Or if, on the other hand, death remove us to heaven-how insignificant will all our earthly disappointments appear! "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! But to fear God and keep his commandments, this is the whole of man." Yes, brethren; this is important. How we have lived on earth will be importantinfinitely important to us for ever. Yet what

effect their lives may have on their future eternal state;-this-this is the point on which, of all others, most men seem unconcerned. I say, we shall soon die, and whether we "die in the Lord" or not, this is the one thing all important to us. To attain this close of life is the only thing worth living for.

Brethren, is your course tending to such an issue as this? You hope so to end-but perhaps you are putting off preparation for it. Putting off to a future time the one thing needful, when we know not what a day may bring forth! This is indeed of all man's marvellous mistakes the strangest. Do we not continually see those taken away who had as good a right to count on life as we can have ?

How then is this final blessedness to be attained? I have said before; by living in and to the Lord. Is religion-the service of God-the care

of our souls-our first, and greatest, and most serious concern from day to day? Are we searching the Scriptures diligently that through them we may find eternal life-meditating daily on the word of God? Are we humbling ourselves before God as miserable sinners-transgressors of his laws and as such exposed to his wrath? And are we fleeing unto Christ as our only refuge from the wrath to come? Is our faith in him not a mere confession of his name, but an earnest intercourse of the soul with him-seeking his blessings-committing itself to his hands-yielding itself to his service? Are we taking his commandments as our rule, the light of our feet and the guide of our steps, labouring to have a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men? Are we thus waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life? Such alone are safe. Let then those who are strangers to this serious, humble, and religious life-who live indifferent to religious subjects-beware how they deceive themselves: theirs is not the course to "bring a man peace at the last."

SERMON XXI.'

ROMANS xv. 29.

AND I AM SURE THAT WHEN I COME UNTO YOU, I SHALL COME IN THE FULNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.

BLESSED assurance! But do not suppose, brethren, that by taking this text under present circumstances, I, personally, am assuming apostolic language, and speaking with all that confidence which St. Paul might justly indulge. Yet I would cherish hope and expectation; would look, brethren, and would have you look for enlarged blessing from God.

My dear brethren, on returning unto you, and

1 This was the last sermon that the author ever wrote or preached. It is given to the public at the request of a large number of his friends. It was written under very trying circumstances, with many interruptions arising from severe pain and increasing debility. It was preached October 5, at St. Mary's Church, Hull, after an absence of six months. On the following Friday, (October 10,) the author caught cold, and died on Thursday, October 16, 1834.

being again permitted to address you, after six months of almost entire silence, there are many interesting topics,-topics interesting to me, and I doubt not to you also,-on which I might speak. I might find somewhat not unimportant to say of my own illness, of what I have been called to suffer, of the lessons to be learned, and the benefits to be derived from it, by you as well as by myself. For as all chastisement, or affliction, is intended for the improvement of those who suffer it, so we are assured that "whether ministers be afflicted, or whether they be comforted," it is intended for the consolation and salvation of their people also.

I might speak to you again and I hope without ostentation or presumption-of the consolations graciously vouchsafed under these afflictions; and which have impressed my mind in the strongest manner with the provision which God has made for his suffering and dying servants. I am thus emboldened to say for the encouragement of the timid, and of those that are prone to be cast down, "Fear none of those things which shall befal you," and which your heavenly Father may lay upon you, whether living or dying, whatever your apprehensions may depict them: but seek to live in communion with Him; and to Him cheerfully commit yourselves: he has ample consolations in store for such cases. I might speak to you again,

and I could do it with strong feelings of pleasure and gratitude, of the kindness and sympathy which have been shewn me, not only by you the people of my charge, but even by the town at large. This has been much beyond my expectation, as well as beyond all I felt myself entitled to. I hope I shall never forget it, but endeavour to return it, if God shall continue my life, and restore my strength by every species of service in my power. The Lord reward all those who have prayed for me, or served me, or felt interested for the welfare of me and my family, especially all those whose regard for me has been for the sake of the work of the Lord, in which I trust they have seen me engaged!

But interesting, or instructive, or pleasing as these several topics might be, they must all give place to one-a common one indeed, but one that deserves to supersede all besides-" the Gospel of Christ." Yes, brethren, in that are involved all our present consolations, and all our future hopes. Without that, we are all " sitting in darkness and the shadow of death," "fast bound in misery and iron," because of the wrath of God which our sins most righteously have deserved. But this "proclaims liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound:" it brings us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."