that this commandment, this ingenuousness of doing, he had received from the Father.

From this assurance I learn, that we are not sufficiently individual in our conduct; that we act not inwardly from ourselves: that, to ourselves disparagingly, and injuriously to others, we assimilate too generally with the mass; we descend from our responsibility to the leaning on society, and ascribe, frequently, the fault, as numerical, which is personal. The more I reflect, and that, therefore, truth is before me, so, the impulse of the world, that it may no longer persecute righteousness, I am forewarned, must be an 'acceleration of the spontaneity of the flowings. of our nature. From their myriad sources they must gush, every one independently of the springs, of the risings, in others; but all contributory to the ocean of the tidal of their common blessings to mankind equally.

Oh! that, singly, we were to be henceforth the revealment of God, that, bodily, we are his children! Though it subjected us to persecution for its righteousness! Were we faithful to our nature; did we in all things as it enableth us, and verily as it dictateth; were our every word and action the consonance of its impulse; did we retire in our strugglings, and while the surrounding influences sought, if it were possible, that our temporary affliction might pass from us-yet that our nature rose into the prayer, that not this, our corrupted will, but thine, our Father, be done: were our lives as registers of our affections, no deviation from our first love -then were we the fulfilment, the portraiture, of the

injunction, which was not contrary to our capability, but which was developed by Jesus, who lived it, in the life, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

This, then, is my object in this discourse, to endeavour to encourage and to raise your minds into a dependance of action on themselves. Trust your powers. In their sincerity you will derive their truth. Know, that whatever is individual, none can do for you. You would see this applicability, and even in the dogma of the day it is rendered apparent,—if for another's sin you were rendered accountable. Be it then the same of virtue. Be it your strength, that for yourselves you act; and that another cannot be a substitute for you. Were we all thus actuated! For instance, as a plain simile, Who, in this assembly, is not single, and distinct, and will return to his or her own home, separate, as from all others? and yet, that, according to that home, will his or her influence be upon all the homes that are surrounding?

With these views, I repeat the benediction of the expository wisdom in my text, that, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Therein, we havẻ a sufficient assurance of encouragement, to enable us to pursue whatsoever, as truth, we have conceived. Be ye strengthened in your individual dependance. If ye have doubts, or misgivings, behold Jesus acting in, and calling forth, and enjoining, the qualities of our being. His invariable effort was, to call them forth, to educe them, to show them. He began his ministry by pronouncing upon them his beatitudes,

He closed it, by consummating, that by them, perfection is to be attained. By them, immortality

cometh into view; for, by their oppressions, the indestructibility of their existence beameth. Human nature, by its endurance of persecutions for righteousness' sake, manifesteth that it is above them: that it is the righteousness, and not its persecution, which is the component of our being.

If we then act singly, individually, by the light which is in us, which is single, then shall we be accomplishing for mankind the righteousness which, by nature, is their inheritance; and, in the interim, by our lives, we shall be giving prominence, whatever is the dissonance of society that surrounds us, to those inalienable qualities, which, in each, shall teach, as by one having authority; their being responsive from the multitude, who shall feel their power, and be led to the manifestation, of-How holy. is the life of human being!

SUPERIORITY TO TEMPTATION.

LUKE 22nd chapter., 28th verse.

"Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations."

LAST Sunday morning, I addressed you, briefly, from the words of Jesus in his exhortation to the multitude, upon the Mount, that, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I endeavoured to manifest the truth which there is in those words. Not, that it was an idle, meaningless comforting; but, rather, that therein is typified the struggle which there is with the upright, to uphold their integrity, in consequence of the evil in the world having arisen into the ascendant-insomuch, that it is often difficult, except by the simplicity of virtue, in adhering to nature, and in the holding of the regenerating faith which we have in Jesus, to avoid falling into the seductive allurements to guile which so generally beset us.

Notwithstanding, I endeavoured to show, that nature is strong, and sufficient, in the healthful administrations to it of the truth of the Gospel, to maintain, and keep, in its own straight path of virtue. Nay, that in the cultivation of the capacities of our being, if we wronged them not, the righteous, is the

easy and pleasurable road-the iniquitous, the painful and difficult.

To attend closely to the consideration of the conduct of Jesus, is a solution and safe-guide to this question. The more simple and calm we are in considering him, the more do our understandings open to correct definitions. We discover the rudiments of wisdom which are written in the deep recesses or indissoluble characteristics of humanity, that are awaiting to be known, but, that are thereimperishable-the consecrations of spirit, that were originally breathed into man by our Creator.

The constitution of man, as a creature, is not changed. We see, that, at the first, he was created with a ponderable capacity for good and for evil. Yet, assuredly, that the eventual settling into good was certain. I confess, that, it appears to me, that, in the living of immortality, we shall discover the immeasurable goodness of God in having so made and ordained us. Our race rises in a sure progress unto perfection. The contemplation opens the passable transition from temptation to enduring righteousness, and the infinite life which Jesus has attained before us.

It is not an inconsiderable subject which thus asks our study. To contemplate it, is, to grow wiser, and better. We cannot confine ourselves to earth, and rest here. To make the attempt, is, to discover, that our every capacity rises above the things which are sublunary.

You may momentarily struggle, but you cannot succeed in the futility, to attempt to close your