and flatter the patient with soft and soothing palliatives. It tells him what, in his condition, it is highly fitting he should know, the plain truth in plain words. It selects, out of Scripture itself, the most awakening admonitions which that sacred book contains. It makes use of that inspired language which is quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, which probes our wounds to the bottom, and reaches the most secret maladies of the heart. In fact, almost the whole of the service of this day, which has been so often and so unjustly censured, is expressed in the very words of Scripture; and whoever thinks fit either to condemn or to ridicule it, is not condemning the English liturgy, but the word of God.

But I am, perhaps, taking up too much of your time in combating this pretended objection to the forms of the day. The real objection, I apprehend, does not lie here. It lies much deeper. When so much pains are taken to find fault with words and phrases taken from holy writ, it creates a strong suspicion, that all is not

as it should be in another place. Let us confess the truth. The fault is not in our Common Prayer-books, but in our hearts.

My brethren, if our hearts condemn us not, "then have we confidence towards God*;" then shall we have confidence to look his terrors steadily in the face, and to join, without fear, in the strongest denunciations against sin that the church can prescribe to us. But if our hearts condemn us, if they reproach us with habitually indulging irregular desires of wealth, of pleasure, or of power, with neglecting or insulting our Maker, and trampling under foot his most sacred laws, no wonder that our lips tremble, and our souls sink within us, while we repeat his awful judgments against such offences. The true way, then, to remove all obstacles to a proper intercourse between God and us at this time, and at all times, is to pluck up from our hearts those evil habits, and criminal passions, that bar up our access to the Throne of Grace. The chief impediments to this intercourse are vice, pleasure, and business. The two first

* 1 John iii. 21.

of these I have considered in some former discourses from this place.* The last will

be the subject of what I have now to offer to your consideration.

With this view I have chosen the history of the two sisters, Martha and Mary; a history with which you are all so perfectly well acquainted, that it is needless to recite the particulars of it. Martha, we know, was so overwhelmed with family cares and embarrassments, so immoderately anxious to provide an entertainment worthy of her illustrious guest, so cumbered, as our version very energetically expresses it, with much serving, that, like many others engaged in the bustle of active life, she conceived the business she was employed in to be the most important of all human conShe fancied that every thing elaought to give way to it, and that her sister Mary was most miserably wasting her time by sitting at the feet of Jesus, and listening to his heavenly conversation. How astonished, then, and mortified must she

.cerns.

* See the Sermon on the Love of Pleasure, in the first volume, and Sermon xiii. in this.

be, when, on calling out for her sister to help her, she received from our Lord, that well-known reproof, mingled, however, with the most affectionate and salutary advice to her, and to all those that happen to entertain similar sentiments, and to be in similar circumstances, with herself: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and "troubled about many things, but one "thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen "that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

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The one thing needful, then, we see, is an earnest desire of spiritual instruction and spiritual improvement, or, in other words, a serious and constant regard to our everlasting welfare.

But how few are there, in comparison, who uniformly act on these principles; and what multitudes, on the contrary, are there, who are so completely entangled in the various occupations of a busy and a tumultuous life, that they are, like Martha, much more disposed to cry out for help in their worldly employments, than to take away any part of their attention from them to bestow on the concerns of another life.

That the pursuits these people are engaged in may be both important and necessary, I mean not to controvert or deny; but the question, then, is, which is most important and most necessary, the business of this life, or the business of the next. If our temporal and spiritual interest happen to interfere, we are not, I think, any where commanded to give the preference to our worldly concerns. It may be said, perhaps, that it would be very ridiculous to sit still, and leave our temporal affairs to Providence, expecting that God should feed and clothe us, as he feeds the fowls of the air, and clothes the lilies of the field. But it would, I am sure, be more ridiculous, and much more dangerous, to leave our spiritual welfare to God, that we might, in the meanwhile carry on our worldly business without interruption. We have abundantly more reason to hope, that life may be supported without incessant toil and drudgery, than that we should arrive at heaven without setting one foot forwards ourselves in the way that leads to it. We are told by Christ himself, that if we seek first the kingdom