mighty ferment of spirits? - You have been slighted, perhaps, by a superior; you have been ungratefully treated by a friend; a rival has overreached you by fraud, or overcome you by more powerful interest. Amidst the bustle of life, amidst the interfering and crossing of various pursuits and interests, are not such incidents to be expected by every one? Ought you not to have been prepared for encountering them without passion or violence, as evils belonging to the common lot of humanity? As light bodies are shaken and torn by every breath of wind, while those that are solid resist the blast; so it is only the little and mean mind that loses possession of itself on every trifling provocation; while a great and firm spirit keeps its place, and rests on a basis of its own, unshaken by the common disturbances of life. Of what small moment to your real happiness, are many of those injuries which draw forth your resentment? They may affect in some degree your worldly reflection on our common failings, and the mutual allowances which those failings oblige us to make. A sense of equity should here arise to prompt forbearance and forgiveness. Were there any man who could say that he had never, in the course of his life, suffered himself to be transported by passion, or given just ground of offence to any one, such a man might have some plea for impatience, when he received from others unreasonable treatment. But if no such perfectly unexceptionable characters are to be found, how unjust is it, not to give to others those allowances which we, in our turn, must claim from them ?— To our own failings we are always blind. Our pride and self-conceit render us quarrelsome and contentious, by nourishing a weak and childish sensibility to every fancied point of our own honour and interest, while they shut up all regard to the honour or interest of our brethren. From the high region of imaginary self-estimation, let us descend to our own just and proper level. Let us calmly re-interests; but can they affect your flect on the place we hold in society, and on the justice that is due to others. From such reflections we will learn to be more humble in our claims, and more moderate in our pretensions; and many of the causes of animosity and contention will die away. Let us consider, in the next place, how trifling and inconsiderable, for the most part, the causes are of contention and discord among mankind, and how much they deserve to be overlooked by the wise and the good. When we view the eagerness with which contests are agitated in society, and look to the bitterness and wrath they so often occasion, one would think that all were at stake, and that there could be no life, no happiness on earth, unless to him. who was victorious in the contest. And yet, in how few instances has there been any just ground for this true honour as a man? Can they deprive you of peace of conscience, of the satisfaction of having aeted a right part, of the pleasing sense of being esteemed by men, and the hope of being rewarded by God, for your generosity and forgiveness?-In the moments of eager contention, all is magnified and distorted in its appear ance. A false light is thrown on every object. Nothing appears to be what it really is. But let the hour of violence pass over; let the course of time bring forward recollection and calmness, and you will wonder at your former violence. Objects which once were so formidable, will then have disappeared. A new scene has taken place; and the grounds of former contention will seem as dreams of the night, which have passed away, Act then now the part of a man, by anticipating that period of coolness, which time will certainly bring. You will then cease to break the peace of society with your angry contentions. You will shew that magnanimity which belongs to those who depend❘ not for their happiness merely on the occurrences of the world. He that is slow to anger, is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city. (Prov. xvi. 32.) Let us now consider the different consequences of a contentious spirit, and of a peaceable disposition, with respect to our happiness and enjoy ment. The foundation of happiness must certainly be laid within our breasts. If one be pained and uneasy there, external circumstances, how flourishing soever avail him nothing; and what feelings are more uneasy and painful than the workings of sour and angry passions? Great and manifold as the natural and unavoidable distresses of our present state are, they are small in comparison of the evils which men bring upon themselves, and bring upon one another, by variance and discord. I speak not now of public calamities, offaction and ambition raging through the world, and hostile armies laying waste the earth with desolation and bloodshed. Confining our views solely to private life, how miserably is all its comfort and order destroyed by those jealousies, feuds, and animosi ties, that so often break the peace of families, tear asunder the bonds of friendship, and poison all that social intercourse which men were formed to entertain with one another? From a small chink which some rude hand has opened, the bitter waters of strife easily flow. But of this we may be assured, that a full portion of their bitterness shall be tasted by him who has let them forth. Never was any man active in disquieting others, who did not at the same time disquiet himself. While the tempest which he has raised may be bursting on his neigh bour, he will be obliged to feel the hurricane raging in his own breast; and from his restlessness, impatience, and eagerness, joined with anxious trepidations and fears, will often suffer more than all that he can inflict on his adversary. From such painful sensations the man of peace is free. A mild, unruffled, self-possessing mind, is a blessing more important to real felicity, than all that can be gained by the triumphant issue of some violent contest. Never was a truer axiom pronounced by any mouth, than what was uttered by the wise man of old; Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. (Prov. xv. 17.) With a scanty provision of the good things of this world, a wise man may be contented and happy; but without peace, all the luxuries of the rich lose their relish. -While among the sons of strife all is tempestuous and loud, the smooth stream, the serene atmosphere, the mild zephyr, are the proper emblems of a gentle temper, and a peaceable life. Nor is this merely a poetical allusion. The ordinary language of discourse, where the terms are so often employed, of a storm of passion; a calm mind; a rough or a fiery temper; plainly shew that all men are sensible of some analogy between a peaceable disposition, and those scenes of external nature that are universally agreeable and pleasant. The condition of those who are living in unity with their brethren, is likened by the psalmist David to the dew of Hermon; the dew that descended on the mountains of Zion, where the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. (Psal. cxxxiii. 3.) While the man of this disposition is happy within himself, let it not be forgotten, that he is at the same time gaining on all around him. From the quarrelsome and rude, all men naturally recoil; and except when necés sity obliges them, avoid their intercourse. But the lover of peace conciliates general good-will; and is both respected and beloved. Though no absolute security can be devised against the malice and injustice of the world, yet, for the most part, it will be found that there is no more effectual guard against violence, no surer road to a safe enjoyment of life, than an established character for benignity and regard to peace. The man of this character, if unjustly attacked, will have many to defend him and take his part. In his prosperity he will be unenvied, and his misfortunes will be alleviated by general sympathy. Let us consider, in the last place, how strongly the precept in the text is enforced by the most sacred religious obligations. You all know what a high place charity, under all its forms of meekness, forbearance, and forgiveness, possesses in the Christian system. To bring authorities in support of this, were to recite a great part of the New Testament before you. The God whom we worship, is known by the title of the God of peace. That evil spirit who is opposite to him, is described with all the characters which express malignity; the enemy, the accuser, the liar, the destroyer. When Christ came into the world as our Saviour, he is styled the Prince of Peace. The blessings which were proclaimed at his birth were, peace upon earth, and good-will towards men. The whole of his life was one continued exemplification of all the virtues that characterize the meek, the peaceable, and forgiving spirit. Never was any one's temper tried by so many and so great provocations; never did any one retain, under those provocations, such a calm and unruffled tenor of mind; insomuch that the apostle Paul, on an occasion of earnest entreaty to the Corinthians, beseeches them by the meek ness and gentleness of Christ, as the most noted and well-known parts of his character. (2 Cor. x. 1.) What can be said higher of any virtue, than that it is the quality, under the denomination of which the Son of God chose to be known when he dwelt on earth? Let us add, that it is also the distinguishing character of God's own Spirit. The Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Peace. Meekness, gentleness, and long suffering, are expressly denominated his fruits; and on a certain memorable occasion, his appearance was marked with signals that express the mild and quiet spirit as distinguished from violence. When Elijah, the great prophet, was called to go forth and stand before the Lord, behold, a great and strong wind rent the mountains, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake ; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After that, there came forth a still small voice. When Elijah heard it, he knew the symbol of God's Spirit; he wrapped his face in his mantle, and worshipped. (1 Kings xix. 11-13.) After so many testimonies given by the sacred writings to the high importance of a meek and peaceable spirit, what shall we think of those who, in their system of religion, make slight account of this virtue; who are ready to quarrel with others on the most trifling occasions; who are continually disquieting their families by peevishness and ill-humour; and by malignant reports, raising dissension among friends and neighbours? Can any claims to sound belief, or any supposed attainments of grace, supply the defect of so cardinal a virtue as charity and love?-Let such persons particularly bethink themselves how little the spirit which they possess, fits them for the kingdom of heaven, or rather how far it removes them from the just hope of ever en tering into it. Hell is the proper region of enmity and strife. There dwell unpeaceable and fiery spirits, in the midst of mutual hatred, wrath, and tumult. But the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of peace. There charity never faileth. There reigneth the God of love; and, in his presence, all the blessed inhabitants are of one heart and one soul. No string can ever be heard to jar in that celestial harmony and therefore the contentious and violent are, both by their own nature and by God's decree, for ever excluded from the heavenly so ciety. As the best preparation for those blessed mansions, let us ever keep in view that direction given by an apostle, Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. (Heb. xii. 14.) To the cultivation of amity and peace in all our social intercouse, let us join holiness; that is, piety and active virtue; and thus we shall pass our days comfortably and honourably on earth, and at the conclusion of our days be admitted to dwell among saints and angels, and to see the Lord. SERMON LXXXVII. ON RELIGIOUS JOY, AS GIVING STRENGTH AND SUPPORT TO VIRTUE. The joy of the Lord is your strength.-Neh. viii. 10. NEHEMIAH, the governor of Jerusa-styled the joy of the Lord; and, in lem, having assembled the people of Israel immediately after their return from the captivity of Babylon, made the book of the law be brought forth and read before them. On hearing the words of the book of the law, we are informed that all the people wept; humbled and cast down by the sense of their present weak and forlorn condition, compared with the flourishing state of their ancestors. Nehemiah sought to raise their spirits from this dejection; and exhorts them to prepare themselves for serving the God of their fathers with a cheerful mind, for, says he, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Abstracted from the occasion on which the words were spoken, they contain an important truth, which I now purpose to illustrate; that to the nature of true religion there belongs an inward joy, which animates, strengthens, and supports virtue. The illustration of this position will require that I should shew, in the first place, that in the practice of religious duties there is found an inward joy, here the next place, that this joy is justly denominated the strength of the righteous. 1. Joy is a word of various significations. By men of the world, it is often used to express those flashes of mirth which arise from irregular indulgences of social pleasure; and of which it is said by the Wise Man, that in such laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. (Prov. xiv. 13.) It will be easily understood, that the joy here mentioned partakes of nothing akin to this; but signifies a tranquil and placid joy, an inward complacency and satisfaction, accompanying the practice of virtue, and the discharge of every part of our duty. A joy of this kind is what we assert to belong to every part of religion; to characterize religion wherever it is genuine, and to be essential to its nature.-In order to ascertain this, let us consider the disposition of a good man with respect to God; with respect to his neighbours; and with respect to the government of his own mind. When we consider in what manner | always before him an object so subreligion requires that a good man lime and interesting as this great should stand affected towards God, Father of the universe, on whom his it will presently appear that rational thoughts can dwell with satisfaction, enlightened piety opens such views may be truly said to partake highly of him as must communicate joy. It in the joy of the Lord. presents him, not as an awful unknown Sovereign, but as the Father of the universe, the Lover and Protector of righteousness, under whose government all the interests of the virtuous are safe. With delight the good man traces the Creator throughout all his works, and beholds them every where reflecting some image of his supreme perfection. In the morning dawn, the noon-tide glory, and the evening shade; in the fields, the mountains, and the flood, where worldly men behold nothing but a dead uninteresting scene; every object is enlivened and animated to him by the presence of God. Amidst that divine presence he dwells with reverence, but without terror. Conscious of the uprightness of his own intentions, and of the fidelity of his heart to God, he considers himself, by night and by day, as under the protection of an invisible guardian. He lifts up his eyes to the hills from whence cometh his aid; and commits himself without distrust to the Keeper of Israel, who never slumbers nor sleeps. He listens to the gracious promises of his word. With comfort he receives the declarations of his mercy to mankind, through a great Redeemer; in virtue of whose atonement provision is made for pardon to human infirmities, and for our reception in the end into a happier world. All the various devotional exercises of faith and trust in God, all the cordial effusions of love and gratitude to this Supreme Benefactor in the acts of prayer and praise, afford scope to those emotions of the heart, which are of the most pleasing kind; and which diffuse a gentle and softening tenderness over the affections. In a word, a truly pious man, who has But it may here be objected, are there no mortifications and griefs that particularly belong to piety? What shall we say to the tear of repentance, and to that humiliation of confession and remorse, which may, at times, be incumbent on the most pious, in this state of human infirmity? To this I reply, first, that although there may be seasons of grief and dejection in a course of piety, yet this is not inconsistent with the joy of the Lord being, on the whole, the predominant character of a good man's estate; as it is impossible that, during this life, perpetual brightness can remain in any quarter, without some dark cloud. But I must observe next, that even the penitential sorrows and relentings of a pious heart are not without their own satisfactions. certain degree of pleasure is mingled with the tears which the returning offender sheds in the hours of compunction; the ingenious contrition that he feels relieves his heart, at the same time that it gives it pain. If we attend to the workings of human nature on other occasions, we shall find that it is no unusual thing for a secret mysterious pleasure to be mixed with painful feelings. This we all know to be the case in those exercises of pity and commiseration to which we are led by sympathy with the afflicted. We grieve and are pained for their distress; yet we choose to indulge that grief; satisfaction is felt in the indulgence; and we are unwillingly separated from the object which has occasioned this painful, but tender sympathy. A mixture somewhat similar, of pleasure and pain, takes place in the sentiments of penitential sorrow, which good men sometimes feel. In the |