Himself told us what sort of country it is to which we are going, and what sort of persons we must be in order to live happily in it.

We are to dwell in the presence of a great King, whose eyes are purer than to behold iniquity, and yet to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid. How then shall we be able to endure His looks, or dare to appear before Him, unless we have done all in our power to make ourselves such as He approves? With this prospect before us, we ought to feel in the highest degree grateful for the time He has given us for preparation; and more especially so when we consider that the kind of discipline which He has provided for us during the interval before our summons, is exactly such as to prepare us best. He has furnished us with opportunities for exercising all those tempers of mind which He will then expect of us. All the sore travail that He has appointed for the sons of men, He has appointed that we may be "exercised therewith,"-exercised in the ways of self-denial, purity, charity, and, above all, faith. For, it will be observed, that our present situation is, in a particular manner, suited to cultivation of this temper-a temper, the very essence of which consists in a steady performance of duty, in spite of every discouragement, which endures as seeing Him that is invisible.

Thus, then, I have endeavoured to point out that the course of things is so arranged as to make pa

tience and industry the only means by which we can be brought to any good, first of all in this life, and then in the life to come: that they are the appointed means, not only of securing to us subsistence and comfort, but also of fitting us to act our part in life with respectability, of making us just, firm, honest, temperate: and that they have been appointed, in order that the pains we are obliged to take in order to acquire these tempers, may farther make us self-denying, obedient, faithful, that we may, by degrees, be built up in godliness, and fitted to take our station in another and higher sphere of existence.

And I have dwelt on all this in order to show the paramount importance of that patience and industry, which are, as it were, the key to all these advantages, the necessary instruments for working out our salvation. The practical inference, then, from all this is, that we are to cultivate these virtues for their own sake, more than for any tangible effects which we may expect to derive from them. They are of equal importance to the rich and the poor to those who have to work for their maintenance and those who are born to affluence. To go even farther, one may state, that even such persons as have been blessed by nature with moderate passions and desires, such as are disposed of their own accord to kindness, sobriety, seriousness of mind, even these persons have need to "exercise" themselves, to pass such lives as require industry

and patience,—almost as much as others of less favoured temper, in whom the effects of self-indulgence would be more obvious and offensive.

Many indeed there are, who, without much pains or restraint, may go on very comfortably and respectably, by means of those habits which they have already acquired, and in consequence of the discipline which they have already undergone. Perhaps even most people, before they have advanced very far in life, have sufficient command over themselves to keep out of danger from the ordinary temptations we meet with, and to act almost instinctively according to a certain standard of temperance, honesty, and benevolence. Now persons in this condition should remember, that, though they stand in less immediate need of exertion, yet that on its own account exertion is requisite for all; and not less indispensably so to them than to others,-unless indeed they suppose themselves to have attained the highest perfection of which their nature is susceptible. Though God does not force them to labour in order to escape present evil, He commands them to do so for the sake of future good; and, as He shows, here on earth, that we must discipline ourselves up to a certain point even for the sake of our worldly comfort, so He enables us to perceive that, if we would improve beyond this point, if we would fit ourselves to dwell with Him, and with the Holy Angels, discipline is the appointed and only means

by which we are to press forward towards the prize of our high calling.

Again, the previous considerations lead us to observe, that what is true of moral is no less so of religious improvement. It has been unhappily supposed, by some, that religion is a matter of feeling, to be attained to, and judged of, in quite a different way from other tempers and habits. We see, and own readily enough, that it is impossible to become manly at once, prudent and temperate at once; we observe, that to become men instead of children, we have need of time and trouble; and that, after we are men, we have still much more to do before we are sensible and trustworthy men; yet we feel a kind of indefinite hope that, without such a process, we may become religious men. Now we have but to consider what are the acts that religion requires of us, and we shall see that this must be a complete delusion. That the temper, which alone deserves the name of religion, is just as much a habit, just as much the consequence of discipline, as any other temper that can be named.

For, whatever are the duties common sense and prudence oblige us to discharge, to obtain the respect of our fellow men, and the approbation of our own conscience, these same duties does religion enforce upon us, but with this difference;-that whereas in the former case our industry is stimulated, and our patience supported, by the knowledge of the object for which we are working, and

the consciousness that we are making progress towards it, in the latter we are to do all to the glory of God,-we are to impose the same restraints upon our inclination, but for the sake of a Being whom we do not see, a reward which we cannot comprehend.

Thus, then, throughout the whole course of human conduct, to obtain for us what we want, and to make us what we ought to be, industry and patience are essentially necessary; and we have this cheering thought to console us in our difficulties, that though God obliges us to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling," yet He Himself has promised to "work in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure."