this was their practice.-And as it is their truth and their principles for which alone a Christian can contend, we need have no doubt as to what the truth is we undertake to maintain, or what the falsehood is we undertake to oppose and crush. The GOSPELS are our warrant, and the cause HIS who reared the heavens, and who made humanity in his own glorious likeness; not to be defiled by selfishness, but that it might aspire, on the wings of truth, and through works of charity, to him, the Giver, to whom be all glory and honour for ever!

POVERTY:

1TS EVILS AND ITS MISSION.

“There is one that laboureth and taketh pains, and maketh haste, and is so much the more behind. And there is another that is slow, and hath need of help, wanting ability, and full of poverty; yet the eye of the Lord looked upon him for good, and set him up from his low estate, and lifted up his head from misery, so that many that saw it marvelled at him."--ECCLESIASTICUS xi. 12, 13.

PERHA

ERHAPS there is no lesson harder to learn than that Adversity is the parent of blessing; and that its bitter fruit has manifold and mighty uses for mankind. Herein, a man of Sorrows should instruct you. He only is the qualified instructor and the happy man who, in suffering wrong, and persecution, and adversity, hath learned the great lesson of forbearance, and charity, and sympathy towards all mankind. Out of such painful circumstances have the world's greatest teachers ever come; and towards such teachers will its highest and holiest aspirations ever be directed.-To have been born to affluence, and cradled in Luxury, is, in the majority of cases, to have been doomed, by parental fondness or folly, to a life of uselessness, and sensuality, and disappointment. To toil for wealth is also better than to inherit it : but WEALTH is not HAPPINESS—whether inherited

or earned. Generally speaking, in both instances we might see the anomalous abortion glanced at by the Son of Sirach "There is one that laboureth, and taketh pains, and maketh haste, and is so much the more behind:" whilst, in the man born to penurious adversity we recognise that other "who is slow, and hath need of help, wanting ability, and full of poverty," whom "the eye of the Lord looketh upon for good, and setteth up from his low estate, and lifteth up his head from misery," until he hath become a marvel among men. The evils of Opulence are hard to be perceived and believed in; and the miseries of Poverty are hard to bear. Both conditions are abnormal and infe licitous, and tend to obstruct the soul's growth, and to obscure our humanity; but whilst I agree with Owen Feltham that "Extreme poverty is worse than abundance," I am sure that the world's progress in Knowledge and Goodness owes more to Penury and its attendant, Adversity, than to wealth. Feltham says, "We may be good in plenty, if we will; in biting penury we cannot, though we would. In one the danger is casual: in the other 'tis necessitating. That is best which consists of neither, and partakes of both. He that hath too little, wants feathers to fly withal: He that hath too much is cumbered, like the peacock with too large a tail." "If," continues Feltham, "a flood of wealth could profit us, it would be good to swim in such a sea but it can neither lengthen our lives, nor enrich us after the end."

My purpose in the present discourse is, however, not so much to point out the evils of Poverty and the sins of Wealth, as to show you that neither condition forms part of

the eternal plan of Providence, or results from obedience to the immutable Laws of God. The distinctions between High and Low, Rich and Poor, exist: they are patent to all; are recognised by all; but they are arbitrary. They do not impeach God's justice, which is unimpeachable; but only man's justice, which is at present far from being just. Although great and manifold are the uses of Adversity (as I hope presently to convince you), higher and holier are the uses of Justice and of Truth; for, whilst adversity might force us blindfold into the path of usefulness and duty, it is better and more commendable to choose the path of rectitude, lighted thereto by knowledge, and influenced by a love of Right, for then are we,-and only then-what free-agents should be, righteous by force of character and moral choice; and not by the force of circumstances, or of NECESSITY, which would leave to our act nothing of Righteousness but the name. No, "God is righteous in all his ways; and beneficent over all his works." He does not create to destroy. He does not accord to men the noblest faculties to mock and confound them in their noblest use. He created men free-agents, not machines: and they are responsible because free. Whatever obstructs their onward progress in the path of Truth and Righteousness they have liberty to yield to, or permission and authority to remove. Over God's Lawsbreak and despise them as we may-we can never obtain a victory; but, over all human circumstances (which are for the most part no other than human violations of God's Law) we can be the laurelled Conquerors if we will. All human violations of God's Law (whether written or unwritten, or by whatsoever means revealed) terminate in

misery somewhere. To prevent or remove the misery we have but to obey the Law; and this Misery—this Adversity, is the gracious Angel that meets us rebellious Balaams in the way-whenever we go to curse and not bless our brethren. In all such cases we may be sure we are mounted on a beast that will crush our feet against the wall; or, if we urge him still, our beast will find, as Balaam's did, a tongue; and the suffering animal will audibly reprove the Erring Spirit that holds the reins; and-instructed of God, the slave direct the master.

Yes, my friends, a gracious Angel is this gorgon-visaged, grim Adversity, for ever brandishing a two-edged sword before us; and sometimes wounding us therewith, (but ever in pity, not in anger,) that we might learn through physical suffering, and care, and disappointment, what we have failed to learn through spiritual and intellectual admonitions. Let no man-be whom he may, or what he may, persuade you, my dear friends, that God is a Tyrant: that he created men in sport ;-pre-ordaining some to endless happiness, and foredooming others to endless woe; or that he has predestined some to Toil, and Degradation, and Poverty, in this world; and others to Ease, and Idleness, and Opulence, and Power. Be assured that all who would so persuade you-whether priests or laymen, philosophers or clowns are false teachers; deceived they may be, but false teachers still,and the truth is not in them. At any rate, you have my honest thought. I have no interest in misleading my poorer brethren-to whom, whether here or otherwhere, this discourse is specially addressed: my worldly interests are all the other way; for, let me tell you, that, in a worldly point