The design of the gospel is to purify and exalt our nature; to provide, in the renovation of the heart, a durable foundation of happiness and joy. It is a blessing greater than all others to a community; it promotes the love and practice of righteousness, renders magistrates just men, fearing God and hating covetousness, and the people submissive to wholesome laws, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake. Its higher office is to open to our view a glorious immortality. It is the counsel of God for our salvation from sin and misery, and our everlasting advancement in perfection and joy.

How ought we to be thankful for the blessed gospel, and to bless the name of God, that we have not been visited with a famine of the word; and that our candlestick has not been removed out of its place. In the past year the pastor has parted from his beloved people, and committed himself to the ocean, and to Providence, with the hope to recover his declining health. You followed him with your kind solicitude, and with your prayers. How much better than our fears has our gracious God been to us. Preserved through a thousand dangers, his complaint softened by a mild climate, his frame invigorated by travel, and his health improved, he had the joy once more to be embraced by his family and his people, and without serious interruption has continued his sacred labors among you, with a good degree of ease and comfort. Grant him your prayers that his health may be perfected, that his labors may be blessed, and that what remains of his life may be

improved with zeal and better success in promoting your salvation.

In offering thanksgiving to God this day, let us remember with the deepest emotion his unspeakable gift to the world and to us, and bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. O may each one of this assembly long and strive to praise him with that glowing joy and gratitude, which transport the real subjects of his grace. Let it add to the joy of this day, that we behold the gospel. extending its blessings into many lands, which had never been cheered by its healing beams. The long and dismal night of pagan darkness seems drawing towards the dawn of day. The swarming millions of Asia begin to open their eyes. Ethiopia stretches forth her hand; the islands in the great Pacific begin to be converted from idols and their sanguinary orgies, and to become vocal in the songs of Moses and the Lamb.— And our red brethren of the neighboring wilderness are beginning to attend to the things of their peace; are beginning to abandon savage life for agriculture and civil arts, and to embrace with affection the gospel and its teachers. We indulge the hope, that the time is near for the full accomplishment of the most precious predictions and promises of God's holy word; that the Father is about to give to his son the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession; that he is, even now, saying to the North, give up, and to the South, keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the

earth. O may the gospel again spread like the lightning, which cometh out of the East, and shineth even unto the West; and that kingdom be established, which shall be the joy of the whole earth. Continually let us pray, "Our Father who art in heaven; thy kingdom come. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

SERMON XXI.

THE PRIDE OF PROSPERITY, AND ITS fall.

(Preached on the annual Fast, in 1823.)

DANIEL iv. 28,-31.

All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty ?-While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: the kingdom is departed from thee.

In the chapter, from which this passage is taken, we have the interesting account of Nebuchadnezzar's dream or vision, and Daniel's bold exposition of it, followed by his faithful counsel, in these words :— "Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity." The counsel was neglected, and the prophetic vision exactly accom

plished, as we see in the text and verses following. I hope it may furnish many useful hints on this solemn anniversary, while I attempt to draw your attention to this affecting portion of sacred history.

In every stage and circumstance of life, very important is the knowledge of ourselves, and a consideration of the dangers and temptations to which we are exposed. But never is it more necessary thani n the day when general prosperity also is enjoyed around us. When suffering under adversity, the trial is severe; but we have some advantages in the conflict. The assaults are more from without, and the enemy more visible. And under repeated suffering, I speak particularly of the ills of poverty, the heart becomes less sensible, and learns to contract itself, and is sometimes, at least, seen to become less and less accessible to temptation. But in prosperity, a man is imperceptibly tempted from his guard; and he is in a manner subdued before he suspects his danger. This remark, I doubt not, might be found verified in almost every man's private history, if he has been careful to note the changes of his mind, with the changes of his circumstances. But as the ebb and flow of prosperity among the mass of mankind are not very perceptible, the influence of such changes is not perhaps so commonly observed by them. The history of those individuals, whose lives have filled a larger compass, or who have more strongly felt the contrast of good and bad fortune, presents a mirror in which mankind may see themselves. The prince, who speaks in our text, is a glaring example of