us with of that glorious state of immortality. Prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, knowledge shall vanish away, but charity shall never fail.

Admire then, my brethren, the wonderful goodness and wisdom of God, whose scheme of salvation thus embraces all mankind. Have you any difficulty, when looking around you on the advantages of some, on the difficulties of others, of understanding how God is no respecter of persons? Cannot you bring this great idea home to you? Consider then what is here said, the description that is here given of charity; and read in the declaration of the apostle, that " charity never faileth," the simplest commentary on the declaration, "God is no respecter of persons." Remember that here we are in a world of trial, and that to each, according to his capacities, are his trials and temptations. The rich and the great will excite in the worldly-minded, envy; but be assured, that both the rich and great have their trials; while that virtue which

is essential to all, is, perhaps, of far more difficult attainment by the rich and great than by the poor and the humble. "How hardly," says our blessed Saviour, "shall the rich enter into the kingdom of God!" How hard is it for the rich man to shake off the cares, the pride of riches! How many are the snares, how numerous the temptations which beset the rich man's path! The moralist rails at riches and worldly advantages; the Christian points out the manner in which, consistent with their enjoyment as the blessing of God, they may be turned both to our temporal and our eternal welfare. There is no state, there is no station of life in which cannot be most fully practised Christian charity, in its full, and unbounded, and scriptural sense. In one common hope, in one common calling, it unites all mankind.

We may not have goods to bestow to feed the poor; or if we have them, and shall so bestow them, it may equally profit us nothing we may or may not be able to speak with tongues, to prophesy, or to

understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; but it is in the power of all to suffer long with Christian forbearance, and to be kind and disinterested in seeking the good and welfare of others it is in the power of all to bear, to believe, to hope, to endure all things; and it is this heavenly spirit that is Christian charity. This shall never fail. By cultivating this we shall sow to the spirit, and reap in a future world its blessed fruits, even everlasting life. This virtue only shall survive the grave: faith shall be then perfect; hope shall be accomplished: charity, our greatest source of comfort and happiness in this life, shall introduce us into the awful presence of that God whose highest attribute is love. Here high and low, rich and poor shall meet, and in a soil more suited to its growth, perfect that inestimable grace which has cheered them through the trials of this world. Here charity shall never fail: a grace of heavenly growth, it shall flourish when all others wither; and unsullied by the world

through which it has passed, untainted by those mixed feelings in which other virtues have their origin, shine forth as the characteristic by which Christ's disciples have been distinguished in this world, to be made perfect in the next.

SERMON XI.

1 THESSALONIANS, v. 21.

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

THE exhortation of the apostle is the voice of reason, on which in the affairs of life we every day act. The most thoughtless will admit this: why then not extend the same earnest enquiry after that which is good in our spiritual affairs? Are they less worthy our regard? or is it in these a matter of indifference whether we are right or wrong? In these things also, as in all others, the same clear line is drawn between truth and error; nor can we without folly suppose, that in matters of such high and eternal importance, the choice of what course we will adopt is left a matter of indifference to be decided by each of us