must be incompatible with that religion which teaches, "WHATSOEVER THINGS <6 ARE TRUE, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE "HONEST, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE

66 JUST, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE PURE, 66 WHATSOEVER

"WHATSOEVER

THINGS ARE LOVELY,

THINGS ARE OF GOOD

66 REPORT *". THESE THINGS our religion teaches and requires in all who profess it, as they tender their temporal and eternal felicity. To these things the sacrament of the LORD'S SUPPER is directly conducive.

Let it be duly noticed and remembered, by those who think outward conformity and decorum sufficient, that mere ADHERENCE to Christianity cannot constitute a Christian. Motives of sordid selfishness and mean policy may cause such an ADHERENCE; and render it often a zealous adherence always a decent adherence; but these are motives uncongenial in their nature to the spirituality of the

Christian religion. To produce the amiable qualities, described in the passage just now quoted from the Apostle, there is a necessity for FAITH and GRACE. Fair appearances may exist without either of these; as flowers and fruits may be hung in wreaths round a dead or withered pole, severed from the Tree; but a ROOT is necessary to cause the growth of flowers, and the maturity of fruitage.

That root must be GOODNESS; and goodness springs inevitably from grace, though not from nature: for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Goodness, as it is the Spirit of God; and the Holy Spirit is given most abundantly in the Sacrament by him who said, "I am that Bread of Life; I am "the Living Bread which came down "from Heaven: if any man eat of this "bread, he shall live for ever; and the “bread that I will give is my flesh, which "I will give for the life of the world. He "that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my "blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him*." Christ promised that he would be al

* John, vi.

ways

१

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ways with us even to the end of the world. He is with us at this day, by the influence of the Holy Spirit; and by his own appointment, that GIFT is more freely bestowed in the Sacrament, which he has rendered necessary by saying, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and "drink his blood, ye have no life in you." "In the blessed Sacrament," says Bishop Taylor, "we receive him who is life and light, the fountain of grace, the sanctifier of our secular comfort, and the author of holiness and glory. But as it was at first, so it has continued; Christ came into the world, and the world knew him not; so Christ has remained in the world by the communication of this Sacrament, and yet he is not RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD, nor TRULY VALUED."

Nevertheless it is this PARTICLE OF DIVINITY, Vouchsafed to us at the altar which is "the pearl of great price;" the great treasure of the Gospel; the distinguishing glory and benefit of the Christian religion.

As, from the simple principle of gravitation, conceded to Sir Isaac Newton, he was enabled to account for all the phæ

nomena

nomena of Nature; so by the doctrine of the Spirit's operation, from the Ascension to this hour, all the apparent difficulties of the Christian revelation are easily and satisfactorily explained. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God; and can any mortal presume to set bounds to its power, or account for all the modes or effects of its operation? However marvellous the dispensations of the Gospel, yet when we believe that it is God's Spirit which produces them, we cease to doubt and to

murmur.

It is clear from Scripture, that the gift of the Spirit is designed to correct the evil tendency of the human heart, in its fallen and unregenerate state, and to produce GOODNESS, the prime and loveliest attribute of the Supreme Being. "The fruit "of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, "meekness, temperance."

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It is neither genius, nor sagacity, nor learning, nor riches, nor power that constitute the most valuable ornament and possession of man, but it is GOODNESS;—a benevolent disposition, and a beneficent

conduct

conduct and behaviour.

GOODNESS is of a healing, fostering, conciliating quality, which converts every thing into happiness, as far as its power and influence extend; and it is in the mean time happy in itself, happy in its gentle and benign sensations, happy in the contemplation of goodness and of happiness diffused, increased, sublimed, prolonged. It is the PERFECTION OF MAN and causes him to approach to the divine nature.

If we consider man without goodness, how detestable and wretched an animal do we behold him! All his superior sagacity tends only to increase his wickedness and misery. He becomes an evil spirit, and we may be tempted to exclaim in the words of Scripture," why died he "not from the womb ?" Pride! Malice! Envy! Revenge! what tormentors are ye of the human bosom in its natural, in its depraved, in its unregenerate state! What havoc do ye make in a world which God originally pronounced good! and among creatures whom God, both in the Creation and Redemption, designed to be happy! The Christian re