for his soul?" I pray you all, my beloved brethren, you who are making your way in the world, and with much care and attention to business gaining an honest maintenance, and you, too, who by God's blessing on your labours, are resting from the toils of your earlier days, and awaiting the coming of the Lord to call you to a holier place, I pray you bear in mind this indisputable truththat the soul is ten thousand times more valuable in the sight of God, ten thousand times more important to yourselves, than the greatest earthly treasures you can gain; and that nothing can compensate you for its loss. What is success in life, what the comforts of competency, what the luxury of wealth and opulence, respectability of station, the dignities of office, the greetings in the market-place, nay even domestic joy and peace; what are all these things, if the soul, the immortal soul, be lost, ruined, shut out for ever from heaven and holiness !

And what are all the trials and labours

7

of this life, if we can gain heaven at last? To attain heaven through Jesus Christ should be the grand object of all our speculation; to gain those heavenly treasures which a gracious God has promised to those who are partakers by faith in the sacrifice of His Son; to cleanse our hearts, by the aid of His Spirit given to us, from worldly impurities, and sordid cares, and vanities of this life, and so to become meet inheritors of his kingdom,this should be our care by day, our meditation by night.

In the words of our blessed Saviour: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." May God give us all the grace to make as wise a bargain!

And now, my beloved brethren, let me conclude by assuring those amongst you whose hearts are under the guidance of the Spirit, and whose conduct is ordered

! Matt. xiii. 45, 46.

according to God's word, that the business and cares of this present world, which to ungodly persons are so full of perilous snares, are to you the mode in which God's providence has decreed that you should serve him. If you continue faithful, watchful, and prayerful, the same power which drove the money-changers from the temple, and cleansed its hallowed precincts from worldly abomination, shall cleanse your hearts also from all unholy thoughts, and sanctify even the business of this life to your advancement in godliness; so that finally you shall have boldness to enter into the Holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by that new and living way which he has consecrated for

us 1.

1 Heb. x. 20.

SERMON VI.

ON MODERN EDUCATION.

PROVERBS Xxii. 6.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

"SURELY," some will say, 66 we must understand these words of the wise man with a good deal of allowance ;-how many do depart from the way in which they have been taught to go in their youth! In spite of all the care and teaching of the present day, how many, alas! fall into vice and misery. We must suppose him to speak of the consequences which may be hoped and expected to result from religious instruc

tion, not of those which actually take place!"

I do not think that they who understand the text in this way have found out the true interpretation, or discerned the right solution of the difficulty. I imagine that it turns on the true meaning of the word " training," and distinguishing it from mere teaching'.

You may teach a child the doctrines and duties of religion, you may teach him to read his Bible, and answer questions relating to its contents. He shall be the cleverest boy in the school, and obtain the greatest praise and reward for his learning; yet, after all, you may have done little or nothing to secure him in right conduct; he may "depart from the way" in which he has been instructed to go, or perhaps never walk in it at all. Nay, imagine the most perfect process of instruction. Suppose a young man perfectly well taught, not only in literature

1 The true meaning of training is pointed out by Bishop Jebb in his Practical Theology. Vol. ii. Discourse iii.