we think very little of his wisdom and goodness, very little how we are influenced thereby; in all these things there may be knowledge evinced, but no true wisdom, no humility, no charity, no solid faith. If we would do these things for our spiritual advantage, we must at all times accompany them by internal examination, to see how far we are under the yoke of Christ, that is, how far our affections are conformable to his laws. He who is not under the yoke of Christ, may know what is right, and do what is wrong, and continue to find the yoke of sin a dreadful heavy bondage. In the progress of regeneration, when we are desirous of living conformably to the divine laws, the understanding always precedes the will, and is continually condemning our actions. We must suffer ourselves thus to be judged by the light of truth. We find every day's experience to present to view new evidence of our wills being opposed to the laws of God; various proofs of anger and malice, various uncharitable desires, various feelings of covetousness, and so forth: we like the truth abstractedly, it seems beautiful, it wins our applause; but when we compare it with our ruling affections, we find that truth to be not exactly what we could desire it to be; we find that it condemns us. A man's love is his life, but if this love be that of self and the world, the truth condemns us—it is terrible, we are prepared to believe it, but not to do it, because our will is opposed thereto : we find the truth requires one thing, and that we desire another. The truth is a yoke, then, terrible to contemplate; it is not a thing freely adopted, and that which we are prepared freely to adopt, has a penalty involved. When such is the case, let us, at all events, shun the penalty, for that penalty is death; let us adhere to the truth, however unacceptable; let us take upon us the yoke; depend upon it our Lord's words are true, "My yoke is easy and my burthen is light." If we submit to it first compulsorily, by the force of conviction, if we do his truth as a duty, a painful duty, depend upon it we shall shortly feel the delightful consciousness that we have escaped the penalty of sin, not the penalty of an angry God, but one which is the necessary and the inevitable consequence of our own derelictions. We shall thus too find that those evil inclinations which, before, so powerfully prevailed, will be somewhat weakened; we shall, however, gradually find, by a steady perseverance, a less and less reluctance to do the Lord's will; and we shall, ultimately, find his commandments to point out nothing but delightful duties: this, let us be assured, will be the inevitable result of our conflict against sin, for in this the Lord will aid us. Let us, then, immedi ately obey his divine command, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." To learn of him is to learn of the Word, for he is the Word, the fountain source of all truth, in the fulfilment of which he was our exemplar; we must learn of him too, to the full extent pointed out, for he says, "I am meek and lowly of heart." Meekness here signifies the submission of his humanity as to the understanding, to the divine will, and lowly of heart expresses the submission of the will. This is the heavenly marriage. We must never arrogate, we must have no selfish predilections; our only desire must be to know the truth of God, and if we find that that requires a sacrifice of every thing appertaining to self, we must give it up in lowly submission to the divine will. In meekness and lowliness peace is to be found, and no where else; in no other condition of mind can there be found the heavenly balm of peace. Envy not the rich and great ones of the earth, set not your affections on any thing here; whatever condition of life you may be in, be meekly submissive to the divine will, be lowly in heart, and you will find that condition full of enjoyment, your lives full of active usefulness, and the divine blessing will attend you. To be meek and lowly is to give up all we possess, nay even our very lives; to give them up wholly to the Lord; not to sell our property, nor to destroy our lives, nor to give our property away, nor to cease our exertions to get more, nor to neglect any thing that will tend to prolong our lives in this world; but to acknowledge all we possess to be a gift of God, and not given for our own selfish enjoyment, but that every thing we have, our physical energies, our minds, and all that we possess, we hold as faithful stewards, to do therewith the will of our Lord. If, under this conviction, we shall become meek and lowly, we shall be freed from all the cares and anxieties of life, and enjoy more fully all the pleasures of it; we shall enjoy every blessing we have as the Lord's, we shall feel the responsibility of our offices, and the duties thereof, instead of being burthensome, will be the delight of our lives; and we shall have added thereto the real delight of doing good; one which the selfish and arrogant cannot enjoy. We shall also contemplate with pleasure, the good of others as well as of ourselves; our hearts will sympathise with the whole world; the bond of universal brotherhood will be established within us. The kingdom of heaven is one consentaneous whole of love to the Lord and active usefulness one towards another. Every angel therein loves all his fellow-creatures, and is beloved by all; each is a necessary compound part of one great whole, full of the effulgent glory of Him who is the enlivening soul and peace-giving source of all: meekness and humility are the basis of its eternal peaee and order. Let us, then, be meek and humble; let us be lowly of heart, and that kingdom will be ours, wherein we shall find eternal rest. Amen. : SERMON XXXII. ON SPIRITUAL UNION. BY W. H. GRIGGS. Psalm cxxxiii. 1. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." WHETHER We consider this Psalm as applying to a small family, in one house, as husband and wife, brothers and sisters, men-servants and maid-servants, &c., or whether we look at it in a more extended view, as the whole of the inhabitants of a town, or village; or if we extend our view of it still further, as to a whole country, from the king to the meanest subject of the kingdom, all dwelling in unity, as children of one common Father, it will cause us to exclaim with David, and say, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." For let us take a sight of such a family, where the husband, as the governor, is wise in giving instruction, and the wife affectionate and receptive, and both uniting in conveying it to the sons and daughters of the family, and they again co-operating with their parents, by being receptive of instruction and obedient to their commands and wishes; and also where there are men-servants and maid-servants, who are faithful in discharging their duties as servants. How good and how pleasant it is, for a family to dwell together in such united order! And again, how good and how pleasant would it be to see the whole of the inhabitants of a town or village, uniting to promote each other's good, which would be the case, if men were to consider themselves as beings all depending upon each other. For what can they do without the mutual assistance of each other in their occupations and employments? Their individual power would be weak indeed; but when they are all united, their power becomes strong, their work easy, and their time pleasant. So again, if our country was in unity, from the king on his throne to the poor man in his cottage, like one chain uniting and binding together, the whole country would be a paradise. And if we carry our views of unity and order to all the nations in the world being in unity, we should no more hear, or know of wars between nation and nation, but peace would breathe from the breast of every inhabitant of the world, and war be known no more. But in vain may we look for this unity in families, countries, and nations, till the cause of disunion is removed; which cause of disunion is the love of one's self alone, which is directly opposite to the uniting principle of charity, or love towards our neighbour. Where the father of a family loves himself alone, his love for his family is similar to that of animals, which is only a bodily or natural love, without any regard to the mind or spiritual part; and if he is what is called a civil man, still his being in the love of himself alone, it is the root of every evil passion, and causes him to have an aversion to any thought of a spiritual kind, and therefore he lives a mere worldly life, a life of sensual pleasure, insanity, and folly; consequently, where the head of the family is in disorder, it generally happens that the other members are in enmity one with another, and instead of living in unity and peace, are in confusion and strife. The love of self and the love of the world are the cause of the contentions between man and man. "The love of self is of such a quality, that so far as the reins are given it, that is so far as external restraints are removed, which are fears on account of the law, and its penalties, and on account of the loss of fame, of honour, of gain, and of life, it rushes on, till it would not only extend its power over the whole world, but over heaven and the Lord himself. This evil lurks within every one who is in the love of self." Such then are some of the causes of disunion in families and nations; but opposite to self-love is the love of our neighbour, and the man who is in love towards his neighbour, wills and desires good to all, and loves nothing more than to perform uses to all, and to serve all; this is his love, and this is his delight; and this is what unites man to man, and causes them to "dwell together in unity." We may now elevate our subject a little higher, and see how the text relates to the church; or, as Paul calls it, the household of God. For, behold, how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren of the church to dwell together in unity! And we may truly say, that we are brethren of one Father, that one God has created us all. Why, then, do men deal treacherously one with another? If there is but one church, and goodness is the soul and life of that church, why do professing men of different religious opinions, feel envious, and bare ill will towards others, who are not of the same opinion, in respect of doctrine, as themselves? It is to be feared it is, because charity is departed, and faith alone is become the governing principle amongst the different sects. But it would sig |