their conduct, do we hear clamorously professing their belief, and persecuting, with fiend-like malice and cruelty, others whom they falsely call infidels! The same Apostle, in the same Chapter, says, that faith without works is nothing worth; and he illustrates his meaning by putting a case where the giving of the hungry and naked a blessing is substituted for a gift of food and raiment. 66 Thou," he adds, "hast faith, and I have "works: show me thy faith without thy works; and "I will show thee my faith by my works."

In estimating the religion of men, therefore, we ought to inquire, what is their conduct, and not what is their belief. On the latter point we have nothing to guide us but their professions, and these may be false; but, as to the former, if our inquiry be strict and impartial, there can be no deception. And does not this rule perfectly correspond with our practice as to our own relationships in life? Whether in the capacity of master or of servant, is it not the good or bad quality of the moral character and conduct of the party that forms the subject of inquiry? Who, when forming a scheme of matrimonial connection, ever made the faith of the other party the chief subject of previous investigation? What man, in such a case, ever put it in` the balance against chastity, industry, or even cleanliness of person?

Religion, then, means virtue, and virtue is evinced, not by the professions, but by the conduct, of men. As was before observed, religion calls for a great deal more than an abstinence from vice; but, at the very least, it calls for that; and, we may safely conclude, that the vicious man, the man wilfully vicious, has no

real religion in his heart, and, that, if he call himself religious, he is both hypocritical and impious.

Our first care, therefore, ought to be to abstain from vice. Many there are, and must be, in every community, who have not the power of doing conspicuous good; but, it is in the power of every human being to abstain, by some means or other, from doing what he knows to be wrong; or, at the very least, to abstain from committing vice wilfully and wantonly, and even almost without temptation, which must always be the case, when he indulges in the vice, when he, indeed, commits the sin, prohibited in the words of my text.

A great part of the misconduct of mankind and of the evils which we witness in the world, arise from the want of a clear comprehension of the nature of our duties; and this want frequently arises from our not taking sufficient pains to understand the meaning of the words by which things are designated. Nobody attempts to justify sin. All join in disapproving of sin; but few take the pains to ascertain what sin really is.

There prevails a sort of confused idea, that sin is something committed against God: and so it is; but the error consists in believing that the thing done is an offence against God only; while the fact is, that it is an offence against our neighbour, in defiance of the laws of God. Just in the same way that we offend the King

doing wrong to our fellow subjects, we offend God n doing wrong to our neighbour. In assaulting our neighbour, we do no personal harm to the King. He is safe from the reach of our offensive weapons; but h laws are offended by our act; and, therefore, in his

name we are punished. If the King be so far beyond the reach of our unlawful efforts, how much farther beyond them is the King of Kings!

.

Therefore, when we talk of sin, we mean, if we be rational, some offence committed against our neighbour; that is to say, against some particular persons, or against the community in general; and, of all the sins, of which man can be guilty, there is perhaps none, when we consider it in all it's effects, greater than that of drunkenness; and certainly none which admits of so small a degree of palliation.

To other sins, or, at least, to the greater part of other sins, there is more or less of temptation. In cases where nature works so powerfully within us; where reason itself is so frequently unequal to the task of resistance; where the propensity, when thwarted, produces, sometimes the total loss of sanity, and, at others, urges the unhappy victim on to self destruction in such cases, though we dare not justify the gratification of the propensity, it becomes us to judge with great caution, and to feel much more of compassion than of anger. Those acts, which are committed with the view of appropriating to ourselves that which belongs to others, arise frequently from absolute want, or from a desire to avoid want. Even murder itself has, frequently, and most frequently, want to plead in mitigation. But, drunkenness is a man's own act; an evil deliberately sought after; an act of violence wilfully committed against reason, against nature, against the word and in face of the denunciations of God; and that, too, without the smallest temptation, except from that vicious appetite which the criminal himself has voluntarily created.

That the lowest and most degraded of mankind should yield themselves up to such a vice ought to appear surprizing; because it is a vice committed against nature herself. What, then, must be our decision as to Kings, who should thus debase themselves, degrade the character not only of the King but of the man, and set the commands of the Almighty at defiance, when they ought to be an example and an ever-living light to guide the steps of their people? Kings have been called the Vicegerents of God, that is to say, they are Magistrates, who are to govern according to his laws. How wicked, therefore, how detestable the conduct of Kings, when they are conspicuous, not as observers, but as breakers of those laws!

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In the words of my text the reasons are given why Kings should not drink wine and Princes strong drink;" and these reasons are, "least they drink "and forget the law, and pervert the judgement of any "of the afflicted." And, when was the drunkard mindful of the law? When was he mindful to discharge his duties? When did he do justice to any? When did he ever discover a merciful disposition? When did he consider the case of the afflicted? When did he evince that he had one particle of humanity in his bosom? The sensual man is always unfeeling towards others; and this imputation more particularly applies to the drunkard and the glutton. Subjects, neighbours, wife, children; all that ought to occupy a great portion of his affections; all are cast aside te make way for his inordinate and beastly appetites.

"Woe to thee O land, when thy King is a child, "and thy Princes eat in the morning." ECCLES. Ch. x, V. 16. And in the next verse we are told, that the

land is blessed, "when Princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness." These are words which ought to be borne in mind by all Magistrates of every description. To them it particularly belongs to guard themselves against those beastly habits, which, while they sap the foundation of health, debilitate as well as vitiate the mind. Not only the drunken man ; not only the man while he is actually in drink, is incapable of fulfilling any one of the duties belonging to the Magistrate; but he is rendered, by an indulgence in this crime, incapable at all times; at every hour of his life. By habitual drunkenness he loses the power of memory, of reflecting, of reasoning, of discussing, and of drawing just conclusions. He becomes the slave, not only of his passions; for from that slavery he might enjoy occasional release; but the slave of stupidity and debility. His temper becomes soured. He is subject to incessant irritation. Accidental minutes must be sought for speaking to him. All becomes matter of uncertainty or of mere chance, when dependant upon his will or his co-operation.

Is it possible to imagine a being more contemptible, and at the same time more hateful than this? Well, therefore, may the inspired writer exclaim, "woe to "thee O land, when thy King is a child, and when thy "Princes eat, not for strength but for drunkenness !" Is it not enongh to fill the heart with indignation, when we behold Kings or chief Magistrates, under whatever name, answering to the description above given? Is t not enough to excite even rage in the just mind to hear men addicted to such vices addressed with the appellation of Majesty, and to hear them called most excellent, and their persons called sacred, when it is