"They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever" "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will; wherefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity". "Give glory to the Lord God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it There were present at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices; and Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay; but except (Being one of the Gospels appointed to be read at the Consecration of Bishops.) And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: * What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" WHEN I look around me on this numerous congregation, and apply to you and to myself this solemn admonition of our Lord and Judge, I feel indescribable sensations of awe and anxiety arise in my inmost soul. A few years back, my friends, no one human being within these walls existed. A few years only have passed since the Almighty Power, the ever active goodness of the Creator, called us into being-formed with skill unspeakable, every organ, every limb, every fibre of our frame so admirably constructed, so fitly adapted to its use, so accurately connected with the entire and every part, that the most close searching curiosity, the most penetrating sagacity, would find in each an inexhaustible source of inquiry and astonishment, considered merely as a piece of machinery adapted to perform a certain variety of motions, according to the impulse of some moving power. If you advance one step farther, and ask whence came and where is lodged this moving power, this principle of life, and sense, and energy-all research is vain, all sagacity is baffled. We can only answer in the language of holy writ, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground; he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."* * Gen. ii. 7. VOL. IV. B eye But this union of soul and body will soon cease. Let but a few years pass, and not one of you who form this congregation will be seen upon the face of the earth. The dark and silent tomb will have engulphed us all. The tongue that now addresses you will be dumb, and every ear that now hears and every that is now directed to me, will be closed for ever. We must die. The body of each of us shall return into the dust. But for the soul-will that too perish? Will that too become insensible for ever? Oh no, my friends" the spirit will return to God who gave it."* The soul of each of us was created after the image of God, imperishable, immortal. How quickly is this word immortal spoken! How lasting, how tremendously lasting, is the idea it conveys! And are we really immortal? Oh! consider what this means-that, when our bodies shall have mouldered into dust, our souls-that is, we ourselves-shall continue to live, and to act, and to feel-not for a few years, as now in this body, but for ever! After our children and our children's children for a thousand generations shall like ourselves have passed away, and have been forgotten; after this sacred temple in which we are collected, this great city we inhabit, shall have crumbled into ruins, and not one stone shall be left upon another to mark the spot where once they stood-nay, after this our globe, vast as it is, durable as it seems to be, with its mountains, its seas, its continents, shall have vanished from the midst of the creation-even when the sun shall have grown dim with age, and the stars shall have faded from the midst of heaven-when millions and thousands of millions of ages shall have gone by, even then shall every soul in this assembly still continue to live, and to act, to suffer, or to enjoy. Continue, did I say? nay, rather, it shall then only as it were begin to exist-for all the millions of ages it shall have then survived will be but a point, an instant, in comparison of the eternity commencing at that moment, but never more to close. Oh! my friends, what an awful thought is this, that we shall never cease to live, to feel, to suffer, or to enjoy. Consider how you would estimate the importance of any enjoyment or * Eccles. xii. 7. |