SERMON domestic life. Hence is blasted many a 1. pleasing blossom of hope; and many an mention, III. ANOTHER instance of what we are not to expect in the ordinary course of human affairs; that is, constant gratitude from those whom we have most obliged and served. I am far from saying that gratitude is an unknown, or even a rare virtue among mankind; I think not so ill of human nature. On the contrary, it is my belief, that grateful sensations for favours received are very generally felt; and when no strong passion counteracts those sensations, that grateful returns are generally intended, and often are actually made. But then, our expectations of proper returns must be kept within moderate bounds. We must not carry them so far as to imagine, that gratitude is to produce unlimited compliance with every desire which we choose to indulge; or that they whom we have obliged will altogether desert their own interest for the sake of their benefactors. 7 I. benefactors. Many circumstances, it is to SERMON be remembered, tend to cool the grateful emotion. Time always deadens the memory of benefits. Sometimes they are considered as having been fully recompensed, and the debt of gratitude repaid. As benefits conferred, are often under-rated by those who receive them, so they are sometimes over-valued by those who confer them. On On persons of light and careless minds, no moral sentiment makes any deep impression; with such, the remembrance of both benefit and benefactor is apt to pass speedily away. With the proud spirit, which claims every thing as its due, gratitude is in a great measure incompatible. From persons of this character, we are never to expect it; and indeed from persons of any character, we are not to be surprised, if, in the present state of the world, it rises not so high as we thought we had reason to hope. HAVING thus shown in some material instances, what we have no reason to expect in the ordinary course of human affairs, I turn next to the brighter side of the sub ject, SERMON ject, and shall show what a wise and good I. man may reasonably expect from human life. His hope shall be gladness, though the expectation of fools shall perish. I. WHATEVER course the affairs of the world take, he may justly hope to enjoy peace of mind. I am sensible that by the sceptic and the profligate, this will be held as a very inconsiderable object of expectation or hope. To them every enjoyment which is of mental and intellectual nature appears of small value. Give them affluent fortune and flourishing health, and they account themselves sure of felicity. But to these very persons I appeal, whether there have not been many occasions, when the want of a peaceful and self-approving mind has not blasted all the enjoyments they possessed? In the midst of the pomps and luxuries of life, have they never experienced the pangs of a wounded spirit? Have they never felt what it was to be tormented by the sense of past follies, and to be stung with the reproaches of an angry conscience? Dare they say, that in the midst of those feelings they were happy? I. Will they not be constrained to own, that SERMON in such moments of inward pain, they would willingly have exchanged conditions with an innocent peasant? Let them then learn the value of that object of hope which they affect to contemn, by recollecting what they have suffered from the want of it.-Assuredly, the peace of an approving conscience is one of the chief ingredients of human happiness; one of the most grateful of all sensations to the heart of man: provided always that this self-approbation rest upon proper grounds; that it be tempered with due humility, and regulated by Christian faith; that it never swell into an arrogant opinion of our virtue, or into confidence in our own merits, as if they were sufficient, without any higher intervention, to render us acceptable to God. He, whose study it is to preserve a conscience void of offence towards God and man, who upon just principles can be satisfied that he is walking in the path which was appointed by God, will have, in every state of fortune, a ground of hope which may justly be denominated gladness; for peace SERMON peace of mind will not forsake him. Let I. the world vibrate around him as it will, and repeat all its vicissitudes, he will not be shaken by them. He has always somewhat to rest upon for comfort. Wrapped up in his own integrity, he remains sound and entire within himself; and with a firm mind awaits the coming storm. He is not afraid of evil tidings; for his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.* As he can look up to a Supreme Power with good hope, so he can look every man in the face without uneasiness, when he is conscious that no man can reproach him with having entrenched upon his neighbour's rights, or having causelessly provoked and attacked him. Hence, a calm mind by day, and undisturbed slumbers by night. Hence, the hope of that continued protection of Heaven which watches over the righteous. In the time of trouble He shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me upon a rock. Besides this expectation of internal peace, |