of the palace.

It arranges, and cheers, and directs the whole detail of social life. It humbles the great, and elevates the low. It tells all of sin and ruin, of Christ and of salvation. It dims the glare of outward circumstances, and points to the common level of the grave, where all men meet together. It marks out an immortality of happiness, the gift of heaven's free bounty, and commands all to seek the same eternal prize!

No one, under this religion, finds himself or his station forgotten of God. The master has his directions, and the servant his. The prince has his range of duties, and the subject his. The citizen, habituated to one spot, the scene of his tranquil pursuits, has his principle of action laid down; and the soldier, bred to camps and to arms, finds his. The religion of the Bible is thus the common property of the human race. It is the legacy bequeathed by Jesus Christ to all in every land and rank, where ignorance seeks instruction, where guilt implores pardon, where pollution longs for purity, where weakness requires strength, where misery claims consolation, or where mortality supplicates eternal life!

We are all afloat on the same tempestuous sea, and the Bible is the only compass by which we can pursue our course, nor fear a shipwreck ere we reach the haven!

"And it is a dispensation indeed worthy of

"the divine benevolence, that the best bless"ings are thus attainable by the lowest of "mankind, and that God has often chosen "the poor of this world rich in faith, and "heirs of his kingdom.' The pursuit of salva"tion is the only enterprize in which no one "fails from weakness, none from an invincible 'ignorance of futurity, none from the sudden "vicissitudes of fortune. How suitable is it "to the character of the Being who reveals "himself by the name of love, to render the object which is alone worthy of being aspired to with ardour, the only one to which all may without presumption aspire; and while he conceals thrones and sceptres in "the hollow of his hand, and bestows them where he pleases with a mysterious and un"controulable sovereignty; on opening the springs of eternal felicity, to proclaim to the "utmost bounds of the earth, 'Let him that

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"is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him

come, and take of the waters of life freely.""

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SERMON XVIII.

THE GUIDANCE OF GOD.

PSALM 1xxiii. 24.

"THOU SHALT GUIDE ME WITH THY COUNSEL."

How wise, how blessed a determination is this! Well will it reward us to investigate its real import, and to revolve the train of ideas upon which it was founded.

- I. And, to this end, let us first observe THE

PRONENESS OF MEN TO SEEK ANY COUNSEL RATHER THAN THAT OF GOD, IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THEIR LIVES AND ACTIONS. There is something, it must be allowed, deeply melancholy in the frequent recurrence which a minister of Christ is compelled to make, to the alienation and apostacy of the human heart from God. Such statements he ought never to make without deep sympathy and compassion. For every such declaration embraces his own natural character, and marks out himself to be an original sufferer in the same terrible catastrophe. Yet, my brethren, a knowledge

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of sin lies at the root of all true religion. Until we lie prostrate before the throne of grace, we shall never cordially receive the deliverance which the grace of God has disclosed. we be faithful, therefore, to the souls of men, we must again, and again, and again, probe the wound, if that by any means it may at length be healed.

It is valuable, however, often to leave the track of general assertion, and to follow the operation of human passion, to the particular modes in which it acts, in order thereby to fasten a readier conviction upon the mind. The text refers to this specification." Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel," is a sentiment intended to be put in contrast with the conduct of those who follow their own counsel, or the counsel of their fellow-creatures. It is a sentiment which is the painful result of an actual examination of the conduct

of a large class of men. It is the closing remark of a mind which had been almost staggered in its faith, by the view of human society, by the prosperity of the ungodly, by the success of their schemes in life, and by their unshaken tranquillity in death. It is the determination of a mind, nevertheless, which, taught by divine inspiration to look beyond the barriers of the grave, connected the deathless joys and sorrows of another world, with the entan

gled scenes of this! and saw, in the grand and final result that they are blessed, not whom the voice of earthly grandeur flatters for a moment, but those for whom God has provided a substantial and imperishable happiness. I return then to the observation, that human depravity strikingly manifests itself in the counsel which men seek for the guidance of their actions. They are, in this respect, "without God." They turn either to their own resources, or to the resources of other men. The scriptural statements are these: "There is no fear of God

before their eyes." "They say unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. "What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have if we pray unto him?"

Let the accuracy of these statements be submitted to the test; let a reference be made to the extended operations of society; let a candid survey be instituted of the diversified schemes, pursuits, and exertions of the great mass of human beings; and what will be the result? What is the history of nations? What are the springs which have brought into action the mighty passions and resources of vast empires? which have guided them in the wars and conflicts which have desolated the face of the earth? Has it been the glory of God? The recognition of his authority? The diffu