in which He expects our gratitude should exert itself, for "herein," said our Saviour to His followers, "is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit."

The last effect attributed by the angels to the happy event of our Saviour's birth, is that of bringing peace on earth. This is equally a consequence of His coming, whenever He is received with the honours of a Saviour, in whatever sense we understand the term peace. First; it is true of that internal peace of mind which the Christian enjoys from a beneficial change in his state and prospects, which has been wrought by the reconciliation of man with God, which Christ descended from heaven to accomplish; for being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And, next; external peace is one of the genuine fruits of Christianity, which is altogether a religion of peace; and is so far from ever justifying a wilful and wanton invasion of the comforts of others, that it enjoins us on the contrary to do good unto all men, and to love our brother even as ourselves. It exerts, moreover, a soothing influence to heal hostilities that are already in action, commanding us never to avenge ourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, and always to cherish a disposition to reconciliation; and it urges the precepts of forgiveness by that equitable and affecting argument,

that it is meet and right we should forgive one another, because God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us. The religion of the Gospel, too, has a tendency to produce even national as well as individual peace; for its business is to eradicate from the hearts of men those evil lusts and passions, to which an apostle very truly ascribes the wars and fightings that desolate the world.

But, lastly; in the phraseology of the New Testament, derived as it is, in great measure, from that of the Old, the word peace has sometimes a very extensive signification, including blessings of every kind. And this is a meaning which may be very appropriately applied to it in the text; for the grand and general object of the Christian dispensation is to augment the sum of human happiness. And, oh! if the Gospel were but received into the hearts of all men, and suffered to operate in its native spirit and power, what a wonderful change would it work over the face of the visible creation-how would it make the wilderness like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord. With all our mortal weaknesses and griefs, we should then be, in happiness as in nature, only a little lower than the angels, composing one mighty family from among all the kindreds of the earth, the members of it being knit together by the firm bond of brotherly love, and having the same care one of another. Blessed,

indeed, will be the times when "the wolf may thus safely dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid,"-and those times will come when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

SERMON V.

DEVOTION OF THE HEART TO GOD.

PROV. xxiii. 26.

My son, give me thine heart.

THE system of religion which was delivered to the world by our blessed Saviour, contains the most satisfactory internal evidence of having proceeded from One who knew what was in man, much better than man himself did; and the truth of this observation is no where more apparent than in a comparison of the different methods respectively pursued by our Lord, and by the philosophers of antiquity, for retaining man within the limits of his moral duty:-they applied themselves to the hopeless task of checking and counteracting the force of passion, when it had already burst its bounds, and had acquired the strength and the impetuosity of the torrent-his principle

was to manage the affections, by working on them at the fountain head; and, while their stream was yet indifferent and undecided, as to the particular channel in which it should flow, to conduct it into one, prepared for its reception, and turned in the direction which he knew to be most advantageous -they attempted to regulate the conduct by controlling the outward actions of men, and he, by securing their principles and motives; of which very different courses of proceeding it requires but little sagacity to determine which is the better suited to the moral constitution of man, and which the more likely to be effectual, for the common purposes intended by them both. A farther mark of discrimination between these systems, and one decidedly in favour of Christianity, is to be found in the different moral expedients they have adopted for persuading men to a compliance with their respective codes. The philosopher appears to have considered man as a creature of pure intellect, in whom reason was, what it always ought to be, but seldom is, the ruling principle of action;-in which case nothing farther would be requisite for insuring an adherence to the laws of morality than to convince the understanding of the propriety of those laws, and their suitableness to the circumstances of our present condition. But in truth, to point out to men their duty, is the least part of what is to be done in order to