displeasure of God. "The wrath of God," saith St. Paul," is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness *." It prefers a charge of guilt, not only against this or that individual, but against all mankind. It declares, that all the world is guilty before God; that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; that there is none righteous, no not one. Not only does it charge us with the guilt of particular acts of sin, but it asserts that there prevails habitually in mankind, by nature, a defection and alienation of heart from God, of which, sinful acts are the natural fruit;-that the carnal mind is enmity against God; that it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be; and that so long as any man continues in this state, he cannot be happy. "There

is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked +."

Now, if this were all the discovery made to us by the Gospel, it would not contribute to our happiness, but rather aggravate our misery. The knowledge of the cause of death, and of its awful consequences, Isaiah lvii. 11.

*Rom. i. 18.

would not take away its sting, or lighten any of the troubles of the life of man. But this is not all the discovery made to us. The Gospel does not thus set before us our calamity only to mock at it, but to offer us deliverance from it: and while it points out to us our disease, it reveals also the remedy: while it denounces the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and declares that the "wages of sin is death," it points to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and reveals a righteousness of God—that is, a method of justification appointed by God-by which all may be received into favour with God, and be treated by Him, hereafter, as if they had not ́sinned. And, further, whereas it declares that we are all unclean and polluted creatures, prone to evil from our birth, and yet that without holiness no man shall see the Lord; it distinctly promises the gift of the Holy Spirit of God to them that pray for it-to take away the corruption of their nature; to restore them to that holiness, that image of God, in which our first parents were created; and so to make them meet to be admitted. to the blessedness of heaven.

My dear friends, permit me to deal faithfully with you. You wish to be happy. My object in addressing you, is, to lead you from those pursuits which would disappoint your expectations, to substantial happiness and peace of mind. I wish to fill up that void, that aching void, which you feel in feel in your breasts, and to which you have not yet found any thing corresponding. Let me then assure you, that the reason of your not having yet found happiness, is, that you have not duly considered what the word of God declares respecting the cause of your unhappiness. So long as a man is under the guilt of sin, he is exposed to condemnation; and with a sentence of condemnation—of eternal condemnation -hanging over his head, it is impossible he can be happy. He may determinately shut his eyes, and fold his arms, and say there is no danger; and in this temper of mind he may rush on to the brink of eternal misery, and plunge into the dark gulph, to rise no more :-but surely you would not say that such a man is happy, when the very semblance of shortlived happiness, which he enjoys, is the result of insensibility to his true condition, like the joy of a madman dancing in his chains?

Believe me, whosoever of you has not sought the pardon of his sins in the way which the Gospel proposes, has not even entered on the path which alone leads to happiness. Till you are reconciled to God, you cannot have any well-grounded assurance that the vengeance which is suspended over you, as by a hair, will not fall the very next moment. Would you then know what true happiness is—and not only know, but experience it—you must come to God, begging, as a lost sinner, for pardon in the Name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, whom God has appointed to be a propitiation for sin, through faith in His blood. You must come to Him, confessing and renouncing your sins; and resolving, by His grace, and through the operation of His Holy Spirit for which you must pray - to forsake them utterly; and using conscientiously those means of grace which, by the blessing of God, may conduce to your establishment in faith, and your growth in holiness. There is a wound-a deadly wound-in your soul, incurable by any human prescription. Nothing will heal it, but the precious blood of Jesus Christ-that living and life-giving stream, which flowed from the side which was

pierced upon the cross for us ;-or, to speak without a figure, nothing can give you peace and happiness, but an application to your own case of the provision made for the sinful race of mankind in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It would be easy to speak to you smooth things, and to prophesy deceit; but I should bring upon myself the guilt of those of whom the prophet Jeremiah spake :· "They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace *" God has mercifully annexed disquietude and dissatisfaction to every thing earthly, in order that we may thereby be stirred up to seek rest and peace where alone they are to be found. The language of every such disappointment is, "Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto theet.”—“ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest‡." Till you have sought peace with God, through Jesus Christ; you may shift from place to place-from one pursuit to another-from business to relaxation, and from relaxation to business -from privacy to public

* Jer. vi. 14.

Job xxii. 21.

Matt. xi. 28.