suffer here, we suffer from the sins of one another. We suffer from the selfishness, or dishonesty, or unkindness, or violence, of other men, much more, I think, than we suffer from sickness, or from poverty, or any other affliction that comes from the hand of God only. I am sure it is so, if we take into the account, as we ought to do, what we suffer from the folly or wickedness, or even from the ill-temper, of those whom we love, or with whom we are closely connected. How large a portion of the unhappiness of a father's life arises from the bad conduct of his children; how much are brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, friends, masters and servants, annoyed and distressed by the faults of one another; such as ill temper, unkindness, over-severity, thoughtlessness, neglect of duty, or dishonesty! Even the sickness of those whom we love loses half its painfulness to us, if it be borne with patience and cheerfulness; as it becomes many times worse, if attended by fretfulness and ill humour. How happy then, how infinitely happy, will be our condition in that place where nothing evil can enter for ever; where all around us will be happy because they are good; where the society which we shall share for all eternity will be full of the purest and most perfect affections, and we shall love every one whom we ever see with a warmer and more uninterrupted love than we can feel towards our dearest relations now! There

remains yet one thing more, which is of greater If all those with consequence than all the rest. whom we lived were to be ever so free from faults, we should not yet be perfectly happy if we were not free from sin ourselves. So long as bad passions exist within us, so long as we feel envy, or malice, or pride, or selfishness, the goodness of others would not be sufficient to give us perfect rest. But in heaven the victory over our sins will be complete, and they will never disturb us more; not that we shall suddenly become, after our resurrection, different characters from what we are now, (for if this were so, wicked men might expect to go to heaven, and there to become changed to good,) but that the sins which through God's grace we have overcome here with difficulty, and against which we must ever be on our guard lest they should again spring up within us, shall there lose their power of hurting us, because the temptations with which this world abounds will in heaven have no existence.

So then, my brethren, there remaineth a rest for the people of God. But what remaineth for those who are not God's people? What shall be the portion of the profane and the sinner? For them there is no rest appointed; "there is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked;" but tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath, upon every soul of man that doeth evil. In this world our

troubles are hardly ever without some mixture of comfort, just as our happiness has always some mixture of anxiety; the unkindness or misconduct of one person is made up, in some measure, by the kindness and goodness of another; and the sense of our own sins can be, and often is, driven away for the time by business or pleasure. But in hell there will be no kindness nor goodness, no employment nor amusement to prevent the wicked from feeling their misery to the uttermost. And what a misery it must be to live for ever with none but the wicked, deprived as they then will be of all means of exercising their wickedness with success! In this life, those who keep bad company are led by their fondness for certain pleasures which are followed up by bad men: it is the love of idleness, or of drinking, or of gambling, which first brings them acquainted with the idle,. the dishonest, the drunkard, or the gambler. But how wretched would be the society of such persons if they were confined together without the possibility of indulging their bad habits, and without the hope of ever being able to indulge them again! How would their evil passions prey upon themselves and on one another; how full would they be of malice, and of disappointment and despair! How different is such a state from that of the rest ordained for the people of God; and what a prospect does it offer to those who have felt the

weariness of sin even in this world, and must now look forward to an existence of tenfold weariness through all eternity! To the wicked, indeed, death is no place of rest: to the wicked poor man it brings infinitely more trouble, and labour, and suffering, than he ever felt from his poverty here; to the wicked rich man it is a change from good things to torments-from the enjoyment of many comforts, to the undying worm and the unquenched and unquenchable fire. If we would but think when anything tires, or vexes, or pains us, what great folly it is to cause ourselves to be tired, and vexed, and pained for ever, we should be more careful of our lives, and endeavour to make a better provision for our future welfare. If we find a little worldly pain or sorrow so hard to bear, how shall we bear everlasting burnings? Yet such will be the end, if it does not lead us to repentance. For as God is not tired of blessing his servants, but gives them first grace, and then peace, and hope, and love, and joy, and glory; so will not he hold his hand from the punishment of his enemies; but will send them trouble, and weariness, and fear, and despair, and shame, in this world and in the world to come, throughout the ages of eternity.

SERMON XIV.

JOHN xii. 47.

I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

v. 22.

The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.

THESE two passages are an instance of the seeming contradictions which occur sometimes in the Scriptures, and which are laid hold of by ignorant or dishonest readers to prove the most opposite conclusions. It might, I think, be useful to bring all these passages together, and place them close by the side of each other, as I have done with the two which I have just repeated. If that were done, every man of common sense would see that they must be taken with reference to each other; that while each delivers a truth, each also was meant to hinder us from dwelling only upon what the other teaches us; that they point out to us two ways of looking at the same object, and each equally useful; while they are each conveyed in terms seemingly