which is designated as actually a fresh | been turned towards the base and corcreation, consist rather in its purifica- ruptible; there has been a change, a tion and elevation, than in its endow- fatal change in its object; but, neverment with new qualities, we may con- theless, the desire itself belonged to clude, that, in its fall, there was the our nature in its glorious estate, God debasement rather than the destruc- its author, and immortality its aim. tion of its properties, the corruption So that, from the spectacle of crowded of what it had rather than the acquisi- marts and busy exchanges, where numtion of what it had not. bers manifestly devote themselves, body and soul, to the amassing of money, we can pass in thought to the spectacle of a world inhabited only by unfallen men, creatures who, like Adam as originally formed, present the lineaments of the Lord God himself. The one spectacle suggests the other: I learn what man was, from observing what he is.

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It is, we think, a very interesting thing to observe men's present dispositions and tendencies, and to consider what they would have been had man continued in uprightness. The distorted feature, and the degraded power, should not merely be mourned over and reproached: they should be used as elements from which we may determine what our race was, ere it rebel- And it is not merely that, viewing led against God. When, for example, the matter generally, we can see that we behold men eagerly bent on the the passion for accumulating wealth is amassing of wealth, giving all their an original affection of our nature, imenergy and time to the accumulation planted for noble ends. If examine of riches which they can never need with a little more attention, you will and never enjoy, we consider that we be struck with the testimony which are not looking merely on a melancho- there is in this passion to the exily spectacle, that of creatures squan- gencies and destinies of man. If you dering their lives on what deserves not were to speak with a great capitalist, their strivings. There is indeed the one who has already realized large exhibition of misused powers; but the wealth, but who is as industrious in exhibition is, at the same time, a strik- adding to his stores as though he were ing evidence of what man originally just beginning life, he would perhaps was, and for what he was designed. hardly tell you that he had any very The passion for accumulation, for definite purpose in heaping up riches, making provision for the unknown fu- that there was any great end which he ture, is among the strongest indications hoped to attain, or any new source of that the soul feels herself immortal, happiness which he expected to posand urges to the laying up for yet dis- sess. He goes on accumulating, betant times. What would the man, who cause there is an unsatisfied longing, is laboring night and day for corrupti- a craving which has not been appeasble possessions, have been, had he re-ed, a consciousness, which will not mained what he was as originally created? He would have been an eager candidate for those treasures which are enduring; and all that concentration of powers on a perishable good, which now excites our sorrow, would have been the undivided employment of every energy on the acquisition of everlasting blessedness. It is not a new desire, a desire which subsisted not under any form in the unfallen man, that which now actuates the great mass of our race, who toil and strive only to be rich. It is the very desire which, we may believe, was uppermost in our first father, when the image of God was in its freshness, and evil had not entered paradise. The desire has

suffer him to be idle, that man's business upon earth is to make provision for the future. For our part, we have no share in the feeling of wonder, which we often hear expressed, that worldly men, as they grow old, are even more eager than ever in adding to their riches. The surprising thing to us is, when a man who for years has been intent on accumulating capital, can withdraw from his accustomed pursuits, and yet not be industrious in seeking treasure above. We think it only natural, that the covetous man should be more covetous, as he draws nearer to death; for we regard covetousness as nothing less than the prostituted desire of immortality: it is the

passion of a being, goaded by an ir- | sition, as it may thus operate in righ

with greater clearness. In order there- | Ridley, or a Hooper; and then let them fore to combine the several lessons inquire, if we were now placed in like which seem furnished by the expres- circumstances, could we display the sive words of our text, we shall direct like constancy? and perhaps from the your attention to two chief topics of one end of this christian land to anodiscourse-considering, in the first ther, you would scarce find any to anplace, the caution, and in the second, swer in the affirmative. And this, we the comfort, which the righteous may wish you carefully to observe, would draw from the saying, "As thy days, not arise from mere humility, from so shall thy strength be." any actual underrating of their strength and devotedness. The answer would be the answer of perfect truth, the answer dictated by a most accurate comparison of the supposed trial with the possessed power. We are quite prepared for any the most cogent proof, that christians of the present day are not actually in possession of the courage and determination of martyrs and confessors; and that if, on a sudden, without their receiving fresh communications of grace, they were brought before rulers, and required to maintain their profession with their lives, the likelihood is that there would be grievous apostacy, even where we have no reason now to doubt the sincerity.

Now there is a wise, and there is also an unwise, comparison of himself with others, which may be instituted by a righteous individual. He may so compare himself as to be animated to imitation, or he may so compare himself as to be disheartened by a sense of inferiority. And in the latter comparison, whose result proves that it ought not to have been made, there is commonly no due regard to a difference in circumstances. If, for example, we take into our hands the annals of martyrs, and read the story of the undaunted heroism with which confessors, in days of fierce persecution, have braved the loss of all that is valuable, and the endurance of all that is tremendous, we can perhaps hardly repress a painful feeling of inferiority; and we close the book with a tacit but reproachful confession, that we seem void of the faith which could perform the like wonders. And we have no wish to say that there may not be great cause, when we ponder what the saints of other days have suffered and done, for acknowledging that we come far short of their zeal for the truth, and their love of the Savior. It is more than possible that christianity in the present day is feebler in power, and fainter in lustre, than in earlier times, when it was to be professed with danger, and maintained with blood. But what we now contend for, is, that we have no right to consider the piety of our own times inferior to that of former, just because we may doubt whether the christians of this generation have the courage and fortitude of martyrs of old. It is exceedingly probable that there are very few christians, who can declare, after honestly and fearlessly examining themselves, that they feel so nerved to bear all things for Christ, that they could go joyfully to the stake, and sing his praises in the midst of the flames. Let men read the history of a

But we do not consider this' as proving any thing against the genuineness or worth of the existing christianity. We consider it no evidence that religion has deteriorated, that the christians of our own day stand not ready for the stake which their forefathers braved. The stake and the scaffold are not the appointments of the times: it is not God's will that the believers of this generation should be exposed to the same trials as martyrs and confessors. And we reckon it a great principle in the dealings of God with his church, a principle clearly laid down in the words of our text, that the grace imparted is rigidly proportioned to the emergence; so that, as it is never less, it is never more, than suffices for the appointed tribulation. There was bestowed upon martyrs the strength needful for the undergoing martyrdom, because it was martyrdom which God summoned them to encounter. That strength is not bestowed upon us, because it is not martyrdom which God hath called us to face. In both cases the same principle is acted on, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." And this principle would be utterly forgotten and violated, if we, who live in

was possessed by those noble ones o old, who "witnessed a good confes sion," and whose names shed undying lustre on the annals of our religion.

And, having the same faith, we can be sure that they would be strengthened for the meeting all such trials as God, in his providence, might be plea

times when the fires of persecution no longer blaze, felt ourselves thoroughly furnished for the dying nobly for the truth. But then we can be confident that the principle would be equally preserved, if there were to pass a great change on the times, and the profession of christianity once more exposed men to peril of death. We have no fellow-sed to appoint. It is not that zeal is ship with that feeling which we often extinguished, that love has departed, hear expressed, that so degenerate is that courage has perished. It is not modern christianity, that, if there were that our valleys and cities are indeed a return of persecution, there would haunted by the memory of such as be no revival of the fine heroism which counted all things "loss for Christ," former days displayed. We believe in- but could not again send forth defenddeed that there is a vast deal of nomi- ers of the truth. On many a mountainnal christianity, of mere outward pro- side would the servants of the living fession, with which the heart has no God again congregate, if the fiends of concern. This will necessarily be the persecution were once more let loose. case under the present dispensation, Scenes, consecrated by the rememwhenever christianity is the national brance of what was done in them of religion, adopted by a country as the old, would be again hallowed by the only true faith. And it is hardly to be constancy of the veteran and the stripquestioned that a great part of this ling, and by the fine exhibition of tornominal christianity would altogether ture despised, and death defied, that disappear if the supposed change were the doctrines of the Gospel might be brought about. What men have not re- upheld in their purity. We should ceived into their hearts, they cannot again have the merchant, willing to be be expected to defend with their lives. stripped of his every possession, and But we speak now of vital christianity, turned a beggar on the world, rather of that christianity which is allowed to than abjure one tittle of the faith. We be genuine, but presumed to be weak. should again have the tender and the It is of this christianity that the me- weak, the woman and the child, who lancholy suspicion is entertained, that now shrink from the least pain, and it would not stand an onset of persecu- are daunted by the least danger, contion, but would prove itself a recreant fronting the fierce and the powerful, if summoned to the trials of confessors and refusing to deny Christ, though of old. And it is this suspicion which to save themselves from agony. We we consider wholly unwarranted, and should again have the dungeons filled in the entertainment of which we have with unflinching men, proof equally no share whatsoever. We regard the against threat and persuasion; and who, suspicion as involving an utter for- counting religion the dearest thing of getfulness of the principle announced all, would neither be bribed from it by in our text, and as proceeding on the an empire, nor scared from it by death. supposition that God might be expect And we venture on this prophecy, not ed to allow such an accumulation of from any confidence in the natural regrace as would cause us to have in sources of those who seem unprepared hand full provision for the future. But to do and dare nobly for the truth. It with the words which we are consider- is not that we think they have undeing kept steadily in mind, we could veloped power, which would be brought look forward to a return of persecution, out by exposure to trial. It is only that with a confident expectation of a re- we are persuaded that God accurately turn of the spirit of the martyrs. Be proportions the strength to the circumit so, that the best christians of the day stances, communicating his grace as seem unprepared for the surrender of the difficulties increase. And men may property, the submission to captivity, look back, with a sort of despondency, or the sacrifice of life. They neverthe- to times when righteousness was unless have in them the same faith, the daunted by all the menaces of wickedsame in nature, if not in degree, as ness. They may draw a reproachful

We allow that, in temporal things, men seem able to defeat this intention, and to acquire something that might pass for independence. But this is only in appearance: it were the worst infidelity which should contend for the reality. The man of ample property may say with the rich fool in the parable, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years;" but you must all be conscious that no amount of wealth can secure its possessor against want, if God saw fit to strip him of his riches. It is only in appearance that the man of large capital is better provided for to-morrow, than the beggar who knows not whither to turn for a morsel of bread: you have simply to admit that

contrast between the christianity which was cheerful in a prison and confident on a scaffold, and that of modern days, which seems little like it in boldness and disinterestedness. But we see nothing in the contrast but evidence that the supplies of grace are proportioned to the need, and ground of assurance that christianity now would be what christianity was, were God to take off his restraints from the enemies of his church. Yes, when we hear it said that days of persecution may again be permitted, that again may professing the name of Christ cause exposure to all from which human nature shrinks, we are far enough from having before us the gloomy spectacle of universal apostacy. The imagery which the state-"the earth is the Lord's, and the fulment brings to our mind is that of unblenching fortitude and high daring and christian heroism: there is the cruelty of savage and bloodthirsty men, but there is also the constancy of meek and single-hearted believers: there are the emissaries of an inquisition hunting down the righteous, but there are the righteous themselves holding fast their profession: the dead seem to live again, the ancient worthies have their faithful representatives, the mantle of "the noble army of martyrs" is resting on a host of every age and every rank -and all because God hath announced this as his principle in his dealing with his people, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

Now we have learned, from our intercourse with christians when in sickness, or under affliction, that it is practically of great importance to insist on the truth that no greater measure of grace should be expected than is sufficient for present duties and trials. The passion for accumulation, to which we have so often referred, is to be traced in men who are busy for the next world, as well as in those who are busy only for this. As he who is gathering perishable wealth is not content with the supply of present wants, but always looks anxiously to future, so the christian, though possessing what is needed by his actual condition, will be thinking of what would be necessary if that condition were worse. And we are certain, that, both in temporal and spiritual things, it is the object of God to keep us momentarily dependent on himself.

ness thereof," and you admit that the opulent individual and the destitute are alike dependent upon God, that by to-morrow they may have virtually changed places, the opulent being in beggary, and the destitute in abundance.

But in spiritual things, the distribution of which God keeps more visibly, though not more actually, in his own hands, there is not even the appearance of our having the power to be independent. We can have only such measure of grace as God is pleased to bestow; and it may be withdrawn or continued, increased or diminished, entirely at his pleasure who "holdeth our souls in life." But nevertheless there may be a craving for a larger measure of grace than suffices for present, duties, just as there may be for a larger measure of wealth than suffices for present wants. And if there may be this craving, there may be also a dissatisfied and uncomfortable feeling, if the larger measure of grace should not seem bestowed. Whereas, if we may use a very homely expression, it is not God's method to allow us a stock of grace, to be kept in reserve for occasions which may arise. The petition in the Lord's prayer seems applicable to spiritual as well as to temporal food, "Give us day by day our daily bread." What we are taught to ask is what we may hope to receive; and we are not to ask to-day for the bread for to-morrow: we are to be content with today's supply, and to wait till to-morrow before we speak of its wants. Nei