store-house, as it were, whence he may draw a supply for the ensuing week; and if he fail not in daily prayer for God's pardon and blessing, that man will go forth into the world; he may be deeply engaged in his office, at the bar, in the senate, in the council chamber, or in the more humble sphere of worldly occupation, and you might not see at that time any external act of worship, but many a Godly thought may be secretly cherished, and in a thousand ways he may be scattering, imperceptibly, the seeds of practical religion around him. He will engraft truth into his words and integrity into his dealings, and so control the world into an instrument or handmaid, for loftier purposes than the present, that he will be serving his God as faithfully through the secular transaction on the weekday, as he does by the more sacred duties on the Sabbath, in the bowing of the knee, and commemorating his Saviour at the altar.

And the man of wealth, and leisure, and independence also, (did we say independence? ought we to call that independence, which a moment of time might turn into dust and ashes?) But the man of wealth and leisure also may make sterling friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, not by setting himself up as an exalted image for fawning flatterers to surround and idolize, but by spending his time and employing his judgment to devise the best methods of dispensing

those great and powerful blessings entrusted to his stewardship. He may be the great instrument of making thousands happy around him; he may set an example of religious devotion on the Sabbath; and his daily acts of benevolence may so enthrone him in the hearts of his dependants, that their prayers for eternal blessings upon him will rise up, as well as his own, in the shape of memorials before God; and will not these be just like so many friends wrought, as it were, out of the "mammon of unrighteousness," to advance his way to heaven, and when the gold grows dim, and the earthly mansions fail, to welcome his entrance into the everlasting habitations.

It is a beautiful sight to behold a great man, who is also a good and a religious man. His very frown scares away vice, and his smile is like the sunshine upon the shooting blossoms. It reminds one of what Solomon must have been in all his glory, enthroned in the temple, when the effulgence of Deity beamed upon him out of heaven. And it is quite as lovely a picture, to view the poor man with the Gospel in his hand and the Holy Spirit in his heart, working the true riches out of his deep poverty, and in a lowly cot attaining a rank of moral and spiritual elevation. The outward tabernacle may be like a ruin, but the inmate is fired with a holy ambition; he is aiming at an immortal diadem, and a seat in the everlasting habitations. But is there not

an instance of greatness, clothed in humility, the most illustrious of all? One who " thought it not

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robbery to be equal with God, but made himself "of no reputation," who "for our sakes became poor, that we, through His poverty, might be "rich." But for Him, the "mammon of unrighteousness" would have turned into poison; and when for our faithlessness and base ingratitude God might justly have discharged us from our stewardship,-but for Him, oh! where would have been the friend to intercede for our pardon, and procure for us a home among the blessed?

Let

Let us from this moment, my Christian brethren, evince our love, and return into his service. us no longer be slaves to the world. Christ spoke the truth, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon;" but by grace, you can serve God, and by grace you can make mammon serve you. By grace, you can keep the other world uppermost, and this world secondary and subservient. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous"ness, and all these things shall be added unto

you;" so that if these temporal things be added by God to those who seek first His kingdom, surely they were not designed to be enemies, but they are clearly talents put into your hands and though, by abuse, you may forge them into deadly weapons, by good stewardship, you may turn the unrighteous mammon into an instrument of righteousness; and if so, you will conclude that

the two precepts harmonise; and that Christ spoke equally truth, when he said, "Make to yourselves "friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." Shake off the slavish chains then, and with Christ, your master, and the Holy Spirit, your helper, press the world into your spiritual service to minister unto God. Do you ask a reason why you should not delay to do this at once? "Behold the Bridegroom cometh;" yea, He is even now coming; for not a day glides by but the trumpet is sounding to thousands; and which of us may not be the next to hear the startling summons, "Give an account of thy "stewardship." Let us be truly wise, then; let us so make use of the world that, hereafter, it may rise up from its dusty sepulchre, not as an accuser, but as a friend and a witness, to testify our meetness for the everlasting habitations.

SERMON III.

THE WORD OF GOD A TWO-EDGED

SWORD.

HEB. IV. 12.

"For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

It was our aim to convince you in the last discourse that the allotments of Providence in the present life, are not, in their own nature, or of necessity, impediments to religion-that temporal pursuits were designed by God, and therefore may be rendered by man, as so many multiplied instruments by which our Divine Master can be served