vided for in every part of the earth. But in the soul there are wants and cravings, for which no adequate provision is made in the works of nature. That Wisdom, which has "length of days in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor," that Wisdom, with all her gifts, does not satisfy the cravings of the human soul. For what is length of days, or riches, or honor, to him who longs for immortality? The richest blessings, that flow from the pure fountain of domestic life, cannot satisfy the heart that anticipates a final termination of these blessings, which become more dear, more indispensable to us, the longer and the more fully we are permitted to enjoy them. Nothing less than the immortality of our affections, the boundless accumulation of moral and intellectual wealth, the infinity of our being, can satisfy the demands, and explain the existence, of these mysterious longings, which, so far as we know, belong to no other creature than man.

Are we justified in believing, that these unaccountable desires, these tendencies to the Infinite, are indeed indications and promises of a creative Providence? Has our faith in the immortality of the soul and the existence of God a broader and moré solid foundation, than our fond desire that it may be so ?

The same religious wants, and the same intense desire to satisfy them, which lead the ignorant man to try to elicit oracles from rocks and trees, from the flight of birds, and the entrails of animals, by the magic art of the sorcerer, - the same spiritual necessities and aspirations induce the civilized man to confer with his

fellow men, to communicate to others his hopes and his fears, his doubts, and his convictions.

My friends, every man that is born into this world finds himself in a temple, surrounded by teachers of wisdom; and, in order to grow wise, and become a teacher to others, whether by words or by his example, his first employment must be that of Jesus. He must listen to the voice of instruction, and ask questions. I say each one finds himself in a temple surrounded by teachers. Is not your own mind a temple? Are not the capacities, the natural fitness and tendency of all your faculties, your all-searching reason, your devoted affections, your free will, your uncompromising conscience, are they not teachers and prophets, revealing your duty and your destiny?

Every event of life, every instance of experience, leaves upon our lives and our minds certain impressions, deeper or fainter, according to the susceptibility and retentive powers of the individual. These successive impressions, these inscriptions on the walls of the inner temple, which the eye of faith can see, and the ken of reason may decipher, are confirmations and running commentaries, as it were, of the sacred text, engraved on the tablets of the heart. I say, the course of Providence, as it is traced on our lives and our minds by the handwriting of experience, sustains and justifies the inferences which the philosophy of the mind derives from the natural fitness of its faculties, and from its instinctive and irrepressible longings and strivings after endless individual existence, and harmonious progress. Thus, both nature

and experience furnish an explanation to the farewell promise of Jesus to his friends, "I go to prepare a place for you; that, where I am, you may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." In this world of uncertainty, are you troubled and anxious to know, whither you are bound, and what is the way that leads to the end of our being? Open the temple gate, enter into the sanctuary of your own soul, lay your questions before the oracle within, and listen to its teachings. It is not only the written word, it is the voice of Christ within us, that speaks to us; "All that are in the graves shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation.” "He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." "We all, with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory."

The more diligently and devoutly we search our own being, the more clearly we perceive, that, when we call the human mind a temple, it is not merely a fanciful conception, but a figure, that places before us the destination of the mind, as foretokened by its nature. And when we extend our devout contemplation beyond our individual to universal nature, we find that this temple is but a shrine in the universal temple. The infinite variety, the ceaseless changes, that are pressing upon the mind, and crowding out one another, dazzle and bewilder the observer, until a deeper study reveals to him the all-pervading har

mony, the sovereign design, that fixes the destiny of every atom, as well as of all the revolving worlds and systems of worlds that are alike parts of the infinite whole. The world, I say, appears to the devout contemplator, not only as a fit dwelling-place for numberless beings, but as a temple, in which the Spirit of Truth is the priest, and Providence is the teacher, and every pure heart is an altar to the universal Mind. As soon as the human mind attains to this sublimest of all conceptions, the words of Jesus come home to the understanding heart; "The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth."

Under this mighty dome, decked with unfading pictures, supported by invisible pillars, compassing all things; in this universal temple, who would not be a learner, asking questions, and, with child-like humility, listen, cherish, and obey the searching, enlightening, and consoling words of the universal Parent? Though no audible tones should resound through the temple of temples, the works of the Creator are his words. In these works we shall find answers to all our questions, yet not answers that shall settle and close all our inquiries, but rather such as, by the solution of minor difficulties, shall stimulate us to investigations too vast for the present life, pointing to fountains of instruction in undiscovered regions of futurity, and urging us to give ourselves. up confidently and boldly to the Spirit of Truth, that shall guide us into all truth.

SERMON V

EPHESIANS IV. 28.

"Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."

THREE virtues, important in themselves, and intimately connected with each other, are enjoined in these words of St. Paul. The Apostle admonishes him that has been guilty of theft, of dishonesty, to steal no more, to become an honest man. He moreover advises him to labor, working the thing that is good, and thus to add to the virtue of honesty, that of industry. But lest he should labor only for his own selfish interest, and thus forfeit the highest reward of honest industry, the Apostle exhorts him to work not for the purpose of gratifying his appetites and selfish desires, but "that he may have to give to him that needeth." He advises him, who wishes to live no longer by the wages of iniquity, but by honest labor, to labor for the supply of the wants of others as well as his own, by the habitual exercise of that primitive Christian virtue, which now, as in the age of the Apostles, possesses the wonder-working power of converting earthly into heavenly treasures.