testify to Heaven and Earth, that there is yet one throne which is founded in justice, and one people who can honour virtue.

You have now, my friends and fellow-citizens, performed the solemn duty of this day ;-you have obeyed it as men, by presenting the offering of your united thanksgiving upon the altar of the "King of Kings ;"-you have hallowed it, I trust, as Christians, by making the wretched partakers of your joy,-by visiting the prisoners in their affliction,-by "undoing the heavy burdens, and "letting the oppressed go free."

You are now to return into a happy world,to meet the multitude of your brethren and fellowcitizens, and to partake in the diffusion of the general joy. Go then, with these high remembrances in your bosom, and open your hearts to the sublimity of that sentiment which unites the feelings of a free people, and add your voices to that prevailing song, which never wakens without bidding the British heart beat high with thoughts of patriotism and triumph;-go, ere yet the day closes its proud festivity, and assemble your children about you, and, while the voice of thankfulness is yet loud and long around them, seize the auspicious moment to impress upon their glowing hearts the love of their country. Tell them, that these are the honours due to a patriot sovereign;-tell them, that the purest breath which

Heaven lends to awaken the virtues of the throne, is the gratitude of the people;-tell them, that while the adulation of slaves is vice, the loyalty of free-born men is virtue ;—and while you raise their youthful hands in thankfulness to God, that their inheritance is given them in a free country, teach them, in that sacred moment, to pledge their youthful hearts to love, and their youthful arms to defend it.

SERMON XVIII.

ON THE CONSOLATIONS WHICH THE GOSPEL AFFORDS UNDER THE NATURAL EVILS OF LIFE.

ST. JOHN ix. 1.

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth ;-And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ?-Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

AMONG the questions which were proposed to our Saviour by his disciples, there is scarcely any one of a deeper or more interesting nature, than that which is related in the words of the text. Wherever we pass through life, we see scenes of melancholy, of misfortune, and of wretchedness; and the great question of every human heart, is What is the end or purpose of these afflictions of our nature; and upon what principle are we to account for them, in the administration of a benevolent God? It is a question which has been asked in every age, and which has received various solutions, according to the knowledge and capacity of those who examined it.

But it is in the power of the Son of God alone to give the satisfactory solution; and it is one of the greatest privileges of his followers to know the reply.

All the evils or calamities with which human nature is afflicted, are reducible to two great classes, or divisions; and in one or other of them, every suffering or sorrow may be included.

The first and the greatest of these is, that which arises from ourselves ;-the sufferings which arise from errour, or from sin. To this important class of human miseries, the answer of our Saviour in the text does not apply; and with regard to such evils, there are two very important observations to be made both with regard to their origin, and their end.

Such evils, be they of what extent or of what magnitude they may, are not the appointments of God, they are the productions of our own will,

-they are the consequences of our own conduct; -and so far are they from arising from his will, that they all arise from opposition to it, and from neglect or disobedience of those great moral laws, which he has given as the fundamental principles of our being, and of our happiness. The second observation which applies to this class of miseries is, that, while they derive their origin from our own infirmity or guilt, their final purpose is to restore us, by repentance, to the innocence and the happiness we had lost. It is

for this great end, that every vice and every folly has its own appropriate and proportioned suffering; it is for this purpose, that the bosom of the guilty is filled with so many dark and instinctive fears;-it is for this purpose, that evil, in so many awful and conspicuous shapes, is made to pursue sin, that even the spectators of the scene may be made wise by the sufferings of others, and return from the deepest tragedy of their nature with hearts made wiser and better. With regard to this first class, then, of human miseries, it is obvious, that it derives its origin from man alone, and that, even amid all its prevalence or intensity, the spirit of God is ever operating "to overcome evil with "final good.".

The second class of human sufferings are those which arise, not from ourselves, but from the laws to which our nature is subject ;-the evils which the ignorant every where ascribe to chance and to time, and which the wise and the pious ascribe to the will and providence of God. Of such evils, the world affords us many examples ;-of such, our own hearts are ever forming many fears;— and with regard to such, it is of deep consequence that we should listen, not to the voice of our own despondent hearts, but to the blest revelations of religion. When, either in ourselves or in others, we see it is guilt that is punished;—we feel the justice, and we perceive the end. But when innocence suffers ;—when it is upon the head of the