could not reach heaven by a route different from that which is marked by affliction and adversity. The answer, in either case, is, that God has ordained it thus. And it has been correctly ordained, because it is not possible that the "Judge of all the earth" can do otherwise than "right;" though this right is very frequently unintelligible to the limited and imperfect understanding of man.

Such is the proposition suggested by our text, and which is undoubtedly received as indisputable by every one here present. Every one of the present congregation, and indeed every individual in the world at large, knows full well that complete happiness is nowhere to be found in this mortal state of existence. Not only, moreover, is there not complete happiness to be found, but if we look at that perfect and complete bliss, of which indeed we can only form a faint conception, we shall be persuaded that none other than the most incomplete happiness, rather nothing else than the most decided and indisputable unhappiness, is to be experienced here on earth. If, indeed, we but reflect for a moment, if but for a moment we lay aside the affairs of the world, and raise our thoughts to the glorious and extensive canopy above, we shall see, intuitively though it be, that there and there only is perfect happiness. After this, let us descend to the transitory scene which we had for a short time quitted, and compare what is here to be found with that which we had just been contemplating. Here, we shall perceive 'wars and rumours of wars;" discord and confu

sion among nations and among individuals; disappointed hopes and unlooked-for misfortunes; and things and events too numerous and too varied; which indicate that happiness is only to be found in heaven, and that this can be reached by no other route than that of sorrow and distress!

The two points which we have just been laying down are, that misery is the lot of the present world, and happiness of that which is to come. The inference which follows is, that the former must of necessity precede the latter; and that the latter will follow as the consequence of the former; that is to say, that the happiness of heaven will follow the troubles and misfortunes of the world, is a fact indisputably insisted on in the Holy Scriptures, and most effectually strengthened and confirmed by reason and experience.

Let us for a moment, however, suppose, that nothing of a decisive nature was contained in the Inspired Volume, in regard to the joy and the bliss of eternity. Let us suppose that the voice of revelation has been altogether silent in reference to future happiness and immortality. The supposition is only for the sake of argument; for to suppose that God would have communicated his will to man, if the latter had not been destined to immortality, for. any other purpose than for argument's sake, would be to be guilty of a most gross and evident inconsistency; for man, by nature, is acquainted with the things which concern his mortal existence: when, therefore, an extraordinary communication is con

veyed to him from the Almighty, it must of necessity have reference to something on which nature is silent, or which she explains in a less clear and intelligible manner. Let us then, I repeat, suppose that the word of God has conveyed no information to man respecting the future happiness of those who obey the commands of the Almighty; do not nature and experience tell us that future happiness-immortality and incorruption in the presence of Him who is himself equally immortal and incorrupt, are destined to those who do not forfeit these advantages by their folly and impiety? The voice of nature does not speak, most certainly, in a manner equally clear and intelligible with the voice of the God of nature: the creature, indeed, of whatever description it be, cannot be equal to the Creator: the effect cannot be equal to its cause. Moreover, if nature spake with a voice as distinct as the voice of the Almighty, then would there have been no necessity of the word of God-of that extraordinary communication of God's will which is contained in the Inspired Volume. In respect,

therefore, of our future destiny, nature does not speak with equal precision; nor, indeed, on such an important point, can any information whatever be elicited, except after a most rigid and elaborate examination; such an examination, however, was instituted by those eminent sages of old whose mortal existence preceded the universal dissemination of the Sacred Oracles; by such an examination did these noble individuals extract from nature such

points as she would evidently have concealed from them, had not the force of their interrogatories compelled her to impart that information which she possessed. Philosophers of old, not being in possession either of the Old or New Testament, consulted nature in regard to their future destiny; and, brethren, what was the answer which nature returned? She told them that man, whose evidently corrupt and imperfect body was guided and directed by a reasonable soul, was sent into the world, not for the purpose of leaving it as he came into it, but for the sake of passing through it, as it were, on his passage to a point remote from, and opposed to, that from whence he had commenced his journey. This, brethren, was most assuredly the reply which nature returned to those who consulted her before a more direct answer on so important a subject was to be obtained in the Holy Scriptures. It was not, however, couched in those clear and direct terms for which the word of God is so eminently remarkable. It was not, indeed, conveyed through the medium of words, but it was rather inferred from an attentive consideration of such natural objects and occurrences as those with which we are acquainted: and the same reply or rather inference which our forefathers obtained, as the effect of their patient inquiries, may we likewise obtain by pursuing the same praiseworthy and diligent course. For example, brethren;-let us for a moment lay aside the Inspired Volume, and consult nature and our own reason and experience;

and, in doing this, I would recall to your recollections the memorable reply which the Redeemer gave to the disciples of St. John the Baptist. The question proposed to our Lord, by these on the part of their master, was this: "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see." Here we perceive that, instead of an answer given, they were directed to seek it elsewhere. Our Lord, on this occasion, declined to give them, in a direct manner, that which was to be obtained by inference. And what was the basis on which the inference was to to be grounded? It was this: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them." By considering these things, it was impossible that they could fail in obtaining the information respecting the fact of Christ's being the Messiah, who had been long since foretold and expected; it was Christ, who had miraculously wrought the various cures to which he alluded, consequently he was the person who should come; he it was who was sent from God, for no man could have done the works of God except God were with him.

Let us then, brethren, address ourselves to nature respecting our future destiny, in the same way that the disciples of the Baptist addressed themselves to Christ respecting the authenticity which a Matthew, xi. 3, 4, 5.