integrity, I charge it not on any extraneous circumstances, however extenuating I may feel the surround*ing influences to be, that have administered to its cause. Still, I had the ability to rise superior to them; and I admit the full weight of the consciousness of the error on my heart. Oh! yes, it makes me, in my moments. of retirement, feel my deficiencies. I see them to be sins, and it is this consciousness, which reveals to me, that we have the strength from God to do as He requires. As, throughout nature, I see nothing but what is in accordance with perfect truth and love-that there is no duplicity between the tribes of inferior creatures or any of the works of creation and their Author, so I discover not towards man an injunction which he cannot fulfil; but, rather, that, as he is conscious, so he has the additional proof of the goodness of God, in knowing and doing His will, above the fulfilment of it as by instinct merely. Yes, God departs not, in us, from his goodness, which we see in all things else is universal. He requires not of us—as is illustrated in the parable wherein the slothful servant seeks to justify his apathetic conduct, in pleading to him from whom he had had a bestowment of goods, in trust, that he knew him to be a hard man, reaping where he had not sown, and gathering where he had not strawed; and therefore that he was afraid, and went and hid his talent in the earth: and lo, he returned him that which was his :-He requires not of us, I repeat, that which we are not able to perform; but, the improvement of whatever He has given us, as by usury: the doing of that, for the which He has made us capable,-the loving of truth

-the

and righteousness, by knowing what they are:doing as we would be done by, which, surely, we will at once admit, that, in all circumstances, we should know what would be ;-the forgiving of us, if we had committed an injury; the doing justly to us; the taking no advantage of us, in our ignorance; the rendering to us of a social regard, which, with all, is a common requirement; the beholding mankind as our sister, and mother, and brethren; the acting by our affectionate impulses in the bestowing, as we would derive, of things, to which our nature prompts us, and for which we have need; the living one with

for to do so, is the

another in truth, integrity, love; fountain which flows incessantly from us; and it is the contrary which is the withholding of its streams, or the rendering of them adulterated, from which come the wrong and misery that vitiate mankind.

It is needful for the correction of the errors of the world to look at what we should be, to make the admission of our departure from that course of conduct which should especially characterise all those who make the profession of the Christian rule of life, to be followers of him who went about doing good continually. By our profession, we make the admission, that we are capable of doing as he has taught us. It is time, that the actions of life should be brought to the test of his example. Let the mockery cease, of our meeting here, and there being no other evidence, even during the seven days of the week, of the religion we profess. Rather, our worship, this day, of the Supreme Being, of God, should be an identification of all which we do in the every-day

scenes of life. The manifestation of our love for Him, is not by our meeting thus, periodically, for exhortation, and for the rendering of thanksgiving and prayer, in the name of Christ, for the blessings we possess, and when we depart hence, putting off from us our views and principles, as interferences, or inconveniences, in business, to be taken up only on some future occasion, or, as an investiture of our membership on the Sabbath with a religious society. It was not only when Christ went into the temple, and taught, that he manifested the truthfulness of the principles which he promulgated. It was by the wayside, in the house, in all his connections with men ; and, until we do the like, we are not the consistent disciples of him which it is in our power to be. God has implanted within us strength and means to do His will. It only requireth, that we should depend on Him that we should have a reliance in Him, above all things. And then should we discover, and live in the possession; that the power is within us to -act uprightly.

It must rule in everything we do. As we meet here, and prófess it, in our every action we must live it. This is all that we need do. Make it the element in which we live, move, and breathe. And, I believe, that, in a courageous dispensing with the fashions of the world, we should find it easier, thus, to live, and do, and be, than by, or in, the fluctuations that are for ever harassing us in the oscillating conduct of the world, and in our considering what will be expedient, and will best serve us in the opinions of others; rather than in our resolving what is right, and that, that we will do.

GOD IS LOVE.

MY DEAR FELLOW CHRISTIANS,

I shall take for the subject of the present discourse, a portion of the 16th verse of the 4th chapter of the 1st Epistle of John,—

"God is love."

God is love. What understanding attach we to these words? God is love. Conceive we concerning, them ? God is love. Know we what they imply? God is love. Have we their meaning in our souls? Perceive we, or have we light to know, what they convey ? God is love. Feel we this? See we this ? Live we this? We must be love, to assimilate what love is.

God is love. On these words, I pray, that we may be enabled to fix a mindful attention. God is love. Seek we their exposition around us, within us; in creation. So far as we can learn, fathom we the evidence, wherein, God is love.

Appreciate we the capacity, whereby we can judge of the Author of our being? And is our Creator, the Creator of all other creatures? and of existence around us, of which we are in the midst? Of this world? Of the canopy that is above us? of the sun, moon, and stars? the systems in which they revolve? Is the earth, with all things of which we

can conceive, the work of his will? and is it He, God, who is love?

How unfathomable with us is our existence! Well do I remember, when, comparatively a child, the reflection occurred to me, Whence I was; and I revolved, thought, endeavoured to pry into the source of my being, Whence came I? Have not these absorptions come over everyone of you? Know you not the time, when first occurred the reflection, Whence you were? and come not over you, now, even occasionally to the oldest amongst us, the desire, the attempt, to unravel the cause, the spring, the how, the means, the producing, of our being? Oh! how I have yearned, and I have no doubt every one has of the thoughtful of you, to discover, to fathom, a solution of this question! Even now, I cannot rest: I wish not any one of the thoughtful of you to rest, without still yearning for a solution, a satisfactory inference to you, an answer to us, of this problem. Seek we it. Pursue it. Rise more uncontrollable within us, the desire, the seeking, for a satisfaction* to this our curiosity, our uncontrollable impulse. I personally desire that it may increase within myself, though I might never arrive, possibly, at a definable conclusion. Strong within me, as in other men, rise the yearning, quickening, kindling, increasing; press it me forward, in the inquiry, Whence am I? and, How? My heart yearns, my head throbs, my system expands, to know my origin. Oh! with you I know I am, and you with me, are allied, in the intricacies of giving a satisfaction to this desire. The seeking of it, is not, now, with us, original. It has moved all