it to think that he is in the pursuit of happiness when he is only in the pursuit of the outward form with which, in his estimation, it is indissolubly connected; and to imagine that, in attaining the honours and the wealth of the world, he is securing for himself some of the surest and most copious sources of happiness. It is not till much has been learned and suffered that such a person is practically convinced of the inutility of all external circumstances in communicating real satisfaction; and that he has recourse to those permanent sources of enjoyment which are so much within the reach of all, but which all are so prone to overlook.

My meaning is not, that either reason or revelation teaches us that all external circumstances are alike in reference to our nature, or are equally favourable to happiness;—that we can possess the same mental tranquillity in extreme indigence as in comparative abundance,-under the pressure of sickness and of sufferings, as in the full flow and vigour of health. It becomes us thankfully to receive, and temperately to use lawful means to secure and to enjoy the things which are necessary for our present sustenance and comfort; and we act sinfully when we attach to them a value which they do not possess, and pursue them with the concern and the estimation due to that which constitutes our highest good.

The obligation to cultivate the habit, and practice the duty of temperance and contentment, implies the existence and operation of that powerful principle of our nature which leads all men to seek their own happiness; since one of the grounds on which we are

bound to be moderate in all things is the close connexion between moderation and our present and ultimate good. It is not because there are any indisposed to pursue happiness that so many complain of the want of it; but because many, either from ignorance or from the absence of self-government, neglect the cultivation of that religious and moral cxcellency in connexion with which it can be attained; and who, while they eagerly grasp at fancied enjoyments precipitate themselves into absolute and irremediable woe. He who is intimately acquainted with the weaknesses of our frame, who has formed it susceptible of so much enjoyment, who has given us laws by which to regulate our powers and capacities, has commanded us to live soberly, and righteously, and godly, to be so temperate in the use of things lawful, and in the exercise of our desires and affections, that our moderation may be seen of all men. This moderation is to be used in reference to bodily enjoyments; to sorrow for the loss of friends or of property; and to the indulgence of the desires and affections of the

mind.

First, we are to exercise temperance in our bodily gratifications. Much of what we owe to ourselves as rational and accountable beings is included in this view of moderation; and as there is no part of our duty of more difficult performance, so there is none that requires more continued self-denial in its practice. The mere gratification of those appetites which for wise and beneficent ends are connected with our bodily frame, cannot in itself, and apart from other considerations, be either praise or blame worthy,

virtuous or vicious.

But, as we are endowed with

these appetites in common with the inferior animals, it is obviously a degradation of our nature, as well as a violation of the authority of God and of our conscience, to seek any principal share of our happiness in their indulgence. To check these tendencies when they would go beyond the boundary which reason and revelation have fixed,-to shun even the enticements of pleasure lest they should tempt us to deviate from the onward path of duty, and successfully to combat the influence of evil company and example,—is the triumph of religion over the turbulent desires of human nature, That this triumph may be attained, it is necessary to be temperate in the lawful use of bodily gratification; and never to go to the extreme point, lest we should be tempted at any time to go beyond it.

Secondly, temperance or self-government implies moderation in the indulgence of sorrow on account of the loss of friends or of property. Reason indeed suggests this. No extreme of sorrow can be of avail in restoring to us the blessings of which by the providence of God we are deprived; and it becomes us, even on this ground, to restrain those painful emotions which bereavements naturally awaken. But christianity enforces this duty on higher grounds, and by the most persuasive and powerful motives. It was while the believers of Philippi were enduring many evils from their pagan relatives, who injured their persons and property, that they were reminded by apostolic authority of the duty of moderation. We have the means of knowing that they and their brethren in the faith were exemplary in its practice. For they endured a

great fight of afflictions; partly whilst they were nade a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly whilst they became companions of them that were so used; and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

There are other losses besides those of propertyand which seem much more calculated to dry up the springs of human happiness. To persons of sensibility, what pain is so great as that which is felt at the death of those, whom they love? When bereaved of dear and valuable friends, whose presence, because it has been long associated with their habitual feelings, and with the ever-recurring objects on which these feelings seem to be impressed, how natural is it for them to give way to the sorrow that overwhelms the mind, and which has been so appropriately denominated the sorrow that worketh death! How melancholy must have been our situation under such circumstances, were we totally ignorant of the character of that Divine Being into whose hands we resign our spirits; or if we had no intimation of the glorious immortality that awaits us. If, when called to witness the final departure of the friend of our heart, surrounded, it may be, with the interesting group for whose happiness that friend feels as intensely as for his own, no light appeared to illuminate the dark valley of the shadow of death, we were obliged to pronounce in the bitterest agony, "farewell for ever," how truly wretched would have been our condition! Were such the forlorn situation of man at the termination of his mortal career, we might almost conceive

that the best affections of his nature, and all the tender susceptibilities with which he is endowed, had been given him merely to increase the poignancy of his anguish.

On a subject so intimately connected with the moral improvement and happiness of man, God has not left us to derive our consolation from mere inferencefrom the intimations respecting our immortality which the knowledge of his perfections and moral government, and of our nature and faculties might suggest. He has shewn us the path of life; and by the unbounded prospect opened up before us, he has raised our expectations to an eternal weight of glory. It was for this joy that was set before them, that the martyr and confessor seemed to exult in the flames, and meekly to endure all the arts of inflicting suffering employed by their tormentors; and animated by the firmest faith in the goodness of God, and in the truth of his promises, death itself ceased to be an object of terror. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The twilight that intervenes between time and eternity does, indeed, possess a melancholy gloom; but it will only remain till the curtain that conceals the glorious sunshine of immortality is withdrawn. Then sin and sorrow and separation shall cease; and there shall be no more death, neither any more pain; the former things having passed away.

Thirdly, in temperance, or self-government is included moderation in indulging the desires of the mind. Some of these are natural, as the desires of