the widow in Sarepta, they find that their abundance fails not. They give, and yet gain by giving, having had faith enough to learn the heavenly lesson that it is more blessed to give than to receive. This surely is a happiness so exquisite and deep and holy, as to be almost enviable. But even here envy would be selfish; for those who taste this joy of pouring blessings on their fellow-men have fairly earned it. It is theirs. God renders to them according to their deeds. To all such we should rather say, Peace be on you, and prosperity within your walls; may you be like God's sun in the skies, which loses nothing by long shining, and like the clouds, which are not exhausted by repeated showers. Let Fortune flood her favors round such men while they live. If others feel as I have felt, it must create confusion, and painful questioning in the minds of worshippers, to hear ministers in their prayers, one moment adoring God for his perfections, the fulness and completeness of all his attributes, especially for his infinite justice, and then in the next breath thanking God devoutly, that he has not been just to deal with them according to their deeds; or had he been just to mark their transgressions, they would-and the world would have long since been in darkness and misery everlasting, where hope and mercy can never enter. What can this mean? Is it meant by praise, by flattery, to win his approbation, and so avert the wrath they may inflame by insinuating the want of justice in the Divine administration, an absence of strict, justice, by which the worshippers are to be great gain - ers? The more I reflect over it, the more surprising it appears that reasonable men can insist upon interpretations of Scripture, and upon the necessity of faith in substitutionary or vicarious doctrines, which reduce them to the necessity, even in their very prayers, of impugning and denying the strict justice of God himself, the Creator and Ruler of all worlds. Such seems always to be the desire of many to evade responsibility, and by some art or scheme of salvation escape from exact and rigid personal retribution. This earth is not a distant outpost, barely within the remote jurisdiction of the Almighty, but it is for ever under the Omniscient eye, it is filled and is sacred with his presence. Let us make no such mistake, then, as to suppose that we are left here for a period, only to prepare ultimately to meet our God. Let us not fancy that it is only death which ushers us into the presence of the Supreme Disposer of things, the Infinitely Just. Prepare to meet our God! What is the import of that one of the beatitudes of Jesus, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," and of his declaration, "The kingdom of God is within you," but that the incorrupt and unsullied bosom shall here, in proportion as it is incorrupt, see God in the wisdom and beauty and beneficence of his works? "He that dwelleth in love," says the beloved disciple, “dwelleth" not merely shall dwell, but now dwelleth — "in God." Our great object is not to prepare for death. We are here first and chiefly, and it is the most solemn and noble thing, to prepare to live, to live well. For our living well is the only just preparation for death, and for every conceivable vicissitude. Life is not incidental to death, but death is an incident in life. Death performs no miracle, destroying moral distinctions, but introduces man into the spiritual state of being at the precise point where as a moral agent he quitted this mortal state. Men speak of bringing the soul into eternity. Why, when does eternity begin? Does eternity begin only when the last breath has expired from the body? What is this life to you, to me, from the first dawn of our existence, but a portion of the eternal life which is allotted to us? God, by the presence of his power and his justice, is as much in the birth-chamber and the sick-chamber, as in the death-chamber or the grave. Engaged in our pursuits, in our most active hours, amid the busiest throng, it is still "in Him we live, and move, and have our being," as much as when the eye has been shut in death and closed down in the darkness of the tomb. Let us with scrupulous caution avoid even the use of words which, either in ourselves or others, may tend to imbue us with low views of the real dignity of the soul; to degrade the standard of excellence, which should be perpetually before us; to rob life of its sanctity, and reduce this world in our esteem to a mere nursery or school-house, a work-shop, or an inn on the way-side to the invisible portion of our eternal life. Let this be to us divine and beautiful, a world of God; to all of us, the beginning and an important portion of eternity; a world in which it is a high, and sublime, and solemn thing to live; assured that now and always, here and everywhere, in the world visible and the world invisible, God is no respecter of persons, but his judgment is righteous judgment, and he renders to every man according to his deeds. DISCOURSE IX. FALLACIOUS REASONING.-JESUS AS JUDGE OF THE WORLD. THERE is much fallacious reasoning among men on almost every topic. As parties, sects, and individuals, we have each some point or posture to defend, and any process of reasoning which supports or gives countenance to our cherished cause, we eagerly accept without strictest scrutiny. With many, time is so engrossed by ordinary pursuits, by business life, that plausibility is readily mistaken for proof, especially on metaphysical or religious questions. The acutest perceptions are obtuse enough, and the widest range of actual thought is incomprehensive enough, in any given instance, to expose man to the danger of fallacious reasoning. Yet it becomes us to subject to the severest ordeal every proposition involving an article of religious faith. For though it is possible to hold a doctrine firmly, as an article of mere belief, exerting the least conceivable influence on our character, still every doctrine concerning the nature, character, and purposes |