O my brethren, destined for immortality, raise your minds from earth and fix them on the heaven of heavens. As you march towards the New Jerusalem, let your eye be filled with the approaching glories of the place. Keep your thoughts above, where you are to spend a never ending eternity. Often contemplate the amazing destinies before you. Why those sighs and tears and low contracted griefs? Is it for the children of a king to be sad? You have reason to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. I wonder you are not constantly transported. Consider what you will be a century hence. Consider what Consider what you will be a million of ages hence. I am rapt as I follow you through the ascending glories of eternity. And are you born to this? to dignity so august? to glories so unbounded? O debase not yourselves by sordid actions. Stoop not to grovelling pursuits. member what you are and respect yourselves. Do nothing that you will disapprove when you review your life from the high abodes of salvation. Awaken every sleeping faculty and press towards the glorious mark. You are acting for eternity and immortality is the prize. Drive on your lagging powers; quicken your tardy progress; " till you come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Amen.

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SERMON XXI.

THE PILGRIM.

HEB. XI. 13.

These all died in faith not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

The apostle, in this chapter, was pointing out to the Hebrews the various operations and fruits of faith in the saints of old. A prompt obedience to the commands of God, renunciation of the world, and trust in the promises, were among the most prominent of these. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.-These all died in faith not having received the promises, but having seen

them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.-By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.-And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthae, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets; who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.— And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise."

This was the character and condition of the ancient saints, those favorites of heaven of whom the world was not worthy. They were destitute of worldly good. They were despised, forsaken, persecuted. But they regarded it not, for they felt

themselves not at home, but strangers and pilgrims on the earth. The world was not the portion they sought, but they "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." I shall,

I. Inquire what it is to feel and conduct ourselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

II. Suggest some reasons for doing this.

III. Urge the duty of believing and trusting in the promises of God.

I. What is it to feel and conduct ourselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth?

A Christian's pilgrimage is a journey to heaven. To feel and conduct ourselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth, then, is to feel and conduct ourselves as not being at home in the flesh, but as travelling on a journey to the world above. It is to tread the world beneath our feet and to soar to heaven in our affections. A wise pilgrim will not encumber himself with a load of toys which will only impede his progress towards home; which, instead of adding to his enjoyments, will only perplex him on his journey; and which at last he cannot carry into his Father's house to possess, but must lay down and leave at the threshold. A stranger on earth, if he is wise, will not expend his all in procuring the riches of the country, and in storing up an encumbrance of goods which he cannot carry with him when he returns, as he shortly must, to his native land. His principal object will be, (besides those temporary supplies which will support him by the way,) to lay in copiously those riches