I will detain you, My Brethren, but a few minutes longer. This is probably the last time it may be permitted me to address you*, and though the words of a stranger may pass idly through your ears, I would wish to impress on your recollection the solemn lesson of this morning's service; I would wish you to meditate on it in the stillness of solitude, and to act on it in the avocations of society. The busy season of the year is passed, and the approaching winter, affording a relaxation from the urgent occupations of the world, will give you time for the contemplation of your Saviour's mortal character. Search then the Scriptures, and lay the precious example to your hearts till it warm and quicken them. Live in the same charities in which he lived, and prepare to die with the same spirit of humility and forgiveness in which he died. Your's is the faith that profiteth; your's is the hope of glory; your's is the boon of salvation; set not these, I beseech you, on the hazard of a die, by tempting the Lord your God too long with your preference of a life of pleasure to a life of piety. "God is love;" be assured that neither parent, nor brother, nor consort, nor friend, can love you as your Saviour loves—“ for greater love has no man than this, that he lay

* This was the last Sermon preached at St. John's Newfoundland by the Author.

down his life for his friend;"-for you and for your children that Saviour died upon the tree, and every agony which he endured may yet remove an eternity of misery from you. O crucify him not afresh by your ingratitude, but moulding every thought and action to his will, make "your profiting appear to all," so shall you be in communion with the saints and angels, who proclaim, "worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and honour, and glory and blessing, for ever and ever." Amen.

SERMON XXII.

ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.

1 COR. XV. 35.

How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they

come?

Ir is remarkable that one of the principal difficulties which St. Paul encountered in the propagation of Christianity arose from the unwillingness of both Jews and Greeks to believe this capital article of the Christian faith, the resurrection of the dead, as prefatory to that of the life everlasting. Men, sufficiently inclined to believe in the immortality of the soul, were yet strongly averse to the doctrine which implied its reunion with the body; nor could they without great difficulty be convinced, that it could by any possibility be a blessing to the pure and emancipated spirit, to be again connected with that gross and perishable material, which had, during its earthly existence, so shackled its as

pirations, and confined its faculties. The question of the text, the apostle therefore puts into the mouth of the caviller, and in his memorable answer to it, displays all that clearness of judgment and precision of reasoning for which his eloquence is so universally remarkable. He shews that the antitype of man's death and resurrection is a thing of daily recurrence, and, by the striking analogy of the fructification of the dead seed, proves that this doctrine would not be repugnant to reason, even if it did not rest upon the solid basis of revelation.

"That which thou sowest, is not quickened except it die, and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, (it may chance of wheat or of some other grain,) but God giveth it a body, and to every seed his own body."

To the startling, but interesting question, then, how are the dead raised up? it will surely to Christian men be a sufficient answer, that they are to be raised up by the same power that created them, the eternal and almighty power of God. To omnipotence all things are possible, but in the resurrection of the dead God does not transcend the precedent of his former power, nor put forth a mightier agency than that which he has employed in the construction, and daily employs in the perpetuation, of the race of man. Is it less difficult to create than to revive?

I will detain you, My Brethren, but a few minutes longer. This is probably the last time it may be permitted me to address you*, and though the words of a stranger may pass idly through your ears, I would wish to impress on your recollection the solemn lesson of this morning's service; I would wish you to meditate on it in the stillness of solitude, and to act on it in the avocations of society. The busy season of the year is passed, and the approaching winter, affording a relaxation from the urgent occupations of the world, will give you time for the contemplation of your Saviour's mortal character. Search then the Scriptures, and lay the precious example to your hearts till it warm and quicken them. Live in the same charities in which he lived, and prepare to die with the same spirit of humility and forgiveness in which he died. Your's is the faith that profiteth; your's is the hope of glory; your's is the boon of salvation; set not these, I beseech you, on the hazard of a die, by tempting the Lord your God too long with your preference of a life of pleasure to a life of piety. "God is love;" be assured that neither parent, nor brother, nor consort, nor friend, can love you as your Saviour loves—" for greater love has no man than this, that he lay

* This was the last Sermon preached at St. John's Newfoundland by the Author.