stillness of the scene, save thine own bitter groans; when no aid of art is nigh, no form of one thou lovest to bend over thee in fond solicitude; then, in that dreadful moment, how much more dreadful must it be, if first the lips be to be tuned to prayer-if the heart, its cherished dreams dispersed, be compelled to look on the sad reality before it if then a wild cry for mercy, faltering on the tongue, the unconsecrated thought clinging to the soul-thy spirit, shrinking within itself, be hurried into the presence of its God! The voice of God speaks no more as it spoke once in elder time, taking the semblance of mortal sounds, out of the midst of the mount that burned with fire; to us it speaks less fearfully, but no less true-it speaks in the hallowed stillness of this awful spot, it speaks from these stones whereon ye tread, beneath which dust mingles with its kindred dust, once youthful, joyous, thoughtless as our own

-it speaks in these rude and simple beams, whereon the luxury of man hath never heaped his vain and unavailing ornaments-it speaks in yonder sentence graven on your walls, mark well its accents, "Be ye doers of the world, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." From this self-deception may God in his infinite mercy shield and pro

tect us all!

Now to God, &c.

SERMON III.

ON PUBLIC DEVOTION.

Preached at Broadstairs, Thanet.

MATTHEW Xxi. 13.

It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Ir any more convincing evidence were necessary, of the unhappy degeneracy of the Jewish nation, than the general tenor of Scripture history affords us, the occasion which drew from our blessed Lord this severe reproach, might at once remove all doubt upon the subject. That in the lapse of time, abuses should arise in their political constitutions; that a system of laws, so minute and so com

plicated, should lose, in the hands of a naturally perverse and headstrong people, something of their original efficacy, is not so much to be wondered at; but while they really clung with such pertinacity to the worship of the true God, while they insisted so scrupulously on every tittle of the ceremonial law, that they could not only permit, but even encourage, the open violation of the very temple they idolized, is an instance of inconsistency, as singular as it was in the highest degree reprehensible. Several remarkable circumstances attending the life of our Saviour, have been recorded by one apostle, and omitted by another; but that at present before us appears to have made so deep an impression on the mind, as to have found a place in the writings of all. Our Saviour's sudden appearance in the temple, his casting out all those who sold and bought therein, his overthrowing the tables of the money

changers, and the seats of them which sold doves, is related with nearly the same minuteness by each, and this forming the material of the account, is exactly the part in which, on the presumption that they derived their information from separate sources, they would be most likely to agree; in the precise expressions made use of by our Saviour, and in his mode of speaking, there is a slight variation, and this, on the same presumption, is just what might have been expected. St. Matthew gives it thus-" It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." St. Luke, xix. 46-"It is written, my house is the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves." In St. Mark, xi. 17, our Saviour is represented as speaking interrogatively-... "Is it not written, my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves."