obstacle, every cross event, is magnified into a mountain which interposes between him and his beloved ease and happiness.

sower.

In applying the subject to ourselves, it is important to keep close to the word of God, and observe how our Lord uses this proverb. He connects it, particularly in Luke viii., with the parable of the He thereby represents all the opportunities we have of hearing God's word and learning his will as something put into our possession, which shall be multiplied and enlarged, if well used; shall be taken away in righteous judgment, if not profitably applied. "Take heed, therefore, how ye hear"-it is "the savour of life unto life, or of death unto death '," to every one here present. Every sermon actually heard, every sermon which might have been heard, if the means of grace had not been wilfully despised, has consequences reaching through eternity; it will draw down a blessing or a curse. We cannot escape by stopping our ears, or diverting our attention, or abWe are pursued through every

senting our persons.

subterfuge by the inevitable truth, that we are answerable for our refusal to listen still more than for our forgetfulness of what we do hear. God has lighted the candle and set it up on high in the house of man's heart; if we perversely quench its light by covering it with a bushel, he will assuredly require it of us.

1 2 Cor. ii. 16.

In that awful chapter Matt. xxv. this proverb has a more extensive application than to the preaching of the word alone; the parable of the talents, given in different proportions to every child of Adam, according to the wise arrangement of him who divideth to every man severally as he will, is closed and summed up with the declaration of my text. He that had made most improvement of the opportunities given him received the greatest reward; a less improvement is not overlooked by the kind yet righteous judge-while the neglect of talent, though it may be the meanest and smallest talent, is visited with exemplary vengeance, with a total and eternal loss of all those blessings which have been slighted and misused. Do not then, my poorer brethren, vainly strive to escape the necessity of improving the means of growing in grace, which Providence does afford you, by an unscriptural notion, that nothing is required of you.

The parable of the pounds in Luke xix. has a different aspect from the parable of the talents, to which we have adverted: it is however summed up by the same concluding proverb. In this instructive history all are represented as having originally the same pound allotted to them; some improve it largely, some more scantily, some utterly neglect it. Those who with equal privileges make larger advances and improvements shall be more largely rewarded; but, as before, the unprofitable servant is deprived of what had been originally confided to

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him and unworthily neglected, Fearful is it to declare on this authority, as the minister of God, that the opportunities of working out salvation will, when God sees right, be withdrawn from those to whom they are now offered in profusion. Even in this: world a righteous judgment ever follows sin. Each wilful sin makes future sin more easy, and the return to duty more difficult; to repent and be converted is a rolling the stone laboriously up hill for a longer and steeper space. It must however be done; the task, however difficult our previous folly and perverseness may have rendered it, must be achieved here below, or we are ruined for ever. No opportunities will be afforded in the next world for glorifying God or benefiting man to him who has neglected them here. "Cast ye," says the merciful Saviour himself, "the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

The whole subject resolves itself into the powerful law of habit, the most universal law of man's nature, the prolific cause of the general tenour and tendency of every man's actions. It is not merely by a just interposition of Providence in each particular case, that industry and exertion, whether in worldly matters, in the acquisition of knowledge, or in the regeneration and conversion of the soul, are followed by sensible and certain improvements and acquisitions, or, on the contrary, that idleness and carelessness bring after them the loss of any talents originally given; it is the very law of our nature, stamped upon us

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originally by the will of our Creator. Every thing gets smoother and easier, and is better done, as you persevere daily in doing it, every obstacle becomes less formidable, every enemy is more easily vanquished. Hence then observe the folly, the madness, of putting off the work of religion to a more convenient season. Your character grows more confirmed, more stiff and unbending, with each year that rolls over your head; consequently you must, if "filthy," be in more danger of continuing "filthy still;" if unrighteous, of continuing unrighteous still. Blessed be God, the law is strong for good as well as for evil. "He that is holy," shall be holy still '." The ways of religion are indeed thorny and difficult, till a man is well accustomed to them: but gradually heaven opens to the eye of faith, and hope, and love; and they grow more and more delightful: more abundant grace is given; the tempting power of the world, the flesh and the devil is lessened; and the word of the Saviour is pledged in his favour, who endureth to the end. He "hath" now; "to him shall be given;" and through all eternity "he shall have more" and more "abundantly."

1 Rev. xxii. 11.

SERMON XXVI.

PAIN.

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LAM. iii. 32, 33.

Though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."

THAT pain of body and trouble of spirit are evils, no one will so far run counter to the common sense and feeling of mankind as to deny. That all the evils we endure must be traced either to the immediately inflicting hand of the Almighty, or at least to his permission, must also be granted. How then do we reconcile the existence of the sufferings which we are perpetually enduring, or liable to endure, with the boundless love and mercy of God towards the children of men ?-This is no vain nor useless question. Unless we obtain a tolerably satisfactory answer to it, unless our reason be convinced that while God "causes grief," he has not only the justest