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in adding to the treasures of immortality, in multiplying the chances of eternity, and fostering the hopes of God's grace and favour. The man of this world can deny himself nothing. He says, I must have it now: it has presented itself to my senses, and I must enjoy it; but the disciple of Christ, he who has been accustomed to lay up against the time to come, he says, This temptation is a mean of adding to my heavenly treasure, of laying up against the time to come: this opportunity is not to be neglected, the means of improving my future happiness not to be passed over. He considers every action as it bears upon his beloved futurity it increases or diminishes his heavenly treasure. present has no dominion over him; he acts with the wise and dignified resolution of a man who has resolved to labour for the future, and to put under his feet every appetite and passion which comes between him and the settled purpose of his soul. But you may say, I have deferred too long to lay up a good foundation, or what will all my efforts avail? How little I can lay up! what will all my savings amount to! But this is fallacious: begin, make the resolution, break through the old habit, lay the first stone of the new building and you may probably soon look back with astonishment and delight, at the victory you have gained over sinful habits, at the power you have acquired over temptations you did not think it possible to resist-of the tendency you have created to thoughts, words, and actions, which, a little time before, appeared ungenial and foreign to your nature; and be assured it is the safest and wisest of all actions to lay these foundations at any period of life, rather than not at all. If possible in youth, if not in youth then in manhood, if not in manhood yet in old age, - in old age, I beseech you, rather than not at all. Do not let the hand of death touch you in the midst of sinwithout thought of repentance-without care of eternity! Tremble, I pray you, at that wrath of God, which will

assuredly fall upon the unprepared, unrepenting, hardened soul-a wrath which no prayer will ever after soften, no time diminish, no supplication disarm.

How miserable is the state of that man who has nothing beforehand, who lives only from day to day, and has nothing prepared against the accidents of life! -As in worldly things, so it is in spiritual. Your health fails. You all of a sudden see before you the prospect of long sickness and of pain - perhaps you feel, in spite of all the assurances of those who are about you, that you are called, that death is begun in you, and in a few days you will be no more! Have you laid up a foundation? have you ever thought of the evil day? - have you ever pondered on the time to come? what have you to depend upon what have you to catch at? The waters are closing over your head-in a moment all is over! Now, my dear brethren, is this a new situation for human nature to be placed in? Is it not so trite and so common an occurrence, that it is almost tedious to mention it? But is it not also so horrible that it fills you with religious terror, when you fix your eyes fully upon it? Remember these things, I pray you, while you are yet unvisited by the punishments of God!Conquer the present, think steadfastly of the future -exercise that forethought which is the great distinction between man and the creatures of the field — live not as if you talked only of another life, but as if you thought of it, and believed it, and held out your arms to Jesus Christ your Saviour, -as if you laid good foundation against the time to come, that you might inherit eternal life. There is an opportunity this day of laying up a good foundation for the time to come. I have already stated it to you. Thousands of human beings are languishing in the greatest distress, and supplicating your charity. The widow had her mite, and the poorest have some trifle to bestow. It is

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not the quantity given that God heeds-it is the pilgrim's heart, ever open to compassion!-it is the ear ready to hear the cries of the distressed- and the hand ever ready to lift up the fallen Christian. Such a scene of sorrow and desolation exists in the countries very little removed from us, as would render your misery and poverty opulence and comfort when put in comparison with it. I have on two or three occasions appealed to your charity, and have never yet appealed in vain. I have the highest confidence in your disposition to mercy, and am well assured that in this present appeal you will lay up for yourselves a good foundation for the time to come, and thus lay hold of eternal life.

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SERMON VIII.

EVIL SPEAKING.

JAMES, iv. 11.

Speak not evil one of another, Brethren.

I HAVE often called upon you, my brethren, to consider the Christian religion as a religion of practice; teaching you not so much what you are to say, as what you are to do; a religion which, by making you better men, renders you more fit for enjoying the bleissngs of immortal life.

Human beings have not only property in goods it is not only his fields, his vineyards, and his oxen, which belong to him, but a man has property in his fair fame; - he loves to be well spoken of, he is vexed to be ill spoken of,—his happiness or his unhappiness depend upon these circumstances; and it is therefore your duty as Christians, to attend to his feelings in these particulars, and to take care that you speak no ill of him which you are not thoroughly convinced it is your duty to speak. -Look at home (I say to the evil speaker) — can you bear to be spoken ill of? Have you no feeling for your own reputation? no fear of making enemies? none of losing friends? no desire of rising in the world and promoting yourself by the advantages of a fair character and a good reputation? Who feels more sharply than yourself? who complains more loudly, who resents more bitterly? Why not pay, then, the same attention to the reputation of others, which you expect to be paid

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to your own? why make one law for yourself, and another for your fellow creatures? Be just-and remember that as you feel, others feel; and remember that in making your own notions a guide for discovering what passes in the minds of others, you are obeying that blessed law of our blessed Saviour, "Do unto others as you would they should do unto you."

I counsel you, my brethren, against the unchristian sin of evil speaking! Among many others, because it is unmanly and mean; it is an injury which the person suffering, often cannot know, and therefore cannot resent; it is a blow struck against your antagonist while you are in darkness and safety, and therefore cannot suffer for it. You are exposed to no risk— the person who suffers from your evil tongue does not know that he has suffered till it is too late to remedy the evil, and expose the author of it. Your sin has not even the worldly apology of courage and boldness it evinces a want of spirit as well as a want of Christianity; — it breaks the laws of the Gospel without displaying those qualities which are approved by the world.

You hear that you have been the subject of conversation to others, that you have been talked of: you hear also in the midst of malice, and ridicule, and unchristian severity, that some one has had the kindness and courage to defend you; - not a relation, not a friend; but some one who thought himself bound by the Gospel to defend the absent, to guard the unprotected, and to do justice to all. If you revere such a man-if you honour him- if you think him your friend and your benefactor, why not be such a man yourself? why not defend the absent, — plead for the accused, and show to your fellow creatures these blessed fruits of the Christian spirit!

We often speak evil, because we wish to excel, to be thought better than others, and to have it imagined we are free from the sins for which we find fault with