no obstinate weeds, no hard and stubborn soils, no standing water, no untimely frosts, no sweeping blights; but bright, warm, sunny days, and dewy nights; and all beautiful and useful plants growing vigorously: the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind. The Lord

looked kindly down upon it all, "and behold, it was very good." Lastly, there was no want there: but as there was every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food, so there was full liberty to enjoy them, and the tree of life also: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." Observe there is no restriction except of that one tree in whose taste was death. 66 Of every tree," not excepting the tree of life, "thou mayest freely eat.”

Now, it is plain, my brethren, at first sight, that our condition is extremely unlike the condition of Adam and Eve in their state of innocence. Of course not one of us is pure from all taint of sin; not one of us is free from care, and sorrow, and pain, and fear. But even in the last particular I have mentioned, our case is very different from theirs. It is not true of us that of every tree of the garden of life we may freely eat. This appears most clearly in the case of those of you, my brethren, who are labouring men. Adam laboured, and you labour; but Adam ate freely, and without restraint, of the fruit of his labours, all that his soul desired-whereas you are often compelled to eat sparingly, and find yourselves hampered on all sides by the claims of others who have dominion over your labour (by the ordinance of God it is so), and are partakers of its

fruit with you. I dare say it seems sometimes very hard that you should turn the stubborn soil, preparing it with much labour for the precious seed in its season, your children gathering out the noxious weeds; and again at harvest time should reap the ripe corn, and store it in the barn, for another; seeming yourselves to have but a scanty portion of the produce of your toils. Does this seem hard, my brethren? Would your own hearts sometimes persuade you to believe what wicked men would teach you, that this order of human society is unjust and wrong? Let not your own too easily perverted hearts, let not any subtle teacher of evil, persuade you thus to doubt the ordinance of God, who has ordered by His Divine Providence the various ranks of men, and declared in His sacred Word that "the poor shall never cease out of the land." Remember, too, what special blessings are promised to the poor in Scripture, and that Christ was poor by His own choice. "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." Remember this, and then you will not be easily tempted to murmur at your lot, but will take thankfully those blessings which are peculiar to it, and bear patiently those trials which, in some form or other, are the lot of all men, be their position in this life what it may.

And now observe, my brethren, whither I am leading your thoughts. I have carried you back to the garden of bliss; I have brought you again to your daily labours, and the hardships that attend

3 Deut. xv. 11. 2 Cor. viii. 9.

them. I have spoken of peace, and love, and joy, of light labours, and a sure, and quick, and full reward. I have spoken also of doubt, and distrust, and sorrow, of hard labours, and slender pay, and scanty food, and the trials of life which surround us all. Of what shall I speak next? What are we to learn? The garden of Eden was all sunshine: the world, as we now find it, is in the deep shadow of grief. Why has this great change taken place? The answer is simple, yet most awful:

Adam was free from sin: but we are sinners. You have often said that you were sinners: have you thought what it meant? Have you ever thought that all over-toil, and weariness, weakness, pain, poverty, and debt-hunger, and cold, and nakedness, and shame, are the fruits of sin? Have you ever realized that these, and such-like evils, come upon you as sinners? Has want, or sickness, or anxiety of mind, or sorrow of heart, led you to consider how you appear in the eye of God? Whether He looks upon you with displeasure; whether He has just cause to be angry with you, and is punishing you; or whether He compassionates your sufferings, and sends them for your good, and supports you under them, and will deliver you from them in His own good time.

My brother, if hitherto you have been thoughtless, begin to think now. Consider with yourself. You are capable of happiness. You are, I suppose, very happy sometimes. When things go smoothly you fancy you are made for enjoyment, and that you have nothing to do but take of the fruit of pleasure

it is not so. a paradise. years of age,

ask others.

that grows around you, and eat freely. Yet plainly You are not like Adam in the midst of If you have attained thirty or forty you have found it so. If you are young, Ask old people how they have found it. Nay, look around you. Use your eyes. Look upon the sights of woe which you may see if you will. But here, in this country, men cover up their misery. It is not so in some other countries. In foreign lands I have seen sights of misery which can seldom be seen in England. I have seen collected together in one spot all forms of human misery -the lame, and the blind, and the maimed, and those afflicted with diseases frightful to look upon; exposing to the sight of all passers-by deformed limbs, incurable sores, sightless eyeballs, and ghastly faces; very much such a sight as might have been seen near the pool of Bethesda. There, in its five porches, "lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water." Such miseries as these are hidden out of sight in this country; yet here they are, and we are in the midst of them; we may not ourselves have yet partaken of them; but their presence should remind us of the truth of that misery which we may, before our time of trial is ended, experience as bitterly as any who are now drinking the cup of suffering most deeply. But whatever our relative condition may be, we are far, very far, removed from the peaceful happiness of Adam in Paradise. Since, then, we are all lying under a cloud—since this life is not bright sunshine 4 St. John, v. 2, 3.

for any of us, let us consider, each for ourselves, what our true state is.

It is a very awful thing to lie beneath the wrath of God. He made us, and He can destroy us in a moment. There is no misery to be compared with the endurance of His anger. For when He is angry all our days are gone: we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told. For we consume away in His displeasure. Of what, then, ought we to be afraid but of His wrathful indignation? Consider, then, each for yourselves, whether you have good ground to hope that God looks upon you with love and favour, as His reconciled children, or whether He is justly displeased at you, and waits to see whether you will repent before He punishes. Over all wilful offenders the sword of His justice hangs ready to strike them. He who wields it is indeed waiting to be gracious, if you repent; but He may strike before you repent; and if He spare you long on purpose that you may find repentance, it is by no means certain that you will ever choose to repent, if you refuse to do so now.

:

Such is the condition of the wicked and the careless and all men, even the best, are liable to temptation, and are constantly falling short of the measure of their duty and upon all alike the heavy hand of chastisement is liable to fall at any moment. How, then, are we to conduct ourselves? In what frame of mind are we to live this lower life? Are we like our parents in Eden, free to do as we will? Are we allowed to take of the fruit of every tree in the garden? Even 5 Psalm xc. 7, 9.