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conscience, that bosom hell, but to the strokes of infinite and inflexible justice. The creatures were his enemies, the Creator was his judge, his own heart a witness against him; there was no other limit to his misery but eternity: there remained to him no hope of succour or deliverance. Jesus flies to his aid; he not only delivers him from all his miseries; he procures for him an eternal felicity : and he obtains this deliverance by miseries far more excruciating, than mortals can conceive: 0 my soul, canst thou remember all this without feeling and gratitude? Does not this astonishing mercy require from thee extacies of affection? Why then art thou so cold and insensible? Does God require too much of thee, when he demands a thankful remembrance? This duty is not painful; this duty is the source of the highest joy: dost thou fly from pleasure, my soul? The reception of the benefits of thy God affords satisfaction, but the in dulgence of gratitude for them produces a much higher felicity. Then let thy transports and thy rapture testify that thou feelest the value of a Sa viour's love. Go, carry thy gratitude to the throne of God. But, eternal Source of love and of grace, what shall I say? I feel thy benefits, but I cannot express them. O let my heart ever burn with gratitude for them: O let it never be affected by other enjoyments

2. If this remembrance be thus accompanied by gratitude in the heart, it will manifest itself by the

praises of the lips; it will shine in our discourse. A man who is truly affected with the love of Jesus, cannot content himself to think in secret of this love, and neglect to declare to others, the sentiments with which his soul is inflamed: "From the abundance of his heart, his mouth will speak." Gratitude,

which loosed the tongue of Zechariah, at the birth of John the Baptist, will loose his tongue also, and cause him to publish the mercies and perfections of his Lord. He loves to declare in the temple and in the world, in worship and in conversation, the blessings he has received from his compassionate Redeemer he is desirous to employ, in the praise of the Saviour, the best part of the breath which he has received from his goodness. Like David, he says, "I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth, from the great congregation." The believer, far from being ashamed to confess his obligations, invites the heavens and the earth, the different classes of men, all creatures, even those that are inanimate, to join in the concert which he wishes to form to the glory of the God whom he adores, and the Saviour whom he loves. After all his efforts, he is afflicted only because he expresses so feebly all the gratitude and affection which he feels for his Redeemer. Ah! my brethren! what cause of self-reproach have we on this point; where are the persons amongst us, whose words and discourses

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prove that the love of the Saviour has made a proper impression upon their hearts? How many millions of times have we indulged in vain, useless, sinful conversations, rather than speak of our Saviour? Think you that that slanderous, that profane, that indecent, that frivolous language, which is often observed in your interviews, affords a proof that you have been properly affected by the love of Christ?

3. Finally, to these emotions of the heart, to these words of the mouth, must be added the actions of the life, if we would manifest a true remembrance of the love of the Saviour. In the language of the scripture, to forget God and to sin against him, are used as synonimous expressions. Unaccompanied by active obedience, all glows of the affections, all professions of the lips, will be a hollow and hypocritical sacrifice, which God will reject with abhorrence. Let us then be careful that whilst with the angels our hearts swell with gratitude, and our tongues cry, "Holy is the Lord of hosts:" Let us be careful also, like them to fly to execute the orders of God. No, my dear brethren, it is a foolish contradiction to say that we gratefully remember the love of Christ, whilst at the same time by our iniquities we crucify him afresh, and endeavour as far as possible to frustrate the effects of this love. Purity of life is the gratitude which God demands. Beware then all those of you who suppose that you imitate the conduct of the spouse in the text, be

cause you have certain glows of affection when you remember the sufferings of Jesus, and because you talk much of this Redeemer, whilst at the same time your life is marked by no holiness or charity. The time is coming in which you will find to your eternal confusion, that "not those who cry, Lord, Lord, but those who do his commandments," are the persons that remember the Saviour's love, and will be admitted to his kingdom.

Happy will it be for us, my brethren, if we all thus attest our remembrance of the Saviour, by the sentiments of the heart, the words of the mouth, and the actions of the life. He will continually afford us new blessings; he will be our light and our salvation on earth, and our support in the hour of death: and when his grace shall have admitted us to a blissful eternity, we will still, but with infinitely warmer gratitude, with infinitely more lively sentiments of joy and love, celebrate our Saviour. And when our bodies, waked from the slumber of the grave, shall be re-united to our happy souls, we will shout, "Saviour, we no more can forget thy love; each moment as it passes, will recal it to us : the full ocean of blessedness which pours upon our souls, will ever remind us of thy cross; and throughout the ages of eternity, each breath that we draw, shall be an aspiration of praise to thee."

SERMON XV.

THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD.

PSALM Xxiii.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with ail; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

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IN the season of affliction and bereavement, we feel most sensibly the effects of the divine compassion. When we are sinking under the pressure of sorrow, when those earthly objects which had afforded us pleasure are torn from us or embittered to us, when the world presents nothing to us but a dreary waste incapable of conferring on us any enjoyment; then it is that God is nearest to us, and that his comforts are most sensibly felt by us. In a single month of affliction and distress, we exp rience

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