"and his hairs were white like snow, and his eyes *66 were as a flame of fire, and his voice as the "sound of many waters. And when I saw Him, "I fell at his feet as dead; and He laid his right "hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am "the First and the Last, I am He that liveth, and "was dead-And behold I am alive for evermore, "and have the keys of Hell and of Death."

These, my brethren, are the sublime anticipations of the true Christian-these the hopes which He, "who liveth for ever and ever," hath given to the weakness of mortality. It is to that greater world, (which, ere this century shall close, all of us must know) that the eye of piety is permanently directed. It is there that the great system of Almighty Wisdom shall finally be displayed; when all doubts shall cease, and all anxieties be dispelled; when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality; and when all the tears which life hath raised, shall be wiped away for ever.

It is to this great termination that time is advancing; every thing that we see around us, teaches us that life is an imperfect scene, of which the mighty conclusion is yet to come: and every year, as it passes, takes to a better world some of those whom we have loved or honoured. In the last receptacle of mortality, the rich and the poor "make their "bed together ;" and there we alike deposit the youthful head, whose opening virtues are to blos

som in a nobler clime; and the "hoary hairs," which descend at last to the grave, "full of years "and of honour."

This last scene, my brethren, we have lately witnessed. The same hours which closed the century, closed also the life of one,* who, for half its period, has been the greatest ornament of the church of this land, and who has left to every church a model of piety and virtue which no age can destroy. Over this recent and ever memorable grave, the tears of humanity will fall; but it is not fit they should be the tears of unmanly sorrow: it is fit, on the contrary, while we stand around it, that our hearts should kindle at those ashes which yet are scarcely cold: that while we see the "death of the ❝righteous," we should pray that "our life" and our "end may be like his ;" and that we should think what is the power of that religion, over which the "grave hath no victory," and to "which death "hath no sting." Happy, indeed, beyond the usual lot of mortality, was that long and venerable life, of which, alas! we have witnessed the close: and, to Him" whom he had made good in his "sight," the Almighty dispensed, even here, no common measure "of knowledge, and wisdom, "and joy."-Happy, in being called into existence

* THE REVEREND DR. HUGH BLAIR.-This great and amiable man died a few days before this Sermon was preached; and, after the lapse of so many years, I confess that I have still a melancholy satisfaction in being able to pay this humble tribute to a memory which I have not ceased to love and to venerate.

in the most splendid age of his country, in being the friend and contemporary of all those who have enlightened or adorned it, and in sharing with them in the applause and admiration of mankind :— Happy in an old age, in which "his eyes waxed "not dim," nor his "natural strength decayed," and in a death, which, after no long suffering, removed him from the service of the "sanctuary be"low," to that of the sanctuary above :—but happier far than all, in having devoted the great powers with which he was entrusted, to the sole ends of religion and virtue; in being the minister of salvation to ages yet unborn; and in having established a name, before which all the future generations of man will rise up and call it blessed!

It is with this illustrious example before us, that we enter upon a new age; upon that age, my brethren, in which we are all to live and all to die.May He, who liveth for ever and ever, be our Protector and Friend! May He dwell in all our hearts, and strengthen all our resolutions, and listen to all our prayers. And whatever be the scenes that lie before us, may we so advance, under his guidance, upon the road of mortal life, that in the "last day, "when the Saviour of the world shall come again "in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick " and the dead, we may all rise to the life immortal, "through Him who reigneth with the Father, and "the Holy Spirit, now, henceforth, and for ever!"

SERMON II.

ON SPRING.

JOB XLII. 5.

I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee."

THESE are the words with which Job concludes the interesting account of his sufferings and his doubts. After a speculative and fruitless conversation with his friends, to discover the cause of those afflictions with which the providence of God had visited him, he is represented as at last raising his eyes from himself and his own concerns, towards the Government of Nature: And the Almighty is brought forward as speaking to him from amid the whirlwind of his power, and pointing out to him, amid his despondence, some of the most striking instances in which His greatness and wisdom are manifested in the world that surrounds him. Then Job answered, in the sublime and memorable words of the text, "I have heard of "Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee."

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The words, my brethren, are still applicable to us. Even now, the greatest and most important

part of our religious knowledge, our knowledge of the nature and attributes of "Him that made "us," is acquired solely "by the hearing of the "ear." The early instruction of the parent; the occasional hours of reading and meditation; and the publick exhortations of the pulpit,-constitute all that the generality of men know upon the most momentous subject of human information. There are few who have been taught in infancy to raise their minds to the contemplation of His works; who love to kindle their adoration at the altar of nature, or to lose themselves in astonishment amid the immensity of the universe; and who thus "see❝ing Him with their eyes," learn to associate the truths of religion with all the most valued emotions of their hearts. It is the natural consequence of these partial views of the Deity, to narrow our conceptions of his being; to chill the native sensibility of our minds to devotion; and to render religion rather the gloomy companion of the church and the closet, than the animating friend of our ordinary hours.

Reflections of this kind, my brethren, seem very naturally to arise to us from the season we experience, and the scenes we at present behold. In the beautiful language of the wise man, “the win❝ter is now over and gone; the flowers appear "on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is

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come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our

❝land.”—In these moments, we are the witnesses