that the humble uninstructed followers of our Lord discovered of themselves, this grand principle, this corrector of the evils of our nature, this adjuster of the irregularities of life, this earnest and assurance of eternity;or shall we admit as a more natural explanation, that he who gave them strength to declare good tidings to mankind, revealed to them the mighty doctrine which was hidden from the wise and powerful of former times, and which was now communicated that the servants of the Lord might sojourn on this earth in hope-and that they might depart from it in peace, when, though their eyes may not have seen, their souls have apprehended the assurance of God's salvation.

Do you ask whether this great salvation shall be granted to faith alone? Whether faith ungraced by the endearing qualities, or the sublime virtues which Christianity teaches, shall insure everlasting life? I hope to call your attention at some future period to the connection between faith and works-my answer at present is, that a true lively faith cannot be imagined alone, but may be expected as naturally to bloom into good works, as a healthy tree bears fruit and blossom. How could it possibly be, that any man appreciating duly the privileges which Christ purchased

for him at so vast a price, should not shew himself most anxious to set forth his Redeemer's praise; that he who felt himself called out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Christian covenant, could hold fellowship any longer with that darkness out of which he was called.

Allow me to direct your attention to the efficacy of a far inferior principle. Allow me to suggest to your minds, remembrances which history may have traced there, and to remind you of those agitating emotions by which you have been sometimes moved, as you read of the proofs of loyalty and love exhibited by the subjects of some insulted monarch. Have you not read of times and circumstances, in which this feeling strongly influencing a gallant people, has sent them forth in defiance of peril and disaster, to support with energy their Sovereign's cause, or to perish, if it sunk, amidst its ruins? Have you not read of the passionate throbbing of young hearts, and of age bracing on unwonted arms, and of mothers sending forth their sons with patriot pride, and almost without a tear, to the field where their King had called them? Have you not read of whole nations feeling, as if in one bosom, a lofty emotion which made ordinary cares and individual interests be scorned, and

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which precipitated a people into dangers and difficulties where no private interest called them, but into which they rushed with a prodigality of life and possession, which it would not seem that all the passions of our nature, concentrated into one fiery impulse, and urging forward in one direction, could be mighty enough to account for?

Why-why is so is so little of this loyalty evinced towards Christ? What a lesson does history read us on our want of wisdom as children of the light. Man, in obedience to the suggestions of loyalty for an earthly monarch, ready to relinquish life and possession, and clinging to a ruined cause with a devotedness, which not even poverty can abate-and this same man, called-not to ruin and wretchedness-not even to hazard in property and life-not even to delusive or unfounded expectations-but to the sure hope of an everlasting felicity, to light and blessedness, and a crown that can never fade—and called not by any unknown or lying lips, but by him who was tried and proved our great benefactor; by him whose compassion and solicitude were awfully attested in his mighty works, and his mysterious passion; by him who dwelt among us with a glory which still shineth to lighten every man that cometh into the world; who

dwelt among us with the might of omnipotence, and with the meekness of redeeming love with the splendour of Divine majesty beaming through the veil which he assumed, and with the weight of a world's sins and sorrows heavy upon his soul. When called by him to believe in him, and to rely upon him, and to follow him through purity of life into the purity of heaven-man, this same man, who would stand forth where his sovereign's banner waved, and follow it to ruin, suffers Christ to call upon him in vain, and chooses rather to dwell amid the wearying dreams of a troubled sleep, than to awaken at the call of a crucified Saviour, and confess him, in his life and hopes, as his master and his God.

Let it not be imputed as irreverence, that I have made this comparison-I know how lessening it is to the true notion of Christian faith, to be likened to any earthly principle or feeling-but still, I cannot but feel, that in a high and an extended sense, faith is loyalty to Christ-and that the circumstances of this world are ordered so as to prove it. Keep then in mind, my brethren, that there are two kingdoms upon earth, and that you must decide to which of them you will give your faithboth, here, are incomplete, and are in progress towards their consummation-the happiness

which the Christian feels is not unbroken, and the evils of the world are not wholly unrelieved; but one is the kingdom of heaven, and the other is the kingdom of evil. A time will come, when the glories of the one will shine out with a light which never can be dimmed-and also, when the evil of the other shall deepen into

unimaginable horrors. To which will you attach yourselves? Shall we fling ourselves with desperate fatuity into destruction, or shall we labour and pray, that we may rise out of the dream of an ungodly life to the hope of glory?

God grant that thus we may petition with fervour and success, and that he who is mighty to seek and to save, will so establish and strengthen our faith, that here we shall feel the comfort, and the purifying influence of an abiding hope, and that that hope shall become certainty hereafter.