The Excellence of a Religious Education. prepare the road for others, who have the same destination, but fail of equal means. If you do not impart the facilities, which are in your power; it is the law of God that you throw impediments in your own path. Consider how grateful will be the reflection in your last hour, that, what you give to-day, may have contributed to save a soul from death, and effect a work, in which God, and saints, and angels take delight. Finally, my brethren, if you desire to serve the cause of righteousness, and actively assist to advance an object of your daily prayers, the prosperity of the kingdom of God upon earth; if you would form the attached and trusty servant, the frugal and contented labourer; if you would promote peace, and propriety in our streets-order and harmony in our dwellings-temperance, industry, and humilitychastity, integrity, and piety, in all the lower departments of the community; if you would render the children of toil and poverty the conscious but unassuming, benefactors of mankind, the dutiful children of God, and the hopeful heirs of everlasting life; if, by affording The Excellence of a Religious Education. fording occasion for the increase of virtue, happiness, and physical strength, among the poor, you would add to the prosperity, power, and renown of your country; if you be good and loyal subjects, and comply with the wishes of the king; if you be benevolent men and obedient creatures, to serve God, and benefit one another; if you be good Christians-faithful servants of your Blessed Lord, to do his commands, in informing and assisting your needy brethren; if you would obey both your governors and superiors upon earth, and your Heavenly governor, protector, and Redeemer; you will on this occasion, contribute liberally -to the utmost of your means;—and all that you give, the Supreme giver will lay up for you as treasure in Heaven; you will be using the unrighteous mammon of this world, to purchase a reception into the everlasting habitations, when the soul shall be ejected from its earthy tabernacle. 2 A 2 SERMON XIV. 1 A SERMON XIV. The Interest taken by Celestial Beings in the Righteousness and Salvation of Man. Preached on the Festival of the Epiphany. Ephesians 3. 10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in Heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. HE moral faculties of man are so impaired. THE and depraved by sin, that he has not a full perception of its turpitude. A sense of its baseness grows upon us, as we meditate upon the truths of Divine Revelation, and search into the weakness and corruption of the human heart. While the soul is thus engaged, it is filled with gratitude and venera2A3 tion The Interest taken by Celestial Beings in the tion to the Almighty, for his goodness and wisdom in providing reconciliation for iniquity, and preventing us, unless we despise his mercies, from being forever shut out from his favour. The universal Creator being the fountain of all honour and excellence; to give Him praise and honour, and to do what He delights in, must be the only duty and glory of the intellectual creature; and, any want of confidence in his word is a denial of the infinite perfection in which He exists. Therefore, any distrust of his rectitude, or resistance to his will, while it is infinitely offensive to Him, must be pernicious and degrading to the intellect that admits it; pernicious and degrading to the intellect, in all its powers, and till it be renovated by the power that gave it, in all the period of its existence. The truth of this sentiment discloses itself as we duly contemplate the case of our first parents, who, submitting their reason to the tempter, in distrust and contempt of God's assurance and command, lost the intellectual power and dignity, with which He had en dowed |