venly angels! How can we think, or hope, that if our present lives are all spent in self-indulgence and ease, we shall ever reach that eminence? that if our hearts are impure, our prayers negligent and irregular, our tempers unfilial, our thoughts presumptuous or discontented, our words arrogant, our wishes ambitious, our conduct to our neighbours contemptuous or injurious to their religious improvement, our resistance to evil faint, or none at all, our daily duty half-done or neglected; how, I say, can we think or hope, that if our lives and characters are thus the very opposite of those of the dutiful and loyal angels, we shall ever attain to their estate, much less outshine it in the mansions of heaven?

Surely it is impossible. Surely there is much reason to entertain a painful fear lest many of those who now look forward, as far as they look forward at all, with hope and joy to the prospect of an eternal inheritance, will at length find that the prize was not to be so lightly won; that a real holiness was required of them; that a real conquest was to be achieved; a real likeness to angelic obedience was commanded to them.

May we, my brethren, be wise in time ; and as we have received in baptism the sign and seal of our heirship, and thereby have been placed

within the ministerial charge of holy angels, who guard us from evil; suggest good to us, and help us to effect it; comfort and refresh us in temptation and sorrow; rejoice with holy joy whenever we turn from sin and repent; so may we continue under their holy keeping; ever desiring to join our praises and duty to theirs as a joint offering to our common Father, and endeavouring (in continual devotion and obedience) to do His holy will in earth as it is done in heaven.

SERMON XIII.

CHRISTIAN JOY IN YOUTH.

ECCLESIASTES xi. 9.

"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

THIS verse is commonly interpreted in an ironical meaning In this view it is supposed that the precept of rejoicing in youth, and walking in the sight of our eyes, and the ways of our heart, is to be understood to imply the contrary of that which it seems to recommend; or, at least, it is believed that by an ordinary figure of speech, we are apparently directed to do that which will be deadly to us, in order to show more forcibly the necessity under which we lie of abstaining from it. Thus interpreted, the

precept of Solomon is not one of rejoicing, but of abstinence from rejoicing,—not of following in any manner or degree the ways of our heart, and the sight of our eyes, but of anxious withholding ourselves from such paths. The wise man, when he seems to say "rejoice,” speaks in a parable, and means, "beware of rejoicing; when he says, "walk," he is to be understood to mean, "refrain from walking." In accordance with this interpretation, the last clause of the verse must be thus rendered: "For if thou rejoicest in thy youth, and lettest thy heart cheer thee in the days thereof; if thou walkest in the ways of thine heart, and followest the sight of thine eyes, know that God will surely bring thee into the judgment of condemnation."

This interpretation of the verse is much supported by a reference to the 15th chapter of the Book of Numbers, in which the walking in the sight of one's eyes is expressly forbidden by God through Moses.

It cannot, I think, be denied, that the words of Solomon in this verse not only bear this meaning, but also that whatever additional meaning they may contain, this sense is not to be excluded from them. There are rejoicings, so called, of youth, and cheerings of heart in the days of youth; and paths which youthful hearts

are apt to choose, and which are according to the sight and pleasure of youthful eyes, of which the wise man can say nothing but "refrain." If he speaks of these joys and these alone, then indeed "rejoice" is said in irony, and by "judgment" he means nothing but "condemnation."

But though the general tone and language of the Book of Ecclesiastes, its many declarations of the vanity of earthly things, and the vexations of spirit attendant upon the pursuit of them, does seem naturally to suggest this limited and partial application of the present verse, I cannot but think that, since the Holy Spirit of God hath providentially kept this lesson and commended it to the contemplation of Christian hearts in youth, we shall do more wisely and well to interpret it more largely,―to interpret on the Christian rule and model,-on the rule and model by which the Church is directed, through the Philippians, to "rejoice in the Lord," to "rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, rejoice';" through the Thessalonians, to "rejoice evermore 2;" through the Romans, to "rejoice in hope "." In some manner and degree, rejoicing is a Christian duty, urged upon us by repeated apostolic command;

3

1 Phil. iii. 1; iv. 4.

2 1 Thess. v. 16.

3 Rom. xiii. 12.