hensible power, and wisdom, and goodness of God. Even the very small part of his ways, and of his doings that man can survey, fills the mind with admiration and astonishment; and these wonderful works of the Creator, which have existed from time immemorial, and which have observed such amazingly minute exactness in their manifold motions for thousands of years, seem destined to last for ever. The speculations also of philosophers on the progress of society and human improvement, and the perfectibility of man, and the hopes of the benevolent and pious, seem to lead to the same anticipation; or if not, to a settled belief that the world shall remain eternally as it is; at least these things lead to a forgetfulness that "all these worlds shall be dissolved, that the heavens and the earth, which now exist, are, by the word of God, kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men; when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up."

I take these expressions of Holy Writ, my brethren, in their literal acceptation, and do not think that they refer figuratively to the dissolution of the Jewish dispensation ; nor do the new heaven and new earth refer to the introduction of Christianity, nor to the millennial glory and happiness; but I believe the whole refers, as St. Peter expresses, to the antecedent and subsequent circumstances of the final judgment.

I do not know that the Mosaic records of creation teach that in the beginning of the world matter was then first of all called into existence, but only that the present system of the universe was then formed, and fashioned as we now behold it: so also St. Peter does not teach that the existing universe will, at the last day, be destroyed and annihilated; but only that it shall be melted down, and remoulded; it shall be burned, and from its ashes shall spring a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and where righteous persons shall be for ever happy.

On the one hand has arisen the selfish diabolical thought, that "man is not his brother's keeper," as wicked Cain so long ago asserted; and on the other, there may have existed such a degree of self-indulgence, as either unfitted for the Lord's work, or made you careless about executing it. According to the allegorical representation of our Lord, there was, in one case, a neglect of those talents committed to the care of the parties; and there was, in another case, a mal-treatment and tyrannical ill-usage of fellow servants; some considering the Lord as a hard master, and others imagining a long protracted absence would secure impunity; but in all the different cases, there was either disaffection, unfaithfulness, or unbelief. Hast thou but one talent, my brother, and does disaffection to the Lord, and a spirit of pride, prevent thy employing it? Hast thou authority or influence, arising either from station or circumstances, and dost thou abuse these gifts, and render them noxious instead of beneficial, to the church and the world? There is a striking resemblance between the facts of the great subject which we are now discussing, and the conmon-place case of a domestic servant. An affectionate, faithful, willing servant, will never want an opportunity of exercising his capabilities, whether great or small, in behalf of his Lord; whereas a disaffected, unfaithful, unwilling servant, finds perpetual excuses for being idle, and doing nothing.

These remarks, my brethren, are certainly applicable to all the members of the great household, but they are more especially pointed to those whose duty it is to feed the household; the stewards of the divine mysteries-the officebearers in the church-those who, instead of being instant in season, and out of season, to exhort and console, to teach, to instruct, and to preach the things concerning their Lord's kingdom, are either sleeping, or feasting, or tyrannising over their fellow servants. For such unfaithful stewards, such wicked servants, there is an especial woe prepared. The hypocrite's portion is theirs, weeping and gnashing of teeth, in the state of future and endless despair.

It appears to me, that the warning, and the command

ment, implied in the word watch, are addressed to all persons; to those who stand in the relation of mere creatures, by creation and Providence; to those who have become children by the grace of faith, repentance, and adoption; and to those especially, who are rulers of the household. There is scope enough furnished by the subject to address every class of persons-ministers as well as magistrates, to be vigilant in the performance of their respective duties; and to address churches on the necessity of communicating a knowledge of their Lord's will to all the different national branches of the household, scattered over the face of the world; beginning, however, in their own houses, their own neighbourhoods, and their respective countries. But we this day merely glance at these various topics, and I shall now close with noticing the motives to watchfulness which Holy Scripture sanctions. Some of these are addressed to admiration of what is excellent, and gratitude for what is kind; but more to our fears and to our hopes.

It has been a conceit of proud man, both in the west and in the east, in ancient Rome and in modern China, that either hope or fear entering into the motive of moral action, is destructive of virtue. But this is a sentiment as opposite as possible to the whole scope of divine revelation; for promises and threatenings, exciting hopes, and awakening fears, run through the whole of the Sacred Volume from beginning to end. The promises of pardon and of peace, and of a filial relation to God, and eternal bliss, are presented to the hopes of faith and repentance. The servant who has faithfully employed the talents committed to his care, shall be commended by the great Lord of all for having done well, and shall be welcomed to his Lord's joy. But on the faithless, and unbelieving, and hard-hearted, and impenitent, who may have wasted their Lord's goods, or neglected the talents committed to them, shall be tribulation and anguish for ever and ever. And indeed, the most prominent motive addressed by our Lord, in the subject of this day's discourse, to the servants of the household, appeals to their fears, viz. the sudden and unexpected coming

of the Master, whilst they are indulging in sleepy slothfulness, or tyrannising over their fellows.

I shall now, my friends, drop the figure or comparison employed by our Saviour, and exhort you to let the possibility of sudden and unexpected death, (which may be considered, to you, the coming of the Lord,) have the weight on your minds which it ought. The old-fashioned distinction between an habitual and an actual preparation for death, has considerable meaning and propriety. Every person who has not repented, and believed the Gospel, is habitually, totally unfit to die; and those who have the fear of God before their eyes, and who have, it is hoped, repented and believed the Gospel; if their faith be not in vigorous exercise, and their obedience unreserved, and their usefulness extensive, as the Providence of God may enable them, they are not in actual preparation to meet their Lord. And observe, finally, that the warning and the threatening in the passage before us, are both addressed to those who are denominated servants, which may justly cause those who hold offices in churches, as well every member, to watch heedfully against a deadening spirit of self-security, and the pernicious presumption, that long life will be theirs.

The facts of the case ought to make your conversation and behaviour more holy and more godly than I can describe.

I have said that the anticipated end of the world should not induce carelessness about the present life, either in the case of individuals, or families, or nations. Let industry, and intellect, and benevolence, exert themselves to ameliorate and improve the present condition of humanity; but let not the affairs of time, and merely physical comforts, or intellectual luxuries, occupy an undue proportion of our care, and lead us to forget God, and to neglect religion. Since neither our stay in the world is for ever, nor is the world itself everlasting, let us not act as too many do, and give our whole soul to that which is transitory and perishing. Let us give to religious instruction, to the diffusion of Christian knowledge which benefits the never-dying spirit, a degree of importance in our estimation, and in our efforts, which the truth requires.

Let us not be led away by the specious, but superficial and unreal anticipations, of some mistaken philanthropists of our day, who suppose that merely physical knowledge, and the cultivation of natural science, constitute the great business of life, and the remedy for all human ills; whilst God, and the soul, and its eternal welfare, are neglected and forgotten.

We deny, then, that the consideration of the world's end should check human industry and physical improvement; but we admit that it should greatly moderate the importance which they assume, and diminish the supreme attention which many persons claim for them, and give to them. The destiny of an immortal spirit is of more importance than the physical improvement in arts and manufactures of a temporary world. We wish now to steer between two opposite extremes; a supremacy claimed by worldly science, and the affairs which concern the material world, on one hand; and a neglect of the body, with a fanatical spiritualism, on the other. We believe that man's duty in time, and his duty in reference to eternity, are perfectly compatible with each other; and he is the only wise