spent in the public service of the church? How shall we prevent that almost irresistible languor and heaviness which are so apt to take possession of our minds, for want of our usual diversions and occupations on this day?

Surely it can require no great stretch of invention or ingenuity to find out means of employing our vacant time, both innocently and agreeably. Besides the society and conversation of our friends, from which we are by no means precluded, might we not for a few hours find amusement in contemplating the wisdom, the power, the goodness of God in the works of his creation? And might we not draw entertainment, as well as improvement, from some of the sublimer parts of that sacred volume which contains "the "words of eternal life," and with which therefore it surely concerns us to have some little acquaintance?

Or, if more active recreations are required, what think you of that which you may make as active as you please, and which was in fact the supreme delight of our Divine Master, the recreation of doing good? If, for instance, it be at all necessary (and when

was it ever more necessary?) to instil into the minds of your children sound principles of virtue and religion; if you have any plans of benevolence to form, any acts of kindness or compassion to execute; if you have committed injuries which ought to be repaired; if you have received injuries which ought to be forgiven; if friends or relations are at variance, whom by a reasonable interposition it would be easy to reconcile; if those you most esteem and love stand in need of advice, of reproof, of assistance, of support; if any occasions, in short, present themselves of convincing the unbeliever, of reclaiming the sinner, of saving the unexperienced, of instructing the ignorant, of encouraging the penitent, of soothing the afflicted, of protecting the oppressed; how can you more profitably, or more delightfully, employ your Sunday leisure, than in the performance of such duties as these; in demonstrating your piety and gratitude to God, by diffusing joy and comfort to every part you can reach of that creation, which was the work of his hands, and from which he rested on the

Occupations like these are in their own nature cheerful and enlivening, infinitely more so than that most gloomy of all amusements, which is too often substituted in their room. They are suited to the character of the day. They partake in some measure of its sanctity. They are (as all the amusements of such a day ought to be) refined, intellectual, spiritual. They fill up with propriety and consistency the intervals of divine worship, and in concurrence with that, will help to draw off our attention a little from the objects that perpetually surround us, to wean us gradually and gently from a scene which we must some time or other quit, to raise our thoughts to higher and nobler contemplations, "to fix our affections on things above," and thus qualify us for entering into that HEAVENLY SABBATH, that EVERLASTING REST, of which the Christian Sabbath is in some degree an emblem, and for which it was meant to prepare and sanctify our souls.

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SERMON X.

1 COR. i. 22, 23, 24.

SEEK

THE JEWS REQUIRE A SIGN, AND THE GREEKS AFTER WISDOM: BUT WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED; UNTO THE JEWS A STUMBLING-BLOCK, AND UNTO THE GREEKS FOOLISHNESS; BUT UNTO THEM WHICH ARE CALDED, BOTH JEWS AND GREEKS, CHRIST THE POWER OF GOD, AND THE WISDOM OF GOD.

ONE of the principal causes of the dis

gust which many persons have taken at the Gospel of Christ, is the very common, but very unfair practice of judging of it by preconceived expectations. They are not content to take what God thinks fit to give;

Revelation really pretends to, what the ends are which it has in view, and how those pretensions are supported and those ends answered: but they sit down and fancy to themselves what kind of religion the Almighty ought to propose, and they should choose to receive; and then, not finding Christianity correspond to these imaginations, they are disappointed and offended, and reject the offer of salvation made to them, because it is not made precisely in their own way. Many instances of this unreasonable and perverse conduct might be produced from the writings both of ancient and modern infidels. But we need go no farther than the text for a very remarkable one; which will at once confirm the truth of the general position here advanced, and suggest some useful and seasonable reflections.

Both Jews and Greeks were, it seems, exceedingly offended at the cross of Christ, at the doctrine of a crucified Saviour, or Deliverer of mankind. But what were the grounds of this great offence? The Apostle plainly tells us, the reason was, “because "the Jews required a sign, and the Greeks