This has been viewed as very high and untenable ground. I cannot see one inch below it, a footing for consistency; I shall be thankful if it be there, to find it. If there be a vender in the bosom of your Church, labour with him in love, pray for him, weep over him; but 0! leave him not until he has abandoned the cruel, guilty traffic. If he does not, see where he will stand in the judgment day. Jesus Christ will arraign a poor trembling culprit, and say to him, “I was sick and in prison and hungry; and your crime is, that you neither visited nor fed me.” Lord, when ? he inquires. “In that poor creature, and that. Depart therefore accursed, into everlasting fire.” Then he will turn to this vender, and say, “Come, blessed of my Father; for I was sick and you visited, hungry and you fed me.” When? he inquires. Jesus points to the same as before. What will the condemned wretch think of justice, when he recognises in those very beings those whom this Church member had made drunkards; whose drunkenness caused their sickness, imprisonment, and hunger? The crime of one was, he had not attended to them after they were sick and hungry. But the virtue of the other was, that he not only had not regarded their wretchedness after it existed; but he was the grand, vol. untary, selfish author of it all, in the midst of light and rebukes. O! tell it not in Gath, that such are the hopes of Christians !

Vender of alcohol-go home, and write upon every vessel containing this substance, “Thou shalt not kill." And may the finger of God write on your heart—"No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”

SERMON X.

VALEDICTOR Y SERMON.

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk

in truth."-3 John 4.

John was a venerable Christian Pastor; and when we use his language as expressive of our feelings, we do it with an humbling consciousness of unworthiness. Yet I. think I can adopt this language with much sincerity, concerning a church over which I have watched, and wept, and prayed. The end of a pastor's labours and desires is, to lead his flock to walk in the truth. Desiring to condense my ministry, as it were, into one closing discourse, I adopt this sentence, with the hope that it will be brought afresh to your memory, whenever you think of me, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”

TO WALK IN TRUTH.

It is a beautiful idea. Pilate once asked, “What is truth?” Had he waited for an answer, he might have heard it sublimely said, “I AM TRUTH !” O! had he for a moment laid aside the judge and become the child, his dark and wandering soul might have seen the dawning of a new and eternal day. What is truth? Things as they are, things as God apprehends them, facts, eternal realities. Where is truth? It used to be written all over the heavens. The earth was a rich volume, inscribed with truth on its ever varying pages. The heart of man instinct with truth. But the heavens are now covered

was

am the

with sackcloth. The eye of -love no longer reads the mystic characters written on every wonderful and beautiful object. The heart of man is perverted. He has come to hate the light and the truth. His philosophy, which can do nothing more than classify known facts, and conjecture unknown existence, can never teach him. God must teach him in plain, unequivocal language. God must teach him authoritatively; because the truth is often unwelcome. God must identify his instructions with signs and wonders. Once this was not necessary. Then the heart of man was true to the voice of God. It then needed no stupendous miracle to say to man—this is your Father and your God: hear him. But now the message must come from him, accompanied by strong and indisputable credentials. Where is truth? In Jesus

way, and the truth, and the life.” It is in Jesus and his word. “Art thou a king then ?" asked Pilate. “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” “No man hath seen God,” said this great witness, “at any time;" no philosopher, no son of science, no student of the stars, no deep observer of man. These have boasted of light, but they have groped in darkness. They have not seen God. His character, and his government, and his purposes, they have not discovered. O! my children, if I were leaving you to the cold instructions of philosophy and science, my heart would sink within me. I should not expect to meet you forgiven, sanctified, glorified, in the land of spirits. But ye have heard the voice of the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. And his word is quick and powerful. You have heard it in your grave of sin; it has quickened you into life spiritual, and will raise you by a second resurrection, to life eternal.

Let me explain the text. John was the honoured in

strument of converting many from the error of their ways. He thus became their spiritual instructer. In this relation, he uses the language of these epistles, and calls them children; some of them, perhaps, his seniors in age. There were two classes of error to which he saw them exposed—the errors of religion and those of irreligion; the one consisting in the perversions of the Scriptures, and the other in an utter disregard of them as untrue or unimportant. The world has its errors, and the Church has hers. The holy and benevolent anxiety of this patriarch was, that his children should shun them both, and walk in the truth; that their minds should be enlightened, their hearts animated, and their steps directed by the truth. In his absence, in his banishment, nothing could cheer his heart but to hear this concerning them. They must walk in truth. Is the Bible unkindly severe ; is it unjust, and does it aim to make us unsocial, when it says, the whole world lieth in wickedness ;—the friendship of the world is enmity with God ?meaning by the world, the unconverted. Is it unkind and unjust when it cautions Christians against their infuence, because they are deceived and deluded? The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. But have not Christians escaped beyond the circle of that influence ? Not so long as they are social beings, with an imperfect character, surrounded by unbelieving friends. The world is in error, deep, practical, destructive error. With some it is an error of theory. With all it is an error of the heart. It is painful to see them walking in the deceitfulness of their own imaginings, to be amused, to be cheered and flattered, until they awake amid the disappointments of another world. The Church must see that the world is in darkness and error, and must show them their path. And it is the more needful to caution you on this point, because the most dangerous errors of worldly men are not put in the form of distinct propositions; but they come insidiously and powerfully instilled into your very heart, through every channel of social feeling - The errors of the world come commended and palliated by the fascinations of wealth, rank, talent, refinement, station and friendship. You do not hear them proclaim, there is no God, no heaven, no hell; but it is proclaimed in every plan, every sentence, every tone, every step. I wish to be understood: there is a powerful and insidious influence from the world, which will induce you to walk by sight, and not by faith, unless greatly watchful. I will mention some of their errors.

I. They are in fatal error on the subject of Happiness.

No reference is here made to their theories; but I speak of those practical views which control their hearts and conduct. This point admits of illustration.

1. They seek the transient gratifications of a day, because they esteem them more important than their everlasting welfare in an immortal state. Show me two men who act as if they had immortal souls one hour after they have left the worship of God; and I will show you ten who act as if man's interest were concentrated here. They do not walk in Truth. For it is true that we are immortalit is true that the interests of timeare as a feather in the scale against the vast interests of our ever enduring souls. It is true, that present happiness is a cheap sacrifice if its abandonment be connected with the blessings of eternity. Yes, the world, the intelligent world, the learned, the mighty, the high, the low, the bond and free, de. spise the crown, the harp, the song, the society, the joy of heaven, because the pursuit of them would interfere with some fleeting, selfish duty. It is true, the world shrink from the pain, the shame of a day; but they rush into the shame and agony of eternal damnation.-Here is error and delusion, just as ruinous as avowed infidelity.