world and the things of the world, better than we love God and the promised blessedness of the world to come? Oh! if ever you are tempted by the hope of gain, to neglect what you know to be right; if ever from being more anxious to please man than to please God, you have an eye to your worldly advancement, instead of your eternal welfare, think of those words of your Lord's, "what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul;" think of those words which God spake by the prophet, "who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth?""2 time will soon come, when the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, when his pride and his power shall cease, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Why then be afraid of man, when by fearing his displeasure, you are tempted to sin against God, and are provoking the High and Holy One to anger?

The

But your temptation perhaps is this; you cannot bear the world's dread scorn. You cannot endure the thoughts of being ridiculed by those you love;

1 St. Mark viii. 36.

2 Isaiah li. 12, 13.

especially it may be, after having long been used to laugh at others for their religion, you cannot summon up courage enough, to meet the laugh of your former companions in thoughtlessness. No doubt, if all men dared to confess what they have felt, many a one would be found to acknowledge, that it was the fear of being laughed at, which kept him from being religious. But it is in this, that your temptation consists: your conscience and the word of God tell you, what you must do to glorify God; but you feel, that if you were to act up to what your conscience and the word of God require, you must immediately go much farther in religion than you have hitherto gone. And you are ashamed to do this, because you cannot bear to be the object of ridicule. But will you not fear God rather than man? Will you not prefer that men should ridicule you, than that God should cast you into hell? Would you not rather be despised and derided now, than be lost for ever hereafter? Oh! be not ashamed to confess Christ. Be not ashamed to own that you are His. Be not moved by the derision or by the scorn of the world. If you feel it right to serve the Lord your God, do not, through the fear of man, be kept back from doing so. The church wants confessors of the faith. She yearns to see more of her children witnesses to the truth.

Be

not ye then undecided.

Be not afraid of those

who, when they have done their worst, can only kill the body; but "sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and let Him be your fear." It is Jesus your Saviour, who forewarns you whom you should fear. He teaches you, not to be afraid of man, but rather to be afraid of that Almighty Being, in whose favour is life, and whose displeasure it is intolerable to bear, because He has power, and because it is His declared purpose, to cast into hell, all who refuse to submit to Himand to serve Him.

SERMON XX.

DEATH AND JUDGMENT.

HEBREWS ix. 27, 28.

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation."

WE all of us know, that in this world, we are living in a state of change and constant uncertainty. Whatever be our condition to-day, we know, it may be greatly altered by to-morrow. Circumstances may change; reverses may befal us; the health which we now enjoy, we may soon enjoy no longer; the friends who now delight us, may soon be taken from us; the comforts which now surround us, may soon be removed beyond our reach. On the other hand, our change may be from evil to good, or from good to better. But, be this as it may, we cannot but see, when we give ourselves time to reflect, how uncertain and how unstable, all our present possessions are, and that there is no knowing what we may have to bear, before the hand of death shall remove us

from the world. In the midst, however, of all this uncertainty, as to what it may be the will of God, we shall have to pass through, before our pilgrimage is ended, there are two things, in which we are all most intimately concerned, and about which there is no uncertainty whatever, and these are, that it is appointed unto all men once to die, and after this the judgment.

Now, my brethren, that we shall all, sooner or later, die, is what none can doubt, though but few may reflect upon it. That we shall all have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, is what God Himself has been pleased to make known to us. So that, this is what we all have to expect. This is what every one of us must prepare for ; to die the death which God has decreed, and to rise again to that resurrection which is revealed in the Gospel. These, then, are the thoughts, to which your attention will be now directed; thoughts, indeed, which the heart of man is apt to shrink from, and yet such thoughts, as it is of the highest moment to us all, to give most diligent heed to. Moreover, such reflections as these, might seem especially seasonable, at a time when the nation is clad in mourning, in token of respect to departed Royalty;' and when the bell which tells of man's

1 Preached on the 9th of July, 1837.