happiness-the joy of heaven is holy joy. What can the unregenerate soul do there? He can have no sympathy with the inhabitants nor with the employments of the place. Were he to be taken to heaven he cannot be happy there. To talk of being happy in heaven without holiness is like talking of being well without health, of being saved without salvation. In the absence of a renewed nature a man will be as much out of his element in heaven as a fish on the green meadow, or an ox in the bottom of the sea. Can a man who now hates the godly expect to be happy in the society of saints? Can he who cannot keep three hours of the Sabbath holy bear to keep an eternal Sabbath hereafter? Can he who now delights in profane language imagine that his tongue shall be employed in incessantly praising God? Can he who now hates to think of God love to employ his mind in the eternal contemplation of his excellences? No, brethren, every one at death must go to his own place; heaven is the proper place of the renewed soul, and hell must be the adopted place of the unregenerate and unholy. "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Ye must be born again. Oh, then, let us not be satisfied until we are persuaded on scriptural and unmistakable grounds that we have experienced this change. We all bear the honourable name of Christians, we have been probably all of us baptized into the Christian faith; but let us not be satisfied with the baptism of water, let us seek also the more effectual baptism of the Holy Spirit. Take not the shadow for the substance. Can water baptism change the heart? has it changed yours? Ask conscience and it will tell you nay; it will tell you "old things are not passed away; all things are not become new." "Not all the outward forms on earth,

Nor rites that God has given,
Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,
Can raise a soul to heaven.

The sovereign will of God alone

Creates us heirs of grace,

Born in the image of His Son

A new, peculiar race."

381

The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.

EVENING SERVICE.-First Lesson: Proverbs xiv.

Verse 10.-" The heart knoweth his own bitterness.”

GREAT and diversified are the emotions of the human mind. It is never at rest, but like a surging ocean it is incessantly agitated by one or the other of the feelings to which it is subject. Those feelings vary in nature according to circumstances, alternating between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, happiness and misery, hope and fear, satisfaction and disappointment, assurance and doubt, as the case may be. They also vary in magnitude, in proportion to the cause which generates them; as the waves undulate on the surface according to the surges underneath, or the current above, so the emotions of the mind are regulated by the surrounding circumstances that produce them. God has so wisely ordered in His providence that no feelings should be unmixed in the present world. In this imperfect state of our nature a combination of feeling is absolute to modulate our dispositions and actions. Unmixed joy and happiness would so elevate us above the level of our real position that we should soon forget both our dependence upon God and our duty towards our fellow-men. Unmixed sorrow and misery would so depress the spirits that we should be rendered incapable of either attending to the duties of time or of preparing for the realities of eternity; therefore, our cup is composed of contrary ingredients to preserve us in that temper best adapted to our state of probation.

In this verse Solomon speaks of both the sorrow and the joy of the heart, which are represented to be so deep and inconceivable to others that each individual is regarded the

custodian of his own emotions, whilst none else can share in the realization of his feelings. We have fixed upon the darkest portion for our present subject, as it is necessary to understand the nature of this before we can learn to appreciate the soothing tendency of the other. "The heart knoweth his own bitterness."

We shall then regard, first, the source whence arises the bitterness of the heart; and, secondly, the secrecy of that bitterness.

I. The source whence arises the bitterness of the heart. We may not be always able to account for the sorrow which arises in the mind, we sometimes feel cast down and dejected, but cannot assign a reason for it; there is no real cause of which we know for such depression, still, with our utmost effort, we cannot shake it off. But, generally, bitterness of heart arises from one or the other of three sources, either from the dispensations of Providence, or from the conduct of others, or from our own want of prudence and integrity.

1. Bitterness of heart, or sorrow, arises from the dispensations of Providence. Whenever it comes from thence it is intended for the salutary correction and improvement of the soul. Those corrections appear in different forms, as the wisdom of God may deem best for our good. Sometimes they come in the form of bereavement. The best member of the family is snatched away by death, perhaps the husband and father is taken from the wife and children; who can tell the anguish of that widowed mother, not only at the loss of a dear partner and loving friend, but also at the prospect of rearing a numerous family when the chief natural prop of dependence has been withdrawn. In other cases the mother is removed, or the beloved child dies when it is blooming into life, or the brother, or sister, or friend, in whom probably the affections were too much engrossed, has been called to go the way of all the earth, and left you to trudge the rugged path of life alone. At other times bodily affliction is the cause of bitter grief; you, or those dear to you, have suffered acute and

durable pains, the burden seems almost too heavy to be borne. You feel the bitterness, but you are taught to "bear the rod and who hath appointed it." The reverse of fortune, the loss of property, misfortune in business, and a distressing reduction from a state of comparative ease and affluence to a state of abject poverty and pinching want, are providential sources from whence flows bitterness of heart. These are portioned more or less to every member of the human family. There is none exempt. They may not be proportioned to every one alike; in some instances they come like overwhelming inundations depriving the mind of reason, and threatening to bury the soul in the gulph of despondency; whilst in other instances they fall in lighter showers, afflictive indeed, but so tempered as to bend the mind in submissive resignation under the stroke of a Father's hand. In all cases they are intended to humble us under the mighty hand of God, to divest us of self-reliance, to embitter creature comforts to us, and to place our affections on things more substantial and enduring than things of earth. Man proposes, God disposes; man forms his plans and hopes for success, God frustrates them and disappointment follows.

2. Bitterness of heart arises from the conduct of others. We are in a great measure constituted the custodians of each other's happiness; we have it in our power to inflict pain, or to promote pleasure in the bosoms of others. It is astonishing to what an extent misery may be caused by one evilly disposed person to his fellow-man. It is not necessary that a person should be robbed of his property, dispossessed of his rights, or deprived of his liberty, to inflict a wound in his heart; the poisoned arrows of bitter words, the tongue of slander, which setteth on fire the course of nature, the misrepresentation of character, or the false colouring of facts, the insinuating whisper, or the scornful look, are as iron entering the soul. The bite of an adder, or the fangs of a scorpion, could not have produced equal pain; the poison has been lodged within, and no power of man can entirely extract it. The conduct of children is often the source of great sorrow

to the parents; as in the case of Jacob, many "grey hairs go down with sorrow to the grave," or, as in the case of David, many go up to the chamber and weep in consequence of their children's misconduct. But

3. The heart's greatest bitterness is the result of its own. imprudence and crimes. If a general rushes into action without calculating his chances of success and arranging his forces to the best advantage, he is likely to smart for it. If a person enters into speculations without first sitting down to count the cost, the smart may not be less acute, although perhaps not so widely spread in its consequences. One imprudent act either in trade or in domestic arrangement often causes a life of bitterness. There is no bitterness, however, like that consequent upon personal sin. "A wounded spirit, who can bear?" especially if that wound has been pierced by the arrow of crime. There is no pain so insupportable as the guilt of an awakened conscience. There may be found some remedy to ease other sufferings both of body and mind. A man may have suffered afflictions, and losses, and bereavements, but time and favourable changes have worn away the sharpness of the trial; but neither length of time nor distance of place, nor prosperity of circumstances can wear off the pangs of guilt. Some have tried penance, others have tried alms-giving, and many have tried reformation of character; all have been of no avail, the sting still remained. Nothing, except the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanseth from all sin, can take away the bitterness of guilt from the heart. David, being comforted himself, was able to comfort Bathsheba his wife for the death of their child, but the sword never departed from his house in consequence of the sin which he had committed.

II. The bitterness of every heart is known only to itself. "The heart knoweth his own bitterness."

When we speak of the secrecy of our inward feelings, we except Him to whom all things are exposed, and from whom no secrets are hid; from each other the intensity of our