on your minds, your hearts will be the more earnestly engaged in the pursuit of them, the world will have less sway over you; you will live more for eternity, more for God; every grace and virtue will be brightened; your path will shine more and more unto the perfect day.

Devoutly and regularly attend on all the institutions and ordinances of religion. They are the channels of divine mercy and grace. Bring to them humble and penitent hearts, and they will unite you to your God; they will quicken your zeal and ardour in his service; they will arm you against the temptations of the world; they will shed on your souls those divine joys which will animate you in the service of your God; they will advance you in all the graces and virtues of the Christian life, leading you from strength to strength, until at length you appear before the Lord of hosts in the heavenly Zion.

As the quickening principle of the spiritual life, labour to cherish in your hearts the divine power of faith. It is the inspired declaration-" The just shall live by faith." In proportion to the strength of this principle will be your sincerity, your zeal and ardour in the Christian life. For it is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen:" it brings to the mind, as if they were seen and present, spiritual and eternal truths. The more lively and strong your belief that God is your Sovereign and Judge, that Jesus Christ is your all-sufficient Intercessor and Redeemer, that the torments of hell or the glories of heaven await you beyond the present uncertain scene, the more will you disregard all sublunary objects when compared with the things of eternity,

and the more earnest and the more successful will be your progress in the great work of your sal

vation.

But ineffectual will be all your efforts, unless they are sanctified and quickened by frequent and devout prayer.

It is "prayer which opens heaven, and lets down" upon the soul that mercy which is its only solace, that grace which is its only safeguard. He who, by fervent prayer, lives, if I may so speak, in heaven, will display on earth a portion of its purity, and enjoy on earth a foretaste of its glories. Prayer is the soul of the new man in Christ Jesus. Destitute of this principle, he languishes and dies. "Pray without ceasing," says an inspired apostle; evidently directing us not only to stated exercises of devotion, but to that lively and grateful sense of the divine presence, that constant aspiration after the divine favour, those secret and frequent ejaculations of supplication and praise, in which consists the spirit of prayer. Pray thus without ceasing; exalted will be your Christian attainments, exalted your joys. When engaged in the busy scenes of life, lift up your souls to God, and you will disarm the world of its temptations and snares. When the blessings of nature and the bounties of Providence gladden your hearts, lift up those hearts to God; brighter will be the joy irradiating your boWhen sunk in the shades of adversity, direct the prayer of humble hope to him who is the Protector of those who trust in him, and holy serenity and hope shall beam upon your desponding spirits.

soms.

Finally, brethren, in your course to the heavenly Jerusalem, let prayer be your guide and inseparable

companion, and your path shall be as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day.

The path of the just, refreshed by the lights of God's favour, thus terminates in everlasting glory. But the way of the wicked is darkness; bright and joyous as may be their prospects in this world, the path which they are pursuing leads to death, and will take hold on hell. Let them awake, ere they stumble on the dark mountains, and the things that belong to their peace be for ever hidden from their eyes.

SERMON XXXVII.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE TALENTS.

St. MATTHEW XXV. 14.

The kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

THE parabolic mode of instruction pursued by our blessed Lord, is founded in nature. It is difficult to convey a forcible idea of intellectual and moral truths but by the aid of similitude; thus figuratively represented, they appear with greater clearness to the understanding, and more forcibly interest the imagination and the heart. The symbolical style, therefore, connected with the constitution of human nature, has prevailed among mankind in every age and country. It was, however, particularly prevalent in the Eastern nations, where the circumstances of climate, of the face of the country, and of the state of society, were highly favourable to the excitement and the indulgence of a strong and lively imagination.

In these considerations we shall find a cause for the figurative mode of instruction adopted by our Saviour. But he had other reasons for the employment of it. The symbolical style, though aiding our conception of religious and moral truthsin order to produce this effect, requiring some attention on the part of those to whom it is addressed VOL. III. 57

-was a trial of the docility of his hearers; whether "seeing, they would see, and hearing, they would hear, and would understand;" that is, whether they would exercise that honest and patient attention which was necessary to the full comprehension of the truths delivered, or would wilfully close their ears to the voice of instruction. The mission of our Saviour also was to a "disobedient and gainsaying people." Their glaring errors were to be corrected; their gross vices were to be reproved. This was a business requiring the utmost delicacy and management, lest the provocation of resentment should lead to personal insult, or should wholly defeat the object of his reproof-the conviction of the offenders. It was therefore a dictate of prudence to soften the severity of his reproofs, by concealing them under the veil of similitude, or allegory.

For all these reasons we find our blessed Lord so often conveying his instructions in the form of parables.

My text is the commencement of a parable, in which our Saviour represents the dispensation of his spiritual blessings to mankind, the improvement which they make of them, and the awards which he will finally assign them, under the similitude of a man who, travelling into a far country, intrusts his servants with a particular proportion of his property; and on his return, requires from them an account of the improvement which they have made of their trust, and gives them their sentence according to their deserts.

In the verse preceding the text, our Saviour had delivered the caution-" Watch, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man