under every circumstance, we should try ourselves by that perfect criterion which he has afforded. Other examples are mixed with imperfection, for they are human. They are valuable only as far as they concur with that of our Saviour. But, if we can decide when involved in difficulty, what Jesus Christ would have done, we may act with confidence, and follow his lead with determined perseverance; and we must follow it, resolutely and universally, in reliance on his merits, and in dependance on his grace, if the light of the Gospel be not dark to us as the gloom of idolatry, and if the profession of Christianity do not augment our punishment by enhancing our guilt. SERMON XV. On Anxiety about Worldly Things. 6TH. CHAP. OF ST. MATTHEW, AND PArt of THE 25TH. VERSE. "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." WE E cannot believe that our Saviour would here undervalue the prudential forethought and provident care, without which life passes, not only without enjoyment, but even without usefulness. The precepts of Scripture, when rightly understood, are always consonant to reason, and sanctioned by experience. The character which they tend to form is not the gloomy ascetic, who looks down with contemptuous pity upon human pursuits, or views with indignant hatred the common frailties of man kind; but the tolerant, yet zealous and active, Christian, who seeks the advantages of this world that he may better perform its duties; and enjoys those pleasures which are consistent with innocence, as one who feels that they are the transitory accommodations of his pilgrimage to a better country, and an abiding habitation. While we are in the present state, a considerable portion of our time and attention must be occupied in temporal business; and it would be unreasonable, even if it were possible, to be indifferent to failure or success. He who neglects the powers and faculties, with which the Providence of God has endowed him, wilfully forfeits his claim to the Divine favour and protection. He must not complain, if the Being whom he tempts should desert him; if the advantages for which he sighs should be denied, since he will not use the means to obtain them. But if there be some thus misled by enthusiasm, it is a certain and lamentable fact, that the general course of human feelings is turned into a quite different channel. The complaint against the multitude is, that in their anxious solicitude to shape their own fortunes, in their fixed determination to rely exclusively upon their own exertions, they banish God from the world which he has created, and which he constantly upholds. In the exultation of success they think themselves all-sufficient for their own welfare and happiness. In the anguish of disappointment they find no alleviation of their despondence. Utterly incapable of attention to the momentous concerns of eternity, and the awful alternative which will depend upon their characters here; they even lose the comfort which they might have derived from the temporal advantages which have been the end of their existence. They have not only belied their Christian profession, by feeling and acting as if no superior hand guided the helm of human affairs; but they have relinquished the deep satisfaction of those, who, while they labour as free agents and accountable beings, look for ultimate success to |