not to be found who "put evil for good, and good for evil." Infidelity has her apostles in every shape and guise, from the demagogue, who works upon the passions of the multitude, to the philosophical doubter, who masks his scepticism under the specious pretext of liberality and superiority to vulgar prejudice; or who degrades his scientific or literary eminence into a vehicle for the diffusion of atheistic or unchristian principles. No argument is more common with such men, or more fallacious in itself, than that which they found on the number of talented and distinguished characters in the literary and political world, who entertain no particular opinions on religion-just as if we had not already been warned, that "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." Be assured, brethren, that you are all, rich or poor, educated or untaught, exposed to the same danger; that you have all but one means of safety. Do you ask me what this is? Take the Bible for your only safeguard. Oppose it with firmness to every weapon that would assail-to the light shafts of ridicule-to the heavier metal of sophistical argument to the sharp arrows of the ungodly, even bitter words - and fear not but it shall quench all, even "the fiery darts of the wicked." Take the whole armour of God, and ye shall be able to resist all the assaults of the

adversary himself-much more of his agents and emissaries upon earth. Find your safety where David found his. Say to the tempter, as he said to his own enemies and the adversaries of God

Depart from me, ye evil doers, for I will perform the commandment of my God. His word is the light to my feet, and the lantern to my path. He shall guide me with his counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory," when the herald of his truth proclaims, and ye pray for annihilation at the sound-"Woe to them that called evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

SERMON IX.

ISRAEL IN PROSPERITY A WARNING TO

BELIEVERS.

DEUT. VI, 10, 11, 12.

"And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee, great and goodly cities which thou buildedst not,

"And houses full of all good things which thou filledst not,

and wells digged which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive-trees which thou plantedst not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full;

"Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."

In every age and condition of the church, prosperity has been the touchstone of piety; and, we may almost add, that in every age and condition of the church, piety has failed to endure the trial. It is not in the hour of emergency and distress, when the eye is turned in every direction, and in

every direction it appears there is no help in man it is not in such an hour that nations or individuals are liable to forget their God; they readily fly to him when they can find refuge with none beside, however widely they may before have deviated from the path which he has marked out for their guidance and pursuit. Thus, no sooner did bondage and misery fall upon the Israelites, in consequence of their devotion to the idols and idolatrous practices of the heathen, than they remembered at once that "God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer." No sooner was David reduced by his sins to the deepest extremities of self-reproach and selfabasement, than his thoughts and desires were raised upward to his God: "Out of the depth have I cried unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice." No sooner was the transient prosperity of the devoted Job succeeded by reverses even more striking than his former happiness, than he detected and acknowledged the extent of his corruption; professed that he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes. Neither is it in the time of worldly prosperity and encouragement, that the Christian church has received the most considerable accession to its members; or at least, when those brought within its pale have become Christians indeed:-greatest in the days of trial and

persecution were the exertions of the preachers of the Gospel, and most signal was then the success which attended them. In a word, to the church, whether Jewish or Christian, and to the saints, whether in the Old Testament or the New, has ever been applicable, in a greater or less degree, that expostulation of the Almighty with rebellious Judah-"I spake to thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidst, I will not hear."

The caution, then, addressed by Moses to the Israelites, in our text, was founded on an intimate acquaintance with the constitution of human nature. There was, he well knew, comparatively little danger of their forgetting God, while they were encircled by the visible indications of his power, and their very existence depended on the daily continuance of his bounty; when they could not guide their course without the pillar and the cloud, nor sustain their sojourning in the wilderness without the manna daily sent from heaven;— but when their dependence was no longer thus visible and palpable-when the conquest achieved by his instrumentality should have led them to presume inwardly that "their own hand and their own arm had gotten them the victory;" then was it that they would exemplify the necessity and prudence of the caution given. Looking onward to this time, Moses had said, "THEN beware lest