If, in ruminating on the years that are fled, we should compare the character and quality of them one with another, as ascertained by the events they have produced, what would be the consequence? Should we not have reason to acquiesce in Solomon's conclusion, that "there is no new thing under the sun:" for one year is an epitome of an age, and a repetition of them only brings over again the same scenes which we had previously witnessed; perhaps, indeed, a little varied in manner and circumstance, but in nature and kind precisely the same. And, if we examine the incidents themselves which mark the lives of any of us individually, of what are they made up, as far as their composition depends on this present life, but of materials of the meanest description. We wake and sleep, we are hungry and we are filled, we labour and we rest, we rejoice and we mourn; and these and similar acts, are all we do in our mere physical capacity,-they are all the employments belonging to mere temporal existence; for, as to the exercise of virtuous affections, and the acquisition of religious sentiments, these are enjoyments, which, though begun in time, will be carried on through eternity; for, blessed be God, charity never faileth, but the holy flame of gratitude to Him, and love to our kindred spirits, will continue to warm and invigorate the soul, when the material sun shall have withdrawn his shining,

and the lamp of night have been quenched in darkness. But independently of these spiritual blessings, which have no proper concern or connexion with earth and earthly things, what has this life which is really worth possessing, and still less what has it to give, as an equivalent, to that infatuated mortal, who is willing to take its sensual enjoyments in exchange for his soul? Is that dull, and tedious, and monotonous succession, which it presents, of low and sordid gratifications at best, sufficient to satisfy the desires of man; of a being, that is, who possesses a faculty which can roam through infinity, which is perpetually straining after fresh attainments, and which can grasp the general idea of an eternity of happiness?

But whether we chuse to provide for eternity or not, from a sense of the unsatisfactoriness of all things here below, eternity will come, and come quickly; for it is advancing towards us as fast as time can carry it, and, whether or not we could be content to linger here, amidst all the penalties and privations of humanity, the present life is not the end and object of our existence. We are born, we know, to higher destinies, to expectations of such splendour and magnificence that they can only be discerned at present by the eye of faith;-even to partake of those boundless pleasures, which are at God's right hand for evermore. Now that same gracious God, who has

prepared these good things for them that love Him, has also taught us in His word how they are to be attained; and our title will be secured, beyond the possibility of a forfeiture, if we will but exert ourselves in showing a proper sense of its value for we are told that we shall awake, on the morning of the resurrection, arrayed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, if, when we lie down in the grave, we are clad in His Spirit also. To beings, then, in our circumstances, the proper sphere for energy and activity must consist, in the continued attempt to mortify our innate corruptions, and daily to imbibe still more and more of that same mind which was also in Christ Jesus. And surely the solemn information that we receive from the arrival of such limiting marks in our existence, as the present season exhibits, since it points out the shortness and the precariousness of the period assigned us for the performance of the greatest and most important work wherein we can be engaged, so ought it to set us upon seriously inquiring what progress we have hitherto made in the execution of it. Nor are any of us exempted from the necessity, which a regard to our highest interests imposes, of undertaking this useful investigation,-not even they who might seem to possess the fairest claim to it; for, though the young may be flourishing in health and strength, it well behoves them to remember that

man, even in his best estate, only "flourishes as a flower of the field," which, though "in the morning it cometh up and is green," before evening arrives, may be "cut down, dried up, and withered."

And God grant that in every successive survey which we may take of our hopes and prospects beyond the grave, the result may be productive of still increasing satisfaction to each of us, and that, as years and days pass away, we may find all unholy affections dying within us, and the fruits of the Spirit springing up within our souls, with more accelerated health, and vigour, and luxuriance: that so we may be daily prepared for that awful moment, when the angel, whom St. John beheld, shall stand upon the sea and upon the earth, with his hand lifted up to heaven, and swear by Him, that liveth for ever and ever, that time shall be no more.

SERMON X.

TRIALS OF OUR SPIRITUAL STATE1.

JAMES ii. 15, 16.

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things that are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

THOUGH "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men," it is painful to observe and to reflect, how few comparatively seem likely to be eventually benefited by that most comprehensive blessing. How often may the complaint uttered by God's prophet of old, "Who hath believed our report," be properly adopted in later times by the ministers of Christ, when they see the message of reconciliation and peace, which

For the School at Coggeshall, Jan. 5, 1834.