forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

To parents we would say, we ask for your countenance and assistance in carrying our intentions into effect. As you value the cause of truth, and the temporal and eternal interests of your children, do not withhold it.

If there be any aged members of this religious society here present, who have lived for years in the enjoyment of a rational and scriptural faith, and who hope to die surrounded by its consolations, we ask them to give us their blessing. Let them display the same praiseworthy zeal that David did for the maintenance of the Divine glory in the next generation; and adopting in their hearts the language of the venerable patriarch, let them say to us, and to all whom we may be called upon to instruct, "Know ye the God of your fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind."

May God bless this and all similar undertakings to the promotion of his own glory amongst men, and to the advancement of human happiness here and hereafter.

SERMON XVIII.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE MOURNER.

MATTHEW V., 4.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

A VERY limited acquaintance with society will be sufficient to convince us that all mankind are by nature mourners. Scarcely a day of our existence passes without furnishing us with some fresh illustration of this melancholy fact. In life we are in the midst of death. How seldom, my brethren, can you walk far through this populous town, without meeting with some sad and solemn memento. "Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets." We become so accustomed to these affecting exhibitions, that we learn to pass them by with indifference. Yet, careless gazer, could you but see what lies beneath that pall, could you but lift the lid of that dark and narrow chest, you might discover, it may be, some precious deposit. You might find in it, perhaps, a bride

groom's withered hopes, a parent's blighted prospects. You might behold in it the lifeless body of a son, the expanding powers of whose mind had awakened in a father's bosom high hopes of future usefulness and respectability, and whose manly form seemed like a column, round which the weakness of declining age might cling with comfort. You might see in it the faded loveliness of a daughter, upon whose opening bloom of womanhood a mother's fondness had loved to gaze, with pleased yet anxious anticipation. You might discover in it the ashes of an aged parent, to whom, as the ivy to the oak, filial affection adhered, even in decay; or the withered fragments of some infant bud of being, whose leaves, scattered with an untimely haste by the universal spoiler, had fallen from their parent-stem, to moulder in the dust. Whatever may have been the particular nature of the ties, there can be little doubt that some have been severed, and that the progress of that sad procession, with whatever indifference you may regard it, has been marked by the tears, and accompanied by the sorrows of numbers of afflicted relatives. Yet why need we have recourse to scenes of misery which thus casually present themselves? Do we not often enough perceive the same rude hand breaking in upon the circle of our own imme

diate friends and relations? Are we not too often summoned to follow to the grave the remains of those whose hearts had been most closely linked with ours? Does not every passing year witness some new gap in the little circle within which it is our lot to move?

Are we not continually beholding those, whose beauty charmed, whose wit delighted, whose wisdom directed, or whose friendship blessed us, falling around us like the leaves of autumn, and insensibly undermining that structure of happiness within which we had fondly hoped to dwell for ever? Independently of all this, however, are there not a thousand varied evils that are constantly making inroads upon our happiness? Are there not pecuniary losses, harrassing anxieties of mind, disappointed hopes, racking pains, lingering diseases? Is not the participation, in a greater or less degree, of all these evils, the common lot of humanity? If it be so, my friends, and that it is so you must all be aware from daily experience, what a treasure to the human race must that religion be, which provides them with a solid and substantial remedy for all these evils; which teaches them to regard their heaviest calamities as blessings in disguise, and proclaims to every child of affliction, in the words of its divine author, that "blessed

are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

In the treatment of this subject we are naturally led, first, to consider whether or not Christianity is really possessed of the power of comforting those who mourn, and to point out how it possesses this power; secondly, to illustrate the truth of the assertion that they who mourn are blessed; and, thirdly, to point out the practical results of the preceding reasoning.

That the religion of Jesus Christ is possessed of a power of comforting those who mourn, may be proved both from reason and from experience. It includes within it certain doctrines, which have a powerful tendency to impart consolation to the afflicted; and instances frequently occur, in which the salutary influence of these doctrines upon the mind of the mourner is clearly exhibited. The doctrines of Divine Providence and of a future state seem most particularly calculated to comfort those who mourn. The former of these doctrines teaches us, that no one circumstance whatever, no matter how trifling it may appear to us, can take place in any part of the universe without the knowledge and permission of a Being of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness. The latter informs us that the world,