adhere to it in all things, great and small; - remembering that no omission is trifling and unimportant, where the object is to establish religious habits. In fact, religion and morality are never safe, till the effort with which their rules are at first obeyed, subsides into habit, and are practised, not only without difficulty, but naturally and unconsciously—or with some eagerness and delight.

I shall come now to an improvement in character, which I must consider as a very essential feature in the renewal of the inward man, and which I am afraid some among you may consider as almost too trifling and common for the pulpit. I mean an improvement of temper and yet, consider whether a great part of the comfort and happiness of life, does not depend upon temper. We are all of us apt to consider that Christian piety consists in great sacrifices, and requires stupendous and important occasions for its exercise; that it is to be shown in the equanimity with which sickness, or the sudden reverses of fortune are endured; that it is reserved for the captive, or the martyr, or the good Samaritan. But why not to-day? why not in common life? why not in your own houses?-by courtesy, by gentle demeanour, by a disposition to pardon and to encourage, by the restraint of all bitterness and asperity, by a constant desire to avoid all offence, and to communicate pleasure to your fellow-creatures. Great occasions may never occur- these occasions are sure to come. This humble and daily Christianity softens all the evils of life, shows how deeply the law of Christ is felt, how much the character and example of our blessed Saviour has been studied, and in the sum of its effects it contributes most powerfully to human happiness. Remember, as the outward man decays, you will stand more in need of the assistance and affection of your fellow-creatures. The most unpleasant form of human nature, is a malicious, irritable, querulous disposition in

a decaying frame; it dissolves at last the nearest ties, and wears out the warmest affections. The death of such a man, instead of being a source of solemn sorrow, is too often a restoration of comfort and liberty to those with whom he has lived. The renewed man is sensible of the pain and disadvantages of old age, but he has no malignant wish to depress others to his own level; he has taught himself to love the happiness of others, and is always ready to promote those innocent pleasures of which he can no longer partake; he has long foreseen the condition of age, and comes prepared to meet it with patient and cheerful wisdom; he knows it is the lot of humanity, and that the young, and the happy, and the gay must come to it, as well as himself; that he, like other human creatures, has enjoyed his short hour of youth and strength, and that a good Christian should not envy it in others, or strive to darken it with his own gloom. The advance of life and the increase of decay are truly formidable, where no preparation has been made for the renewal of the inward man. The united force of bodily pain and malignant passion cannot be encountered without horror and dismay; and if you defer too long the Christian task of reforming temper, you must either give it up altogether, or begin it in the midst of pain and disease; and every year that it is deferred adds to the difficulty: every fresh instance of indulged irritability, renders that indulgence more necessary to you, and more difficult to be resisted. The alternative is, between resisting a strong habit, or an habit comparatively weak; between exertions undertaken at a period when they may be attended with success, or protracted till they produce nothing but defeat and despair.

I have said these few things upon the renewal of the inward man, but the subject is one of the most comprehensive nature. The great object is to begin,—to show that the period of repentance and effective im

provement (the consequence of repentance), at least is not protracted beyond the earliest feelings of outward decay,―the control of anger, the victory over sensual gratification, and the command of temper, are always among the most striking proofs of Christian improvement, and evince in the most satisfactory manner that a human being has turned himself from the outward world to the command and discipline of himself. When once you have advanced so far in the great work of renewal as to find that very high and very pure pleasure can be derived from these inward exertions, that the happiness which proceeds from getting the better of bad passions is not a fallacy invented to deceive you, but one of the most solid joys of human life; when once you have discovered this invisible world, this inexhaustible source of pure and satisfactory pleasure, you will then enter truly and earnestly into the renewal of the inward man. When anger, sensuality, and malevolence are chained up, the great sources of evil are shut, and then all good feelings and all heavenly wisdom rush of course into the mind; for the mind must be full of something. The love of the world will be lessened, the love of God will supply its place; the world will be loved as much as it ought, but eternity will be more and more considered. As the work of renewal advances, you will behold day by day the inward man more glorious and more good. You will forgive more; you will love human happiness more cordially; every day, upon the altar, you will sacrifice to God some miserable. infirmity of the flesh. You will search your own heart with the eagerness of a man who knows he may see God and live for ever if he will; and then, my brethren, when this is your frame of mind, when you live for no other object but to make yourselves more fit for God, let death come when it will, let the outward man perish day by day. Is not death conquered? Is not the sting of death torn out? Is not the darkest corner of your grave illumined

by the light of Heaven? Can I be so foolish, can you be so weak, as to believe that the spiritualised, the renewed Christian, who for many years has tremblingly watched over his own soul; who has blessed you when you have reviled him; who has forgiven you when you have injured him; who has made his little less, when he could do you any good; who has always come out the first and the foremost into the midst of the greatest misery he could find; who has never been away when he could dry human tears, or heal human wounds; - do you believe that the man who has conquered all his degrading passions, and made himself good and pure, will be forgotten by God? that his toil will be of no avail? that there is no more in store for him than for one who ends as he began, and carries to his grave the faults and follies of his childhood? I would rather believe that the world was made by accident, than that such a man would not meet with his reward. I believe, on the contrary, that the great object of God was to create this man; that the mission of Christ was to teach and to save him; that the heavens are spread out above to allure him; that the infinite works of God which he sees, are so many solemn promises of his immortal existence;-and when such a man is carried to his grave, I mourn over him no more than I do over the seed which the husbandman casts upon the ground; because I know how soon it will rise. up with a glorious increase!

143

SERMON XVII.

PARABLE OF THE SOWER AND THE SEED.

MATTHEW, xiii. 4.

And behold there went out a sower to sow, and it came to pass as he sowed, some fell by the way-side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up; and some fell upon stony ground where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away; and some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit, and others fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased.

THIS is one of those simple and intelligible parables in which our Saviour was accustomed to instruct his disciples, and to deliver to future ages his lessons of religious wisdom; sometimes (he says) the seed of doctrine falls upon weak understandings, and is soon withered away; sometimes the cares of the world choke it, sometimes it is swallowed up by the bad passions of the heart, and sometimes it brings forth the joyful harvest of salvation. In pursuance of these observations of our blessed Saviour it will be useful to investigate why men profit so little, by so much teaching, — why it is that the sacred truths of the Gospel, so` strongly enforced, are so weakly received, why the arm of the sower, which has widely scattered the seed, so seldom binds up the full sheaf, or gathers into the garner the promised return.

Good doctrine is cast away, because it is delivered to