unkindness, suspicion and jealousy, lawless appetites, malignant and stormy passions, infuriated rage, reciprocated treachery, mutual crimination and bitterness,-what so much as these distract the heart and dry up its joys? There is nothing that can make such a mind happy. Perturbed and unallowed affections form no inconsiderable part of the misery of that world, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. Angels could not be happy in heaven, when their bosoms became such a "troubled sea" as this. Our first parents must be doomed to a life of toil, to a world of thorny care and the grave, when they yielded to such a spirit. Ahab, on the throne of Israel, “refuses to eat bread," because he could not possess himself of the vineyard of Naboth. Haman, in nigh favour at the court of Persia, makes himself miserable because, "Mordecai the Jew, sat at the king's gate." Who can feel himself at peace when such passions reign in the soul; and where is the bosom in which they may not be found, unless it has been purified by the power of the gospel? Wealth, pleasure, and fame, are the three idols of this world, and the love of these the predominant passions of the heart. And yet they are the most contentious, mischievous, debasing passions, and the most prolific source of individual, social, and public calamity. Vanity and ostentation without, are very apt to be the index of poverty and wretchedness within. The rich, the voluptuous, the ambitious, the great, are not the

men who are happy. Marcus Crassus antedating his fall by grasping at the wealth of Parthia, Tiberius concealing his cruelty and lust amid the retreats of Caprœa, and Alexander on the throne of the world, weeping because there was not another world to conquer, are melancholy proofs, that amid joys like these, and in the highest gratification of the unhallowed passions which this world can furnish, men not only never can be happy, but may and must be miserable.

There is nothing that allays and cures this febrile action of human depravity like the influence of the Bible. Let any one compare the present state of human society, notwithstanding all its im→ perfections, with its true character only a few centuries past, and he cannot fail to see how many exciting causes of human misery it has subdued; how many a heart it has kept from acting out, and giving unrestrained license to its irritated selfishness; how often it has held the fierce passions of men in check, and extinguished the flame which otherwise would have burned with indomitable phrenzy. Affections that are bland and virtuous, are uniformly the source of tranquillity and joy. They are like "rivers of water in a dry place." They are living fountains within, springing up to purify and refresh the mind. The Bible alone tells us in what true happiness consists, and how it may be attained. It is not without reason that it admonishes us of the danger of mere earthly comforts, because the very desire after them is ordina

rily so intense as to become the source of inward corruption, and in their enjoyment we forget our highest good. I have been not a little interested in the fact, that the Saviour, at the commencement of his public ministry, and in the first paragraph of his first discourse, should have so entirely countervailed the commonly received notions of men, in regard to the sources of true happiness. He who formed the human mind, is acquainted with its large desires, and is familiar with every avenue to its joys, has said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are they that mourn; blessed are the meek; blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." What a rebuke to the spirit of this world! What a contrast to the restless solicitude of grasping covetousness; to the dissipation of the gay; to the resentment of the implacable; to the degradation of the impure; and to those senseless joys of ambition, when some new flame ignites its hopes to quench them in darkness! The Bible distinctly teaches us, that he is the happiest man, who possesses most of its peculiar spirit and character. Not because he has the most wealth, for he may be poor, and, like his Divine Master, "have not where to lay his head." Not because he "seeks honour from men," but because he seeks "that which cometh from God only." Not because he is a voluptuary, but a Christian. Not because he has the greatest capacity, but because he possesses an internal spirit, a

state of mind and heart which prepare him to appreciate, and qualify him to enjoy, all that is worth enjoying, and to a degree that is impossible to a mind less pure. "To the upright, there ariseth light in the midst of darkness." In the gloomiest wilderness, he has a guide that accompanies and cheers him with encouragement. No danger can appal him, no sorrow crush, no doubt depress him. Darkness becomes day, the bitterest flower yields him honey, seeming evil turns to certain good. He utters no complaint, because he knows his lot is so much better than he deserves; he yields not to fear, for he is well assured that by a thousand contrasts and combinations, "all things work together for good to them that love God." Others he sees travelling a gayer road, faring sumptuously, arrayed in rich apparel; but he does not repine, does not envy them. He is content that his path should be through the desert, and over the rough places, so that he has peace and joy within. One of the unfailing sources of happiness, for which we are indebted to the Scriptures, is the spirit and character which it requires and imparts.

Man is formed for activity. Exertion is the true element of a well regulated mind. If undisturbed by the implements of husbandry, the soil becomes hard and impenetrable. Its bosom is not open to the dew, or rain, or to the vivifying influence of the sun. The scattered seed finds no root, but is driven by every wind that blows over the surface,

That

No verdure is seen to greet the eye, or tree bearing fruit to cheer the careless husbandman; but weeds, rank and dangerous to man, spring up from the soil that was destined for his support and comfort. So it is with the mind of man, when locked up and deprived of healthful exertion he lives for himself alone, and only the most sordid passions spring up within his bosom. Benevolence has no room in a soul so narrow; compassion and sympathy are stifled, and all the nobler faculties languish. Almost the only relief from unmingled misery in the indulgence of some of the evil propensities of our nature, is found in the fact that they produce excitement and incite to exertion. God who brings good out of evil, has so ordered it that in giving rise to action and effort, even these propensities produce no small amount of good, though aiming at a very different end. Avarice and love of wealth set commerce in motion, provide labour and sustenance for the poor, bring the ends of the earth near to each other, and spread abroad civilization and Christianity. The heathen of the isles and of this continent might still have been unknown, still deprived of the blessings of the gospel, had not the ambitious spirit of adventure quickened the ingenuity and winged the sails of the navigator. The love of fame may be the only motive that inspires the tongue of the orator and the pen of the writer but God gives them a destiny different from what they proposed to themselves. Their names may