himself to a new study,—and if every man who studies law would do it as he did, to become an able philanthropist, that profession might exert an influence for good, which cannot be calculated. He examined the principles of the British constitution and law, to see whether they really stood opposed to liberty and the rights of man. The decisions of all the highest courts were against him. Here then he determined to take his stand, with no other weapon than truth. He opposed the ablest and profoundest jurist England ever saw; and he maintained that opposition, until he overthrew the influence of authoritative, but unjust opinion, and finally established the glorious truth, that by the British constitution every human being that treads on British soil is free. Two long years he spent, not in vapouring, and denouncing, and frothy declamation, but in an intense study of law. He then consulted the most eminent jurists, and wrote several tracts to enlighten the public mind, and prepare the way for his attack. After the case of Strong was decided in favour of the master, three other cases were tried, each one of which opened the way for Sharp to shake the prejudices which, like spiders, hung their dusty cobweb folds even in such a king's palace as the mind of Mansfield. This great man at last yielded to Sharp's resistless argument, and came out and settled the principle for ever. Trace this history through, to admire and imitate his motives, his persevering and painful study. Be benefactors of your race; be deep, profound thinkers. See the array of public sentiment against him; and see the triumph of principle. Behold its effects now in the West Indies and in America. The first of August stands closely connected, not in time, but as effect to cause, to the efforts of that noble mind. Fellow Christians, I take this occasion to commend to you the interests of the BRITISH AND FOREIGN YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY. Its objects are wor

thy your ardent affection. They are comprehended in the improvement of youthful hearts and minds. Anticipate what they may be. Perhaps to-night a strong desire for self-improvement is aroused; but without your aid, aroused in vain. To what nobler object can you devote hundreds of pounds than to feed those minds, and train these patriots and philanthropists?

SERMON III.

JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY.

For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke xix. 10.

THE meaning of that word-lost, is the separatingpoint from which diverge the most important sentiments, that divide the nominally Christian world. It affects essentially all our religious sentiments, character and career. If one sees in it but a flourish of rhetoric, or an oriental exaggeration; then his conscience slumbers; then his sympathies feel no deep appeal from man's condition and prospects; and then his heart lies chilled beneath the cold moon-beams of the gospel. For, to him that gospel opens on the one hand, no thrilling scene of spirits fallen, defiled, benighted and accursed; and on the other, no enrapturing display of love, of condescension lower than angels had dared anticipate, of mercy's immeasurable sacrifice, made despite of base ingratitude and of parricidal rebellion. To him the gospel is a description of goodness similar to, but no greater than that displayed in the ordinary gifts of Providence. Such is the theory and such are the fruits of the skeptical and semi-skeptical philosophy. Wherever it is accepted, the distinction between man's native powers and sensibilities and his actual character as a subject of God's government, is lost sight of; human nature is admired almost to adoration; repentance, as that deep emotion which breaks the heart and bruises

the spirit, is despised. Thus, whatever other "sacrifices" are offered to God, among them is not found a "broken heart and a bruised spirit." Thus it acts on the personal piety of the individual, and thus it affects his influence. on others. In himself he finds more to admire than to condemn; when he discovers wrong, he considers it superficial; no deep and painful sense of spiritual necessity, corresponding to descriptions in the Bible, is felt by him. Calm self-complacency is indeed the very feeling which he seeks to derive from religion. And if he sees any thing else and opposite in others, it causes only contempt or pity. He approves not their deep and pungent convictions of guilt and misery, nor comprehends how the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God is needed for his guilt, and the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost for his depravity.

Their fundamental error is on two points, and respects two aspects of human nature-man as the subject of law; and man in his capacity for a spiritual life.

Their views of man's guilt and ill-desert are comparatively slight. They allow him to be satisfied with the contemplation of his own excellence, his intellectual qualities, his social feelings, his moral sensibilities. They hold in abhorrence only certain crimes against civil laws and social order. They excite and they allow no deep and heart-breaking convictions for spiritual offences; they arouse no fears of endless punishment. They go to the neglecter of religion, and persuade him to become more attentive to religious truths and duties. They go to the Pagan, and urge him to embrace a purer rite, a more rational theology. Their appeals are not made to the conscience, to start it from deep slumbers, and make it echo the thunders of coming judgment. And when they find it awakened, they proclaim to it no peacespeaking sacrifice for sin; in fact, they censure this very

alarm, and attribute it to ignorance and error. Hence they find nothing in man's prospects to enlist deeply their own solicitude. Hence they accord not with us in our endeavours to awaken a slumbering world by strong appeals to make it hear-amid what they call its innocent amusements and occupations-the voice of an insulted Deity, of an outraged Father, of the threatening majesty of Heaven.

Thus we differ from them in our estimate of the extent and purity of the precepts of the divine law. We consider all the world as its guilty violators; we consider all human virtue in man's unconverted state, as truly sin; and the more sinful, the more it becomes an object of admiration to its possessor, and an occasion of undervaluing the mediation and propitiatory sacrifice of the Son of God.

Equally antipathetic are our views of man's spiritual character. Of the dignity of his original character and position, of the noble character of some of the sentiments of a few, we have as high an estimate as any. But we believe that the spiritual image of God is effaced from the human soul; man is fallen, terribly, desperately fallen; the gold has lost its lustre. His virtues are to us the white exteriors and the gilded ornaments of the sepulchre, His smiles are to us the more painful, as they convince us that he is, or tries to be contented with his state of spiritual poverty, guilt and degradation. In a word, we consider man as alienated from God; intellectually and physically alive, spiritually dead. And therefore we cannot content ourselves by endeavouring to refine and elevate a few of the most highly favoured of our race; we must reach all men. They are all wanderers from the home of the soul, the bosom of God; and they must all be persuaded to return. The malady of sin lies deeply fixed in the immortal part, the soul; and therefore intellectual elevation and social refinement do not remove it, and have no