and by the luxuriance of thought, and by the warmth of those desires which descriptions of heaven may stir up within me, that I can prove myself predestined to a glorious inheritance. If I would find out what is hidden, I must follow what is revealed. The way to heaven is disclosed; am I walking in that way? It would be poor proof that I were on my voyage to India, that with glowing eloquence, and thrilling poetry, I could discourse on the palm-groves and the spice-isles of the East. Am I on the waters ? Is the sail hoisted to the wind; and does the land of my birth look blue and faint in the distance? The doctrine of election may have done harm to many --but only because they have fancied themselves elected to the end, and have forgotten that those whom Scripture calls elected are elected to the means. The Bible never speaks of men as elected to be saved from the shipwreck; but only as elected to tighten the ropes, and hoist the sails, and stand to the rudder. Let a man search faithfully; let him see that when Scripture describes Christians as elected, it is, as elected to faith, as elected to sanctification, as elected to obedience; and the doctrine of election will be nothing but a stimulus to effort. It cannot act as a soporific. It cannot lull me into security. It cannot engender licentiousness. It will throw ardour into the spirit, and fire into the eye, and vigour into the limb. I shall cut away the boat, and let drive all human devices, and gird myself, amid the

fierceness of the tempest, to steer the shattered

vessel into port.

Now having thus examined the reasons why St. Paul was left dependent upon labour for subsistence, we hasten at once to wind up our subject. We have had under review two great and interesting truths. We have seen that labour is God's ordinance. Be it yours, therefore, to strive earnestly that your worldly callings may be sanctified, so that trade may be the helpmate of religion, instead of its foe and assassin. We have seen also that, when God has instituted means, we can have no right to be looking for miracles. Will ye then sit still, expecting God to compel you to move? Will ye expose yourselves wantonly to temptation, expecting God to make you impregnable? Will ye take the viper to your bosoms, expecting God to charm away the sting? Will ye tamper with the poison-cup, expecting God to neutralize the hemlock? Then why did not St. Paul, in place of working the canvass into a tent, expect God to convert it into food? We do not idolize means. We do not substitute the means of grace for grace itself. But this we say-and we beseech you to carry with you the truth to your homes-when God has made a channel, he may be expected to send through that channel the flowings of his mercy. Oh! that ye were anxious; that ye would take your right place in creation, and feel yourselves immortal! Be men, and ye make a vast advance towards being Christians. Many of you

have long refused to labour to be saved. The implements are in your hands, but you will not work at the tent-making. Ye will not pray; ye will not shun temptation; ye will not renounce known sin; ye will not fight against evil habits. Are ye stronger than God? Can ye contend with the Eternal One? Have ye the nerve which shall not tremble, and the flesh which shall not quiver, and the soul which shall not quail, when the sheet of fire is round the globe, and thousand times ten thousand angels line the sky, and call to judgement? If we had a spell by which to bind the ministers of vengeance, we might go on in idleness. If we had a charm by which to take what is scorching from the flame, and what is gnawing from the worm, we might continue the careless. But if we can feel; if we are not pain-proof; if we are not wrath-proof; let us arise, and be doing, and, with fear and trembling, work out salvation. There shall yet burst on this creation a day of fire and of storm and of blood-oh! conform yourselves to the simple prescriptions of the Bible; seek the aids of God's Spirit by prayer, and ye shall be led to lay hold on Christ Jesus by faith.

SERMON X.

THE ADVANTAGES OF A STATE OF EXPECTATION.

LAMENTATIONS, iii. 26.

"It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord."

You will find it said in the Book of Ecclesiastes, "Because to every purpose there is time and judgement, therefore the misery of man is great upon him." It seems to us implied in these words that our incapacity of looking into the future has much to do with the production of disquietude and unhappiness. And there is no question that the darkness in which we are compelled to proceed, and the uncertainty which hangs round the issues of our best arranged schemes, contribute much to the troubles and perplexities of life. Under the present dispensation we must calculate on probabilities; and our calculations, when made with the best care and forethought, are often proved faulty by the result. And if we could substitute certainty for probability, and thus define, with a thorough accuracy, the workings of any proposed plan, it is evident that we

might be saved a vast amount both of anxiety and of disappointment. Much of our anxiety is now derived from the doubtfulness of the success of schemes, and from the likelihood of obstruction and mischance; much of our disappointment from the overthrow and failure of long-cherished purposes. And, of course, if we possessed the same mastery of the future as of the past, we should enter upon nothing which was sure to turn out ill; but, regulating ourselves in every undertaking by foreknown results, avoid much of previous debate and of after regret.

Yet when we have admitted that want of acquaintance with the future gives rise to much both of anxiety and of disappointment, we are prepared to argue that the possession of this acquaintance would be incalculably more detrimental. It is quite true that there are forms and portions of trouble which might be warded off or escaped, if we could behold what is coming, and take measures accordingly. But it is to the full as true that the main of what shall befall us is matter of irrevocable appointment, to be averted by no prudence, and dispersed by no bravery. And if we could know beforehand whatever is to happen, we should, in all probability, be unmanned and enervated; so that an arrest would be put on the businesses of life by previous acquaintance with their several successes. The parent, who is pouring his attention on the education of a child, or labouring to procure for him