wish to guard you against the danger of falling, by any chance, into these errors, the vital truth which I would seek to impress especially upon your notice, is this: that, however you may be circumstanced, you never can do to God a more acceptable service, nor to yourselves a more enduring benefit, than is brought about by the habit of living, moving, resting, sleeping, dreaming, as if you were, what you certainly are, at all hours, and under all circumstances, in God's immediate presence. Does some unexpected piece of good fortune befal you, rejoice in it, but rejoice in moderation, giving thanks to Him who sent it, and taking care that his blessing shall not, by your folly or your carelessness, become a snare to you. Are you unfortunate; do those nearest and dearest to you die; does poverty overtake you, or sickness, or the loss of friends; I do not say abstain from lamenting, because that is clearly impossible; but never forget, amid your sor

row, that nothing befals, either to you or to others, without the permission of One who knows, not only what is best for your immediate, but for your eternal welfare. And if this conviction be strong in your minds, there is no doubt as to the fruits which it will bring forth. Your grief will not assume, like that of the Israelites, the language of complaint; neither will you, like Moses, demand of God, Why hast thou done this?

With respect, again, to the still more serious hazards to which your faith and mine are continually exposed,-the voice of guilty pleasure, of inveterate habit, of all those enticements to wrong which beset us in our journey to the grave, -surely it is not necessary for me to point out to how how it behoves us to deal with them. The young are indeed apt to hold parley with vice, trusting that, though they permit it to gain some head at the outset, they will have strength enough to resist its last assault, and to conquer;

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but those who have lived longer in the world, know, that he who hopes to triumph over temptation, must oppose it at the outset, and call in the aid of God's grace in opposing it even then. I am sure, therefore, that it is not necessary for me to add,-Shun, as you would your worst enemy, every situation which is likely to throw you open to the whispers of the sinner; for he is never safe, who carelessly puts himself in a position, where more than human strength may be needed to hinder him from falling.

SERMON XVII.

THE ISRAELITES DELIVERED.

HEBREWS Vv. 5.

So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee.

THE words which I have just repeated contain, as I need scarcely point out, a comparison between the Jewish and the Christian priesthoods; between one dispensation, which was granted under peculiar circumstances, and bestowed upon a peculiar people, and another, of which the benefits are universal, and

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the regulations of eternal continuance. I think you will agree with me, that not throughout the whole compass of the Bible could I have found a more fitting introduction to my present discourse, of which it will be the design to carry you rapidly onwards in the history of God's dealings with the world of old, in order that we may be prepared, on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, to examine the mighty objects for which that treatment was afforded.

The first lesson for this morning's service, has shown you how Pharaoh received God's message, delivered to him through Moses. The first lesson for the service of the afternoon, will give you a continuation of the same detail. Regardless of the signs and wonders that passed before his eyes, heedless of his people's sufferings, and of the humiliation to which the gods of Egypt were subjected, that bad man continued to deny to the Israel