proper reward, and he who complains that virtue has put no money in his purse, is not worthy of the smiles of heaven, and doubtless misses them in his heart. Besides, it is not often true that roguery and crime of themselves bring even outward prosperity. It is a universally admitted maxim, that honesty is the best policy," and I think it would be found that the outward success, the authority, the influence, the domestic comfort, the respectability, the happiness of the world, ordinarily belonged to those who deserved them, and who in seeking "righteousness," have had "all other things added unto them." We should not be so much surprised at the triumphs of ill desert, if they were not on the whole rare. And, even when we see the bad prosperous, they generally owe their prosperity not to their evil, but to their good qualities, and God is not so jealous that he will not bless what is good even in the most vicious man. Thus, sagacity, enterprise, toil, watchfulness, self-denial, all in themselves good, will be apt to succeed, even when connected with qualities evil in themselves, as selfishness, falsehood, and jealousy. But it is what is good or innocent, and not what is evil, on which Providence then smiles. And let us, still further and finally, remember that "the end is not yet." Whether the peace of mind, the bright and beckoning future, which suffering virtue enjoys, is not more than an equivalent for any temporary splendor which accompanies vice, which dares not look itself or its gloomy prospects in the face, judge ye, oh human heart!

And finally, to conclude the list of grievances, the precariousness of life, the rupture of earthly ties, the wounding of our tenderest affections by bereavement, is alleged against the goodness of God's Providence. And who

offers the plea? An immortal being, that shrinks at and refuses to enter the door by which he passes to a higher and more perfect state of being! Seeing that God's goodness could not content itself with keeping us forever in an imperfect state, could anything be more benignant than the method by which he transfers us to a higher and happier residence? He kindly conceals the day and the hour of a change which cannot but be painful, and distributes it along through the whole period of seventy years. We may last to the end, we may go at any time. To unite us with that world, to interlace our interests and our affections with it, and make us willing to go at his call, our friends are sent before us, and every family completes its circle only by including the residents of that celestial sphere. As if to show the beauty and comprehensiveness, the attractive and varied character of those abodes, not only the aged and the worn are carried thither, but tender infancy and promising youth, beauty in its pride, and manhood in its power, genius and worth are caught up thither to adorn and jewel the heavenly habitations. And, then, the beautiful ministry of sickness and decline! domestic love waiting at the bedside of disease, every tender and gentle affection called forth in the well, every patient and perfect grace in the ill; the heart enlarging and swelling as the pulses of hope and fear flow through it, the transitoriness and incompleteness of the world revealing themselves in the brightness of heaven that forms the very ceiling of the sick room,- domestic ties all made stronger and holier, with every common sorrow that affects the household! Do not these thoughts reconcile us to the precariousness of life, the dispensations of sickness, and the visitations of death?

Oh! death is not without his

smiles. The chamber of the dying is often the nearest place to heaven, and the fragrance of the other happy and loving world floats in its dim and quiet atmosphere. The looks of unutterable love that fill all countenances there; manhood lending a ministry of feminine softness to the beloved victim of that hour; all hearts subdued and melted into purity and affection; no earthly passion, desire, or thought polluting the sacred presence of death; the presence of God felt in the stillness; all, sometimes make the chamber and the hour of death most hallowed and most heavenly. I would not live in a world like ours without death! I would not possess friends who could not die! Every relation is hallowed and heightened by this exposure. It is hard to conceive what must be the glory and perfection of that future world, where death is not needed to solemnize existence, to chasten passion, and exalt affection. But this world has no spots that add to its beauty and its sacredness so much as its places of graves; and there is no dispensation of God, that shows more of his wisdom and his goodness, than human liability to sickness and death. If these be the chief objections to the benignity of Providence, may we not safely say, that the third witness testifies to the goodness of God?

IV. And fourthly and lastly, and with the utmost brevity, what is the testimony of Jesus Christ to this point? I say not of revelation, for Christ is the great revelation of God.

Do we often enough reflect upon the blessed truth, that Jesus is the express image of God, and the brightness of his person? Do we take to our hearts the comfort, that all the boundless love of Jesus, his gentle dealing with the sinful, his compassionate and forgiving temper, his

interest in individual cases of suffering and bereavement, his affectionate ministry to the humble and despised, his utter freedom from acerbity and jealousy, from harsh and ascetic construction of motives, the disposition by which he attracted publicans and sinners about him, and befriended those who were utterly outcast and abandoned, the temper which illustrated itself in his dealings with the Samaritans, whom the Jews hated, and of whom they thought and said every wrong, but whom he lost no opportunity to raise to respect and sympathy, that character, whose heavenly patience and meekness, whose suffering and dying love, we have so lately considered, do we think, I say, that this character is the complete image and likeness of God? That God made Jesus, endowed and directed him, that he spake the words, and did the works of his Father, and fulfilled only his will? As gentle, forgiving, benevolent, merciful, considerate, and affectionate as Jesus, such and more is God! Any quality that would be incompatible with Jesus's character, is inconsistent with God's! Oh! how before this blessed truth, fly the dreadful visions of an angry, impatient, jealous, and vindictive God! Shall not those who would so gladly have thrown themselves upon Jesus's forbearance and love, cast themselves upon the God and Father of Jesus Christ? Yes, let us ask no further proof of God's goodness. The Supreme Ruler of the universe chooses to be seen by his earthly creatures, in the face of Jesus Christ. That humble, meek, and holy sufferer reveals to us the compassion and long-suffering of God! Not in awful authority, not in jealous indignation, not in a consuming fire, not in clouds and darkness, not in tones of thunder and letters of lightning does God reveal him

self; but in the sympathizing heart, the warm human heart, the gentle, lowly form, the uncomplaining, selfforgetting, pitying, loving character of our Saviour!

Can we not believe then, that God is good, that there is none good but one, that is God? Nature, humanity, providence, Jesus Christ, all bear glorious testimony to this infinitely great and sustaining truth. "God is good," is the hourly repeated cry which goes forth, through all the realms of the prophet, from the tops of Moslem minarets and mosques. "God is good," let Christian towers and altars respond with a more confident and joyous tone. "God is good," let the heavens reply, till the universe, now filled with his presence and his love, is also filled with the great and resounding recognition of his Fatherhood,