dergo-its dissolution into dust, its upspringing into grass, its passage from creature to creature, God is able, and God will, at His own appointed season, call these particles together again; in order that the same soul which had its trial here, while inhabiting a mortal body, may take possession, either for good or for ill, of a body that shall never die.

And now, my good friends, while, with the Apostle, I exhort you to give glory for all this, through Christ, to God onlywise, let me also remind you, that though God has done thus much for you, and Christ opened for you the gates of the grave, on yourselves in a great measure it must depend whether these things be to you sources of rejoicing or of lamentation. If you strive while life remains to do your duty to God and man, -if, taking Scripture for your guide, you endeavour in all things to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour, then will this future life, of which you can no

longer entertain a doubt, be to you far, far dearer than his home to the traveller who has been long absent. What, though troubles and cares continue to fret you here? They are sent for your good. They wean your affections from a life which is daily passing from you, and which must ere long have an end. And while they effect this, they at the same time raise your eyes to heaven, where the golden harps are strung that will bid you welcome, when He who redeemed, shall introduce you into the society of angels, and of the spirits of just men made perfect. Nor must you, on the other hand, forget that if you persist in abusing these bodies, by indulgences which at once corrupt the mind, and break down the frame, your bodies, not less than your souls, will endure the punishment. From the state whither you go, there is no withdrawal. As the tree falls, so must it lie-if with fair fruit about it, honoured, glorified for ever;

if blighted by sin, and eaten up with indulgence, in a condition which I do not choose to describe. Take then the choice that God submits to you.. Live with Him in the world, and ye will live with Him for ever; live without Him in the world, and without Him eternity must be passed. Can I doubt how you will decide in this matter? I cannot. For the knowledge of that mystery which was kept back from the men of old, cannot fail to operate upon your minds at all moments, teaching you to seek for peace only in the answer of a good conscience, and to show forth your gratitude to the great Revealer, by the purity of your lives. Let such be the effect of your contemplation of God's goodness, and all the errors

of

your youth will be forgiven. He who died for you, will blot them out, so that when you stand before His throne, it will be to receive the joyful sentence, "Come ye blessed of my Father, enter ye into the joy of your Lord.'

SERMON XXII.

THE ASCENSION.

ACTS i. 11.

This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

THE words which I have just repeated form a part of that portion of Scripture which is appointed to be read instead of an epistle on Ascension-day. They were spoken not by any mortal lips; but by two angels of God, on an occasion than which we have no record of any thing half so remarkable, or one hundredth part so important. As I am going to take advantage of the heavenly declaration,

for the purpose of impressing upon your minds a few solemn truths, it may not be amiss if I give to you, in the first place, an outline of the circumstances under which the declaration itself was delivered.

You have not forgotten that our Lord had undergone all which the providence of his Father, and our God, had designed that He should undergo, -that He was condemned, crucified, and buried. He lay in the grave his appointed season, and, on the morning of the third day, shook off the sleep of death. He then showed himself to his disciples; came in and went out among them for forty days, and satisfied them by his appearance, by his habits, by his language, by his acts of kindness, by his solemn blessings frequently repeated, that he was the same Jesus whom they had followed ever since He began to preach the Gospel. It is true that the mode of his intercourse with them was, in one remarkable respect, different from what it used to be. He was not with them at all