can ever be directed to the ends for which, we may be sure, they were principally designed. The moral and religious advantages which follow from a wise use of Retirement, are of a kind sufficiently obvious.

In the first place, Retirement removes us at a due distance from the world, and enables us to estimate rightly and dispassionately the different pursuits of life. When we are in the midst of these, we are carried on by the common stream,— our passions are inflamed by those of the multitude, and we appreciate the objects of pursuit, not according to their real value, but as they are valued by those around us. It is surprising how manageable our passions are in themselves, and how much of their strength is owing to the influence of society. Remove the contagion of the opinions of men, and how insignificant would all the ob

jects appear of Avarice or Ambition! Even the love of Pleasure, which seems more the work of Nature, would yet be confined within very moderate bounds, did not imagination and vanity contribute to extend them. Whenever we retreat a little from the scene, we gain some insight into the delusion which is practised upon us; we find that we have been acting, not from ourselves, but from the contact of others; and we perceive that we are only pursuing shadows which will soon, alas! vanish in the grave!

-Of that grave, the silence of retirement reminds us, and we already begin to feel somewhat of that separation from all our ardent pursuits, which, at no distant period, must be accomplished for ever.

When the loud noise of man is shut out, the voice of conscience is heard; and those calls of duty which are so often neglected amidst the tumult of the pas

sions, can make themselves be listened to and regarded. We then feel what kind of occupations alone are suited to our nature; what only the heart will approve of; and what, among all our perishing operations, alone seem worthy to extend beyond the present limits of our being. From the sacred ground of retreat we look upon the world, not as the theatre in which honours are distributed, but as the field of combat on which they are won; not as the Palace of Delight in which the senses are to be gratified, and the imagination indulged; but as the Temple of Reason and of Virtue, where the understanding is to be employed, and the heart to be improved. Before the shining path, which now opens upon our view, we behold even the darkness of the grave dispelled; and we return into it with the determination of men who feel, that this alone is the path to immortal honour.

This consideration, my brethren, brings

me, in the second place, to say, that, as Re tirement removes us at a due distance from present objects, so likewise it opens to us a nearer view of those of religion. It is, indeed, only when we shut out the former from our thoughts, that we can catch any glimpse of the latter which is at all steady and clear. When we look merely on the scene of human life, and have all our passions interested in the pursuits which it affords, it is impossible that any higher system of being can ac quire in our minds a character of suffi cient distinctness and certainty. We may continue to believe, indeed, what we have been taught to believe; but we can have no firm impression of its truth, and shall often be unable to distinguish well between the principles of faith and the prejudices of infancy...

To acquire a distinct impression, and a deep feeling of those invaluable prin

ciples, let us, for a time, shut out the world from our thoughts; let us follow the Son of God into the wilderness; and, in the solitude of our hearts, and amid the magnificence of Nature, let us listen to that voice which will, indeed, assure us, that there is a loftier order of existence to which we belong; and that, when all the perplexed scenes of human society shall come to a close, and the fabric of Creation shall itself decay, there is yet a spirit in man which will survive the uni versal fall, and there is yet a society surrounding the throne of God, to which he will be for ever joined.

Such, my brethren, are the moral and the religious impressions, to which, in these hours of meditation and retirement, we are called by the offices of our Church; and such is the use which we ought to make of that remarkable circumstance in the history of our Lord,—his retreat into