a scale infinitely greater than all the things of this transitory life. And is it so, indeed, that your happiness in that state depends upon your life here? Who, then, can speak in terms of sufficient emphasis of the value of this life? Awake thou that sleepest! Awake thou that dreamest of days and years; awake to contemplate ages! Thou that lookest at a family, a sect, a tribe, survey, assembled worlds! Thou that art oppressed with the pains and aches and weakness of a vile body, behold a spiritual body pure and free from infir mity! Thou that buryest all thy hopes in the earth upon which thy foot treadeth, see what a state of immortality and glory remains after this earth is burned up, and the elements have been dissolved with fervent heat! Oh, look to that state; let all your hopes center in attaining a happiness which only then begins to exist, when all the schemes of worldly greatness and worldly bliss are extinguished, to live no more!

3. Survey human life also in connection with the work of Redemption, and we shall find that man is not made for nought.-Are the days of our pilgrimage here few and evil; and does the life of man seem to be only a mixture of vanity and vexation? Yet see how the glory of Christ the Redeemer, are connected with it.

and of God through him What a value is stamped

upon life; what dignity upon the world, when we behold the only Son of God taking upon him that life, and coming into that world! Are men made in vain, when the only-begotten of the Father gave his life as a ransom for theirs? Here indeed we see the honour of man he may become one with Christ, and Christ with him. Much as his life is chequered with vicissitudes, degraded by meanness, defiled by pollution, burdened with cares, oppressed with sorrow, and abridged by death; it is more than ennobled by the solicitude which the Almighty has expressed for it; by the bounty of Heaven, which daily ministers to its necessities; by the love of Christ, who gave his own life a ransom for sinners; by the offices he undertakes in behalf of those who make application to him; by the means of grace provided for the benefit of their souls; by the promises of the Gospel held out to them; and by the influences of the Holy Ghost shed abroad in their hearts. Is man, then, made in vain who has the Spirit of God for his Guide, the Son of God for his Redeemer, the Almighty for his Father, the Gospel for his support, and heaven for his home? No: he is blessed and favoured indeed. He is honoured with pri vileges and blessings resembling those of angels. But what am I saying? Are men in general so honoured? Alas! with respect to many, we must

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still say, Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? But in what state are we, my brethren? Is it our care to be found united to Christ by a living and true faith? Is it the great employment of our lives to be partakers of that grace and peace which he communicates? Have we reli nounced the world, with its pomps and vanities A Do we say in our hearts, Away with its glittering, perishing follies; I seek more substantial blessings; I have an immortal soul, I seek its salvation; D am a sinner, and I labour to be delivered from my sins; I want to enjoy communion with God my Creator, and to be made meet for a better world above? If such are our hopes and desiresy we are really living to great ends; we are enjoying life in the only sense in which it deserves that name. Without this we have still to learn the very end for which life was given to man; for which he was created and placed in the world.

Lastly, is life of so much importance, and yet is it short also? What an additional value does it acquire even from this circumstance, which seems at first sight to diminish its worth! In this view, a day, an hour, is of great importance. If life is so uncertain; if almost the only thing certain in life is that we shall die, and we know not how soon; what manner of persons ought we to be? Are we laying this to heart? Do we say to

ourselves, "Life is too important to be trifled with: too valuable to be wasted in things which have no importance beyond the present period? I have a great work to do, and little time in which to perform it. Death is at hand: the Judge is at the door. Oh, let me improve the precious though fleeting moments! They may be improved so as to make me partaker of the favour of God, and of eternal happiness." Short as life is, it is long. enough to answer this purpose; and when it has done this, it matters not how soon it is terminated. It will be continued to greater advantage in another state. Happy is the person who acts under these views. They are the views which Christianity gives of this world and this life. May it so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom!

And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

IT must be allowed, that the Patriarchs and other members of the Jewish Church, befere the Christian æra, did not enjoy so clear and distinct a view of the nature and blessedness of the life to come as we do; for it was Christ who was to bring life and immortality to light. But, on the other hand, Wit is evident, that the dispensations of God with many of them were such as tended to give them just views of the vanity and emptiness of this world, and to teach them to desire earnestly that happier state of future existence which was but obscurely revealed to them. Of this we have a striking