occasion of the death of an amiable young lady, who came from a distant country, and who soon left mortality for one still more remote. In the printed form of the sermon, the personal allusions are omitted, and it may now be considered as of general interest, on the death of friends. In conclusion, they are all of them commended to the blessing of Him, whose word they are designed to exhibit and enforce. Spalding, January, 1838. SERMON I. THE IMPORTANCE OF RIGHT PRINCIPLES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness ! wwwww MATT. VI. 23. An exclamation this, the bare utterance of which, ought to be sufficient to awaken the powers of reflection, and to lead to the inquiry, What am I in the sight of God? Is my religion something more than profession? Is that profession based upon principle? Has my understanding been opened to understand the Scriptures; and is the light that is supposed to dwell in me a ray from the Spirit? The preceding and present chapters of this gospel, in connexion with the subsequent one, contain the sermon which the Saviour of the world preached to the multitude on a certain mountain. The whole of the discourse, as might have been expected from one "who spake as never man spake," is in the extreme beautiful, and no less beautiful than instructive-and were the lessons of that sermon, even by the followers of Christ, more generally practised, B what a different world ours would be !-less of misery and strife, and more of happiness in it, as if we felt and acted, not for time, but for eternity. In the immediately preceding context, we find some very salutary cautions against allowing the affections to be entirely taken up by the concerns of the present life. It is said "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is there will your heart be also." The state of mind, in order to appreciate these things, will of course depend upon the manner in which we apprehend them; and therefore in the following way the Saviour proceeds with his lessons"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness:" and the words of the text are a direct inference from the latter supposition-an inference so plainly and so correctly drawn, that the meanest capacity is ready in a moment to assent to it, that "If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" The study of human nature is one of the most important of all studies; so much so, that it has passed into a maxim, "The proper study of mankind is man ;"-and again we have the admonition, "Man, know thyself." We may be able, to a partial extent, perhaps, to guess what would have been the condition of human nature, had our first parent, placed originally in paradise by God himself, maintained his innocency. Our imagination is ready to lead us to picture something like a large and happy family-this family occupying a |