Loaded with his blessings, and under such immense obligations to his generosity and grace, can you resist the inquiry, What shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits?

There is nothing by which you can more decidedly express your own gratitude and more effectually advance his honor, than by your real satisfaction in his friendship and happiness in his service. It is greatly to the discredit of a teacher or a general, when their scholars or soldiers are peevish and discontented, melancholy and miserable. But it reflects the highest honour upon the wisdom of their measures, and the kindness of their hearts, when those under their charge are attached to their persons, and evidently delighted with their situation and employment. And can any thing cast a greater shade over religion, than to see those who profess it, going in the bitterness of their spirits; seldom or never serene or cheerful, but frequently trembling and complaining? But he that offereth praise glorifieth God. The man whose spirit and temper demonstrate that the lines have fallen to him in pleasant places, and that he has a goodly heritage; that the possession of the whole creation would be a poor and empty acquisition, compared with an interest in the favour of the great and the eternal God: that man does justice to the goodness and liberality of his heavenly Father. He does honour to the gospel which he has embraced, and contributes to raise religion in the esteem, and recommend it to the pursuit of those around him.

The men of the world do justice to their friends, and credit to the objects which they pursue. They speak with rapture of their connexion with the wealthy and the great, and give unquestionable proof of their gratification upon every accession to their property or fame. Now, shall they feel or express delight and exultation in their paltry and perishing pleasures? What satisfaction should you feel, and what gratitude and rejoicing should you dis play, for all the riches of redeeming mercy and all the in exhaustible resources of eternal glory? Shall they exhibit marks of contentment and happiness in the bondage of sin and in the drudgery of Satan? And shall you be

tray melancholy and sadness in the service of the Father of mercies, and in the glorious liberty of the sons of God? Shall they exult in the hollow and precarious pleasures of a transitory world? And shall you be gloomy and depressed who have all the blessings of the everlasting gospel, and all the fulness of Deity for your portion?

Is it fitting that the children of a king should be sad from day to day? Should the brethren of Jesus, and the heirs of his eternal glory, allow their brows to be wrinkled. with care, or their hearts filled with anguish? From the men of the world who have their portion here, whose treasures are confined within the narrow limits of earth and time, who are without God and without hope, we might justly expect the sigh of disappointment, and the murmurs of vexation and despair. But should not Israel rejoice in him that made him? Should not the children of Zion be joyful in their King? Called by his grace into the fellowship of his dear Son, and made partakers of all the plenitude of his salvation; should not your temper and deportment correspond to the magnitude of your privileges, and the grandeur of your prospects? And since your enjoyments and hopes so infinitely surpass all that worldlings know; should not you labour as far to excel them in the calmness and tranquillity of your spirits, and in the stability and elevation of your happiness and joy? "Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous; for praise is comely for the upright. Rejoice in the Lord always; and again, I say, rejoice."

Religious peace and joy contribute greatly

II. To advance the salvation of your brethren.

The eyes of many are upon you. Every thing bordering upon dejection and melancholy has a tendency to disgust the ignorant and the worldly at the ways of godliness, and to make them cling more tenaciously to their sordid and forbidden pleasures. Finding in sin much to gratify their low and vitiated taste, and strangers to the hopes and consolations of the gospel; they rashly and unjustly

conclude, from the dismal appearance of its timid and morbid disciples, that our encomiums upon its importance and excellence are false; and that it is their wisdom to cleave to the joys which they know, rather than renounce them for those which are unknown, and which they regard as doubtful or visionary.

Multitudes, accordingly, of the gay and the thoughtless are deterred from crossing the threshhold of Christianity, from the apprehension that they must leave all liveliness and cheerfulness behind them, and spend the remainder of their pilgrimage in gloom and dejection. Many of the young contemplate a devout life with horror: and the aged votaries of vice and folly tremble at the thoughts of their children or relatives being brought under the power of the truth, from the fear that it would ruin their success in life, and deprive them of all felicity and joy.

Every instance of religious gloom and despondence has a tendency to confirm these prejudices, and to counteract the diffusion of the benign and salutary influence of our holy faith. But when by the calmness of your minds, and the general amenity and cheerfulness of your tempers, you demonstrate that there is an unquestionable reality and an indescribable worth and power in the hopes and comforts of the gospel; this conduces to soften their aversion to Christianity, and to excite a love and a longing after an interest in its invaluable blessings. When they see that godliness has the promise of the life that now is; that even in the present state, they have great peace that love the law of God; that they walk in the light of the Lord, and in His name rejoice all the day; that even in the things in which they fancy that they ex cel, you are immeasurably above them; this convinces them of the certainty of what the Bible reveals, and affords them a security that all the promises of better and nobler enjoyments will be amply fulfilled in the world beyond the grave.

If therefore you would wish to gain your fellow-immortals to the obedience of the faith, and preserve them from everlasting wretchedness and ruin; if you would wish to do justice to the religion which you profess, and

raise the name of Jesus above every name, let the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your heart and mind: abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost: let the world see that he that believes has eternal life; and that the way to heaven above lies through a heaven below. Show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Religious peace and joy contribute greatly

III. To improve your holiness.

We are not our own. We were formed for the service and honour of God. We are bought with a price; and are bound to glorify God in our bodies and spirits which are his. We are required to receive, observe, and do all things whatsoever God hath commanded us. We must do whatsoever our hand findeth to do, and do it with our might. When we pray, it should be as with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven: when we hear, it should be as for eternal life: when we enter upon any religious undertaking or beneficent enterprise, it should be with all the energy and decision of men who are determined to spend and be spent in works of faith and labours of love, and who are resolved that Christ shall be magnified in us and by us, whether that shall be by life or by death.

But how can these grand ends of the christian life be obtained while you are distracted betwixt hope and despair? How can you advance in the christian course, if you are obliged to devote to the combating of your doubts and fears that attention and energy which ought to be sacredly reserved for the calls of piety, and exerted in the positive active service of the Lord? Instead of advancing boldly into the broad field of duty, and embarking in the work of the Lord with the intrepidity and zeal of men who are in earnest for eternal life; your minds will be confined to inferior and elementary matters. Instead of being occupied with manifesting the glory of God, you will be engrossed with the means of ensuring your own peace and safety. Your religious progress will

be limited and desultory: your graces will be feeble and languid: your troubles multiplied and painful: and your assaults from Satan frequent and galling. The most

sickly and stunted plants are the first that are attacked by vermin: the most weak and timid animals are the first victims of the beasts of prey: and the most downcast and desponding Christian is the most unfit for the various duties of his calling, and suffers most from the cruel annoyances of the great enemy of souls.

But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The man who knows his calling and election of God; the man who has the witness in himself that he is Christ's, can keep nothing back from his divine and adorable Master. He yields himself to him entirely, and lives to him, and to him alone. In the attitude of ready preparation and of cheerful submission to his will, he stands waiting the injunctions of his Master, saying, "Here am I, what wouldest thou have me to do?" He is stedfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord: and whatsoever he does, he does from the heart, and as unto the Lord and not unto man.

If therefore you would wish to grow in grace; to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts; to abound in the fruits of righteousness; to shine in the beauties of holiness; to know, obey, and submit in all things to the will of God as the angels do in heaven; give all diligence to make your calling and election sure, and to maintain that peace which passes all-understanding, and that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.

IV. Religious peace and joy have a great effect upon your happiness.

Would you like, ten, twenty, or thirty years after this, to be free from all care and fear, from all distress and pain, from all sickness and sorrow; to be perfectly holy and completely happy? In short, would you like when you die to go to heaven, to see God, to be with Christ, to walk with him in white, to follow him whithersoever he goes, to possess fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore?