tion, no other prospect can be placed before you but a death of despair and an eternity of shame. But it is not too late to escape this dread alternative. There is hope concerning you. You have not renounced the faith, or girded yourselves in stern defiance of your Maker. You would like to share the joys of the chosen. Come, then, and take part of their felicity and peace. Away with those dreams of distant holiness, which have hitherto cheated and deceived you. "Break the bands of sloth asunder, and cast away.its cords from you." Dissolve your covenant with sin and your agreement with the grave. Hear, and obey, with thankfulness and delight, the gracious counsel of everlasting truth. "It is high time to awake out of sleep: the night is far spent; the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."—" Awake, thou that sleepest; and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life." Amen.

SERMON II.

MATTHEW, V. 20.-" I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

IN contemplating the character and conduct of Jesus of Nazareth, nothing strikes us more forcibly than his entire and decided superiority to the approbation or reproach of men. In all his actions and discourses to the people, we discover no attempt to conciliate their favour or to escape their condemnation. An impostor would have flattered the vanity while he courted the favour of his contemporaries, and, instead of exposing and reprobating their delinquencies, he would have sought to spread a veil over the errors which he could not defend or extenuate. But he who came, like the Spirit which he afterwards promised, to " reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment," bore his uncompromising testimony against the vices and deceptions of a degenerate and hypocritical people. Nor were they merely the inferior classes of society whom he censured and reproved, and who had neither the influence nor the means of retaliation and revenge. The voice of his condemnation was lifted up against the mighty and the powerful, who " sat in Moses' seat," and to whom the people were taught

and accustomed to look up with respect and veneration. The Scribes and Pharisees were the persons of greatest power and influence among the Jews. The former were the literary men of their age; and were respected and admired on account of their familiar acquaintance with the law, and the readiness with which they gave forth their interpretation of it. The Pharisees, on the other hand, laid claim to singular sanctity of life and manners, and were viewed by the people as persons who had risen above the level of their brethren. But these claims to admiration and reverence, which were often conceded by the undiscerning and misjudging multitude, did not exempt them from the censure and condemnation of Him who knew what was in man, and whom no false pretensions to knowledge or sanctity could deceive or betray. With all their boasted learning and holiness, the Scribes and Pharisees were strangers to that purity and excellence of character which the Divine law required, and were chargeable with many obliquities of temper and conduct which exposed them to the righteous condemnation of Heaven. The influence and authority which they possessed with the people could not shield them from the condemnation which they merited; and with unshrinking and fearless fidelity did the faithful and true Witness testify against their iniquities and pronounce their doom. While he reproved and admonished "the common people," to whose honour it is recorded that "they heard him gladly," he directed his attention to those who occupied the high places of the sanctuary, and "who loved greetings in the

SERMON II.

MATTHEW, V. 20.-" I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

IN contemplating the character and conduct of Jesus of Nazareth, nothing strikes us more forcibly than his entire and decided superiority to the approbation or reproach of men. In all his actions and discourses to the people, we discover no attempt to conciliate their favour or to escape their condemnation. An impostor would have flattered the vanity while he courted the favour of his contemporaries, and, instead of exposing and reprobating their delinquencies, he would have sought to spread a veil over the errors which he could not defend or extenuate. But he who came, like the Spirit which he afterwards promised, to "reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment," bore his uncompromising testimony against the vices and deceptions of a degenerate and hypocritical people. Nor were they merely the inferior classes of society whom he censured and reproved, and who had neither the influence nor the means of retaliation and revenge. The voice of his condemnation was lifted up against the mighty and the powerful, who" sat in Moses' seat," and to whom the people were taught

and accustomed to look up with respect and veneration. The Scribes and Pharisees were the persons of greatest power and influence among the Jews. The former were the literary men of their age; and were respected and admired on account of their familiar acquaintance with the law, and the readiness with which they gave forth their interpretation of it. The Pharisees, on the other hand, laid claim to singular sanctity of life and manners, and were viewed by the people as persons who had risen above the level of their brethren. But these claims to admiration and reverence, which were often conceded by the undiscerning and misjudging multitude, did not exempt them from the censure and condemnation of Him who knew what was in man, and whom no false pretensions to knowledge or sanctity could deceive or betray. With all their boasted learning and holiness, the Scribes and Pharisees were strangers to that purity and excellence of character which the Divine law required, and were chargeable with many obliquities of temper and conduct which exposed them to the righteous condemnation of Heaven. The influence and authority which they possessed with the people could not shield them from the condemnation which they merited; and with unshrinking and fearless fidelity did the faithful and true Witness testify against their iniquities and pronounce their doom. While he reproved and admonished "the common people," to whose honour it is recorded that "they heard him gladly," he directed his attention to those who occupied the high places of the sanctuary, and " who loved greetings in the