to enjoyment, with a sense of security and of the absence of restraint. How many are there who feel that time is not precious to them, because they have so much of it before them; that their health will enable them to do any thing which they wish to do; that serious thoughts, however fit for other seasons of life, need be no check upon them. Therefore their looking forward is for pleasure and not for duty; and thus whatever pleasure does not come, they think it so much loss-I had almost said, so much injury done them. Whatever they have to bear, and life will have something painful in it even to the youngest, they bear impatiently and almost angrily. And there is no possibility of satisfying such a spirit; for he who lives for himself and his own enjoyment, even if great troubles do not come to him, is sure to make much of little ones. There is no hardship

so trifling, no privation so slight, no exertion so small, which will not seem burdensome and irksome to the temper which looks upon life as a thing to take its ease and be merry in. The common scheme of God's providence is indeed to such an one intolerable; he is for ever repining and thinking that he is hardly dealt with, and God judges him out of his own heart, and is to him more and more a harsh master, who makes the iron enter into his soul, till he would curse God and die.

But now if that rich man in the parable, whilst

But a

his riches were flowing in on him so largely, had wished and resolved to be rich towards God also, what would have been his language to his soul then? Or if any of you, so rich in the good things of youth, were also to resolve with God's grace to be rich towards God, what would be your language, the language of your hearts, whether it shapes itself into words or not? It would be a language which older men, I might almost say, might hear with envy. Youth, as it too often shews itself, awakens no such feelings in older minds: the mere fact of having a long life to waste, of having a health which is turned to no good end, of being thoughtless almost like the beasts that perish, has nothing to make us wish that this lot was ours. young man rich towards God does half tempt us to jealousy. We have but a scanty portion of years and strength remaining; our service to God, the works which we may hope to accomplish, cannot now be great. But to see one standing at the opening of life, with that large treasure of time and strength laid up as it were for many years, and knowing and feeling its value; with those light and sanguine spirits which will not be weighed down by the burden of life, yet burning to attempt its hardest duties:-to see, in short, one fully loaded with God's gifts, and offering them all to God's service; one full of enjoyment, yet looking on every pleasure as God's free mercy, un

deserved by himself, and not to be caught at, for his appointed portion here is to work and not to enjoy; to see one so rich for earth and heaven, might, I say, in common language half tempt an older man to envy. But speaking more truly, it is not a sight for envy, but for the deepest joy and thankfulness, joy both of men and angels. We feel the charm of youth naturally, it cannot but awaken our interest even in itself; but when this natural interest is sanctioned by our soberest reason, when natural youth assumes, so to speak, the beauty of the spring of an eternal and a heavenly year, then it does fill us with the deepest joy; and this work of God's Spirit, far more than all those natural works, the creation of which was described in the lesson of this morning, is indeed very good. There is no more beautiful, no more blessed sight upon this earth, than a youth that is rich towards God.

But do you think that such a blessing can be gained without effort, or that God will give His highest gifts of all to those who do not ask for them? It is a great thing to become rich towards God; the fruit of many prayers and many struggles. Most false it were to deny this, most treacherous to dissemble it; but although it is a great work, yet it is one which all Christ's people can do in Christ's strength; His death has purchased for us the power, and made our prayers for that power no longer

presumptuous but acceptable. Pray in Christ's name, and as Christ's redeemed, and your prayers will not be in vain. Pray in Christ's name, and labour in Christ's name; for without Him we can do nothing. Our own resolutions will fade away as they have faded before, and only leave us the weaker for the useless effort which they cost us. But when made in Christ's strength, and fostered by our prayers in His name, they are not our fond resolutions, but Christ's effectual power; and they will be mighty to the deliverance of our souls from that spiritual poverty in which they were lying utterly destitute, and will make them rich towards God.

February 7, 1841.

SERMON II.

THE NECESSITY OF CHRISTIAN EXERTION.

GENESIS, vi. 12.

And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

ST. LUKE, xvii. 26, 27.

As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man; they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

I HAVE brought these two passages of scripture together for two reasons; first, because the latter explains in what the corruption of the earth mentioned in the former consisted; and secondly, because by telling us expressly that what happened in the days of Noah will happen again, it gives to the whole account of the flood, which was read in the first lesson this afternoon, an interest beyond that of merely past history: that account