away from time and is filled with the hope of heaven. That aged man once full of hope in the cheerful visions of early life, now sits down and weeps, that in all life's ambition, its honours, and its joys, he has never realized what he anticipated. The big tear rolls down his cheek worn with age and care, when he remembers how the world has flattered and betrayed him; and there he sits at the close of life on the borders of a boundless ocean, waiting to be borne to some land of bliss which he has never yet found. He has had sympathies, hopes, fears, anticipations, which have never been satisfied by this world, which nothing now can satisfy, until the eye is fixed on immortality, and he can look to a heaven of boundless glory as his home. That family so tender, so amiable, so lovely, so united in sorrows and in joys, has sympathetic emotions which can never be met but by the united hope of heaven. Never will they know the richness of pure attachment to each other until they are united in the service of God, and can look forward to the same heaven as their home. Never will their sorrows produce what they should produce, or their joys be followed with the blessings which they should convey, until all their sympathies are sanctified by the Gospel of peace, and parents

and children alike hope to strike together the harp of praise in heaven. Society everywhere is full of anticipations, sympathies, and hopes, that are never fully met until a tide of religious feeling flows over the community, uniting many hearts simultaneously in the hope of heaven.

In conclusion I would observe, that if the views which have now been presented are correct, you will accord with me in the sentiment, that such a work should be an object of the fervent prayer of every friend of the Saviour. If, then, you have ever felt in your own hearts the power of divine grace; if you have ever felt the worth of the soul; if you have felt that you are soon to meet your fellow-mortals at the judgment-seat; if you have any love for your children and friends, for the church and the world, for the thoughtless multitudes amidst whom we dwell, let me entreat you to cry unto God without ceasing FOR A RE

VIVAL OF PURE RELIGION.

SERMON II.

VINDICATION OF REVIVALS, AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THIS COUNTRY.

66 DROP DOWN YE HEAVENS, FROM ABOVE, AND LET

THE SKIES POUR DOWN RIGHTEOUSNESS: LET THE EARTH OPEN, AND LET THEM BRING FORTH SALVATION AND LET RIGHTEOUSNESS SPRING UP TOGETHER." Isa. xlv. 8.

IN resuming the subject discussed in my last discourse, I propose to submit some additional considerations, adapted to show the nature of revivals of religion, and to vindicate them from objections. My general aim will be to show that they are the regular and proper result of the means which God is employing; that they are promised in the Bible as invaluable blessings; and that their value has been evinced by their effects in the history of the church, and especially by the history of our own country. This will be attempted in a series of propositions, which will be intended as a continuance of those which were offered in my last discourse.

I. My first remark is, that the dealings of God in his providence are fitted to produce revivals of religion. The phenomenon which I am endeavouring to describe, you will recollect, is the simultaneous conversion of many souls to Christ, and a rapid advance in promoting the purity and zeal of Christians. The question now is, whether there is anything in the dealings of Providence which is fitted, if a proper impression were made, to produce this result.

Let me for one moment refer you to facts which are constantly passing before your eyes. Here falls, struck down by the hand of an unseen God, some endeared member of a familya father, a brother, a sister, or a mother. What is the effect? There is a common lamentation around the dying bed of the friend, and a united, sad, and slow procession to the tomb. There is a sundering at once of many ties; a common feeling in view of a common loss; and together they bow the head and weep. The attention of the whole group is turned away from scenes of vanity, gain, and ambition; a palsying blow is laid on half the comforts of life, and the weeping group sit down in sackcloth and ashes. The theatre, the ball-room, and the splendid party are forsaken; and gloom is spread over the

E

counting-room, and the man leaves the scene of his domestic grief reluctantly to go there. He has no heart now for amusement or pleasure, or even for the usual much-loved scenes of his business and ambition. God has for a time sundered the tie which bound the united group to the living world, and has made an awful chasm in their circle.

Does this affect a solitary individual? No; it affects a community. Is it designed to be the whole effect of this affliction to produce grief? Too well we know the purposes of that benevolent Father who has caused these tears, to believe this. It is to arrest the attention, and direct it to better things,-to God, to Christ, to heaven. It is to lead to reflection on sin, and death, and the judgment, and eternity. It is to admonish. all the weeping group to prepare to die. The scene is fitted to lead to a serious life, to religion, to God. But is it fitted to make one only a Christian-is it an appeal to solitary, independent emotions? No: it extends to the total group. And if a suitable impression were made by it on all, it would lead them together to the Saviour. Yet here would be all the elements of a revival of religion; and here is an event fitted to lead a community up to God.