half the Son intercedes in the court of Heaven, and death itself is but a friendly messenger to convey their souls to everlasting glory.

Such was the view of life which the Apostle entertained, when he reminded the believing Corinthians of the privileges they enjoyed. "All things are yours;" for your use, your benefit, or your improvement; "whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come: all are yours and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

To elucidate these words further, it will be necessary to examine more in detail the particulars of which they consist; but I must first premise, that, in order to form a right judgment in spiritual things, the mind itself must be spiritual. If, in your estimate of good and evil, you adopt the opinions of the world, and those views which are indeed natural to all men, your judgment will infallibly be wrong: you will "call evil good, and good evil, and put light for darkness, and darkness for light; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” If you would understand the full meaning of the Apostle's language, you must therefore entirely lay aside all worldly ideas, all the views of ambition, of policy, of avarice, of pride: you must abstract yourself from the world and the corrupt passions of man. You must esteem the favour and approbation of God the only real good; the progress of the soul in holiness, and conformity to his image, the only true advancement; the eternal inheritance above, the only real possession; and the life to come, which will endure through millions of ages, when this vain world and all its empty scenes will have long been forgotten, as the only existence which deserves the name of life. The body must be uniformly considered but as the temporary abode of the soul: eternity must be preferred to time, and things spiritual to things temporal. That, and that alone, must be esteemed really good, which promotes our growth in grace and the salvation of the soul. In a word, every thing must be regarded as it is subservient to our eternal interests, and

the only value of life itself must be placed in its subserviency to this end. When your views are thus purified, when, according to the language of Scripture, the Gospel is the pearl of great price in your esteem, and you prefer Christ to father, mother, brother, sister, house or land; when, for his sake, you see it most reasonable to make every sacrifice, to pluck out the right eve or cut off the right hand; then only are you prepared to feel the force of the Apostle's reasoning, and to enter into the views which animated his mind in delivering it.

Then you will see, that if you are Christ's, “all things” are yours. You will behold such a rich display of the Divine goodness in the dispensation of the Gospel; such a provision for all your spiritual wants; such a subserviency of the order and administration of this world to the interests of your souls, that you will clearly perceive that the same beneficent Mind which has prepared heaven for the abode of the blessed, has also ordered and disposed this world for the use and advantage of his redeemed people, and with a view to their final and perfect happiness above, has given them the real use, and the fullest enjoyment of all things even

here.

Then, also, will you discover that the ministers of religion are yours, "whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephus." Their office was ordained by God for your improvement in spiritual knowledge and grace. An awful responsibility lies upon them; for they are to answer in a certain sense for your souls. They are warned and exhorted, therefore, by every alarming and affecting consideration, to declare to you the whole counsel of God; to set before you life and death; to exhibit the light of truth, and to admonish the sinner of his evil ways. For your sake were given the various talents and capacities they possess, the miraculous powers of Cephas, the eloquence of Apollos, the zeal and love of Paul: to your advantage their studies are directed, and their labours and prayers employed.

Though in one sense the ambassadors of God, they are in another but servants to you, attending continually upon this very thing, and living for your improve

ment.

Hence we may learn the folly of ranging ourselves in parties under the standard of men, as if they, instead of Christ, were our leaders. When one saith, "I am of Paul," and another, "I of Apollos," how low and degraded an idea has each of his true state and privileges? Who, then, is Paul, or who is Apollos, but ministers sent by the great Lord and Head of the church, to feed the flock which he has purchased with his own blood? Learn to consider yourselves as the flock of Christ only. Call no man on earth master, for your Master is above, reigning in the courts of heaven; and this is your glory, that you are called by his Name, and not by the name of any frail mortal. Yet how has the Christian world been divided, and its peace destroyed, by the adoption of the names and tenets of particular ministers, as the badges of different parties in the Church: I am of Calvin, and I of Arminius, and I of Luther. Would to God that it had been always remembered that Christians are of Christ alone; and that all ministers are weak and fallible men, whose office is only to direct the minds of men to the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ, and his Gospel.

But as ministers are yours, so also are "the world, and life, and things present."-Yours is the world. It is intended for your use, it is adorned for your enjoyment. The world was never formed to gratify the purposes of ambition; that warriors might parcel it out to raise themselves a name, and mark out its boundaries by the blood of its inhabitants. It was not created to satiate the lust of wealth, to minister to pride, to gratify a sordid avarice and selfish joy. It was not designed by its great Author to be a scene of dissipation and unhallowed pleasure, nor, on the other hand, to be an abode of woe and wretchedness. The world is abused whenever it is used for these purposes. But

yours is the world, who use it for those ends for which its gracious Creator formed it; who survey its delightful scenery, its mountains, its valleys, its rivers, and feel that they are yours, because they were made by him who is your Father. The world is yours, who receive the bounty of Heaven with a thankful heart, and employ it as God has intended, to your own lawful advantage and the good of others. The world is yours, to enjoy it with moderation thankful for the conveniences it affords you while a pilgrim and a stranger in it, in your way to a better and heavenly country. The world is yours, who enjoy the blessing of God upon all your possessions, and occupations in it, and possess in your souls the peace of God which passeth all understanding. That peace will gild every gloomy scene, and enable you to submit to the trials of the world with resignation; knowing that all things shall work together for good to them that love God," and that "these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more enduring and eternal weight of glory."

Life is yours also.-You have the true enjoyment of it, who consider it but as a short interval allotted to yon for the purpose of working out your salvation. You are well aware that a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things he possesses, but in obedience to the will of God and in the enjoyment of his presence. To live is, in your estimation to discharge conscientiously the duties of your station; to watch diligently over the state of your minds; to mortify and subdue every evil temper and corrupt passion; to employ your time, your influence, and your talents in promoting the glory of God and the good of your fellow creatures; to maintain communion in your soul with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; to advance daily in the knowledge of the truth, and be in some measure better prepared to participate in the employments of the blessed spirits above. This is life; for this is the true enjoyment of it. He who considers life in this

view, and employs it thus, will enjoy a true peace of soul, because his existence will be employed to the noblest purposes-the most usefully to others and the most advantageously to himself, because he will live in the way which the Lord of life has prescribed to his

creatures.

Things present-that is, all the occurrences you meet with in the world, all the several events in life -are yours. Many of them may, indeed, upon a hasty glance, appear disastrous; and you may adopt the language of the patriarch, "All these things are against me." "How," you exclaim, "can the injurious reports of calumny, the aggressions of insolence, the abuses of power, the attacks of disease, the loss of friends, be ever for my advantage?" Yes, if you judge upon right principles; if you value growth in grace more than any temporal enjoyment; if you regard submission and patience under suffering as highly acceptable to your God and Father; if you feel the necessity of weaning your affections from the world and fixing them upon things above; if, in a word, you have respect to the greatness and duration of the world to come, and regard every thing here as good or bad only as it respects your eternal interests;-then you may welcome with a holy tranquillity the evils of life, and with the Apostle, "count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience."

In the same view, things to come are yours.-If we restrict these words to the events which may befal us during our continuance in this transitory life, this is our sure consolation, that however adverse they may prove, in the common acceptation of the word, they will be under the direction of our Heavenly Father. Here we are at anchor, amidst the tempests which agitate this unstable world. We know not what may befal us; but of this we are aware, that "man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." But no event can happen by chance-none but what is wisely appoint