us; directing our prayers, and disposing our hearts more and more, to a fitness for our future abode in Heaven. He makes the very trials which surround us turn to our good; out of ill treatment he brings meekness; out of poverty and sickness, patience and resignation; out of the snares of prosperity, self-denial; and, out of every earthly affliction, a greater desire for our heavenly rest. For God has not neglected us in any part of our pilgrimage; he has called us, in the first instance, to the knowledge of his grace in Christ Jesus; he has justified or acquitted us from all our past sins; and, having strengthened and perfected us by his Spirit, he finally brings us into glory. Thus far I have but followed the words of the Apostle in the seven or eight verses immediately after the text, because I wished to give a connected view of the whole of this part of his epistle. We observe then, that he speaks of our being actually in this life in a condition of great imperfection, continually struggling with evil, and conscious of it; but aided by the Holy Spirit helping our infirmities, till being sufficiently purified and perfected, we become indeed the sons of God, partakers of his holiness, and therefore of his happiness.

It must be, I think, a useful exercise to lay

1

before our eyes these splendid pictures of the promises that are set before us, and of the manner in which God prepares us for the enjoyment of them. It ought too to be profitable to us to observe the language in which St. Paul speaks of the state of things around us, and especially to ask ourselves whether there is any feeling in our own bosoms which answers to it, or whether we do not rather shrink from it as wild and extravagant? When St. Paul says, "We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now; and, not only they, but ourselves also groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, that is, for the redemption of our bodies;" it would be vain to deny that many, that most men, I fear, have no such sentiments; and that instead of groaning within themselves, waiting for the hour of their redemption, they rather dread its approach, and bestow their lamentations upon the hasty flight of time, which is every moment bringing them nearer to it. In fact our common feelings are well shown by our common language; death is still spoken of with terror, and length of days is still eagerly wished for; and far from groaning over the evil state of the world around us, we only regret that it is so fast fading away from us. The bondage of corruption has so

thoroughly degraded us, that we are well content to remain in it; and the glorious liberty of the children of God, when all goodness will be entirely easy and natural to us, is a prospect which awakens no desire in our minds to gain it. Yet in very truth, the words of the Apostle are not overstrained; they are the very words. of truth and soberness, although we, like Festus, unable to comprehend any thing so pure and excellent, are disposed to call him mad for uttering them. For let a man once in earnest try to do the will of God, and the bondage of corruption will be soon sufficiently felt. If we were but for one day to take hearty pains to please our Maker and to deny ourselves, we should have abundant occasion to groan over our degraded condition. The painful struggle which we should have within us, when we strove to turn our thoughts to God and Christ; the fondness to which we should fly back to selfindulgence and to our ordinary feelings of interest, or indolence, or pride, or pleasure, would tell us that there was enough to make us groan in the difficulties which we found in doing what we ought to do; and would make us think with more serious delight of that blessed state, when we shall be good without an effort. Or if from ourselves we turned

L

our eyes to our neighbours and to the world in general, our impression would become still stronger. Think for one moment of our being immortal creatures, "travelling between life and death *," and the strange inconsistency of men's ordinary actions, language, and feelings, strikes us as almost monstrous. If, when we see persons dancing, we stop our ears for an instant, so as to shut out the sound of the music; the movements which before seemed graceful and natural, become at once nothing but ridiculous; and the dancers appear like persons bereft of reason, moving backwards and forwards without any apparent object. Even so, if we stop our ears for a moment to the perpetual din of the world which harmonizes so well with the occupation of its inhabitants; if we look on calmly upon the various scenes that take place every day in every parish and in every house, how strange and unmeaning will the conduct of mankind appear! What words, what occupations, what pleasures, for those who are on their way to eternal life or eternal misery; and whose own behaviour every day is to determine which

A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller betwixt life and death.

WORDSWORth.

of the two will be their portion. We should say indeed, that the whole creation might well groan and travail in pain for the degradation in which it was plunged; and that, if it did not do so, it was only the greater object of compassion, as being lost to the sense of its own evil. For although the actual occupation in which many men are engaged, is in itself the very line of their duty; yet they themselves make it unworthy of an heir of immortality by the spirit with which they enter on it. Earthly things are precious, when we use them as the materials with which we may build up for our selves an heavenly habitation; and the humblest and most ordinary trade or employment may be carried on with such a temper and such a heart, that it may advance us daily on our way to Heaven; and the Angels themselves may behold us engaged in it with respect and love. But when pursued only for its own sake, without a single thought or hope reaching beyond it, and the practice of it sullied with all the unworthy principles and bad passions of the world, then what was before sound and wholesome, becomes at once corrupt and injurious, like the manna, which, although given by God for the support of his people in their way through the wilderness, yet bred worms and