beings only. The soul, therefore, may be considered as evidently lost to the happy and secure state in which she was originally created. And if lost, she can only be restored to her primitive state of bliss by being saved; by being saved by the supreme Spirit of God, whose salvation must therefore be for ever; for salvation, to be complete, must be infinite and perpetual. And as we cannot for a moment suppose that a being, who was created happy, would have been deprived of this happiness even for a time, unless an act of injustice and wrong had been committed by him; so can this iniquity be alone cleansed and blotted out by one of superior power and perfection. No created being whatever, whether animate or inanimate, whether bodily or spiritual, can possess any power whatever over itself, so as in any way to ameliorate or improve its own state. The restoration, therefore, and the regeneration, whatever and whenever it be, must be the work of God. And this, moreover, must be perpetual. His righteousness shall not be abolished, because the salvation which He bestows upon His creatures is clearly dependent upon this righteousness. Were God to pardon a sinner without, first of all, in some powerful though perhaps mysterious and incomprehensible manner, blotting out and cancelling his offences, He could not possibly be what we know He is-God, in the fullest and most complete sense of the word, that is, perfect, just, and good. In the same manner, therefore, and to the same extent, likewise, as salvation is perpetual and

infinite, so righteousness is equally so. And thus in the same way as reason assures us of the truth of the former proposition of our text, so does it equally assert and confirm the truth of the latter: " My salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished."

I am quite aware, brethren, that the train of reasoning, which, for variety's sake, I have thought proper to introduce into this discourse, would not in a general way be suited to a country congregation. By some it may be objected to as erroneous, by others as unintelligible. If, however, it should appear to some that the words of our text are in any degree confirmed and explained by it, it may be the means of inducing them to receive with confidence every portion of God's word, without, as many nominal Christians do, rejecting certain portions of this Divine Word, because they may seem contrary to the suggestions of that very imperfect reason with which alone human nature is endowed. the sake of those, however, who may entertain any of the objections above alluded to, I have to observe, that the sum total of what I have been endeavouring to advance is, that though the body may die, yet can the soul never die; although the body, which has been lost to the soul by the momentary intervention of death, may hereafter be restored to it perfect and incorrupt, by the effective righteousness of Christ :

For

My salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished." But, brethren, I have further to urge that the subject before us, whether

R

properly or improperly treated, is most assuredly well selected at the present affecting and eventful moment, which calls upon us to behold the truly awful and most dreadful havoc which, within a few short weeks, nay even days, death has made among us. If the dead rise not, then may we account ourselves most miserable. If, however, the doctrine be true, of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, as the Scriptures assure us-Scriptures which, as every reflecting mind must know, contain the words of truth, then may we have confidence towards God, and regard the death of our fellow mortals, not with terror or dismay, but with complacency and thankfulness of heart.

While, however, I address these, which I trust you may receive as words of comfort and of truth, I feel myself called upon to offer one or two observations which bear more directly on the deaths which have recently occurred in this parish. In one family, which but a few weeks since consisted of six individuals, possessed of health and strength, and with length of days before them, four have been committed to the tomb, and perhaps even the remaining two may be now ready to follow themperhaps even in a few short hours the well known sound may warn us that death has gained fresh victories, and that the tomb is again ready to receive his victims! Undoubtedly such a fatality has been permitted by God for the wisest of purposes, yet is it according to our natural feelings, and the religion which we profess, that we should resist the assaults

of death by all the means which God has bestowed upon us. And much do I regret to say, that in the present case, death has not been checked in his advances, but has been rather aided and encouraged by neglect by neglect inherent in a system which, if not unsound in principle, is most assuredly imperfect in practice. Had disease, the infectious nature of which is doubtful, or, if not doubtful, trifling, not been aided by the absence of wholesome food, by the fact of the living and the dead being mixed together in the same crowded apartment, it is quite according to human probability that so dreadful a catastrophe would not have occurred. It is, therefore to be hoped, that those influential individuals who have the means of correcting a system to which, as I honestly believe, such fatal effects are attributable, will bring these means into action without delay. It is, likewise, to be hoped, that until this be done, the poor, in strict compliance with their religion, will display that patience in affliction for which they are oftentimes so remarkable, and in imitation of that Saviour who suffered wrongfully for their sakes, and for the sake of the whole world!

SERMON XIX.

CHRISTIAN BENEVOLENCE-UNIVERSAL.

ST. LUKE, X. 37.

"Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."

THE recommendation which our Lord here gives is to be understood by a reference to the preceding conversation between him and a certain lawyer who had proposed the question: "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" The lawyer is said to have tempted our Lord by the question which he thus proposed. By this expression we are to understand, according to the sense of the original word, that the lawyer made an attempt upon our Saviour ; that is, that he made an effort or an attempt to force our Saviour to give such a reply as would flatter his own vanity, and cancel, in respect of himself, the general censure which the Redeemer had so frequently passed on the sect of the Pharisees, to which he belonged.

Our Lord proposed the following question in reply: "What is written in the law? how readest