efforts, our imperfect righteousness, shall be accepted; and in his strength we shall be more than conquerors. "And thanks," indeed, "be to God, which giveth us this victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ."

But the future has been wisely, nay, mercifully, concealed from us. If, then, on that account, we sit down in security and sensuality; if we indulge an indifference and practise an hypocrisy, which are, in fact, infidelity; if we say with the scoffers, "Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation;" nature and the world proceed exactly as they ever have done; men are the same frail and wicked beings as ever, and yet no judg ments overtake them; they live on, one generation after another, in thoughtlessness, impiety, and pleasure, and then die and follow their fathers; what need we fear any interruption in the regular course of things, or why need we be better than they?—then shall we bring upon ourselves swift destruction; for, come when it will under such circumstances, death will overtake us unprepared: and the " enemy shall come in like a flood."-"Evil shall come upon us, and we shall not know from whence it cometh; and mischief shall fall upon us, and we shall not be able to put it off."

Now, then, my brethren, that another year is

closing upon you, and you are soon to celebrate the birth and incarnation of him, who hath delivered you from the powers of darkness, and hath translated you into his kingdom;

then, my brethren, whatever has been the past, awake from the fatal slumbers of sin, and make yourselves meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. "Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near." So shall ye redeem the time! So shall ye be ready to "meet your God;" and so shall "that hour not come upon you unawares."

Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.

Or, as the words stand in the 6th verse of the 45th Psalm (Bible translation),

Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre.

It is the duty of the Christian minister, to direct his hearers occasionally to those more extensive contemplations of God's dealings with man, which serve to bring Christianity as a whole or general system under their eyes, and to illustrate and connect together the several particular duties and doctrines, belonging to the great scheme of our redemption: such views of the divine dispensations tend to give a clearer and

more comprehensive insight into the covenant. of mercy, existing between God and man; to show the true relation, in which the latter stands to the things, persons, and events around him, in this state of his existence; to point out the part which, in that relation, it becomes him to perform; to render him sensible of the disorder, and derangement, and mischief to the whole, occasioned by his individual misconduct, when he loses sight of that relation; and also, to make manifest the reference, which the things that are seen bear to those that are not seen,-the things temporal to the things eternal. Inquiries of this kind, are sometimes altogether neglected, as belonging rather to the province of natural, in contradistinction to revealed, religion but it should be remembered, that this division of such subjects, although of use in the arrangement of the evidences of religion, has no place in the wide field of Christian instruction from the pulpit; since natural religion, or that which is discoverable by reason, and from the works of God, can here be viewed beneficially, only through the medium of revelation. Thus considered, however, it is indeed most useful and edifying; and bring shome to our convictions, very forcibly, those important declarations of Scripture respecting the government, conservation, and disposal of all things here, which might otherwise be ad

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mitted too vaguely, and too generally to be useful. Viewed under this light, their value and application are seen at once; and we attach immediately, not merely an intelligible meaning, but a weighty practical influence to such passages as these: "Be ye sure that the Lord, he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. "God is the King of all the

earth." "God is a righteous judge." "Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth;" and, not to multiply instances, the declaration in the text, " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre."

Let us then, on the present occasion, inquire, in a brief and general manner, whether even in this world of ours, and in this our fallen state, under which a curse, to an extent unknown to us, attends the earth, as well as ourselves, there are not abundant marks of the administration of a " right sceptre," in the scenes and events around us; that is, of an all-disposing Providence, equally wise, and good, and equitable. In doing this, I shall not confine myself to the inductions and inferences of reason, but take rather a wider and more Christian view of the subject; surveying the region round, in a manner, as it may best suit my purpose, either from Sinai, or Pisgah, or even Calvary itself.