degradation it inflicts on its votaries; at another, the ruin it brings on their families; at another, the still more dreadful destruction it prepares for a future world. In the New Testament, drunkenness is conspicuous among those works of the flesh that exclude from the kingdom of heaven, and lead down to that place of "outer darkness, where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." If you value your well-being in time or in eternity, if you would shun that second death that is the wages of sin, that "shame and everlasting contempt" in which its short-lived pleasures terminate, beware of this vice: "Take heed, lest at any time ye be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the day of the Lord overtake you unawares."

To the admonition against excess in wine the apostle subjoins a precept of a very different character-"Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” This precept I propose to bring under your consideration in another discourse. Meanwhile, I beseech you all to seek this heavenly blessing-to ask of Him who has declared His willingness to give it, this "living water," even the Spirit of God. If," said he to the woman of Samaria, "thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked, and He would have given thee living water." "Ask, and ye shall receive." And if you know anything of the grace of God, be careful to foster the blessed influence of the Spirit, as the best and most effectual preservative against all vicious and debasing inclinations. Let Christ be in you-your peace, your life, your hope; and then, whatever self-denial may be required, you will have strength according to your day; and, your souls being filled with the Spirit, "your joy shall be full.”

XIX.

THE REMEDY AND SUBSTITUTE.

PREACHED ON THE FIRST SABBATH OF THE YEAR.

"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." -EPH. v. 18.

IN addressing you on a former occasion from this text, I might seem to some to dwell longer than was needful on a vice of which all acknowledge the odiousness, although few exert the zeal which the occasion calls for, to arrest and restrain its virulence. The malignity of the vice, and the extent of its prevalence, must be my apology; and still more the inadequacy of all that has yet been done to repress it, and the necessity of further more general and vigorous measures. But we now proceed to a subject more congenial with the feelings of the better instructed and sincerely pious of my flock. To them I need scarcely remark, that, to avoid excess in wine and strong drink, is but a small point gained, and of very temporary benefit, if we proceed no farther. For we must not only "cast off the works of darkness," but "put on the armour of light." It is not the form of morality, but “the power of godliness" that we must attain; and we must strive to know it in the fulness of its blessings. Accordingly, in opposition to the indulgence of sensual appetite, the apostle in

vites believers to spiritual enjoyment in those abundant communications which the Spirit of God is ever ready to impart.

Large encomiums have been passed on wine and strong drink, as a short and easy introduction to happiness, a sovereign remedy for sorrow, a ready antidote against the overwhelming cares and perplexities of life, a stimulant which warms the soul with gladsome impulses, and suffuses the bosom with a tide of liberal, tender, and benevolent emotions. Alas! does not such an illusion shew that man is, by some strange disaster, desperately bereft of happiness? For could any one who felt himself in possession of the treasure voluntarily relinquish the consciousness of it? or think his enjoyment increased by that which confused his apprehensions, blunted his memory, and, as it were, distracted and withdrew him from himself? Does he not bear about with him, in his shifting expedients, the internal evidence of his lapsed and degraded condition; retaining dignity enough to know himself to be miserable, with meanness enough to seek distraction from this impression, and an oblivion of self, in the most childish pastimes, and even in the most contemptible vices? * If indeed man, helpless as he is, were thrown thus on his own resources, it were not perhaps wise to molest him with a profounder consideration of the sources of his wretchedness, or to urge on him a higher morality than the Epicurean maxim, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." But thanks be to God, he is not thus left in hopeless despair. Under our happy gospel dispensation, men are not called upon to relinquish their lowest and vulgarest forms of pleasure without a substitute, or to give away what they have erroneously * Suggested in Pascal's "Thoughts."

clung to as a source of enjoyment or mitigation of sorrow, but in exchange for the full and overflowing treasure of spiritual, unchanging, everlasting happiness.

"Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." By an abrupt and almost violent transition, the apostle passes at once from the degradation of sensual excess, to the elevation of the fulness of spiritual joy. He had found it necessary to guard those whom he addressed against a vice that was perhaps prevalent in Ephesus-but instantly, as if the admonition were almost an affront, he rises to his usual lofty views of the character and privileges of believers; and as each of Christ's true disciples is a "temple of God" and "an habitation of God through the Spirit," he calls on them to yield their souls to the full realisation of their high calling.

Our Lord, in taking leave of his disciples, assured them that his absence in the body would be more than compensated by the presence of His Spirit, who should "guide them into all truth," "sanctify" and "fill them with all joy and peace in believing." In execution of these offices, He was to "abide" with the Church "for ever," the Divine and Almighty Author of all grace and holiness in man. His sacred influence is essential to the possession of the Christian character; for "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His; " and is equally necessary in every instance to enable us either effectually to "mortify the deeds of the body," or to exercise those graces and virtues by which we are to glorify our heavenly Father.

Now, there is no limit to His gracious communications. except those which the narrowness of our minds presents,

It is our privilege and our duty to be "filled with the Spirit” in all the faculties and affections of our souls-our understanding replenished with Divine truth-our desires satisfied with spiritual blessings-our hearts expanded to the utmost extent of their capacity with "the love of God shed abroad' in them. That Divine Agent, whose grace is not diminished by the largest munificence, is still ready, as aforetime, to refresh His heritage with plenteous showers, and to communicate to the thirsty soul a "blessing so large that there shall not be room to receive it." There is "consolation in Christ, comfort in love, fellowship of the Spirit," that can be known only by those who experience it, often rising, even in this life, to "joy unspeakable and full of glory." These are the blessings to which, as Christians, we should aspire; nor should we be satisfied with an inferior or limited share of them; still we must "reckon that we have not attained, neither are perfect," and, "forgetting the things that are behind, must press forward to those that are before," till we be "filled with all the fulness of God."

But to be filled with spiritual blessings, doubtless, implies that we have a supreme relish for this sort of happiness. It cannot, in the nature of things, be possessed except by those who "hunger and thirst" after it; for those who persist in negligence and sin, even if we suppose this blessing conferred upon them, would quickly lose what they had attained by the combination of incompatible principles, and would, of necessity, soon be deprived of the gift, in chastisement of its abuse, and be left to learn the value of the boon despised by the desolation attending its loss. I offer a few remarks in illustration of the subject :