like him also, if his whole trust be in God,will at last happily be delivered out of them all. He may not, indeed, experience the same cruel usage from unnatural brethren, nor may his virtue be exposed to the same temptations; yet may he have to encounter many other evils, perhaps, equally distressing. His fairest hopes of happiness may be disappointed. Melancholy reverses may befal his fortunes; pains and diseases afflict his body. Malice, illnature, perfidy, or ingratitude, may rob him of his ease, and destroy his peace. The most valuable of his friends and the dearest of his relations may successively be taken from him. He may drop the unavailing tear over his children when dead; or, what is infinitely worse,his grey hairs may be brought down with sorrow to the grave, by their disobedience when living.

Yet, though all this may possibly happen, lift up your heads, ye sons and daughters of mortality, if ye are indeed sound in faith, and earnestly believe that your "Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." It is a solemn truth, my brethren, and one which cannot be too often, or too strongly enforced, that they who are without religionvital, operative religion, must be without hope:they have no future prospect in heaven to console their present misery on earth; for, to them, death

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shall never be swallowed up in victory, nor mortal dust put on glorious immortality. "Behold, then, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish." But christians, believers in Jesus! ye who through grace have forsaken your sins, and, with sincere repentance and self-abasement, have turned to Christ as your only hope and confidence,— what, though "sorrow may have filled your hearts, He, who was himself "a man of sorrows," "will not leave you comfortless," nor "let you be tempted beyond what you are able to bear." He will give you his Holy Spirit, to comfort and sanctify-sustain and guide you— in this life, and "afterward receive you to glory:" wherefore, "rejoice and be exceeding glad," for, behold, the day of your redemption draweth nigh-that day when ye shall be delivered from all the troubles and sorrows of this fallen world; and, washed from your sins in the blood of the Lamb, shall be rewarded with happiness, infinitely superior to that which either Joseph or his father experienced on their restoration to each other. Every virtuous and christian friend, whom ye loved on earth, ye shall meet in heaven. Ye shall be translated from this land of Egyptian darkness, to the mansions of everlasting light: ye shall "come unto Mount Sion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general

assembly and church of the First-born, which are written in heaven; and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant; "-through whose boundless merits, and all-sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, God, of his infinite mercy, grant that we all may be saved. Amen.

SERMON VIII.

ON THE IMPORTANCE AND EFFICACY OF PRAYER.

PSALM LXV. 2.-"O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come."

THE necessity and advantages of prayer are so founded in the exigencies of mankind, and are, moreover, so frequently inculcated in the Word of God, that in addressing an audience of believers in that holy book, it appears almost useless to be diffusive. If there be a Supreme Being, the author of this world, which he fills with life and happiness, and upholds by the word of his power, surely our first duty must be to raise our eyes, or rather our hearts, towards his throne in heaven-to acknowledge the Sovereign Lord of Creation, and to declare our sense of gratitude and dependence on the Divine Being, by regular returns of praise and adoration.

The worship of God, as founded in nature and reason, is the first great commandment of revelation. If the world be a scene of temptation,—if wealth and prosperity taint and swell the heart,—if poverty and affliction give birth to discontent and despair,-if "knowledge puffeth up," and ignorance leads us astray,—if business oppress the mind with "cares of this life,"—if retirement expose it to the assaults of temptation,-in short, if, since the fall of Adam, every thing within us and around us, affords the materials of sin,—what hope of safety remains for us frail creatures, but to implore the aid of that all-powerful and all-gracious Creator, who is both willing and able to support our weakness, and to raise us when we fall? The very first duty, therefore, of a christian, is prayer. His origin, his situation, his nature, his hopes, his fears, all remind him of this, and declare its expediency whilst he who neglects this duty, separates himself from the communion of Christ's church, and not providing for the welfare of his own soul, avows himself virtually an infidel. In discoursing on this most important subject, I shall first make a few observations on the nature of prayer, and then point out those qualifications which are essential to its due performance.

Prayer is the most effectual means of raising the heart towards God. It is the appointed sign of devotion, the language in which it naturally