reared by a word of his mouth, and by a word of his mouth to be overturned again-Why was he not placed in the seat of universal empire, to do his sovereign will among the sons of men, and reduce them to happiness and good order? These questions may well be asked upon beholding him swathed up amongst the cribs and provender of cattle; hedged in, his life long, with mean and mechanical conditions, possessed of no power, and honoured by no office, pinched in liberty of speech and action, the few years he was allowed to live. Yet it pleased the Lord that in him should all fulness dwell. Such was the being and such was the condition into which the Being was born, whom all Christians call their Master, and to whom all subjects of the divine constitution endeavour to conform their sentiments and life.

Now, if Christ, having such poor instruments to work his work withal, so little power and rank and wealth, did yet bear with meekness the imprisonment of his faculties, and look without envy upon the towering height of mean and despicable men-finding within his bosom a resting-place of peace, in the world a constant field of active well-doing, in the bosom of God a constant welcome, and in the prospects after his heavy office was well discharged an everlasting feast of hope, may not we mortal, erring men, be glad to fulfil the will of God in whatever condition he may please to place us, and win to ourselves out of the saddest aspects and in the humblest allotments of human life, not only endurance and contentment, but the high engagements of a most useful life? Can poverty or bonds imprison the faculties of the religious soul-can ruin seize the conditions which Christ's most precious blood hath purchased for his people-can adversity benight the reconciled countenance of God? Cannot devotion soar as free from dungeons as from gorgeous temples? and will not the mite of misery be as welcome as the costly offerings of grandeur? Nay, verily, but the very humility and poverty of his people are their commendation to God, their necessities are their passport, their groans are their petitions, and their afflictions are their arguments.

When, therefore, there are found, in abject poverty, spirits of passing excellence struggling with their depression, and unable to extricate their genius or their enterprise from petty embarrassments, from which they think a little more of wealth or a little more of station would have set them free without a struggle, let them turn into that vocation to which Christ invoketh men, and apply their faculties to those uses to which Christ applied his; then shall their

soul be as tranquil, though overflowed with many waters, as was his, and their end as triumphant over this paltry world, and their spirit as liberally enlarged into glorious liberty. And though there be on every side of us grovelling spirits sleeping in the bosom of every advantage, disregarding the fairest occasions of honour and of good, and when they do intermeddle in affairs, spoiling every thing they undertake with the stain of their own meanness; what is there in this to stir our envy? in the eye of reason they are degraded and disgraceful, however prominent in the eye of silly people; in the eye of God they are condemned for profligate squanderers of his good and gracious gifts; and they are ripening their blossoms for such a wintry blast as shall sear and waste and desolate them for ever. Poor men! their case is pitiful, passing pitiful. Be gracious to them, be full of prayer for them; for they pass like the flower of the grass, which flourisheth in the morning and in the evening is cut down, and the place which now knows them shall soon know them no more. Oh! it chaseth away for ever all repinings from the Christian's soul, to behold the discrepancy between the Saviour's divine capacities and the Saviour's humble lot; and it teacheth him resignation to his fortunes, and contentment in the midst of them, not out of a slothful and indolent spirit, but out of the conviction that from the worst fortune a life of the greatest activity and gainfulness may be made to arise. The sun never ariseth so glorious as when he divideth the thick clouds of the morning, and looketh forth from his pavilion of thick waters round about him; nor does man ever bespeak so much his spiritual strength, or show so like to God, as when he rejoiceth with a serene joy over darkness and trouble, and gathers sweet refreshment to his glory from the clouds which overcast him.

It is not sluggish contentment I advocate; I would rather see a man wrestle against his lot than miserably succumb, rise rampant and shake from him the thongs and whips that scourge him, take arms and perish like a man, than whine and weep under inglorious bonds. It is victory and triumph, no pitiable debasement, I contend for; and while I shut out material tools to express your mind and will before the beholding world, I hand you spiritual tools to express it with, before all-beholding God, your own conscious soul, and the innumerable host of heaven. If you have a capacious mind, but no books nor school to train it in, nor theatre of high debate to display it before, then be it between you and God, and those whom he hath placed about you. Be the book of

God your hand-book, and the universe of God your eyebook, and the providence of God your book of problems to be resolved; and be your own soul, your family, your friends, every ear which listens-the theatre before which to demonstrate your knowledge; this is amplitude enough. Is your heart generous and pitiful, but forced by niggard fortune to confine itself within narrow bounds of well-doing? then there is the generosity of feeling and of utterance; there is a kind word and a good counsel, which the wretched need as much, but seldomer receive, than an alms. Feel no envy; that is generous: indulge no malice; that is gracious? study no revenge; that is bountiful: it was thus that Christ testified that passing generosity of spirit which hath made him the boast of manhood. I suppose he gave less, because he had less to give, than many amongst ourselves; but he gave a volume of wise counsel, and bequeathed a treasure of good feeling which is now esteemed the most precious jewel this world contains within its orb. Do you say your noble ambitions are landlocked and idle by reason of hopelessnessis there no field for ambition in being a wise, good, and glorious creature, after God's own image renewed? is there no hope of conquering sin, misfortune, death, and the grave, of rising to honour, glory, and immortality? till there be midnight darkness in these avenues and outlets of the soul, tell me not of hopelessness, of landlocked and idle ambition. Doth your wit rust like a sword hanging in its sheath? then, though I have no outlet for that species of wit which they call droll and comical, and which finds its feast in farces. and caricatures, in obscuring and distorting truth-yet for that true wit which lies in exposing affectation and vice, and unveiling the subterfuges of self-deceived nature, and holding the true mirror up to man that he may know himself, and knowing himself be ashamed-that wit which lies in dressing truth and excellency in proper images, and brings God into view through clouds and darkness, that we may flee to his mercy and forgiveness, and love his image-for such wit there is abundant outlet; for that is the very highest office which a Christian can perform for himself or his friend. And for that higher vein of genius which seeks its way in poetry and song-there are to be exhibited all the attributes of God and life of christian virtue, and peace and joy in believing, and everlasting freedom from thraldom and impediment.

These, these are the proper excursions for the faculties of man into the provinces of God's holy nature and righteous

ways; these console the spirit that delights itself therein, and treat it with a feast sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, and replenish it with a treasure more valuable than the mines of the east. And these regions of thought and activity are open as the gates of the morning, and free as the liberty of thought itself. Rank hath no preference here; fortune brings no accession hither; a sceptre is no advancement; and a library of learning proves often altogether cumbrous. Therefore be encouraged to put forth each man his mind and spirit and will, in these highways of thought and business. And the Lord as ye advance will open wide the gates of liber ty, until at length death shall knock off the fetters of the mind, to become free and moveable as the angels of God.

I wish I had a dwelling-place in every bosom, and could converse with every faculty of man, that I had an ear to hear their murmurings, their sighings, their groanings and all their secret griefs; and I wish that I had a faculty to understand all the parts and kindly offices of religion, which in this present age seemeth to be in bonds and to want enlargement; then would I draw near to every repining, grieving, hampered faculty of every spirit, and out of my spiritual guide I would sing over it a soft and soothing strain, sweetly set to its melancholy mood and aptly fitted to its present infirmity, until each languishing part of human nature should be refreshed, and peace should come, and blushing health arise, and glowing strength spring up hastily, and, like a strong man from sleep, or a giant refreshed with wine, the whole soul should recover a divine strength, and push onwards to perfection heartily and happily with the full consent of all her powers. But no man can get such a faculty of drawing the distressed parts of fallen nature into an acquaintance with the healing, strengthening medicines of the Gospel of peace. Yet is there one to whom this happy function appertaineth, the Holy Spirit of God, whose unction is to the spirit what light and food and balmy sleep are to the body of man; and whose unspeakable comfort and unwearied strength we may every one partake of, seeing God longeth, loveth to pour it forth more affectionately than a father doth to give bread to his starving child. Then, then arise, arise, ye sons of depression and misfortune, arise from your lowly beds, arise from your sinful conditions, burst asunder the confinements of a narrow lot; cease from brooding griefs, severe complainings, and every disquieting thought; join fellowship with the great comforter of this afflicted world, even the Spirit of Truth, who from the lowest pass of misery will raise you to a

height of heavenly temper, and all the universe shall smile in the eye of your recovered joy, and the most discordant adversities of life become full of a divine wisdom and order.

What hath the meanest cottager to fear, what the most laborious workman to complain of, when possessed of this divine companion, who shall unravel this fitful dream of existence, and show it to be a dispensation of God full of mercies and of comforts? And the Scriptures which furnish his cottage shall be instead of palace ornaments and noble visitants, and shall furnish a better code to guide him than the formulary of any court; and his joys and sorrows awake as deep an interest in the mind of our common Father as those of royalty; and the incidents and changes and catastrophes of his cottage scenes are as well recorded in the book of God's remembrance as the transactions of an empire; and he hath the faculty of extracting honey from the bitterest weed in his humble field of existence; and though the bed of his distress may be dark, lonely, and unattended, the bosom of his Redeemer is his pillow, and the shadow of his wings his covert; and angels that have not fallen beckon him to the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, where is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore.

Upon these unremoveable foundations the divine constitution placeth the contentment of every rank, high and low, and into these undebarred avenues of activity it calleth the awakened spirits of every man. There is room enough in all vocations for the display of every natural faculty and superadded grace, and in every vocation hath the arch enemy reared up a fabric of delusion against the Most High; to overturn which, and raze it to the foundation, and on its ruins erect the work of faith, the labour of love, and the patience of hope, is work and honour enough for the longest lifetime and the largest faculties, aided and directed by the Spirit of God.

If men were under the influence of these principles, which are but a scantling of the whole, those grievances of the various ranks of life, which we set forth as the chief irritation of society, would cease. The miserable man of whom we spoke, into whose enjoyment discontent hath eaten like a canker, and who, oppressed with evil conditions, hath no more nerve for life, but bitterly makes his moan to the ear of solitude, and singeth sadly of departed hope and miserable fortune-to him the Comforter would come and take him into his kindly embrace, and whisper into his ear softening and soothing speeches, telling him of life beyond the