delusions-the looking beyond external appearances― the becoming wise by experience-the gathering of strength by one successful effort for a greater effort— the taking warning by failure-the persevering in the right, once ascertained, even unto the end.

The

The second and third chapters of the Book of Genesis, whatever their origin, and whatever doctrinal absurdities may have been deduced from them, are a profound allegory, and full of truth and wisdom. writer's notions of the providence and plan of the Creator accord with the view we have been taking. Why were not the first parents of the human race left in a state of ignorant innocence? Why had they not their garden with no forbidden tree? Because such a condition must have been stationary, and at a very low point of moral worth. Had they and their posterity so remained, there would not have been guilt; there would have been harmlessness; there could not have been anything deserving the name of virtue; there could have been no such heroic and ever memorable faith as that of Abraham; there could not have been the meek and dignified patience of Moses the legislator; there could not have been the glorious and quenchless zeal of Paul the Apostle; there could not have ' been the self-devoted love of Christ the Saviour. Had a state without temptation existed, and been perpetuated, humanity would only have been a little above the brutes, instead of becoming but a little lower than the angels. But God's plan from the first was to try men's hearts, and purify and expand them by trial. Thus only could humanity best bear his image. And as the temptations of society could not then ex

ist, the writer represents a positive prohibition as issued for the very purpose of constituting life a state of probation.

The New Testament as well as the Old begins with a temptation. As Adam was tried, so was Christ. But the event was very different. The one indicated the commencement of a plan of probation, the other exhibited the results of that plan. Without such trial, Adam in Paradise would have been the perfection of humanity-a poor and worthless being compared with Christ, who was the perfection of humanity as formed by it. The diversities in the two temptations are all characteristic. The one was that of an untaught, untrained, unexercised man; the other that of one formed by Providence, taught in the school of human society, of personal experience, and of the word of God. The one trial was a mere appeal to the senses; the other involved also the higher principles of our nature, the ambition of temporal sovereignty, and the yet loftier prize of spiritual domination. It was fitting the first should fail, that so a system of probation might be established. It was fitting the last should triumph, that we might see the grace and wisdom of that system, and to what glory and exaltation God thereby will conduct humanity. For this is what we behold in Christ. He was tempted for our succor in temptation. He was made perfect through sufferings, that he might be our pattern of perfection; the exhibition of our ultimate destiny; the object of our present aspirations; the mark at which we should aim; the standard by which we should try ourselves; the first born among many brethren; the leader of our upward

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course. And seeing that he is so, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.'

These considerations may teach a more judicious procedure than is sometimes practised with young persons. It is a vain attempt to try to keep them out of all temptation. You cannot do it. Temptations are too numerous and subtle for all your vigilance. And if you could, what would follow? That you would only have formed a negative and feeble character, which would probably take the first evil impression after your influence was withdrawn. And withdrawn it some day must be. Do not make temptations for them; but let them gradually be exposed to trials of their principles while there is the parental or friendly eye to watch, the parental or friendly hand to shield, and heart to care for them. The needless prolongation of authority, and an injudicious sternness towards excusable failings, have done the young at least as much harm as the opposite extreme of criminal indifference, or criminal indulgence. Watch over them, for you must render an account. But remember, that the best account you can render is, that you prepared them for the self-acquisition of that moral strength by which alone they can acquit themselves well of their own personal responsibility.

We should learn, too, the importance of every resistance to temptation, inasmuch as every resistance, if successful, augments our moral strength, and if unsuccessful, tends to its destruction. The clear and bright hopes of heaven which bless a vir

tuous old age are won, not by single efforts, but by repeated victories; the power of evil still diminishing; the power of resistance still increasing, till the individual was strong in faith giving glory to God. And thus may 'the trial of your faith,' including in that term every Christian grace, 'being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

It is only in the characters of the good that we behold, here, the genuine results of the plan of Divine Providence. The Scripture applies similar imagery to futurity. The trials of the righteous, the future punishments of the wicked, are both pictured by the fire which seems to destroy; but which really purifies. O, be such its influence; that thus the Lord who trieth the hearts may finally cleanse all hearts from every impurity, mould them into the likeness of his own moral image, fill them with the love of his own infinite excellence, and bless them with his own everlasting blessing.

SERMON XVIII.

SABBATICAL OBSERVANCES.

MARK ii. 27.

The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

It is true both in a literal and in a spiritual sense, that man on the earth has always looked up to heaven. He has felt the need of a power above, for his guidance and protection, and desired to obey its will, that it might realize his expectations. He has always been ready to find, moreover, that this power manifested its will by positive injunctions, requiring external obedience: thus rendering it more easy and tangible than the moral duties which demand reflection and feeling; and giving him with more facility the consciousness of merit, and the assurance of recompence. The lesson has been learned on earth much oftener than it was ever taught from heaven; and while one set of positive institutions, imposed on one people for a limited duration, may claim a real divine authority, observances have been multiplied and perpetuated till they have often threatened to overwhelm a rational devotion and a beneficent morality beneath a monstrous pile of superstitions. And it has happened that the looking up to heaven,