self wrong or desist from its

say of such a spirit as this?

purpose. What shall we It has resisted the grace

of the blessed Saviour. It has cast off the fear of the It has denied the holy and the just.

Lord Almighty. It has thrown in its portion with reprobate men; and the powers of darkness have been chosen rather than the sweet influences of light; and the ascendency of the lawless and the lost rather than submission to the Father of Spirits and his kingdom of peace.

But we do not only advance our preconceived notions and our meditated perverseness above the plain declarations of the gospel and the warnings of its law. What is more common than to indulge feelings of sudden resentment, or rooted dislike, so far as to disavow its whole authority of love and mercy? There are they, who would rather humble an enemy than make him cease to be one; the petulant, whose words are intended to hurt and not to heal, the vindictive overlooking every thing in the way to their revenge. What do their hearts call out for otherwise or less than what was demanded by the Jewish populace, 'not this man, but Barabbas?' Let loose the robber. We would rather

have him than the preacher of forbearance, the pattern of charity; for he reminds us of our offences, while he reveals the universal compassion of God. Make room for the bitter and the bad, and let the divine genius of instruction and mercy be sacrificed. It is so that ungracious passions now, as they then did, blind us to the perception of what is just, and harden us against the love of what is good. Marvel not then at those ancient transgressors, but look well to yourselves. If you cherish a temper and habits like theirs, you will

always be doing a work like theirs. Whenever you are fierce and unrelenting, whenever you submit inflammable feelings to the breath of designing men, whenever you so prejudge the will of heaven as to be impatent of every thing that does not correspond with that rash judgment, whenever you prefer the hurt of your neighbor to his happiness, or any maddening habit of your own to a sober self-government, or a lie to the truth of God, then the act of disclaiming Christ is committed again, and you have put him to an open shame. him to an open shame. What are all hardness of heart and neglect of the holy word and commanments, what are envy and strife and every evil work, ments,—what but murderers from the beginning? And do not the requirements of the Christian law and the graces of the Christian temper represent as in his own person the very Ford of glory? That Lord has even told us, that whatever we do towards the afflicted, the unbefriended, the defenceless, we do towards him. him then, when you have forsaken the cause, or left the innocent to suffer. you did it-whether at the instigation of another's malice, or to give liberty to any of the imprisoned and condemned shapes of your own sin.

You have refused helpless in their No matter, why

Thus, the choice is continually set before us, that was set before the Jewish multitude. And woe to us, woe if we choose like them! Then shall we put away from us the angel of the covenant, and find, as they did, our habitation left unto us desolate. May the spirit of love, and of the truth that sanctifies, preserve us all from such an infatuation! May it establish us in a better judgment. May it direct us in the way and to the abiding-places of life!

SERMON VIII.

BY REV. GEORGE W. BURNAP, BALTIMORE,

THE LIFE OF THE SOUL.

MATT. IV. 4.—MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD

WHICH PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.

ONE of the great mistakes which men commit in ordering the plan of their lives, in their search after the greatest good, is, that they seek excellence in the cultivation of too few of their powers, and happiness from access to a narrow circle of the sources of pleasure. They select some little corner in the garden of life, and there they bestow all their care, leaving the rest to barrenness and desolation. They choose a few, and these perhaps mean objects of pursuit, and fondly think to fill with them the boundless capacities of an immortal soul. Among these objects, wealth holds the first place, and Mammon, among false gods, draws after him the greatest multitude of worshippers.

It is true, the question, what shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed, to beings who must have food or famish, must have clothing or suffer, must have habitations or perish, is one of pressing, paramount importance. It must require, for it was intended by God's will to require, a great part of our time to satisfy these wants. In the sweat of thy face shalt