confidence and supreme love? Withal, where is the lasting for its immortality?. Hear the sum of this address, my friend :-Beware of PRACTICAL MATERALISM. There is a theoretic materialism amongst us. There are men as well as books who deny the existence of spirit, and regard all life as mere organized matter. You are, perhaps, afraid of that; you argue furiously against it, and brand its advocates with stigmas. I share your repugnance to it, but I participate not in your fears. An unsound theory can be shivered by argument, and a theory which clashes with the instinctive beliefs of humanity is too impotent to awaken rational alarm? but the materialism before which I confess my spirit cowers is that of professing Christians;—the materialism that holds spirit in its creed-that seeks for spirit in its prayers-that appropriates to itself the devoutest language of the spiritual Book, but which gives to matter its chief sympathy, time, labour, and thought. It is this which holds in theory that the sources of true greatness and happiness are within the soul itself, but whose practical aim is to extract both from matter. It is this which, with solemn face, will say that " one soul is of more value than the whole world," and will grudge one day in any attempt to rescue a lost one; but readily devotes long years, and compasses sea and land, in order to get gain. This is the huge sin not merely of our country, but of our churches. It is swallowing up all that is spiritual in human thought and feeling it is veiling the great eternity from men. Great God, what will be the issue! Now, in the solemn "twilight of a new year's morn," I not only protest against this gigantic evil, but affectionately warn you against it-entreat you to shun it as the Satan of the age. Use the world, and do not abuse it. Let your intellect throw its phenomena into science, and your heart turn its blessings into devotion; let the great principles of righteousness and salvation mingle with all, and mould all, and then yon will gain both the world and the soul. Then, whatever be your future, if trials should come and press you down, you shall raise your head firmly and serenely again. Providence, as a shepherd, shall lead you on the winding way of life, and green pastures and refreshing streams you shall meet until you reach the everlasting heights of being. Solemn moments are coming, my brethren. The hour steals on when the hand of destiny shall strip us of all that is material, and we stand sheer spirits under the eye of God. Eternity will soon part its awful folds; a new light will burst on us; and, oh! under that light we shall see the pleasures, gains, ambition, titles, and honours of this world, fall as dim meteors from our horizon. How much is to be done! My hopes and fears Germs of Thought. Analysis of Homily the Seventy-fifth. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."-2 Cor. iii. 18. SUBJECT:-Godliness. THE work of salvation may be viewed in various aspects. Here it is represented as a process of moral renovation, by which man's disordered nature is repaired; his spiritual constitution raised to a state of healthfulness-invested with new life and vigour. The greatest evils from which it delivers are those corrupt tendencies which exist within. The happiness to which it raises consists not in scenes of splendour, but in the moral development of the soul. It is man raised to a state of perfection-all his powers and affections restored to peace and` order, and his nature brought into harmony with the moral constitution under which he is placed. Salvation is regarded by many as some immediate transition from one class of circumstances to another, in which the mind is perfectly passive, and must be happy, irrespective of its own condition. Many run from "penal fires and future punishment," forgetting that they carry their hell in their own breast. They look with rapture to the "house not made with hands," whose material grandeur is to fill the soul with transport, forgetting that mind may make a heaven out of hell, or convert paradise into tophet. God-likeness is man's highest glory. To raise him to this noble condition is Christianity's great aim. In this process of assimilation to God, we observe— I. THERE MUST BE A 66 CAPACITY" FOR IT. This likeness is spiritual: the capacity for it belongs to mind alone. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Experience proves that this capability, which man once displayed, exists still. Universally, man is a creature with a religious instinct ; his appetite for a God is seen in every age and condition. It is a feature in his history as marked and as general as his social tendency. Even those tribes that are said to have no God have ideas of the Divine. They invest their "rainmakers" and "disease charmers" with honours which belong to Deity alone. Indeed, the utter absence of such ideas would only show them to be in a state of mental decrepitude, or infancy, the religious faculty only slumbering in the breast. This spiritual instinct will always cause man to resemble the object of his worship. Given the gods of a people, and we readily infer their social character and condition. There is no tendency which exerts such a powerful influence on man's nature, to elevate or to degrade. Guided by celestial truth, it raises man above this grand temple to the Almighty Architect-lifts him above the creation to hold converse with the Mind that contrived it. Deprived of this light, man forms a god of his own. Hence we see him trembling before his confessor; scared by the incantations of a sorcerer; sighing and sobbing before a stone or tree; pursuing his pilgrimage, exhausted and famishing, o'er the burning desert, to some distant shrine; or sacrificing his life, with all most dear, to appease his angry god. This very capacity, in some, allies the soul to Infinite Holiness and Love, and makes it God-like; in others, it connects it with all that is heathenish, and makes it brutal and ferocious. II. THIS PROCESS REQUIRES A REVELATION OF GOD'S NATURE SUITED TO OUR CAPACITY. "Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord." 1. This revelation should be personal. We may learn the power and wisdom of God from the works of creation; his rectitude and benevolence from corresponding principles in our own minds; his equity and truth in the laws of Providence, making virtue to impose its own reward, and vice to inflict its own punishment. But man wants a revelation of God's heart. Oppressed by sorrows, perplexities, and suffering, he asks, Is this mighty power I behold controlled by love? Is it arrayed for or against me? Does this Infinite Being that fills immensity ever think of me? Is he conscious of my sighs, struggles, and tears? Oh! what are the feelings that pervade that heart? Am I the worthless object of its love and pity? Now, these moral perfections can be exhibited only in the life and character of a person. We may learn the skill of the engineer from his mechanism, but his love, meekness, affections, are only observed in his personal intercourse and manners. We most appreciate moral attributes when they are embodied in human acts and history. We cannot imitate God's perfections when they come as abstract truths, as when they appear before us in a living human character. The life of Christ is the mirror in which Jehovah's glory is most clearly displayed. 2. This revelation of God must be through the life of a person involved in our own circumstances. He must appear as a poor man. Surrounded by pomp and splendour, he would influence only the corrupt and the sensuous; the humble and the destitute would be deterred from his presence. His mission would be mis understood. If Christ had never endured suffering and grief, or encountered temptation, men would think him no fair Example; a mere negative one; unattainable under circumstances of trial and of difficulty. Besides, his life and precepts would have but little weight, for we generally make those our models and counsellors whose experience is most like our own. Christ's life is the noblest manifestation of God. Its design is not so much to reveal truth as to pourtray it; not to teach Jehovah's attributes as to render them visible, and in that form most adapted to impress the mind. He is the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person. Το III. THIS PROCESS OF 66 ASSIMILATION IS CONDITIONAL." It is based upon reflection. "Beholding as in a glass." It is only as we look intently at this mirror, upon the glory reflected, that we shall be pervaded with its brilliance. There is an important principle implied here. We are all creatures of assimilation. We most resemble those whom we most admire—who are the principal objects of our attention. We fall in with their views, imbibe their spirit, and imitate their excellencies; the same thoughts and emotions are awakened, and a similarity of character is established. That resemblance increases as the fellowship grows more intimate. Hence the child resembles the parent, and the pupil his instructor. become like Christ, we must make him our daily companion; his life and history must be our absorbing study. Jesus was the model Man. Here was wisdom, before which cavillers were silenced, rulers overawed, and promiscuous multitudes struck speechless with wonder! Here was fidelity, which concealed no truth, reproved the corruption of the age, and unmasked the hypocrisy of the priesthood, heedless of the storm which prejudice and self-interest created! Here was authority, which regarded man as his subject, heaven as his home, the universe as his domain, and God as his equal!-authority which only spake, and demons abdicated their stronghold, diseases disappeared, the grave restored its dead, and the storm was lulled into a calm! Here was tenderness! The |