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SERMON IV.

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SERMON IV.

LUKE XV. 7.

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.

THE various engagements which occupy the mind of man, as he passes through this world of probation and trial, tend much to withdraw him from the contemplation of that which shall be hereafter, and although he may be often filled with an over anxiety about the concerns and the results of his plans in this world, it is but seldom that he carries his views beyond the grave, and looks forward to those eternal realities which revelation, and revelation alone, has opened to his view. Notwithstanding many reasons may be

adduced, it would be difficult to account for it satisfactorily, had we not the inspired volume to guide us in our researches ; but this opens the recesses of the heart, this tells us that man has departed from his original righteousness; that his desires have changed from their original aim, that his views which were in his original creation heavenward, and looking to God for their end, now have become fixed upon earth and sinful pleasures; that he is ready to forfeit the real enjoyment which is laid up in store for all them that love. holiness, for the vain and evanescent pleasures of this transitory scene-and that, born for happiness and heaven, by his folly and his crime he sinks himself to endless misery and woe.

The conceptions formed of heaven by unassisted reason, have been for the most part according to the varied characters and dispositions of those who have formed them. We find, however, that in some way or other, all ages have looked forward to a reward of virtue, and a punishment

of vice, beyond the grave; and whether we look back to the nations of antiquity filling their elysium with the shades of departed heroes; Mahomet inspiring his followers with the hope of sensual enjoyment; or the savage Indian looking forward to the time when his revenge shall be satiated, by drinking from the skulls of his slaughtered enemies; we see the idea of future bliss formed from the prevailing desire of the individual whilst here, and the happiness of heaven to them only a continuation of their enjoyments on earth. The inspired volume opens to us a different view, and at once brings us back to purer and holier conceptions of that place, which God in a more particular manner favours with his presence, where angels and archangels surround his throne, and where the spirits of the just made perfect, of those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, for ever dwell. The paradise in which our first parents were placed was a type of this glorious abode-its trees and fruits,

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