woods, the growing corn, the tuneful birds, the blooming gardens, the grass, the flowers-all are our monitors and friends: we are never alone: we are everywhere with God. our Religion is a reality: we are a Law to ourselves: we are a light to them that sit in darkness; and shall every day grow worthier the high privilege of accounting ourselves Men; and Jesus our Elder Brother; and God (the Creator and Preserver of all things) our indulgent Father-our evermindful, neverfailing Friend to whom be all praise, and glory, and honor, for ever! and for ever! Amen.

THE "ONE THING" DESIRED BY

THE PSALMIST.

"One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after.-That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple."-PSALM xxvii. 4.

MY

Y DEAR FRIENDS,—Before entering upon the principal topic suggested by this passage from the Royal Psalmist, there are one, two, or three circumstances which claim our consideration.

Jesus of Nazareth is called THE SON OF DAVID. Why? Because if the table of his genealogy given by the Evangelist Matthew in the first chapter of his gospel is to be relied on, Jesus was the son of Joseph (who was the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born), and Joseph traced his descent in direct line from Solomon (born of her that had been the wife of Urias), who was the son of David, King of Israel. Now, if Jesus was by lineal descent the son of David (and there seems to be no reason to doubt the genealogy) he was the son of Joseph; hence JOSEPH WAS HIS FATHER-and there was no miracle in the matter.

That his birth was attributed by his contemporaries to a miraculous interposition of God, is a proof of the holiness of his life, and of the extraordinary greatness and goodness of

his character. The world, long abused by an erroneous notion, is only just beginning to feel how great and good that character is; and in what consists the difference which renders it extraordinary when compared with the characters of all other men of whom History has preserved a record. Some men are great POETS-Shakespere was one of these; some are great PHILOSOPHERS-Socrates and Plato may be mentioned as types; some are great WARRIORS-Alexander was one; some are great LEGISLATORS—such was Moses; some are great PATRIOTS—our own Hampden was a bright example. Some men are great in ART, and some in ARMS, and some in SCIENCE, and some in POLITICS, and some in LEARNING, and some in knowledge and interpretation of HUMAN Law. David was greatly PIOUS; Solomon was greatly WISE. Put all these together, face them all in one, and they will not make a JESUS OF NAZARETH--the PERFECTLY GOOD MAN.

Jesus was the embodiment of that greatness to which all other greatness (when the world shall have learned how to profit by his example) must thenceforward forever, tend. He was the embodiment of that Principle which has for its aim and end, the elevation and happiness-present and prospective of all humanity. He saw that WISDOM and PIETY, and LAW, and LEARNING, and POLITICS, and SCIENCES, and PHILOSOPHY, and ARTS, and ARMS, are but as "sounding brass and tinkling cymbals,"—or something vainer and more valueless,-IF NOT DIRECTED TO THIS HOLY END: hence his Religion-which bids us live for God and Humanity—that Religion which rejects none of these forms of greatness (save that of Arms), but acccpts them

all, and would employ them all, as means, not ends,—as instruments and helps-to that upward progress in the perfectibility of the human spirit which is blessedness-is its Heaven.

There is then a great difference between the character of David and that of Jesus. David was pious in a high degree; but PIETY is not RELIGION; nor when Self is the sole object does it constitute the half. With Piety equal to David's Jesus (without aptitude of selfishness) possessed a Love large as the ever widening circle of Humanity,—a SYMPATHY that embraced the World.

Read the Psalms, and you will see, (grandly pious, though they are) that the blessings sought are, for the most part, personal; read the Gospels, and you will see that SELF is lost sight of in the service of Humanity—that JESUS labored, and thought and prayed and suffered,-FOR MANKIND. David calls down imprecations on the heads of his enemies: JESUS forgives them-even in his agony on the Crossforgives them and tries to do them good. DAVID is the personification of human Law: JESUS, of Divine exhaustless LOVE. DAVID is a ruler; JESUS, a teacher of men. David can become a teacher only when men possess (what JESUS supplies us with) that test of all moral and religious Truth which shews us, that whatever is good and desirable for one man, is good and desirable for all; and which at the same time teaches us how to distinguish between the evil and the good. For this knowledge we search in vain in the Psalms, in the Prophets, in the writers of the Old Testament, and in the writers of the New, until we have found in the words of Jesus, that Light-the counterpart

and reflex of a Light within us-by which alone the Religion contained in the Bible is discoverable by man. -By the aid of this Light let us examine the passage from the pious Psalmist which forms the starting-point of the present discourse.

"One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after;—That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His Temple."

It will be remembered that in my discourse on the Lord's Prayer I attempted to prove to you that the "One thing" we are instructed in that formulary "to desire" of God, and day by day to "seek after," is that reign of Peace and Love and Righteousness on Earth which Jesus therein denominates, GOD'S KINGDOM,-a desire, which comprehends everything desirable, whether for individual men, or the race. I endeavoured to convince you and I hope successfully, that a "desire" in the form of a solemn prayer to God, is in effect, and ought to be so considered in fact, a solemn pledge on our part to do what in us lies for its accomplishment. This is exactly the Psalmist's view, for when "he desires" "That he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and enquire in His Temple,” he distinctly and emphatically says "that will I seek after:"-not, as you will perceive, after having put his prayer in the form of a desire,-that he will indolently wait for God to work a miracle in his behalf, and thus execute it for him; but that he himself "will seek after it,"—that he will make the realization of this exalted and holy desire