do I act as if I believed God to be my Father, and my neighbour to be my brother? that is, do I believe in earthly things? and, secondly, as to heavenly things, do I endeavour, with all my might, and with all my soul, and with all my strength, to follow and obey the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour and my God?

Such are the thoughts which must be suggested to all serious minds by those solemn words of the Athanasian creed, "This is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved." It is to be hoped that we who are here present have not this time repeated them in vain; but that we shall return to our labours more diligent, and more humble, and more charitable to all mankind, from the lively consciousness they should impress upon us of our own weakness and need of mercy.

SERMON VI.

THE PATH OF DUTY NOT DIFFICULT TO FAITH.

ROM. X. 6, 7,

8.

"But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from above: or, Who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach."

IN a Christian country, where men are taught from their childhood the fundamental doctrines of religion, it is to be hoped that few so entirely lose sight of the great truths which it is our highest interest and duty to keep constantly in view, as to acquiesce with entire satisfaction in irreligious courses.

It is to be feared, however, that the number of those is still smaller, who lay these things so seriously to heart as to shape their daily practice conformably with the standard of the Gospel, and who live in such a manner as to render the thought of God's presence consolatory.

It is the melancholy duty of most of us to confess at each pause of serious reflection, the unhappy discrepancy between our faith and conduct. Το acknowledge that in the cares of our worldly occupation we lose sight of the only object which renders any occupation reasonable; that we pursue as ends valuable in themselves what we know to be the mere instruments of remoter good; and are so absorbed in the present system of things, and regulate our lives so entirely with reference to it, that there are very few things in which we should act differently if we were without God in the world.

This is a sad but not exaggerated statement of the condition even of the better sort of people. Numbers there are who act respectably in the different relations of life; who are diligent in their calling, kind to their families and neighbours, and act on principles, which, to a certain extent, are just and proper, but who go no farther than this; who take very little pains to keep their thoughts fixed on serious subjects, and who would probably live very much in the same manner as they do, if they had never heard of Jesus Christ, or even of religion at all.

Now this way of spending one's time clearly cannot be right or pleasing to God. His holy revelation cannot have been intended to have no effect on our lives and characters; and till we become a good deal hardened by habit, we are well enough aware of this.

Many there are, among young people especially, to whom the consciousness of it is a source of great uneasiness; and the consequence is, that unless their inward dissatisfaction drives them to change their courses, and act consistently with the relation in which they stand to God, they look about for means of quieting their consciences, and hiding from themselves their situation, by saying to their hearts Peace, when there is no peace.”

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Among the various artifices by which men endeavour to effect this, not the least common is the attempt to shift the blame from themselves, from their own idleness and self-indulgence, to something in their natural disposition, and the circumstances in which they are placed. They endeavour to think that their disinclination to a religious life is rather their misfortune than their fault; something which rather excuses their defective conduct, than forms itself a part of their sinfulness. They lament that although they know and believe that which the Gospel teaches them, yet they cannot feel it to be true. They do not mistrust the declarations of Scripture, yet cannot bring themselves to conceive how such things can be; how that great Being of whom they have read, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob, can really be watching over and attending to the thoughts of such creatures as themselves. They lament this dullness of their spirit, and hope it will not ever continue to impede their progress in religion. But this is all they

only have recourse to barren and idle wishes for amendment, and vaguely look forward to some period when God shall set their heart at liberty; some summer of good feeling, independent of patience and self-denial.

This is the beginning of a temper which generally terminates in one of two ways-either in mere worldlymindedness and forgetfulness of religion, or an enthusiastic desire to attain this talisman, a strained endeavour to excite some impression in their minds, which is to supersede the necessity of moral discipline, and make them religious at once.

Persons of this latter class are those to whom St. Paul may be supposed to address himself in the text; at least, the restless craving, against which he warns his converts in the former verse of it, seems the natural growth of such a character as I am describing. Such an one continues to think and talk about religion, and to indulge a vague admiration of high things; and reading about Saints and Martyrs, without having any practical notion how to resemble them, runs into all sorts of strange fancies in his conceptions of excellence.

Having formed no regular habits of religion, nor learned by experience how the common affairs of life may become exercises of piety, he thinks he cannot remove himself too far from the state of things in which God has placed him. He cannot imagine that St. Paul, or St. John, were men in like condition with himself, having to contend