spirit. It will go towards the heavenly city of its final abode and destination, as, at their great and appointed festivals, the Jews of old went towards Jerurusalem. The command was to go-and they went. They went, whatever might be the length of the way or the state of the country. They rejoiced in going, if their procession moved on in peace, heaven above smiling on the loveliness of earth beneath, each village greeting them, and the husbandman leaving his plough and the artisan his work, to join their band, and the winds wafting along the burden of the psalms they chanted, and the hills prolonging it with their echoes, till before them rose the temple, circled by

Zion, the city of their God. But if storms howled above, and dreariness spread around, and terror had depopulated the villages, and hostile armies were in the way, and ever and anon the battle-cry was heard, and they moved with the bow strung and the sword unsheathed, still they went-went through tempest and conflict to Jerusalem. And thus goes on,in the path of duty, the real Christian. Or even worse than this; be he alone, like Paul, bound on that same journey; some entreated him with tears; some prophesied menacing evils; friends beseeched; foes threatened; bonds and afflictions awaited him; but he went; and for his firm and faithful discharge of duty through perils, imprisonments, endurances of every varying character of gloom, and ultimate martyrdom, resplendent is his crown of glory in Christ's heavenly kingdom. Earthly good should ever be regarded as comparatively accidental; fidelity to God and conscience is the great éssential. Our great Master and Saviour bends from his throne above to behold its struggles; and we hear his word of promise, 'Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.'

SERMON XII.

REJOICE EVERMORE.

1 THESSALONIANS V. 16.

Rejoice evermore.

A state of feeling cannot be produced or changed by mere volition. A man cannot rejoice or grieve by an act of the will, in obedience to a command. He can only do one of two things; adopt the outward expressions, and manifestations, so far as they are capable of being voluntarily assumed; or employ such means as are subject to his control for the purpose of generating in his mind the state of feeling which is enjoined upon him. One of these courses must therefore be considered as enjoined by precepts like that just read. I should rather say the latter course must be intended; for so far as the first is not hypocrisy, (to which extent it could not be recommended by the apostle,) so far as it consists, for instance, of adopting when in sorrow, or having recourse to, those holy compositions expressive of the care, condescension, and love of our heavenly Father, which tend to bring the mind into a calmer state, it may be resolved into the last; and is the employment of one species of means for generating the de

sired feeling. This, then, is the mode in which all precepts like the text-precepts which command, not a voluntary action, but a state of feeling—are to be interpreted and observed. They are an abbreviated form of enjoining all the proper voluntary means (which are not specified) for the production of the end, which is specified.

Could the text be obeyed by an immediate act of the will, who would not obey it? who would not be always rejoicing if he could? In this view, such injunctions are altogether nugatory; but in the other view, as commanding a certain set of voluntary actions, they are not nugatory, they are practical and important; and the only question is as to what means the apostle had in view, or Christianity contemplates, as those which, being employed, will realize the end here so briefly and imperatively indicated. These I shall endeavor to specify, i. e., I shall endeavor to show by what voluntary acts the Christian may expect to advance towards a permanent state of cheerful or joyous feeling.

1st. Habitual piety. The very occupation of prayer tends to calm mental agitation, to soothe dejection and sorrow, to mitigate even the sense of bodily pain, and to steady the soul amid the tumultuousness of unexpected delight. As in a strong consciousness of the Divine presence all the distinctions among men vanish; the mighty and the lowly appear on an equality; and even all created beings seem, by the effect of that overshadowing immensity, on the same level; so do events in like manner lose their disparities of magnitude and diversities of coloring, and take the

one form and color imparted to all, by the consideration, that they are His will and ordained in love. The very next precept to the text which the apostle gives is, 'Pray without ceasing.'. Prayer makes us feel the Divine presence; the presence of a heavenly Father, and an Almighty friend. That presence must be consolation, strength, and joy. He who 'prays without ceasing' will 'rejoice evermore.' Habitual devotion, if Christian in its principles and spirit, tends to habitual cheerfulness. It does this even in the form of supplication. But Christian devotion does not more consist in prayer than in praise; nor so much. When the heart of the thoughtless or hardened transgressor is first touched with penitence, supplication may and must predominate, almost to the exclusion of thanksgiving. But as the spirit of the Gospel advances in its sway over his spirit, the proportion will change. His devotion will have in it comparatively more of gratitude and praise. From 'pray without ceasing,' the apostle immediately advances to the injunction, 'in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.' And this alteration in the proportion will go on with the progress of his soul, till the one is absorbed in the other altogether. The one is the language of fear, the other of love; and when love has grown to perfection, it will cast out fear. The tendency of devotion is to one single sentence, "Thy will be done;' and to that, first submissively, and then rejoicingly. And if this require the largely-extended knowledge, the perfect holiness, and the thoroughly-harmonized feelings which the soul can only arrive at in the