agonizing apprehensions, and the withering prospect of the inevitable severing stroke of death, poison all their happiness to those who make idols of earthly objects; putting them in God's place, and clinging to them for their chief-their supreme felicity! Here too, assuredly, godliness is great gain for oh! what friendship is so delightful as that which a Saviour's love cements and consecrates; and which, being commenced on earth, shall be perpetuated and perfected in heaven! What attachment so sweet as that in which all that is high and holy in Christian love, is blended with all that is tender and endearing in earthly affection! How unspeakably is the happiness of wedded love sanctified and thus sweetened, to those who feel that they are not only one in heart for the for-ever of time, but one in Christ for the for-ever of eternity! And surely if there be on earth a happy home, it is that which godliness has hallowed-on whose walls it has written salvation, and on its doors praise—where the father on earth gathers his family, morning and evening round the domestic altar, to join in prayer and praise to their Father in heaven-where a Saviour's love links all the members together in those only ties which death cannot dissolve; and there is a "good hope through grace," that all, though separated here for a season, shall be reunited hereafter, to form throughout eternity a happy family in heaven.

If godliness thus teach her votaries to regard the affections, not like those of the children of the world, as short-lived flowers of the desert, that crumble and wither almost as soon as grasped; but as plants of immortality, placed by a Saviour's hand in the nursery of earth, here to put forth their first young buds and blossoms, and then to be removed to the paradise of God above—there, in heaven's sunny clime, to bloom in full beauty, unfadingly, for ever by thus hallowing and exalting the enjoyments which flow from the affections, surely here also, godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come. If these things be so, is not the assertion of the text fully substantiated, and is it not a madness, for which language supplies no name, to reject that godliness which is at once the source of the sweetest happiness on earth, and the only guide to eternal happiness in heaven? Were it even otherwise-had godliness the promise only of the life to come, who that weighs in the balance of reason eternity with time, could hesitate, for one moment, to prefer the darkest path which the gloomiest fanaticism ever trod on earth, were it the only one that led to the everlasting sunshine of the presence of God in heaven, rather than the brightest path which ever the sunshine of earthly enjoyment gilt, if it led down to the blackness of darkness for ever, to dwell there with the devil and his angels,

amidst everlasting weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? But when godliness at once brightens earth, and conducts to heaven-when it both additionally sweetens the enjoyments of time, and alone guides to the glories of eternity-why will any of you throw away the happiness both of earth and heaven? why will you allow Satan to cheat you of the enjoyments both of time and eternity? why, oh why, will you fling away both worlds at once, and get nothing-positively nothing in exchange? Oh! surely this is a blunder, which must call forth the loudest laughter of derision among the fiends in hell. I conjure you all then, who have hitherto been seeking for happiness any where but in the love and service of a Saviour-God, and especially I conjure you, my younger friends, who are just setting out on the journey of lifeyour feelings fresh-your spirits buoyant-and the desire of happiness beating high in your bosomscome, come to Him, who is the only fountain of true felicity in earth or heaven; come to Him, the teacher and pattern, the source and giver of all godliness-learn of Him-take His yoke upon you—embark in His cause-consecrate yourselves to His service-do this honestly, heartily, in deep humility, sincere penitence, and lively faith, and sure I am, that though you may at first sow in tears, you will ere long reap in joy; though the dawn of your religious course may break louringly, and its

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morning not be without clouds, yet will the light from heaven that beams upon your path, shine more and more unto the perfect day, even the cloudless day of eternity; nor will you have advanced far in your heavenward journey, till you will add your glad and grateful testimony to that of thousands now rejoicing in a Saviour's service on earth, and myriads now rejoicing in His presence in heaven, declaring that "godliness has indeed the promise both of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

SERMON XI.

ON CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION.

MALACHI, iii. 16.

"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name."

Ir will perhaps assist us in more adequately estimating what a precious gift the faculty of speech is, if we conceive for a moment what the world would have been without it—a world of mutes—a world of silent solitary travellers to eternity, each pursuing his lonely way, uncheered by the interchange of thought or feeling, the communication of intellect or knowledge; ungladdened in joy, and uncomforted in sorrow, by the endearing accents of sympathizing affection from a single beloved fellowtraveller's voice. And if there be any here, who have listened to the dear voices that are round them in their home, as to earth's sweetest music, and have