prove this fact? They were not men of affluence: they were not men of literary fame, who were likely, by the eloquence of their speech and pleading, to impose on the unwary and the mass generally. Look at their condition. They were only poor men-they were only lowly fishermen of Galilee, and tent-makers. Look at their number. It was not a solitary individual who came forth and said, he had seen the Lord Jesus. But it would seem to be a considerable number of these individuals-men who had been accustomed to converse with our Lord-men who knew him well. Paul says, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once. After that he was seen of James; then of all the Apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also"-alluding to his conversion-"as of one born out of due time." Such was their number.

Observe the nature of their evidence. It was not what they had heard: it was not what they imagined: for it is well known how far the imagination may be worked up, and what a variety of pleasing pictures a sanguine mind can easily pourtray to itself. They had not only beheld him, but had conversed with him. John says, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." Considerable weight is to be attached to the agreement of their testimony. They all united in confirming the same point before various tribunals. They had given in this report before Jews, Gentiles, the Sanhedrim, senators, philosophers, nobles, lawyers, rabbies. The place likewise in which the fact is asserted to have taken place was not a position far off: it was near-they could speak of a transaction that had occurred at their very doors. And beyond this, we are to look at their constitutional incredulity: they were not men to be imposed upon easily. Look on Thomas, as an instance: how hard was he of belief! The disciples who had seen their Master before him, apprized him of the privilege they had enjoyed by the interview. But he said, "Unless I shall see for myself I will not believe. I must not only have the evidence of one sense only, sight; I must have the confirmation of another, feeling." At the next interview this was granted: Thomas was satisfied, and declared, "My Lord and my God."

Their conduct and suffering in support of their testimony is another argument in favour of the doctrine. What were they likely to gain by it? Affluenceplaces of state-places of secular influence and advantage? Far otherwise. From that moment they entered upon the rugged road of persecution, the termination of which was the martyr's stake. But although they foresaw what would be the consequences of bearing their record concerning the resurrection of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they went forth everywhere, not accounting their lives dear to themselves, so that they might finish their course with joy, and testify the Gospel of the grace of God. They lost their property; their character was maligned; and at length they sealed their testimony by their blood.

From hence you perceive you have not followed a cunningly-devised fable. We lay these facts before you, not from the supposition that you question the doctrine; but that you may see the reasons of your belief in this fundamental article of the Christian creed. This is one of the great foundation stones of the spiritual building: and "if the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?"

This leads us to notice, thirdly, The CircumstanCES UNDER WHIch our Lord rose from the GRAVE. Who were the visitants at the grave of Jesus? "It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them." What an honourable position do pious females occupy in the New Testament. In many respects, my brethren, they present an example well worthy of our imitation. It was not a female that denied him. Women were last at the cross, and they were first at the tomb. Christianity, my female friends, has done much for you: it has placed you upon your proper footing in the scale of creation. And Christianity has done much for you in the way of salvation. How many thousands, and tens of thousands, of your sex are now praising him in the kingdom of God's dear Son! Observe the time of their attendance. It was "very early in the morning." What more lovely than early devotion! Those who go early to the Saviour's sepulchre, even now, by acts of faith and worship, beginning the day with prayer, are likely to end it with praise. Good is it when we can say, "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." "O Lord, thou art my God; early will I seek thee." What was the object of their visit to that tomb? It was to pay the funeral rites to their beloved Lord; to embalm the body with the spices they had brought, according to the custom of the Jews. And as they went forth a difficulty presented itself: they said, "Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" But ah! how much better was the Lord to them than their fears: for, when they arrived at the sepulchre, the stone was rolled away already. Thus it is oftentimes with our troubles. We imagine that such and such obstacles are before us; and looking at these in the abstract, we are ready to say, "All these things are against me:" but, by and bye, when perseverance and prayer have led us forth, we find the stone is removed, and that the obstacle was more imaginary than real.

But who removed that stone? It was effected by the earthquake. Here is an additional confirmation of the majesty and authority of the Prince of life. When he assumes our nature and becomes incarnate, a new star is visible, descends over the place where the infant was lying, and directs the attention of the Magi to the Son of God. When Jesus died, the rocks were rent, the veil of the temple was torn from the top to the bottom, and there was a supernatural darkness over the land from twelve to three o'clock. And now, when Jesus rises, there is an earthquake for the removal of the stone. And whom did the attendants find at the mouth of the grave but angels? There you see their ministry. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"

Finally, let us consider the consequences which arise out of the subject. Did Jesus rise? Then henceforth in the view of the Christian, the grave loses its terrors. Christ bare there the penalty which was due to our disobedience. By bursting the bars of death he shows us there is a new and living way opened which conducts us to the Holy of holies. He has led us into that way, for he has gone before. The grave he has perfumed with the incense of his presence: he has conquered its power and authority by his rising. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin arises from a broken law. But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Did Jesus rise? Then we see an earnest of our resurrection; for, in the

memorable language of Paul," now is Christ risen from the dead, and is become the first fruits of them that slept." This is the pledge, this is the pattern. Was the first sheaf of old presented before the Lord in the temple? This was the pledge and the pattern of the future harvest-this was the evidence that the fields were now in a state of ripeness, and that their appearance invited the husbandman to thrust in the sickle. In like manner, the Saviour's resurrection from the grave is a pledge of your rising; and in his glorious body you see something of the pattern of that which you are to wear when you awake in the divine likeness, and he opens the way to the mansions of bliss. Follow him thither by your prayers, your faith, your hope, your desires.

You have not followed

See, then, the solid basis on which your hopes rest. a cunningly-devised fable. You build all your expectations of acceptance with God, and the happiness of the future state, on what he has done and suffered. God forbid that we should henceforth glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom, and through whom, the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world.

Learn, again, your immense obligations to the Lord that bought you. Nothing has been neglected that was requisite to be done. Here is a finished salvation: how full, how free, how valuable, how valid. Where is the poor penitent sinner to look but to the cross and the tomb of the Saviour? In that tomb you will lose the burden of guilt that presses upon you, as Bunyan's Christian did when he arrived at a similar place. Come, then, to Jesus just as you are. "His heart is made of tenderness; his bowels melt with love." He will not break the bruised reed; he will not quench the smoking flax. He knows our souls are in adversity: though we are poor and needy the Lord thinks upon us.

INSTABILITY IN RELIGION.

REV. E. SCOBELL, A.M.

ST. PETER'S CHAPEL, VERE STREET, OXFORD STREET, FEB. 2, 1834.

"Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel."-GENESIS, xlix. 4.

Ir we throw a stone into the water, although at first certainly it divides the surface and gives it a new impression, yet, after a few circling eddies, tranquillity is restored, and no mark remains of its recent motion. If you launch a boat upon the stream, instead of its remaining a fixed weight upon it, it rolls and moves with the rolling current. If we cast our eyes upon the ocean, that mighty world of living waters, how changeable is the scene that comes before us! Every breeze that blows varies even its colour, while its waves exhibit to us nothing but tumult and commotion.

Now all this is, in reality, what it is intimated to be in the text—an emblem and a picture of several amongst the children of men. Whenever a new object comes before some people, it makes, like the stone cast into the water, an impression upon them at first; it engages their attention; they are, probably, pleased with it and delighted, and fancy that they have discovered the treasure of true satisfaction. But again, like the stone, after a few circling eddiesthat is, after a few observations, after a few gratifications and short acquaintance -the novelty is over; something fresh catches the attention, and the former object departs without leaving a single mark or vestige behind.

You shall see other people, like the boat upon the stream, quite at the mercy of the fickle current. They never fix to any thing: they are without a rudder, without ballast, without any of the other requisites of good management. The surface upon which they rest is soft and variable; and thereon, without allowing any confidence to be placed in their firmness and stability, they rock about with every momentary agitation of the water.

Thirdly, there are others completely like the sea. Such people never continue in the same mind for a month, nay, sometimes not even for a day together-and that too upon subjects of the greatest possible concern and importance. Now they view life and the world under one colour, and now under another: one while they are full of hope, and energy, and self-satisfaction; at another time they are absorbed in gloomy presentiments, and anxieties, and melancholy: one day they represent this life as every thing; the next they speak against it as of no kind of importance or value at all: and all this, not from any change of circumstances; nor indeed from any one good cause, as relates to themselves, is this alteration in their opinions, but from an innate principle of unsteadiness, and from the temper and humour they happen to be in at the moment of forming them.

Now, look at such men in their pursuits, and in their occupations; and there they are just the same as they were in their opinions; there is a perpetual variation. Take their studies for instance. To-day, perhaps, they are full of the importance and necessity of the knowledge of a particular subject, and they follow it up with the greatest ardour and alacrity. They read, and note, and discuss, and apply, and really are making all the improvement that so praiseworthy a zeal deserves and ensures. When you observe them a short time after, this object is all laid by, and they are now distractedly fond of something else, and are directing all their endeavours after the attainment and enjoyment of it, until even this soon gives way possibly to some new vocation, which obliterates the past, and absorbs all their care and attention.

Observe such persons once more-observe them in their attachments: and what are they in this respect? The very same-inconstant and fickle. They select a person from their acquaintance as their more particular associate and intimate companion: they cultivate his regard, they extol his merits, and they appropriate him to themselves; and then, from some trifling misunderstanding -nay, frequently, not even so much, from mere whim and caprice, from being tired of one, and captivated perhaps by another, they break through the ties that held them together, and pass by, if they meet their former friend, as if they had never been acquainted.

Now, my brethren, you will observe that, in these three several instances, it is not so much the variety that is to be blamed, as the being constant to none. There is not, nor can be, any harm in having several opinions, many objects of pursuit, or a long list of friends. In this respect, simply as such, there is no fault to find: but the fault is in this-in being of a restless, wandering, wavering disposition-setting your affections upon many things in succession, and loving and pursuing constantly none. Just like waves of the sea, which, rolling closely the one after the other, the hinder one pushes the former upon the rocks only to come himself the next moment to the same termination.

Now, of such persons and of such conduct, what say reason and experience? Nay, what say the Scriptures? for they all hold one universal language. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways:" and in the text-" Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." Never was a truer sentence than this. A fickle unsteady person never can arrive at true improvement, or do himself any lasting and final good. No one can depend upon him, nor indeed can he have any very great dependence or confidence in himself. All his principles and opinions are hasty, prejudiced, unguarded, and uncertain: all his pursuits in knowledge are superficial and inconclusive; and for the very best of causeshe never gives himself time to improve steadfastly and properly, which is the only way of true improvement: before he half gains one object he changes it for another; flies, or rather flutters about from point to point; and with the best of abilities, possibly, if rightly directed, he knows a little of everything, and nothing well.

And as to friends-who ever knew an unstable man to have many of them? The very qualities which are most absolutely essential to real friendship, are qualities to which he is a perfect stranger. Fidelity is the only pass-word to earthly friendship, as well as to heavenly. He who wishes to make a good friend himself, or to find friends in others, must not be too fond of new faces; he must not be "unstable as water," changing as the wind changes, ruffled perhaps by the slightest breeze, or cold and calm when pressing occasions