renounced all for His sake. His disciples in every age will find in Him an ample compensation for all they may lose in the world. His presence will be more than an equivalent for the wealth and friends they may leave behind. Believe His promise, and He will be to you in your present state an hundred fold more than they ever were, and in the world to come eternal life. When that life shall open upon us, we shall not complain of the tribulation we endured in the world for His sake. We shall rather rejoice that we counted all things but loss "for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus" our Lord, and for the perpetual enjoyment of peace in His kingdom. Such a prospect, as the end of earthly suffering, would teach every Christian, as it taught St. Paul, actually to glory in tribulation ; for he would learn by experience to regard it as the means appointed by One infinitely wise, to prepare him for the purity and blessedness of heaven. (Rom. v. 3-5.)

DISCOURSE XI.

UNIVERSAL PEACE UNDER JESU'S REIGN.

IN HIS DAYS SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS FLOURISH; AND ABUNDANCE OF PEACE SO LONG AS THE MOON ENDURETH.-Psalm lxxii. 7.

THE war that man wages against his fellowcreature, is the consequence of his rebellion against his Creator. God made him upright, and blessed him with peace and while he retained his innocence, every thing around him was harmony and love. In the garden of Eden, the wolf lay down with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid. The strongest and the weakest reposed, grazed, sported together; whilst all were obedient to Adam's word, who, without a thought of danger from the rapacity of one or the venom of another, walked forth in their presence by day, and at night composed himself in the midst of them to rest.

But transgression ruined this beauteous scene! No sooner did our first parents violate their Creator's command, than the face and the nature

of every thing was changed. Innocence and peace took their flight from the world together. When the guilty pair were banished from the safe enclosure and blissful groves of paradise, the inferior creatures followed them, pursuing their devious way to the rocks and deserts, where the strong soon learned to prey upon the weak. The reign of cruelty and terror commenced on the earth with the Devil's usurpation; and war, war raged universally among the wild inhabitants of the forest.

But what became of man? He lived with the unhappy partner of his crime, of whom he begat a son in his own likeness; and too soon it appeared that the seeds of cruelty and death were sown in the heart of his first-born. There they grew with rank luxuriance, and ripened for blood. From that fatal deed of the murderous Cain to the present moment, war has been esteemed the glory of man instead of his shame. But the Christian cannot sanction, he abhors the cruel sentiment. For he knows that war is the direst calamity that afflicts the world; and if ever compelled to draw his sword in defence of his civil and religious freedom, his family or his life, he will deeply deplore the necessity, and sigh for the reign of Him, in whose days the righteous shall flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. (Psalm lxxii. 7.)

This consummation you may think rather a devout wish than a reasonable hope. It would

be so, were the character of mankind to remain unaltered. When, however, you consider what produces war in the world, you will see that the tendency of the Gospel is to remove its cause; and with the extinction of the cause, the effect must terminate.

War is occasioned by man's ignorance of God; the immediate consequences of which are, forgetfulness of himself, and a disregard of his relative situation in society. Unmindful of his responsibility to his Creator and Judge, his own passions become his counsellors, and his will, his guide. Fired with ambition, or craving sensual indulgence, he will pursue his object with all the wildness and recklessness of the untamed brute. So truly is it written, The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. (Psalm lxxiv. 20.) And every man whose soul is in darkness, who is unacquainted with Him by whom he was created, and unable to comprehend the light of Gospel truth, (John i. 5.) is ready for any foul or merciless deed that may be thought needful for the gratification of his passions. Cruelty seems natural to the yet untaught child. Else why should the very babe take pleasure in torturing a fly? But teach him the knowledge and fear of the Lord, and he will regard with tender care the humblest insect. He will not intentionally hurt the meanest reptile that crawls on the ground. And why does not man feel more for his fellow creatures? Why, to gratify his brutal

passion, will he ruin the character of the artless and helpless, and destroy the peace of whole families? Why, in thirsting for glory or dominion, will he mow down ranks of men, depopulate kingdoms, and deluge the earth with blood? Because he knows not God. Therefore are his Do you doubt it?

passions rampant against man. Why then does the Apostle James thus emphatically point to ungoverned passions as the spring of all the misery which men suffer from their mutual contentions? From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. (James iv. 1, 2.)

Nothing can correct the selfishness, the turbulence, the cruelty of human passions, but the right knowledge of God. Until the light of the sun has removed the darkness of night from the earth, a small obstacle in our way may cause us to stumble; and the merest trifle that opposes the will of the carnal mind, will often stir up all the energy of his character, though slumbering like a lion on his lair, and lead him forth to imbue his hands even in a brother's blood. But when He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, and given us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, (2 Cor. iv. 6.) then the lion will be turned into a lamb. For we shall know