yourselves, what shall then be your wish; and whether it will then content you, and give you firm peace of mind and “ "hope in the end," that you have gratified your every heart's lust, and followed to the full your vain imaginations. No! believe me; the world with all its pomps and vanity, its specious show and boastful bearing-if we have through these things been enticed from our duty, and from God-shall in the hour of mortal sickness and failing strength appear in its true colours, a lie, a disappointment, and a deceit; and stamping, as its fond trickery fades from before our eyes - stamping on our harrowed thoughts only "a fearful looking for of judgment." Therefore, to avoid this terrible dismay, this dreadful shipwreck of the soul's enduring hope, "Know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind:" accept him for thy Lord, and obey him as thy Master: "for HE is thy life, and the length of thy

? Heb. x. 27.

days" and though friends may forsake thee, and enemies may oppress thee, and thy dearest and most honest purposes be thwarted and disappointed, yet shall HE, thy God and Father, still be with thee. "He will not suffer the righteous to fall for ever.' 998 "Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the holy One of Israel, thy Saviour."9 Yes! brethren, these, the Lord's "promises, are ever sure," and shall be spiritually fulfilled toward all those who happily know the Lord to serve him.

Furthermore, and for our comfort amidst those perplexities and misgivings

8 Ps. lv. 2.

9 Isa. xliii. 1—3.

which may occasionally trouble and perplex us in our researches after the truth, we have in God, one "who searches all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts;" who looks there to view and to judge of our honest purpose, our determined resolve, to do his will; not "coveting the praise of men more than his praise;❞ not fearing the reproach, the revilings, the ridicule or opposition of men, more than the displeasure of him, who "hath power to cast into hell.”1 And, "Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker ?" 2 No, brethren, there is but one right and safe path for the christian pilgrim, the called of the Lord, to pursue, and this path must be followed, despite the unhallowed mockery of evil men, of the prevailing example of an ungodly multitude, or the silly conduct of the thoughtless and the wavering, the inconstant, and the luke* Isa. li. 12, 13.

1 Luke xii. 5.

N

warm in the faith. In the face of the world we are to avow and to take the Lord to be our God, we are to acknowledge and to confess Christ as our Saviour before men, and we are to seek to serve the Lord "with a perfect heart and with a willing mind" all the days of our life. We cannot enlist ourselves into his service too early. From childhood even to old age he requires our service. He hath offered to us his sustaining grace, and he will not fail in his promise. Whilst therefore he thus seeks us, we must be found of him; we must, as before said, seek and desire to know his will in order to do it.

Our church, my brethren, according to the primitive and apostolic institutions of the Gospel, demands of her younger members, that they do, in the face of the public congregation, take unto themselves the counsel, and openly assent unto the advice so affectionately, earnestly, and convincingly placed before them in the words of our text. This edifying ordinance, the

*

rite of confirmation, hath been recently witnessed in this place. And however unexpected, and however unavoidably hurried as hath been the preparation of our younger brethren in order to their admittance to this solemn ordinance, yet we do trust that it hath not been without its edifying and wholesome effect, not upon those only who then offered themselves for the best blessing their church had to bestow, but also on those of older years who were present at the confirmation.

Let it not be doubted that they who did on the recent and happy occasion publicly take upon themselves their christian vows and obligations, did then do a work acceptable unto God, and sure to meet with his blessing in being "strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner

* In January 1838, the right reverend Dr. Carr, bishop of Bombay, on passage to his diocese, confirmed in Malta 117 young persons, it being the first confirmation administered in the Island by a bishop of the Church of England.