admitted into that most perfect and glorious liberty of the sons of God.

Let me, in conclusion, adopt the exhortation of the apostle: "Stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ has made you free." Look to its security in the Gospel; study with faith and devotion its sacred pages; search after the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Truth and liberty are the peculiar blessings of the Christian, and while vainly sought after and abused in the world, can be found only in the pages of Scripture. As such they are the peculiar blessing of God on his people, and are offered freely and equally to all, of every station, of every country. The rich and poor here meet on equal terms. Truth and liberty are equally attainable; equally the inheritance of all. They shine with the same lustre on the tenant of the cottage and the mansion; and while teaching us to overcome the world, realize that equality of rights and interests, of advantages and situations which the world, with the wis

E

dom of ages before it, has vainly struggled to establish. Let us then guard anxiously, as our inheritance, the treasure we possess. Let not the wily seducer deprive us of our advantages. When he scoffs at our religion, know that he hateth the light because his deeds are evil. When with big swelling words of vanity he promises us liberty, let us consider whether he is not himself the servant of sin, and guard ourselves against his approaches as an enemy and deceiver. Hold fast that which you have proved to be good. Look constantly into the perfect law of liberty and truth, and continuing stedfastly therein, be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, and you shall be blessed deed.

in

your

SERMON VI.

GAL. VI. 8.

"He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

THERE is nothing more evident to the observer of the natural or spiritual world than that we are in a constant state of change; and were there no other proof, this, to any considerate observer, would be amply sufficient, that we are in a state of trial. The laws of nature and revelation come from the The truths of Scripture are

same source.

echoed back by the voice of nature; and the perfect harmony existing between them would convince any attentive observer that the same God was the author of both; that the same divine Being who

created the world, and gave man the dominion over it, interests and points out to him, in the Scripture, the way of salvation.

The passage which I have selected for my text represents, under figures familiar to all of us, the preparation which we must make in this life for that which is to come. Under the process of sowing, cultivating, and reaping, is beautifully taught us, that we should extend our hopes and wishes beyond this life; and that the next, through whatever change it may be necessary for us to go, is but a continuation of the present; which we shall learn to prepare for, or to neglect, as we shall understand the nature of that futurity which is proposed to us. The same images are frequently made use of in the Scripture, to enforce on us the same truth:-that seed which fell on good ground yielded some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold; while the apostle, in the celebrated passage in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, indignantly reproaches their folly, who consi

dered the corruption we must in the grave undergo, a difficulty in the doctrine of the resurrection; for the seed which is sown is not quickened, that is, brought to life again, except it die; and we sow not that body that shall be; but God giveth it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body. This beautiful explanation assists us in some degree to understand the change we shall undergo. We sow the acorn, it rises the oak; we sow the grain, but whence the tall stem and ear? Why God giveth it a body as it has pleased him; and the same God will, in fulfilment of his promises, raise in incorruption, in glory, and in power, a spiritual body, that which was sown in corruption, in dishonour, and in weakness. This is but the consummation of a life of trial and preparation; to what we shall then rise, or with what body, is with God, who has taught us in this world to prepare ourselves for the next; that neglecting the flesh, which, as the mere tabernacle in which the soul is preserved, shall, as