high nature which once was born of God? and where are the hopes that it will ever return to him?-If animated, on the contrary, by that faith which is able to overcome, we hold with firm hand the reins of every desire, if, in passing through the world, we look to things beyond it, if, summoned to the society of the angel and the archangel, and of "the spirits of the just made perfect," we seek ever to fashion our minds to the height and to the purity of theirs, how bright is the path which lies before us, and how profound the joy in which it is promised finally to close!

-While the words of the Apostle are thus instructive, there is another sense in which I think, my brethren, you will feel them as commemorative. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh "the world." Can we pronounce them without remembering, that there was in

deed One who "was born of God," and who hath overcome the world;" and can we murmur at whatever the world has to try us, when we remember what it had to try him?

This is the high example which this season ought ever to bring to our minds; and it is with hearts glowing with the remembrance of his holiness, that we should ever return from his cross to our own homes.If it be into the scenes of danger and of temptation we are to return, let us remember that He also passed through the world, but unsubdued by its temptations, and unacquainted with its sins. If it be into the scenes of hardship and of suffering we return,-let us remember that he once "endured the cross " and despised its shame,”—that it was by suffering" that he was made" perfect,”

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and that now at his name everything in Heaven and earth is commanded to bow.

-If it be into the scenes of mourning and of sorrow we return, where death has been busy, and where the grave has closed upon our hopes,-let us remember that He hath burst the fetters of the grave; and that, in that final state, where there is death, and sin, and sorrow no more, he reigneth to reassemble, in one happier hour, all those who, amid the miseries of the world, put their trust in him.—

-May these, my brethren, be the influences of this season upon all our hearts!-May the spirit and the strength of that faith which we have now professed, and" which is able to overcome the "world," go along with us into every scene where the providence of God may lead us; and, under its guidance, may we so pass through all the shadows of time, that we may finally gain all the promised realities of Eternity!

SERMON XXIII.

ON OUR SAVIOUR'S ASCENSION.

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go

to

if I

ST JOHN, xiv. 2, 3.

prepare a place for you. And go and prepare a place for you,

"I will come again, and receive you un"to myself, that where I am there ye may be also."

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THE discipline of our church, which has appointed annual seasons in which we commemorate the great events of our religion, has not only for its object to confirm our faith, but to awaken those reli

* Preached on Ascension day,

gious feelings and dispositions which such events are intended to produce. It is ever to little purpose that our understanding is employed upon the subject of religion, if our hearts remain unmoved; and a wise man will ever study to meet those yearly solemnities which the discipline of the church prescribes to him, with a mind prepared for the peculiar emotions which the season is fitted to inspire.

The season which is now passing, is that in which we commemorate the Ascension of our Lord. The portions of Scrip ture which are read, are those in which this great event is related ;-the prayers which are employed, have all a reference to the influence which it ought naturally to have upon our minds ;-and, to receive all the benefits which so lofty a contemplation is fitted to leave upon us, it is necessary for us to fix our attention with more than ordinary care, upon the magnificent event we are commemorat