ledge of Christ, we are assured by St. Paul must be given us. "The eyes of our understandings must be enlightened ";" we must be "all taught of God"," who reveals to us "the unsearchable riches of Christ." Christ must manifest himself to us as he does not unto the world". The Father and Son must come and take up their abode with us. Christ, as he has promised, must declare and make manifest to us the character of God', in order, as it is written, that "the love wherewith the Father loved the Son may be in us, and Christ in us."

In all this investigation I have kept close to the scriptures, and have advanced nothing without the plainest scriptural assertions. Unless there is a spiritual manifestation of the Father and Son to the soul, we can never know that which flesh and blood are unable to reveal.

To know the Father, is to know a reconciled God of love, who has freely forgiven us all our iniquities and transgressions, who has adopted us into his family, and made us heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. It is to be numbered among his spiritual worshippers, ranked among his sons, entitled to his protection, and encircled with

the arms of his love. It is to have him as our shield, and exceeding great reward,-our God, and our portion for ever. To know God is to be at peace with him, to experience nothing but love at his hands, and the lifting up of his countenance upon us. To know God, is to call him Abba, Father; to have access to him with filial boldness, and filial fear; it is to love him with all the soul, and to serve him with an undivided heart. To know God is to make much of his law, to delight in his service, and to walk humbly and softly before him all the days of our lives. To know God, is to recognise him in his providences, to submit to his dispensations, to kiss the hand that chastens us, and even to say, "not my will, but thine be done." To know God, is to acknowledge him in all things, to trust in him at all times, to confess him before all men, and to sacrifice all things unto him.

To know Jesus Christ, is to know "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;" who bore our sins, and carried our sorrows, and laid down his life a ransom for all. To know Christ, is to know a mediator between God and man, by whom we have access to the Father, who is at once our Judge and advocate, and, in our place, the guilty and condemned. To know Christ, is to be cleansed from our iniquities, washed in his blood, healed by his stripes, and to have him as the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. It is to have

a High-priest ever ready to make intercession for us, to further our petitions, and, by his own prayers, to sanctify and render available the prayers of the faithful. To know Christ, is to have a King to reign over us,-a Prophet to instruct us,-a Brother to befriend us,-a Saviour to redeem us. It is to know one who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, who can pity our weakness, forgive our sins, recover us when astray, and uphold us from falling. It is to know Him who will enable us to triumph over death and hell; who will make us more than conquerors; who will bruise Satan under our feet, give us the victory over the world, and raise us from the grave to glory.

In this, and this knowledge alone, does perpetuity consist; the whole world is corrupt, and this knowledge, this seed of eternal life, can alone impregnate the dying mass with life and immortality. Almighty God is the only great Eternal,—all perpetuity and endless life must, therefore, arise from him.

To expect to gain eternal life in any other way than that I have already unfolded, will bring a disappointment most pungent, as it will be impiously to tread a path forbidden to be trod, which, upon trial, will be found to lead directly to the shades of death. To oppose any other mode of gaining endless life to the one mentioned in my text, is to discredit the Eternal, and vainly to attempt to climb heaven by heaping mountain upon mountain.

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Laying then aside all other attempts as useless, and all other hopes as vain, let us seek that knowledge of God and Christ, which bears in its front happiness, and immortality in its train. To remain indifferent to such knowledge, and unconcerned with such a prospect of felicity, is to prefer Circe's cup of pleasure and degradation to the elixir of joy and immortality. The difficulty of obtaining life is now obviated, the way to it is clear, and the means of obtaining it set before us. All other knowledge gives neither peace from retrospection, joy from the present, nor anticipation of bliss from the future. But the knowledge of God and Christ gives life and peace in this world, and, by anticipating the future, it imparts the perception of that joy, which, with a perpetual stream, "maketh glad the city of our God.”

Let me then charge you to cultivate this knowledge, to learn this wisdom, to pursue this happiness, to seek this eternal life. By comparison with this knowledge, all other science is placed in the shade, and the mighty fabrics of genius crumble into dust, while this maintains stability in time, and duration in eternity. All other knowledge shall vanish away, all other wisdom prove folly. This holy temple of eternal knowledge, embracing within its precincts the pursuers of ethereal wisdom, receives grace and beauty from the dissolution of those dwarfish and ungainly buildings, which too

long have attracted the notice of mankind, and have obscured the vision,-obstructed the path of those in the pursuit of real wisdom.

While the temples of Isis and all other Pagan shrines have gradually decayed, and with them have descended into the grave of forgetfulness all their pomp and mystery; this holy temple with a freshness and beauty all its own shines forth amidst the ruins of the house of Baal and Rimmon, the porticoes of the Lycæum, and groves of Academia, which by the axe of the Gospel are now felled to the ground, and open a vista to that fane of true wisdom, to which if we come as fools it will make us wise. Enter ye, then, into its gates, "which are shut neither day nor night," but are open ready to receive you. Linger not among those ruins of departed greatness, which, by their own desolation, testify the destruction of those, who once with fond admiration dwelt within their walls, but are now buried and swept into oblivion. Let these monuments rather remind you of the vanity and weakness of man, and the insufficiency of human wisdom for the apprehension of divine truth. Conşider them as waymarks to preserve you from error, and guides to the temple of truth. Let their ruins remind you of the instability of all things human, as they proclaim with a voice that must be heard, the vain institutions of human wisdom, and the invincible truth of God. Thus shall ye become wise unto salvation, and obtain everlasting life. Amen.