footsteps, conceive again the holy ambition of recovering that image, was disallowed, despised, rejected of men, and is so still, at least by the majority, so far have they forgotten their origin, so true is it that "the God of this world hath blinded their eyes, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the IMAGE OF GOD, should shine into them." *

O man! O son of Adam! noblest work of creation! acknowledge, deny not, that thou hast lost the image of thy God, that thou art now but a ruin, without order or beauty; that thou art fallen, fallen into an abyss! “How doth the holy city sit solitary! how is she become a widow! and she that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! The ways of Zion do mourn; all her gates are desolate; her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger, and cast down from heaven into the earth the beauty of Israel! How is the gold become dim; and the fine gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the top of the streets!"....

* 2 Cor. iv. 4.

Let our hearts also breathe forth these sighs of the prophets! Let these important questions be upon our lips! What then has happened between the point from which we have set out and that which we have now reached? What frightful catastrophe has hurled from his throne the soverign of creation, and effaced from his heart the image of the Creator? What has made of man, whose heart possessed in perfection, "righteousness and true holiness," a poor, polluted sinner? Or to repeat the question, which is the basis of all philosophy, and has ever baffled all its efforts to explain it, what is the origin of evil in the world?

Such, my brethren, is the question which we venture to approach. But fear not lest, on this subject, we should direct your attention to those obscure depths of metaphysics in which so many systems have been lost without effect. No; all that we can know, all that it is useful for us to know on this solemn question, is communicated to us in a few verses of the word of eternal truth. The third chapter of Genesis furnishes us, in language level to the comprehension of a child, with all the information which we seek in vain

in the various systems of philosophy; and we have thought that it might be useful to us all to meditate together upon this important, but little known portion of the Word of God. We entreat you, therefore, to attend to the great and solemn truths which are there disclosed to us, and to implore with us the blessing of God on our undertaking.

My brethren, a few thoughts more from the number of those which crowd upon me on such a grave subject, and I have done. Can you conceive a being who knows that he is fallen from his first origin, or a king despoiled of his prérogatives, or a mortal fallen into crime, ready to be smitten by the sword of justice, or an unhappy individual lost in the depths of misery and woe, and yet able, with this conviction, to live in a stupid indifference to his state? Ye are that fallen being, that despoiled king, that guilty creature, that unhappy individual; yea, all of you, who with the conviction of the truths which we have just been proving, live upon this earth, forgetful of your eternal destinies, far off from an offended God, whose justice is ready to strike the guilty, reckless of the sins by which you seem to have delighted in effacing from your hearts

the last traces of God's image, unmindful even (such is the height of your folly and madness) of the cause of the misfortunes and miseries which fill your life with bitterness, and forgetful of the curse and sufferings which sin shall entail upon your eternity. O, my brethren, are there among you in this assembly, beings who, "thinking themselves wise," have to this extent become fools? We beseech you by the mercies of God and by your own dearest interests, to banish from your minds this deplorable folly, and to tear away the fatal veil of delusion which blinds you. What! after God has had pity upon you, when He owed you nothing but an eternal abandonment and the chastisement of a rebel creature, that had disturbed the order of creation and failed to accomplish the end of His being; after having come himself to enlighten you in your darkness, to save you from the shipwreck of your whole race, and place in your hands the means of recovering His glorious image, will you still continue in ruin and misery? Can you not find in your heart a single sigh to breathe after your original country, after the glorious prerogatives of your birth? My God! Can we, before

such beings, bless Thee, can we send up our songs of thanksgiving for all that Thou hast done for our deliverance? Thy love, which they despise, is worse for them than Thy most terrible threats. How can we rejoice in Thy mercies? It is these mercies that aggravate their condemnation. But, no, my brethren, I cannot persuade myself that any of you will take another step in the way of sin and of folly. O come, you who have hitherto forgotten your glorious destinies, that you might live in forgetfulness of God; come, you Christians who love Him who hath repaired the desolations made by sin; come and let us unitedly praise our God, that His image is not lost to us for ever! Let us praise Him, for He has given us as a Saviour, as a brother, as a friend, Him who hath exhibited before our eyes the features of His image, and will make us partakers of it! Let us bless Him, for He is ready to put us in possession of our inheritance! O happiness! O divine mercy! We are exiled from Eden, it is true; the flaming sword of eternal justice guards the entrance; but, behold, we can fly to Golgotha, sure to be received with love by a Saviour full of compassion. His arms are