It

His own most gracious assurances, that of the last He will not be forgetful. is, indeed, for the sake of enabling us, by His help, so to pass our state of trial, as that we may be admitted at its close, into heaven, that God has given us the word of life, the rules laid down in which we are bound to obey without questioning, because they come from Him. Again, short-sighted and ignorant as we are, it ill becomes us, under any circumstances, to seek, even from ourselves, a reason for that which God has appointed. In the world, as it is now constituted, we find many events befalling, for which we are unable to account; so much so, indeed, that, from time to time, the most pious is inclined to ask, why should these things be. But we may rest assured, that it is not our duty only, but our wisdom, to believe that whatever befals is for the best; seeing, that He guides the course of all things, who knoweth all, and that His wisdom is boundless, as His power is great.

I repeat then, that the great lesson taught in the narrative of the creation is, reverence and fear, and love towards the Most High; such love as shall render us thankful for the blessings which He has placed within our reach, contented with our condition, and submissive to His will. And who can doubt, that the disposition which is thus sanctified and controlled, is a source of unspeakable comfort to him who possesses it. If good fortune comes, he receives it as a gift from God; if evil, he takes it as an instrument of his own moral improvement, bears with it patiently, and robs it of half its bitterness. And as life wears out, and the senses fail; as the world dwindles into a shadow, and eternity becomes more and more visible, the good effects of such a training are more and more perceptibly felt. For sickness itself cannot rob the religious man of his consolation, and death is to him but a passage from a state of

chequered good and ill, to one of glory and honour, and immortality.

Be it our parts to acquire, as far as we are able, this holy disposition; and so will the years that come be to us of infinitely more value than the past; because they will bring us nearer and nearer to that God, who has created, who has hitherto supported, and who will never, in life or in death, leave us or forsake us.

SERMON III.

THE FALL OF MAN.

GENESIS iii. 23.

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

I NEED Scarcely observe, that the chapter from which my present text is taken, gives an account of the result of that trial, on which, as I stated, in a former discourse, the Lord God Almighty put the parents of the human race. Of the narrative, as it is given in the Bible, I am not now going to repeat an abridgment. The tale is told so clearly, so shortly, with so much of simplicity and candour, that to tell it in words different from those

employed by Moses, would only injure its effect. But, as I know that it has been objected to, on the ground that it is unworthy both of the Creator and the creature, and that it contains anecdotes not to be reconciled to the common sense and experience of mankind, I think that I shall do some service to the cause of truth, and of religion, if I point out, how perfectly groundless all these objections are.

I stated, on a former occasion, that the purpose for which God introduced our first parents into the garden of Eden, was to put them, as it were, upon their trial; to place them in a situation where they might either obey God or not, as they saw fit; God having been pleased to assure them of immortality in case of obedience, and to threaten them with death itself in case they should not obey. He must be a very captious quibbler, indeed, who will urge, that there was anything unreasonable in this. Be it remembered,