training immortal souls for God, by whom they are committed to us in trust, and let us accordingly do our work earnestly, and humbly ask His gracious help that we may do it effectually.

Before I conclude, I will speak a few words to the children who now hear me :—

Consider, my dear children, what lies before you. You will not always be children: either you will die before you have attained the full measure of the life of man, and then, according to your deeds, your condition will be hereafter; or you will grow old: the business and the pleasures of life will pass by you, and you will stand upon the borders of another world, certain of soon departing thither. Picture to yourselves what you would then like to be: good, and kind, and gentle; full of hope for the world to come; full of love to God in heaven. How happy it will be to be beloved and admired in your old age! How happy to find little children then looking up to you with trustful love; as you can now confide in some aged person, whom you love, you know not why, and reverence for his wisdom, and cling to for his kindness!

Whether your old age shall be happy and good, depends very much upon how you behave as children. If you now obey your parents at home, and receive with gentleness the instruction of your teachers at school; and keep your evil tempers in subjection; and say your prayers with earnestness and reverence then will you increase in stature and wisdom, and in favour both with God and man, and attain to a good old age, if it please God; and after this life enter into endless rest.

Let us all, dear brethren, remember the days of failing health and strength which probably await us, either by sickness or old age. There are but two ways of escaping such a gradual decline; either by sudden death, cr the sudden coming of the Lord. Let us, then, consider how the actions we are now performing will then bear to be looked back upon : and how the life we are now living is fitting us for a peaceful decline, or a holy and happy old age. Pleasure, sin, the world, and our own wills indulged, will not look then as they look now. The near approach of death will throw a new light upon all that is in the world. Heaven and Hell will then be awful realities; and then we shall find how all our doings in this life have told upon us. Then they that have indulged themselves in pleasure, neglecting self-discipline and the fear of God, will find within them doubt and disquiet, and uneasy forebodings, together with ill-regulated tempers, and unmanageable desires; but those who by patient continuance in well-doing have sought for glory, and honour, and immortality, shall find eternal life begun on earth, quiet confidence and assurance for ever, the supporting presence of God, and deliverance from the power of sin, and from the overwhelming fear of wrath. From which may our gracious Saviour, Jesus Christ, in His tender mercy deliver us, and safely carry us through this world, and bear us safely beyond the boundary of the grave, into the world unseen, and there support us in rest and peace until the Judgment Day.

78

SERMON VII.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

GENESIS, ii. 8, 9.

"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

THE two chapters which we have read to-day1 recal our minds to the thought of the days of man's innocence and we contemplate with pleasure a perfect creature, fresh from the hand of his Creator, pure and happy. Now, if we were simply fallen from happiness to misery, and from holiness to sin, we could scarcely find pleasure in looking back to the unsullied joys of the Garden of Eden. If we were degraded for ever, and had no hope-if we had fallen to rise no more, it would only have made our misery the keener, to look back upon purity and happiness lost for ever. It is no pleasure to Satan to look back to the joys of Septuagesima Sunday.

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heaven: even to look upon a lower state of bliss was intolerable to him: the sight of the innocence and joy of Eden, an image only of the bliss of heaven, was so distasteful to him, that he spared no pains to introduce sin and misery where peace and purity had reigned before. Satan is hopeless. We are granted hope. The future to him is one dark, dreary, miserable blank. We have opened out before us a bright, boundless avenue of bliss, more glorious than Eden, which Christ has purchased for us. And even by wicked and worldly men, the hope of at last partaking of eternal happiness has not, for the most part, been given up. Some have a well-grounded hope: and others a vain deceitful hope: but few have cast away hope. Almost all of us, therefore, love to look back upon the undefiled joyousness of Eden.

Consider, then, my brethren, the condition of our first parents as they came from the Hand of God, before sin had tainted them with her foul breath. God made them upright, pure, and bright: in His own Image He made them, holy and happy; full of life, full of love; apt for affection, and prepared to cherish the good creatures which God has subjected to them; but, above all, burning with a pure and heavenly love, all radiant with joy and thankfulness, towards Him who had created them. No pain visited them in that secure abode; no sickness, no sorrow, no want, no sadness, no fretfulness, no unsatisfied longings: but calm contentment, and perpetual peace. Such was their condition. Pause; and meditate awhile upon it. Oh! blessed state. How different

to ours!

And now let us turn to their outward circumstances, so well suited for beings who were at peace within. Their goodly heritage is described in the text, and in the verses which follow: "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; . . . . and the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it."

Here, you see, were all trees pleasant to the eye, and good for food, ready planted and brought to perfection; fair and bright waters ever flowing; and besides these, a mist ascending up from the earth and watering the whole face of the ground. Here also was the tree of life, like that described by St. John, "The tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month :"2 beside this grew another tree, fair to look upon, but dangerous to touch; yet unable to harm them if left untouched. Here Adam was appointed an easy and a pleasant labour: "The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden, to dress it, and to keep it :" a light and cheerful task: for here were no briers nor thorns,

2 Rev. xxii. 2.