and thy labour is not for that which ought to be its object, thine eternal pardon, and the glorification of thyself, and of them that are around thee, in the mercy of Christ Jesus, for ever and for ever. Therefore thou art busied in a wrong toil, and thy proper task is left undone; thou art not "working out thy salvation in fear and trembling." My brethren, the doctrine which, under God's merciful providence, is to-day laid before you in the appointed Lesson, corrects this empty pride, and takes away the danger of it. Believe that chastisement is sent on account of sin, and the proud man begins to be humble.

Grief, by God's dispensation, enters every house in this world. The poor man must endure her, and the rich cannot bribe her to be absent. Her hated form will rise up by every fireside, and the Lord God sends her forth to chastise every household. We all feel her power; the poor man sheds his bitter tears with his tattered garment on his shoulders, and the rich man groans with his jewel on his bosom. Recollect that she comes on account of sin, and every soul alike is humbled into its proper place before God, down into the dust. The poet was inspired when he sung, "Sweet are the uses of adversity:" this is one of her "uses," she makes us remember ourselves, and our doings; she makes us ask what our duties are, and what the fulfilment of them; the more exalted we are, the more she hum

bles us, by reminding us that he that is set highest is in greatest danger of falling, and also that the fall is greater. Thus, while under God's merciful teaching we learn to look on grief as a sacred thing, chastisement humbles the heart, and brings in self-searching and confession of sin. But if sorrows visit us on account of sin, and if they are, in this view of them, part of the justice of the Lord overtaking us and correcting us in this life, so does grief come to us enriched also with some portion of the mercies of God.

Grief makes us more ready to leave this world. All have to depart, and "to be no more seen.” Grief makes us more willing to go. "O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things! O death, acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy, and unto him whose strength faileth, unto him who is vexed with all things, and to him that despaireth, and hath lost patienced!" Here we learn that God is merciful when He corrects us with sorrows; He leads us by chastisement to see our sins, to repent, to purify our hearts; while the same punishment teaches us how short are the joys of life, how easily they are interrupted and broken, how tasteless they are when sorrow is present with us; and thus we are brought to the remembrance that this life is not a thing to covet, but

d Ecclus. xli. 1, 2.

that the only real blessing which it can bring to every traveller in the journey, is the happy departure out of it! We may observe, also, how mercifully this right estimation of the vanity of this world is forced upon us, even in our pleasures themselves. A very thoughtful, a very religious, and a very wise man walked once through the abode of one of the richest noblemen of the land, and when he surveyed the different articles of taste, convenience and luxury, which were set forth on all sides of him, "These," said he, "are the things which make the death-bed of the rich man harde!" It is likely that they do make it harder than the deathbed of the poor, but far harder still would it be if these pleasures, luxuries, and elegancies were as much valued by the owner as they are admired by the visitor. Used to the enjoyment of them, palled by gratification, familiar with their beauty, to the possessor daily they cease, more and more, to be a delight; daily they descend, more and more, into the character of mere necessary comforts. They are no longer charms against sorrows, they are neither supports nor palliations; but grief enters and walks amidst them, with her dart as keen as ever; and the rich owner, possibly more refined, only feels her stab with a more excruciating agony, and tastes the bitterness of her cup with a more acute disgust. So true, my brethren, it is that all that comes from the hand of God is "very good" for us.

e Dr. Johnson's remark when he visited Chatsworth.

Chastisements, while they correct us, amend us also; besides amending what is amiss in us, they give us, moreover, more just estimations of this world; and visiting us who cannot abide here long, make us more prepared when the summons calls us to depart, both more fitted and more inclined to go.

But though it is true, and also a very wholesome mercy to us, that chastisements do follow our sins, and though we are never better employed, when in affliction, than when we are searching our hearts and our lives, in order to see wherein we have offended, nevertheless we are always wrong when we endeavour to account for any of the griefs and trials of our neighbours and acquaintances by remembering their failings, and by affirming that God's visitations are judgments sent on them because of their backslidings. There can be no doubt but the sins of all mankind will, in some manner, as it may seem good to God, be visited and punished; but this is no matter for us to decide upon. Punishment, of whatever kind, is between God and the sinner. If we are in unrepented sin, we shall suffer punishment; if we go on in unforsaken sin, we are falling into it, and shall have to endure it: this is all we know concerning it, and it is all we are concerned to know. When we see calamity and sorrows visiting another, we should tremble; we see the hand of the Lord. God has smitten down another, one who is, it may be, no worse than ourselves; in his sufferings we have received a warning.

Remember that all sorrow is God's visitation; it

is a sacred thing: the troubled spirit is either under trial, or under punishment; pray, therefore, for the sufferer, and search yourselves. My brethren, humble yourselves always. What are we? what are our pomps and vanities? what our little distinctions. and advantages? what is our continuance and stay? where be our abiding-places? above all, what are our sins and offences, that we should not be humbled even to the dust? My brethren, where is the best man, where is the greatest, that ought not to reckon himself as insignificance itself in the sight of God? who is there who would not be insignificance in the sight of God, if he were not regarded and kept in recollection by the mercy of the Lord, even in despite of his sins? Let us, therefore, be humble, and never - more humble than when we see the Lord dealing, by His afflictions and sorrows, either with ourselves, or with those round about us.

My brethren, these, I doubt not, are some of the thoughts which the Church of the Lord Jesus, guided by His Holy Spirit, would have arise in your hearts out of the Lesson which she has ordered to-day. Take them, and keep them. Above all, thank God that He has called you into His especial fold, wherein these Lessons are given us, and therein bow down your hearts, and follow in obedience and thanksgiving always.