Deity, and living under the discipline of a school-master, (as the Apostle calls the law,) fear prevailed beyond every other principle in their religious services. Objects were darkened in coming to them through the veil of types and figures, the meaning of which was but gradually disclosed, even to the prophets themselves. Obscurity always creates dread; and when the Divine blessing was seen only through the terrible majesty of the law, his attributes rather excited awful veneration than filial confidence. But when God was manifested in the flesh, we beheld the glory of his person, in the face of his only begotten Son, and we beheld it full of grace and truth. The motives which enforced obedience on the Jews were always adapted to their know. ledge. As the discoveries of truth opened on their minds, so were the privileges connected with them proportionably unfolded; nevertheless, in the most enlightened periods of the Jewish Church, we find but very few and very feeble traces of those sublime and endearing motives, by which Christianity is adorned and recommended,-its yoke made easy, and its burden light.

The law of Moses was enforced by temporal sanctions. Not that a future state was unknown to the Jews; they had conceptions of it, though faint and obscure. But the Gospel has brought life and immortality to light. It has dispersed those shades, which so hung over it, as to render it, to the eye of unassisted reason, a subject of doubtful speculation, rather than of cheerful hope, and has placed it in a point of view unknown even to the favoured people of God under the law. It has reduced to a certainty what nature, at the farthest stretch of her powers, could barely regard as a conjecture, and demonstrated as a fact what the Jews were only permitted to behold, through the obscure medium of types and figures, as a distant probability. It is this firm conviction of life and immortality, that seasons all the duties of religion with the unction of the Holy Ghost, renders its yoke quite easy and its burden light. With

the glorious term of his existence in view,-with the love of Christ enlivening all his exertions, and humbly rejoicing, because he trusts his name is written in heaven,-the true believer submits cheerfully to those restraints, which he is convinced will promote his peace of mind, nor feels the weight of those obligations which he knows will terminate in his everlasting happiness. If, at times, the frailty of human nature, should render his burden apparently irksome or weighty, and his mind should experience a rising inclina. tion to shake the yoke from his neck, which the world may represent as unreasonable and galling, he remembers what is written, "cast thy burden upon the Lord,"-Him he has always as the companion of his journey; and having borne our sorrows to their utmost extent, he will not refuse to share our fatigues in the journey of life, and sooner or later, to convert all our ways into ways of pleasantness, all our paths into paths of peace.

To conclude, the yoke of Christ is easy, and his burden light; or, in other words, the Christian life is comfortable and pleasant, if we consider the joyful prospect held out to the pious believer. The sincere Christian possesses, even in this life, very substantial joys; but he is not confined to these. His hopes do not terminate with life; they extend beyond the grave. Death puts a final period to the enjoyments of the wicked man; but it is then that the happiness of the righteous man begins. We are assured in sacred Scripture, that there is a kingdom prepared for the righteous from the foundation of the world, when they shall enter into rest from all their labours, and sufferings, and sorrows of this mortal life,-when they shall enter into a state, where no ignorance shall cloud the understanding, and no vice pervert the will, where nothing but love shall possess the soul, and nothing but gratitude employ the tongue, where they shall be admitted to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and Church

of the first born, where they shall see Jesus at the right hand of the Father, and shall sit down with him upon his throne, where they shall be admitted into the presence of God; shall behold him face to face, and be changed into the same image from glory to glory; that glory which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive. And now to God the Father, &c. &c. &c.

SERMON XVIII.

UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE.

BOAST NOT THYSELF OF TO-MORROW, FOR THOU KNOWEST NOT WHAT A DAY MAY BRING FORTH.-Prov. Xxvii. 1.

It is with singular satisfaction, my brethren, that I address you on the first day of another year. The day, indeed, is only distinguished from others by human institu tion; but this has given it various advantages and charac. ters, natural and civil, intellectual and moral. It is a season often appropriated to special purposes, such as balancing accounts, commencing business, and forming connexions. It is a season marked by humanity and benevolence. Family circles are more generally formed-friendship renews every lively sympathy-and all, however indifferent at other times, yield to custom, and wish the returns of this day may be many and happy. It is a season of thankfulness and joy. We are led to praise the Great Preserver of men, who has held our souls in life, and carried us through the unnumbered dangers of another year, while our feelings are tempered to solemnity by the reflection, that many have finished their course, and that we look for some of our own relations or acquaintances in vain-for it is a period of seriousness and recollection. It reminds us of the instability of the world, and the rapidity of time. Of this, indeed, every day and every hour should remind us; but the changes made, and the losses occasioned by these variations, are too common and inconsiderable to