sure is, there will the heart be also." If the Lord then be our treasure, our hearts will be fixed upon Him above all things. We shall take His word as the rule of our lives. We shall resolutely renounce every thing that interferes with our duty to Him, or tends to wean our hearts from Him. We shall sit loose to the things of this world; and study in all things to act as becometh those who are children of God and heirs of eternal glory. Thus, and thus only, can we make it manifest that the Lord is indeed our portion, and that our treasure is laid up in Him. For it is in vain to imagine that this is the case so long as we live in neglect of His word, or disobedience to His commandments. "Upon the ungodly He will rain snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup! For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, His countenance doth behold the upright."

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed, as is most due, all honour, might, majesty, and dominion, henceforth and for ever. Amen.

SERMON II.

THE DESIRE OF THE CHRISTIAN'S SOUL TO GODWARD, A HOLY AND PRACTICAL PRINCIPLE.

ISAIAH XXVI. 8.

The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

THERE is nothing which more exactly distinguishes the truly regenerate from the mere nominal Christian, than the feelings which each entertains respecting God. With regard to the feelings of mere nominal or unconverted Christians to Godward, they are very accurately described by various writers in the sacred Scriptures. Let it suffice, however, for the present, without multiplying quotations, to call to your recollection, my Beloved Brethren, the declaration of St. Paul, Rom. viii. 7. where he says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God."

What a remarkable and significant expression is this! The carnal mind, i. e. the mind of fallen

man in his natural or unregenerate state, is actually enmity or hatred against God! So far from being actuated by the feelings of love, gratitude, and reverence toward our Almighty Creator and Allbountiful Benefactor, our minds are naturally not only alienated from Him by inherent corruption, derived from fallen Adam, but still more decidedly opposed to Him by our own sinful desires and practices. What Isaiah says to the rebellious Jews, (lix. ch. 2 ver.) holds equally true with respect to every man in his natural state, "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God." For there can be no communion or interchange of love between the Almighty and a sinful creature, while continuing in sin. There can be no concord betwixt "light and darkness." "God," saith St. John, "is light, and in Him is no darkness at all,” i. e. He is a perfectly pure and holy Being, without the least intermixture of sin. But such is the depravity of our nature, and the wickedness of our hearts, that we naturally love darkness rather than light, because our deeds are evil.” Our minds, while in their unconverted state, are earthly, sensual, devilish." "Our affections are

set upon things below, not on things above." The natural desires or tendencies of our soul are not towards God and heaven, but towards those things which excite and gratify, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." We

eagerly seek after money, pleasure, ease, honour, and such objects as seem likely to advance ourselves, or our families, in this world's estimation. But so far from earnestly desiring the love and favour of our God, so far from heartily seeking to keep Him continually "in remembrance,” we toɔ generally forget him altogether; or, if we think of Him at all, it is only in the light of a severe taskmaster, to whom fear, not love, constrains us to pay the unwilling service of a formal, lifeless, lip-worship. As he Himself said of the Jewish nation of old, "This people draweth nigh to Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their hearts are far from Me." Sad experience proves that this alienation of the affections from the Creator, was not peculiar to the Jews, but is equally characteristic of all the children of fallen Adam.

Having thus considered what the feelings of unconverted men are, with respect to God, as they are described in Scripture, and proved from our own experience; let us now proceed to consider the declaration of the prophet Isaiah in our text, where he says, (speaking in the name of that little remnant of pious Israelites who believed the Word of God and kept His commandments,) "The Desire of our soul is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee." There can be no surer evidence of a man's being truly regenerate than

the experience of such a desire "to God, and to the remembrance of Him," as is expressed in these words. For whether we consider this desire with reference to its cause, or to its manner of operation and visible effects, we shall find that in all these respects it bears the most unequivocal marks of a heavenly origin.

First, let us consider this desire of the Christian's soul to Godward, with respect to its cause. For it is to be observed, that when the prophet "the Desire of our soul is to Thy name,” he says, thereby means "to God himself"-The "name" of any person, by a common Hebrew mode of expression, being put for the individual intended. What then, let us ask, is it that causes the true believer's soul to desire or long after God? It is evident, from what has been said, that it is nothing in ourselves, my Beloved Brethren, which causes any of our souls thus to long after God; because it has been already proved, from Scripture and experience, that our hearts are, by sin, naturally turned from Him, and that our "carnal minds are enmity against Him." And it is equally evident, that the Desire which our souls may feel to God, and to the remembrance of Him, cannot proceed from Satan, because he is the avowed enemy both of the Creator and his creatures; and it is his grand design, by every possible means of temptation and terror, to keep us still at enmity with Him, and to