wisdom to meet, and duties which without toil and sacrifice and self-denial we cannot perform. No, my brother, whom God has made prosperous; I appeal to your experience whether prosperity in itself be happiness. It cannot save you from grief. Your wealth, though you heap up silver as the dust, cannot shut out sickness or bereavement from your dwelling, or anguish from your heart, — the anguish of blasted expectations, of humbled pride, of disappointed ambition, the yet deeper anguish of conscious guilt. Nor is it all the kingdoms of this world or the glory of them, neither thrones nor sceptres nor they who hold them, that can deliver from the changes which a sovereign Arbiter ordains, and from which in their turns neither the highest nor the humblest are exempted. It is for this purpose He sends death into high places, and from the very pinnacle of human society," from the princes and the nobles of the earth, makes them the most signal monuments of frailty whose condition and prospects combine all that the world counts glorious. It is for this purpose, and that men may be taught wisdom, that He commissions his messengers of sickness, and weakens our strength in the way, or removes from us our friends, and leaves us to the bitterness of bereavement; or that He appoints adversity in yet another form, and takes away the riches in which we had trusted, that he may take from us also the earthly mind, which is death, and implant the spiritual mind, which is peace. Happy, my brethren, shall we be, if, either by the observation or experience of such changes, we are led, as God designs, to reflection. Happy, if, through any trials common to humanity which our Heavenly Father ordains, we are taught the uncertainty of this world's prosperity, are persuaded to aspire to higher objects, and to inquire with earnest hearts, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Still happier, if, knowing our Master's will, we shall do it. II. But while we should studiously cherish any good influences upon our hearts, which may be drawn either from the Divine bounty or chastisement, and be grateful to God if in any measures they have been instrumental to our spiritual growth, we are by no means justified in depending upon such influences, and yet less in waiting for such changes to produce them. Our character as Christians and all our preparation for eternity are wholly independent of the vicissitudes of outward condition. Whatever that condition may be, prosperous or adverse, we have immortal souls to provide for; and it is not the part of wisdom, nor is it permitted to a rational faith, to suffer that provision to depend upon the joys or sorrows, the darker or the brighter aspects of our lot. As religion itself is unchangeable, and its demands ever the same, not varying with the progress of society or the vicissitudes of life, so there can be no possible changes in our lot that can in the slightest degree affect our obligations to comply with its demands. "Ye are my friends," said Jesus, "if ye do whatsoever I command you." "And if thou wilt enter into life," he replied to the young lawyer, "keep the commandments." What he said to his disciples at the beginning, he says now to us. The same dispositions and character, the same service and obedience, which were required of them are required of us. If they, his first followers, could be his friends and obtain everlasting life only by believing in Him and keeping his sayings, so neither can we. Here is the faith, "Believe on the Lord Jesus"; here is the duty,Keep the commandments"; and what Paul taught to the Jewish converts to correct their false judgments and to teach them, that obedience is every thing, is true in the full extent of its meaning to us. "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." "He is not a Jew, he is not a Christian, who is one outwardly; but circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God." And the Apostle teaches us, in his admirable summary of true religion, that it is "living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ." III. Here, then, is the answer to the great question of my text. Here, as in the broad light of heaven we are taught what the Lord our God requireth of us; what we must be and what we must do, if we would attain to everlasting life. The texts I have cited need no commentary of mine. They speak for themselves, and in terms which all can understand. We may point to them as summaries of Christian faith and duty. They explain other texts, that are obscure, while they require no explication for themselves. They are unerring guides, pointing as with the finger of God, and saying, "This is the way; walk ye in it." And of this class of texts it has been well remarked, that they are always to be understood in their plainest and most obvious sense, in the sense in which they are first interpreted by the honest and unprejudiced - When men mind, without evasion or qualification. set themselves to explain what is already clear, they are apt to darken counsel by words without knowledge; and when they would bring of their learning or ingenuity to illustrate precepts already plain, there may be suspected some lurking inclination to release themselves from duties which they cannot otherwise evade. Therefore, let these texts be taken in their most obvious sense. No favorite hypothesis that can be formed, no system of divinity, however skilfully contrived, no refinements of casuistry or philosophy, may be permitted here to obscure the truth, or to bring into question the obligation of an express command. And when the Master says, "Keep the commandments"; and when the Apostle says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved"; and when the prophet who pre-` dicted him declares, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord thy God requireth of thee, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy there are distinctly set forth the conditions of salvation; the way of life is opened to us, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. Will it be objected, that in thus placing the substance of religion in obedience, we are advocating only an outward morality, with which the affections have no concern? No, my brethren; the foundations of Christian virtue are broad and deep. That "godliness, which has the promise of the life that is and of the life that is to come," lies deep in the soul. The faith that saves works by love, and is fruitful of good works; and that which does not reach the heart, and make us alive to God, which does not lead us to the mercy seat, and kindle our devotion, which does not subdue our pride and selfishness, and keep us pure and humble, does not deserve the name of religion. But, on the other hand, it must not be forgotten that there may be fervent affections without a corresponding life. There may be much profession of love to God, and of reliance on Christ and zeal for his truth, and the heart be not right in the sight of God. Still it may be written of us, as of the monarch of ancient times, "Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.' - True religion, that which the Master taught, and that for which we must strive, if we would attain to eternal life, is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy"; grounded in a true love of God and faith in Christ, expressed in every form of filial service, in submission, gratitude, and trust, in holiness and in charity, even the charity that was in Jesus, who was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and went about doing good." This is the religion which Jesus taught, and whose voice we are called to obey. This is the religion whose power is to be seen, not in name, but in deed; not in profession only, but in heart and in life; not in warm affections, in convulsive transports, nor in fervent resolutions that pass away, but in the subjection of the whole will of man to the will of God. And if there be within us that which makes us heartily to love God and to hate sin, which subdues our envy, our malice, our uncharitableness; that makes us contented amidst straits, moderate in prosperity, and ready to distribute, pure in heart, and in all manner of conversation; "if such things be in us, and abound, |