garments. Yes, O God, I will fall before thee in thine house, prostrating my soul, forgetting a while the world and its vanities, and clinging to thee as my support and comfort, when my feet shall stumble on the dark mountains, and in all the changes and chances of this mortal life. Whoever is the preacher, and whatever the doctrine, I will not be wanting to myself, a fallen, sinful, undeserving creature as I am, who who may lose my senses and my life in a moment, and who have need of every help to keep me from deplorable depravity and misery unutterable!

If thus you argue with yourself, you will go home. with a blessing on your head, and probably find all your days sweetly tranquillised by the devout exercise of your Sundays. It was an observation of the learned Judge Hales, an able lawyer, in a profession not much addicted to superstition, "that he found the success and happiness of the ensuing week, greatly depend on the manner in which he spent his Sunday."

be

But, if the ministerial office is able to contribute to your happiness, surely those who exercise it, notwithstanding an insufficiency arising from infirmity, are worthy of your esteem for their works sake. Yes; we seek your esteem. We are not ashamed to avow that ambition. We seek your esteem; not indeed from vanity, but that our instructions may more efficacious, our doctrine more acceptable. Popularity is only so far to be desired, as it renders the ministry of him, who is so happy as to enjoy it, more beneficial. It is often in itself a snare to its possessor, and in the present state of the church it certainly leads not to lucrative advantage. It is, however, an instrument of great good, and therefore much to be valued, if it comes uncourted by sinister

320 ON THE DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND THE HEARER.

arts, and mean compliances with unreasonable demands.

Let me conclude with reminding you after all, that the hearing of sermons is no virtue in itself, but merely an auxiliary duty. Let us therefore be, as the Apostle desires, doers of the word, and not hearers only; deceiving ourselves. The words of Ezekiel may not be inapplicable to this occasion. Son of man, says he, the children of thy people still are talking of thee by the walls, and within the doors of the houses; and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.

And they come unto thee, and they sit before thee as my people; and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness.

And lo! thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

Thus you recollect, that though pleasure may be made the vehicle of instruction, yet it must not be the end in which we are to acquiesce. The salutary draught may be sweetened, the health-restoring pill may be gilded; but if we take nothing but the syrup and the gilding, our eye or our palate may be pleased, while our disease remains uncured. Come with an honest and upright heart, and a sincere desire, not of being amused only, but of learning, in order to practise, your duty; and then, however mean the performance or the performer, you will not depart without a blessing. God will open your ears, illuminate your understandings, and direct your inclinations to the things which belong unto your peace.

It evidently appears then, that both hearer and preacher may justly exclaim, when they duly consider their duties, Who is sufficient for these things? What remains, but that they supplicate the God of mercies to supply their defects, to accept, after their earnest endeavours, the will for the deed, and to let his mercy receive, what his justice might reject and condemn.

Let us all, both hearers and preachers, remember with comfort, that though we are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, yet our sufficiency is of God, who, in "all our works begun, continued, and ended in him, will assist us with his most gracious favour; that we may glorify his most holy name, and finally obtain everlasting salvation."

SERMON XXIII.*

ON THE BENEFITS TO BE DERIVED FROM THE SIGHT OF A

FUNERAL.

PSALM Cii. 23.-He brought down my strength in my journey, and shortened my days.—

It was the particular manner of our blessed Saviour, when he had assembled the multitude, to derive topics of moral instruction from the objects which were immediately before him, and which unavoidably obtruded themselves on the eyes of his audience.

It was the spring season, when he gave them the sermon on the mount. Observe it, and you will find almost all the allusions are to things which, at that time, and from that place, a mount, offered them

* Preached at Tunbridge, on the death of a poor woman, the wife of a carrier, who was taken ill on one of her journies, and died soon after.

selves to his view, and to the notice of those whom he addressed.

Thus when he taught them to trust in God, he bade them behold the fowls of the air, which were then gaily on the wing, or melodiously chanting their carols around them, fed by divine Providence, though they did not sow, nor reap, like the husbandmen, who were probably sowing their fields in his sight at that moment. He desired them to notice the lilies, that is, all the gay flowers of the field, which were then blooming around them in the meadows, and were so beautifully clothed by the Almighty; and yet toiled not, like the labourers in the field, who were then busy in their vernal husbandry. You will find, in like manner, that on whatever subject he discoursed, he attended to the prospect immediately before him, or to the profession and circumstances of those who heard him. Thus were his instructions better attended to; they became lively and picturesque; they entertained while they improved, and they had nothing of the dull manner of a formal harangue.

In humble imitation of our blessed Saviour, the ministers of the Gospel endeavour to instruct their hearers from the passing scene. A funeral is one of those spectacles which cannot fail to afford a striking lesson. Look at that coffin, in which are deposited the poor remains of a human being. Pause, and reflect, It affords a sermon of itself, and, to a thinking mind, renders the admonitions of the pulpit entirely superfluous.

Yet the affectionate regard of surviving relations requires, on the occasion, a discourse from the pulpit. It is a wish that does honour to the filial piety of those who entertain it. And it is the rather complied with, as it affords an opportunity of conveying

some instruction, which might not rise spontaneously in the minds of those who, from various motives, attend in crowds this funeral ceremony.

You who know the circumstances of the last illness which brought our departed sister to her end, will not be at a loss to account for the choice of my text. He brought down my strength in my journey, and shortened my days. The cold hand of death first caught hold of her in one of those journies which she usually took, with her industrious partner, to gain an honest maintenance. Death grasped her on her journey, nor let her go again till he had gained dominion over her; brought her in triumph, as you now see, and placed her on that bier, in her passage to his empire, the grave,

I find not any thing particularly calamitous, or singularly remarkable, in the circumstances of her dissolution. She had arrived at a good old age. She is going to her grave, as Job beautifully expresses it," in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in its season." Her disease was not long, or peculiarly painful. She lived esteemed in her sphere for industry and sobriety, and she died with a character unimpeached.

In a series of three-score years and ten, I find her name free from any stain; and silence, in a censorious age, is praise. To have been a good wife, is surely a most honourable character.

Far be it from me, to prostitute the pulpit to indiscriminate praise. I shall not attempt to deck a plain character in the gaudy colours of rhetoric. To her cold ear, praise and dispraise are alike indifferent. Exaggerated and extravagant encomiums cannot be agreeable to her relatives. She is before the tribunal of her God. There let us hope and pray, that she will receive the reward which we have