stances referred to in the words of our text. We are not less bound to honour the Lord our God, than the heathen king, but infinitely more so. He had no knowledge of the God of Israel, but as one worshipped by one of the numerous nations under his rule. It is true, he might have heard of the wonders the God of Israel had formerly worked, but these he might have considered surpassed by many of the false gods of the heathens round about. Nevertheless, in performance of a former decree of a former king, from a reverence to the divinity of the Jews, and from a regard to his servant Ezra, he commanded that all should be given to beautify the temple at Jerusalem.

The Jewish people of a former age, we have seen, showed their alacrity in the work, and their devotion to the service of their Maker, by bringing offerings to the Lord; until those who were set over the work were compelled to request them to cease their gifts, since they had enough for the completion of the work, and more than

enough. They showed their gratitude to their God for bringing them out of the land of Egypt, preserving them from the dangers of the wilderness, and giving them a promise of Canaan at the termination-by giving, and that willingly-by giving, and that bountifully-by giving, and that to overflowing, some portion of that to God, for all of which they were indebted to his mercy. And we, my friends, have only to look at the blessings which the God of heaven has showered upon us; and we must feel ourselves, no less than they, bound by every noble sentiment of our nature, to devote something of that which he has bestowed upon us to his honour and service. He has given us life and breath, and all things richly to enjoy; he has preserved us, and is still preserving us through the various trials and dangers of this wilderness world; and has provided and secured for us, by the greatest sacrifice, even the death of his Son, the eternal possession of the heavenly Canaan. Our hearts, my brethren, must be harder than

the nether millstone, if we are inaccessible to these calls on our love; they must be indeed corrupted and depraved, if they have no emotions of gratitude for favours so inestimable as these. That you are not unconcerned in the promotion of the glory and honour of God, it is my pleasing duty this morning to bear testimony, and that you have hearts grateful for his kind mercy and love, the temple you are about to erect to his name will to remote generations be sufficient evidence. And when I look around me, and see those who have made such exertions in the cause, who have devoted their time and their money to the promotion of the object we have in view and the little children and servants who have come forward to assist in raising a temple to Jehovah, I feel constrained to cry out with the prophet, "Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who hath put such a thing as this in your heart, to beautify the house of the Lord your God."

And if I, my brethren, feel thus, who am

but comparatively young in the cause, what must be the sentiments of your venerable rector, who is prevented by indisposition from personally addressing you.

He

would, if his feelings allowed him to speak to you, say, My brethren, I have long laboured amongst you, but I now find old age creeping over me, and I must soon go the way whence no traveller returns. I feel that it must be soon with me as with my fathers; the place which now knows me will soon know me no more for ever. The silver cord will soon be loosed, the golden bowl will soon be broken, the dust will soon return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit will return unto God who gave it. Soon shall I be called to give an account of the deeds done in the body, and we shall meet no more until we meet around the throne of God. Nevertheless, before I leave you, my beloved friends, I should like to see the temple again raised to the honour and glory of my God. But his will be done, even if I should not live to see it completed. "Blessed be the Lord God

of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this into your hearts, to beautify the house of the Lord your God."

Your poorer neighbours too, whom you will have afforded the opportunity of coming to worship the Lord God of our fathers, who have souls to be saved, and a heaven to gain as well as we, when they find they can come into the temple of the Lord as their own, and hear the truths of the everlasting gospel undisturbed, will pour their blessings upon your heads and say, "Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this into your hearts, to beautify the temple of the Lord your God."

And there are those, my brethren, who have already left us, who are gone before us to the heavenly Jerusalem, who are full participants of the joys which await the redeemed, who know the worth of the soul, and therefore know the value of the Saviour's sacrifice; who, having put off the world and all its vanities, are fully sensible of the all-important concerns of ano