great measure, from your personal experience. The value you may set upon his instructions and example, and upon the happiness to be derived from his religion, may be expected to vary with the care you may have taken to obey those instructions and to imitate that example, and with the degree in which you may have yourselves tasted of the blessings which pure Christianity is calculated to confer. Enough, however, I should hope, has been said to convince every one here present of the justness of our blessed Lord's claim to the title which he assumes in the text; to satisfy us all that by his instructions, example, and the blessings derived from his religion, he is indeed "the light of the world."

Having thus attempted to illustrate this text of Scripture, it only remains for us, my Christian friends and brethren, to pursue it to its practical consequences. You cannot fail to be sensible how imperatively we, who live in the full enjoyment of gospel blessings, are called upon to "walk as children of the light and of the day, and not be guilty of the works of the night and of darkness." As we have received from our Lord and Master the clearest instructions as to our duty to God, our fellow-creatures and ourselves, how anxious should we be,

As we

to the utmost extent of our ability, to obey these instructions, that they may not appear hereafter to have been given in vain. have so bright an example constantly before us, how anxiously should we endeavour to imitate it; and that we may be the better able to do so, how diligently should we peruse the sacred volume that contains it, and how fervently should we pray to God to assist us in our efforts! As the existence of the Christian religion in the world puts within our reach so great a treasure, and as a sincere belief in its dotrines and promises, and a hearty compliance with its demands, cannot fail to supply us with so rich a fund of consolation and happiness, how diligently should we labour to acquire such a belief, and to yield such a compliance!

Finally, my fellow Christians, let us frequently call to mind what an awful responsibility must be incurred by those who, living under the meridian splendour of gospel light, shall neglect to make a suitable improvement of it. Let us think what multitudes there are in the world destitute of our advantages, and what an awful judgment we shall deserve to have pronounced upon us, if we suffer them to lie neglected. Let us remember, too, that the time which is allotted to us is not unlimited; "that

the night cometh when no man can work”; and that there is" no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave," whither we are all hastening. "Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envyings; but let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."

SERMON III.

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION.

PSALM iv., 4.

Commune with your own heart.

It cannot have escaped your notice, my Christian brethren and friends, that the ordinary occupations of life, whether connected with business or with pleasure, have a very powerful and dangerous tendency to exclude religious thoughts and feelings from the mind of man. It is no less true, at the same time, that no degree of carelessness or thoughtlessness, on the part of human beings, can have any effect in altering the unspeakably important relations that exist between them and the Almighty, or in averting the awful consequences that must infallibly attend upon a persevering inattention to his commandments. Whether we acknowledge the existence of God or not, he is our Creator; whether we are grateful to him or not, he is our benefactor; whether we fear him or not, he is our judge. The tendency above referred to, ought, therefore, by every possible means, to

be counteracted. Our attention should be habitually and frequently withdrawn from our temporal concerns, and fixed, seriously and steadily fixed, upon those which are spiritual and eternal. This is that religious meditation, or communing with our own hearts, here recommended by the Psalmist, and to some considerations connected with which your attention is now requested.

We shall begin by describing the nature of religious meditation, and calling to mind a few of the subjects best fitted to occupy our attention whilst engaged in it. We shall then proceed to point out some of the times and circumstances which may be looked upon as most favourable to such exercises; and conclude by reminding you of the consequences that may be expected to follow the cultivation or neglect of this important means of religious improvement.

Man is distinguished from the rest of the animal creation by a superior comprehensiveness of mind. Far from being the creature of sense or appetite, his rational faculties qualify him for deriving experience from the past, and forming plans for the regulation of his future conduct. The possession of this reflecting faculty in a high state of improvement, constitutes su