monest enjoyment encreased and heightened! "The voice of joy and health is in the dwellings of the righteous*."

How does he augment his happiness, who, in every pleasure, in every comfort traces the hand of a beneficent Father; thinks upon the love of his Saviour; rejoices in the gift; and feels his heart expand with gratitude to the Giver! How greatly does he add to the satisfaction which wealth or honour may confer, who regards them as talents committed to him, to purchase an unfading crown; who enjoys" "the luxury of doing good;" and who, with desires weaned from this world, and fixed on that which is to come, can, in the employment of that committed to him, remember, and hope to apply to himself, the merciful declaration of Jesus, " inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye did it unto me."

How can the feelings of such a man have any place in the breast of the wicked? In this point of view, can the happiness of the most prosperous worldling be placed in competition with that of the true servant of Christ?

But still more obviously is this distinction perceptible in adversity. Those who are de

a Psalm exviii. 15. Version of Liturgy.

voted to the world, if not more liable to adversity than the righteous, cannot expect to escape it altogether. They bear no charmed body; they cannot entirely ward off the evils incident to this life. What, therefore, when calamity or sickness shall overtake them, what is their resource?

All those things, in which their happiness was: centred, are placed beyond their reach, or rendered unavailing. What, then, is to be their consolation? The world can offer them none." What fruits" have they in these things? But the righteous, though destitute, oppressed, or suffering, is never without consolation. He knows, and this knowledge, amidst all the darkness which encompasses him without, sheds the cheerful light of hope and faith within him; he knows that he is in the "hand of the Lord, whose mercies are great"."

Hence he has his "fruit" even in adversity. When the world has nothing to offer him, he can turn to his God, and take up the words of David. "Nevertheless I am always by thee; for thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel, and after that receive me with glory. Whom

1 Kings xxiv. 14.

have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee."

From these consolations the worldly man is excluded, unless he shall from his heart renounce the "God of this world." And considering these, and many other present disadvantages of sin, he may be asked, "What fruit had ye in those things?" And the time will infallibly come, when we may add "those things, of which ye are now ashamed." I say the time will come when the most hardened of sinners shall be made ashamed of those things. For, as the Apostle declares," the end of those things is DEATH;" a death too more fearful, far more fearful, than that, which tears them from the world, they loved so much: death so called, as designating the loss of that blissful life, which the spirits of just men made perfect are to enjoy in the kingdom of Christ. How terrible will be that doom; how frantic the man who braves it in the pursuit of that very questionable form, which he denominates pleasure.

When the Judge of all the earth shall say to those on the left hand; "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire;" if at that dread moment any thing could aggravate the despair and remorse of the sinner, and minister to the triumph

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of hell; it would be the application of the question in the text; it would be the salutary, but fatally neglected caution of the Apostle, used as the malignant and exulting taunt of the fiend of darkness; holding up to his deluded victims the remembrance of their folly. "WHAT FRUIT HAD YE IN THOSE THINGS WHEREOF YE ARE NOW ASHAMED, FOR THE END OF THESE THINGS IS DEATH.

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From this death may the Spirit of God, aiding our sincere, and earnest endeavours, enable us to escape, through the merits and mediation of Christ Jesus.

To whom, &c. &c.

J

SERMON XX.

SOME POPULAR OBJECTIONS AGAINST EDUCATING THE POOR, CONSIDERED IN A SERMON PREACHED ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR EDUCATING THE POOR IN THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

PREACHED AUGUST, 1823.

GALAT. VI. 7.

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also

reap.

in

IN conformity with the directions contained in the letter from the Bishop of the diocese, lately read to you, I am now to address you behalf of the National Society for Educating the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church. The subject I propose to treat under the three following heads.

I. I shall offer a few preliminary observations relative to the nature of the opinions frequently formed upon this subject, and also shewing the primâ facie support, which the position in the text affords to the Society in question.