sequences; from which some modern sages have concluded, that every man, who does not join this new society, is a murderer by construction.

My brethren, if Christians were content to measure their accountability by the Bible, it would be well. I read in the concluding sentences of that blessed book, that 'If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written therein, and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.' From which I have always inferred, that the revelation of the Almighty was complete; that his system was perfect, assuredly not to be improved by the moral contrivances of the nineteenth century. Hence, the example which Christians are to set in the world, must be learned from the Bible. 'Let your light so shine before men,' saith our Lord, 'that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' Christians are under the most solemn pledge already to be sober, temperate, upright, and pure before all men ; not on worldly, but on religious principles, for the very purpose of converting others, by their moral superiority. The worldling has no right to place them on a level with himself, as if they were equally unpledged. The worldling has no right to say to the Christian, 'Sign this pledge, and I will sign it also:' because he knows that the Christian is under a higher and holier pledge, by the very terms of his Christian discipleship; and if he is false to that pledge, it is absurd to expect that he will be true to any other. The example, therefore, which the Christian is. bound to exhibit, is the union of faith with practice, not an example which sets up practice by itself without any reference to faith at all: Consequently, the Christian could not. be expected to unite with the unbeliever in the new Tem

perance Society, because he already belongs to that far better and older society which provides for Temperance, and for every other virtue-the Church of the living God.

I have now considered, my brethren, all the points involved in this interesting and exciting subject; and trust that I have shewn sufficient reason to justify the prevailing sentiment of Episcopalians, in declining to be connected with the Temperance Reform. It is not because we do not love temperance; it is not because we do not loath and detest the disgusting and abominable vice of drunkenness; neither is it because we have any objections to the operations of the Temperance Society, if it were considered a mere worldly contrivance for the benefit of those who will not submit to the yoke of the Gospel. As a political, or a medical, or a dietetic, or a social, or a commercial improvement, we have not one word to say against it; but shall rejoice, as much as others, to hear of any temporal good which it can perform. But we protest against it, in a religious aspect, altogether. We protest against improvements made upon the Gospel or the Church, in the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We protest against the claims of new inventions in Christian morals, and equally against that morality, which the infidel sets up by itself, without any reference to Christ, or any acknowledgement of his divine authority. In a word, we adhere in this, as in every other point, to the Scriptures, and to the Church which the Apostles planted. To the celestial standard here laid down for us, God forbid that we should presumptuously add any thing. From that only perfect system, God forbid that we should dare to take any thing away. If, in the natural body of the Lord's creating, the removing a single limb mutilates, and the adding a superfluous one deforms-O how careful should Christians be of

that body of Christ, the Church, that it be preserved in the beautiful symmetry which the Saviour impressed upon it, without being marred by the destruction of its original members on the one hand, or disfigured by human additions on the other.

That Church, my brethren, is the true school of virtue, the true Temperance Society, the true preservative from all the vices which infest our miserable world; because the Almighty Saviour is its guide, its pledges are blessed by the power of God, and its rewards are pre-eminent in temporal comfort, and eternal joy. Away from Christ, you can have no safety. Out of his Church you can have no peace. There is no righteousness but his, which can ultimately avail you; there is no morality but that of his Gospel, which can abide the judgment of the great day. You may live a poor, despised, and loathsome victim of intemperance, and die in all the circumstances of gross abomination-you may live a wealthy, honored and envied example of worldly prosperity, and die in the midst of praise and regret: but

if

you have not returned to God by the way of his own appointment—if you have not sought his forgiveness through repentance and faith-if you have not subdued your rebellious will, and taken the blessed yoke of Christ upon you, and given your inmost hearts to him who bought you to himself with his own precious blood,-I testify to you, in his name, that equal destruction will be your portion. The pruning of a single branch is nothing, when the whole tree needs to be grafted-the damming up a single stream is nothing, when the fountain must be cleansed and the outward reformation of a single vice is nothing, while the heart continues unsanctified, and the curse of God still hangs over the soul. May you all, my brethren, be led to that only remedy for all evil, the religion of the Saviour;

and may the blessed fruits of his Spirit, love, joy, peace, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, prove to those around you, the sincerity of your profession; lead you in happiness and safety to the close of your earthly pilgrimage; and place you, in eternal triumph, at his own right hand.

LECTURE VII.

1 COR. XIV. 15.

I WILL PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND I WILL PRAY WITH THE UNDERSTANDING ALSO; I WILL SING WITH THE SPIRIT, AND I WILL SING WITH THE UNDERSTANDING ALSO.

THE greatest privilege, my brethren, which the merciful Creator could bestow upon his creatures, is the permission to hold communion with him; to enter, as it were, into the presence of his ineffable Majesty; to render him the offering of our fervent gratitude and praise; to pour out our supplications before his throne of grace; to present our wants, our desires, our hopes, our fears, our interests, to his kind and condescending attention; and to know that we can do all this with the assurance of his parental love to hear and answer our petitions; yea, the positive promise that we shall receive what we ask, if we only ask in faith and humility of soul. O! what honor has earth to grant, worthy to be compared with this honor; what dignity can the world confer, worthy to be balanced for a moment against this blessed audience with the King of kings.

This privilege of divine worship, has, therefore, with the highest reason, been always reckoned of primary importance to the Church of God; not only in the private. temple of each particular heart, to be constantly exercised by the sacred work of pious meditation, and the unuttered melody of thankfulness and love-not only to be more periodically used at the opening and close of every day, in the