tile to his interests, and indifferent to his glory. Let there not be reason to say that your professions of kindness have been those of treachery like Joab, when he said to Amasa, "Art thou in health my brother," and while he kissed him, smote him under the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground; but shew that your heart is as affectionate as your words, by the careful avoidance of every sin, and by the uniform support of all that is pious in principle and feeling. I call on you to walk in the light of his countenance, and assure you that it will be by your own fault if ever your intercourse with Jesus is interrupted, or embittered by his language of upbraiding, or his frowns of displeasure.

Be ashamed of the defects of your love to him. There is much about your love to amaze us, but it is not that it is so ardent, so elevated, and so potent, but that it is so cold, so unsteady, and so inoperative. You see the degree of the miser's love to his gold in his haggard look, his excessive toil, his vigilant care, and his bread of carefulness. We see the degree of the ambitious man's love to false glory in the sacrifices which he has made, and in the scars which he bears; but the conduct of too many of the disciples of Jesus shews with what reluctance they yield up what is dear, endure what is painful, or perform what is arduous for his sake. Place your hearts directly under the influence of his cross, that his dying love may raise every affection to its highest pitch, and fix them all on him, and with him may they remain unalienated to eternity. Devote to his love all the faculties of the soul, all the thoughts of the mind, all the feelings of the heart, all the vigour of the strength, and all the purposes and efforts of the life. Employ in his service every talent you possess, and every moment that you live. Serve him in every place, in every company, and in every condition. Beware of

seeking to conciliate the good will of the wicked and the profane, by the least symptom of acquiescence in their statements and plans, and never lose sight of that fidelity to your master which you have this day pledged. Honour your Lord by the courtesies of brotherly kindness in the intercourse of life, by employing the gains of prosperity in works of piety and mercy, by a calm and humble temper and manners in every season, and in every species of calamity, by melting seriousness and godly fear in his worship, and by patient suffering and elevated hope in your last hour.

And as David did not think that he had given a sufficient testimony of his friendship to Jonathan in this lamentation, but sought out, patronized, and protected his children for his sake, so your regard to Jesus must be shewn in kindness to his disciples, because they be long to him, and bear his image. Some of them require your counsel, others your sympathy, and others your alms, and all of them your prayers. And shall not you be willing to distribute, and ready to communicate? It is a delightful thought that Jesus will accept that beneficence as if it had supplied his own wants, and that sympathy as if it had alleviated his own woes.

Let not the presumption of the heart flatter you with the idea that the friends whom you love will always be spared to you. The heart which has so often been, delighted with their society, must mourn their departure, and they may be taken from you not in the way that is common to man, or by a disease in which it may be in your power to minister to their comfort, but in battle, or at sea, or by fatal accidents. If called to such a trial of your faith and patience as this, imagine not that these circumstances of their departure, are in themselves indications of God's hatred of them or of you. Re member how Jonathan died, and David mourned, and

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say, "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth good in his sight." A stern philosophy laboured to repress, and to extinguish the feelings, but the religion you profess guides and controls them, gives comfort when they are most severely wounded, and renders their agitation a mean of amending the heart.

And let your temper and manners be such as will make your own departure be regretted by those who may survive you; and it is only the suavity, the kindness, and the integrity of a benevolent and honest heart, which will secure you a place in the remembrance of the good. When the tongue of eloquence is silent, or the thoughts of the man of research perish, not a heart bleeds, and not a tear falls, but when the face is changed, where benignity smiled, and when the heart is cold where compassion glowed, such a sorrow is excited as shews, that while splendid talents may excite admiration, gentleness and humanity alone awaken love, and it is love alone that mourns at the grave. " Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness and long suffering," and thus your life will be felt as a blessing, and your death as a loss. It will be a loss to others, but a gain to you.

ADDRESS V.

SONGS I. iv.

"We will remember thy love more than wine."

In these words the Church expresses her delight in communion with Christ, and her determination to remember his love more than the sweetest and most va

lued of created enjoyments. Such is the purpose of every devout communicant, and nothing can be more reasonable than this preference. It may serve to confirm you in this pious resolution, and to strengthen your religious affections to point out to you that no earthly good deserves to occupy the same place with the love of Christ in the recollections of your memory, the estimation of your minds, and the delight of your hearts.

It is the love of Christ which gives to earthly comforts all their sweetness. The worldly man delights in them from the gratification which they yield to his ap petites and passions; and such is his caprice, and so unsatisfactory does he find them, that he quickly turns with disgust from that which he sought with eagerness. But it is the love of Christ enjoyed in these, which makes the pious experience in the meanest dwelling, and the scantiest fare, more delight than the wicked have in the highest prosperity. Could this ingredient be extracted from their comforts, they would feel themselves wretched though feasted at the table, and clothed from the wardrobe of princes. That love of Jesus which gives verdure to the palms, and splendour to the crowns on high, sweetens the righteous man's morsel, and blesses his gains. Acknowledge to him at his table, how much he hath done to make you happy on earth, as well as in heaven. He has rendered you grateful and contented in circumstances, where others uninfluenced by religion, would have exhibited the worst excesses of impatience. It is thus that he preserves you from envying the superior advantages of others, and proves in your happiness in the humblest condition, that "a little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked."

The love of Christ can make the pious happy in the want of these comforts. Worldly men, when reduced to poverty, or bereft of friends, or brought by disease to the brink of the grave, abandon themselves to despondency, but in these circumstances the saints feel that their happiness is safe, and that their chief good is untouched. The prophet could rejoice in the God of his salvation, though every cluster was gone from the vineyard, every stalk from the field, and every sheep from the past ures. Behold the primitive Christians suffering the sorest calamities, persecution prepares for them the instruments of death, famine sweeps away their stores with the besom of destruction, and disease chastens them with strong pain, yet in all these things they were more than conquerors, through him that loved them. They are represented not merely as supporting and surviving the shock of such united calamities, but as unhurt by their fury, defying their power, and triumph ing gloriously over them all. The love of Christ can bring the peace of heaven into the worst troubles of the world, can cheer when earthly joys are failing, and bless when they perish.

Let your devout acknowledgments be now made to your Saviour, who in situations where your happiness was supposed to be ruined, kept it uninjured, and who, when you were deprived of that from which you had derived much consolation, fulfilled his kind assurance, "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you ;" and let this preserve you from disquieting fears as to the future, for "my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

The love of Christ can and does yield much better comforts than any of an earthly kind. A worldly man has no idea of a happiness superior to what the world yields him, and for no other has he a relish. Hel