because there is less alarm and more self-approbation, and therefore more acquiescence. The men who thus seek after wealth, or fame, or power, begin perhaps with a serious determination to pursue temporal advantages in perfect subserviency to religious principle, and with a due attention to the cultivation of religious knowledge. But their minds are daily more and more engrossed by ambition, by gain, by professional avocations and pursuits. Cares multiply, opposition agitates, anxiety and sus

pense disturb the soul. Here a difficulty must be overcome,

there a rival must be supplanted; sometimes they will bend a too stubborn conscience till it bow down before a ruling interest, and sacrifice some strictness of principle to support a falling cause or if no such temptation occurs, if integrity and rectitude are not forfeited, still the whole soul becomes more eagerly and constantly engrossed in the pursuit of wealth, or fame, or power: all other objects appear trifling and insignificant; but especially, the remote and spiritual objects which religion presents, gradually become more faint and obscure; till at length they wholly fade away from the recollection, and if accidentally recalled, appear altogether visionary and unreal. The mind harassed by business, has no leisure for religious studies; eagerly fixed on the acquisition of this world's good, it loses all relish for the feelings which religion would excite, and for the happiness it proposes.

Thus the love of this world every hour increases; the love of God as rapidly decays, till at length the soul becomes wholly worldly-minded and debased. Grovelling and drudging in low and earthly, sordid and sensual pursuits, it never rises to contemplate the city not built with hands, eternal in the heavens, the destined residence of redeemed and regenerated

man.

Talk to such men of reforming every action to the word and the will of God, of contemplating the character, and imitating the example of their meek and humble Lord-you talk a language they do not understand; you labour to excite feelings which are utterly banished from their souls. One instance will prove decisively, that however they may perhaps still affect the name of Christians, and display some zeal for the political existence

of the national religion, they feel nothing of its spirit and its power.

Observe the temper with which they receive, and the manner in which they employ the returns of this sacred day, which was consecrated to the duties of religion, and the service of their God. Do they look to it with joy, as a welcome opportunity of escaping from those worldly cares, which though necessary are harassing to the soul? And flying for refreshment and relief to the presence of their Redeemer and the blessed society of just men made perfect, do they seek the consolations of religion as the surest source of tranquillity and joy? Are they careful to exclude from this day at least the worldly objects, which obtrude in every other; and to dedicate it solely to religious studies, religious reflection, the devotion of the closet, the worship of the temple, the works of mercy and piety? Do they employ this day in visiting the poor and "the fatherless and the widows in their affliction ?"* Do they employ it in family prayer and family instruction ? Do they seek no pleasure beyond the pleasure of domestic society, and the enjoyment of domestic happiness? Alas! is not this day peculiarly devoted to complete such part of their worldly business as the hurry of employment or the avocations of pleasure left imperfect—to close the accounts, the correspondence, the plans, the schemes of the preceding, and to prepare for the business of the subsequent week; to pay visits of ceremony, for which they could find no other time; to collect round the crowded and festive board, (where luxury and sometimes intoxication triumphs,) those worldly friends, whom business will not suffer to be admitted on any other day. These are their avowed, their general, I might almost say their universal occupations on this sacred day. Some, perhaps, retain enough of old habits or old prejudices to devote an hour in the morning to public worship: they join in the common affairs of religion, but they join without any previous consideration, any serious attention, any subsequent improvement. They listen to the exhortations of the minister of God's word, but only for amusement not for instruction-not to profit, but to criticise. Or if their attention is arrested, and

* St. James, i. 27.

their hearts tremble for the moment, as soon as they quit the Lord's house, the cares, the pleasures, the society, and the business of the world return, and absorb their entire soul. All that they have heard in this school of divine wisdom, vanishes from their recollection as a tale that is told. Thus the "word is choked and becometh unfruitful." Neglected admonitions, and despised warning, serve only to harden their hearts, to render their guilt more inexcusable, and their reformation more hopeless.

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SERMON XXVIII.

HEAVENLY SYMPATHIES AND REDEEMING LOVE.

LUKE XV. 10.

"I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

THIS, my friends, is the declaration of our adorable Redeemer. By this most memorable revelation He has, as it were, removed that veil which hides from mortal eye the regions of the heavenly world, and enabled us to raise our views to the contemplation of those multitudes of exalted spirits which surround the throne of God. He has enabled us to observe their conduct, to perceive what objects engage their attention, to mark the feelings they display, and to trace, as it were, their most secret emotions. And see my friends, how unexpected, how cheering the discovery thus opened to our view. We behold these exalted spirits, not as we should have supposed, entirely busied about objects unconnected with this inferior world-objects which the "eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man" to conceive: we behold them not as we should have expected, indifferent to all human affairs, as far beneath their high and heavenly pursuits; or, if their thoughts at any time glanced on this earth so fearfully abounding in sin and misery, turning them hastily away, lest the sight of such pollution should offend their purity, and the contemplation of such misery disturb their happiness. No; on the contrary, we discover that these pure and exalted spirits are busied about our concerns, interested, deeply interested, about our well being; that they observe with anxious attention the conduct of every human creature, and however deeply he may appear sunk in

1 Cor. ii. 9.

guilt and misery, still do these exalted beings view him with tender compassion; they watch the first spark of virtue reviving in his heart; and if by the breath of the Spirit of God it kindles into an holy flame, and consecrates to the Lord his repentant soul, the angelic host hail with exultation, and receive with fraternal love the returning wanderer; while their sympathy in the happiness of his change adds, as it were, new enjoyment to the bliss of heaven itself: "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

But if the short and transitory glance, which is thus afforded, of the sympathy of the angelic host for their frail and sinful fellow-creatures here on earth, surpasses our hopes, and is calculated to encourage our virtue, how much more should our most heartfelt gratitude and joyful thanksgiving be excited, when we contemplate the conduct and the feelings of our adorable Redeemer himself; who not only thus opens to us this view of the heavenly host, rejoicing to behold the conversion of one penitent, but Himself descended from that heaven, and quitted that glory which He had with the Father before the world was, to live, to suffer, and to die for a world of sinners; and whose every deed, and word, and sentiment, acted or uttered amidst this apostate race, never failed to display the most unbounded benignity, the most tender compassion, the most long-suffering mercy to depraved, rebellious man.

It might have been supposed, that the unequalled strictness and spotless purity of His example and His precepts, the high standard of moral perfection to which He required all His followers to aspire, and the strict self-denial He demanded from every sin, though dear as a right hand or a right eye-these circumstances, it might have been supposed, would have driven from His presence all who were conscious of being stained with impurity and guilt. Yet such was the convincing power of our divine Lord's enlightening wisdom, such the attractive benignity of His manners, the irresistible earnestness of His calls to virtue, and His encouraging assurances of pardon, grace, and peace to the humbled penitent, that even publicans and sinners thronged around Him; they were convinced, penetrated, subdued; they deeply felt and deplored the foulness of