Lord in an everlasting covenant, by faith in Christ Jesus?-Has he taken God at his word?-Has he put his hand into the hand of Omnipotence?— and does he thus wait the event? Then he shall find every word that God has spoken at the beginning of the XXXVIIth Psalm to be literally true: Fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity: for they shall soon be cut down as the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good: so shalt thou dwell in the land; and verily thou shalt be fed. Commit thy way unto the Lord, and he shall bring it to pass. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, says Solomon, and lean not to thine own understanding: in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

We have now held up Ezra for your example, in his HUMILIATION, FAITH, PRAYER, HOLY JEALOUSY, and SUCCESS.

Are you acting on the stage of life, or are you expecting to do it shortly?—I pray God that you may be enabled to remember, and lay to heart this example. Consider, that, in going forward, and endeavouring to stand for God in your place and affairs, many enemies will labour to remove you. Take, therefore, this one hint-MAKE ONE SURE FRIEND: for, If God be for us, who can be against us?

Take the bright example which I have been

preaching from as your pattern. If we look

up of a night to the skies, we sometimes see the moon apparently struggling through a dark cloud; now emerging-then plunged into another; getting through that--and again involved. There we see a picture of this man, and of many others mentioned in Scripture. These men are so many waymarks, directing and encouraging you. Go thy way forth then, by the footsteps of the flock. Pray for grace and strength, that you may thus press forward, leaving events to God.

And, as these men are way-marks, adapted to conduct the faithful pilgrim on his journey, let it be remembered, that others are exposed by the way-side as examples of just indignation:- Ahithophel, Haman, and Judas, famous in their day for their profession and consequence. Yea, of every wicked man it is recorded, that he shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God. All that forget him! Say to any wicked man whatever, "Are you a wicked man?"-" No!" will be the almost universal reply: "Nobody thinks me such. I think not myself such!"— "But do you live without God?—without worshipping him?-without any concern for his glory, or abasing yourselves before him as Ezra did? Are you without faith in his declarations? Do you thus forget God?-Then you are the people of whom he speaks, when he says, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that

forget God. Look up to him then this hour-endeavour to seek his face, and cry, Turn thou me, O good Lord, and so shall I be turned, before thou deliverest me up to those executioners from whom there is no redemption. When once the door is shut, and the Master of the house is risen up, they without will begin to cry, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and drunk in thy presence, and hast thou not taught in our streets?-So much the more awful! So much the greater your condemnation! Depart, I never knew you. Beg of God, then, that he would give you the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and enable you to flee for refuge to the hope set before you.

SERMON VI.

THE END OF THE UPRIGHT MAN.

Preached on Occasion of the Death of the Rev. NATHANIEL Gilbert: Late Vicar of Bledlow, Bucks; and some years Assistant to Mr. Cecil.

PSALM XXXVII. 37.

Mark the perfect Man, and behold the upright; for the end of that Man is Peace.

I CANNOT notice the death of every one of my congregation, though many have departed in peace, since I had the honour and the happiness of ministering here: but, when a servant of God is taken away, who, for several years faithfully ministered, and shone as a light in this place-a burning and a shining light—it would be strange if I did not notice his death. And I consider the death of the Rev. NATHANIEL GILBERT, who departed in the course of this last week, as a striking illustration of the text which I have read.

Let us, from these words, consider the CHARACTER, and the END, of the righteous.

I. Let us consider his CHARACTER.
He is here termed the perfect and the upright.

The mode of speaking is that which is so peculiar to the Scriptures-of naming the same thing twice, in different words, though not with distinct ideas: the perfect man is upright, and the upright man is perfect. Consider, therefore, and mark the perfect, or upright man.

We may discover in the Scriptures three distinct ideas of the word perfect, when applied to

man.

1. The first is what may be called the lowest stage of perfection: the SOUND and SINCERE

MAN.

This it is which denotes a man to be entire, in contradistinction to a hollow character-a hypo

crite.

We have an illustration of this sense of the word in the young man who came to Christ. His history is recorded in the XIXth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. He came to Christ, and said, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? Our Lord, after repeating to him the second table of the law, said unto him, If thou wilt be PERFECT—that is, if thou wilt be a sound real character; not an empty talking professor, in whose heart religion has no place-if thou wilt be a perfect character- go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. But, when the young man heard the terms, he went away sorrowful: as though he had said, "If I must be sound and entire; and if,