SERMON V.

ON NEW YEAR'S DAY.

"O PRAISE the Lord in his holiness, praise him in the firmament of his power, praise him in his noble acts, praise him according to his excellent greatness! Let every thing that hath breath, praise the Lord. Amen!" To take a higher point of ground than is usual, in order to obtain a wider prospect, and especially to survey our earthly life in its totality, we never feel ourselves more forcibly incited, my hearers, than on the morning of a new year. He who has just passed through a large period of time, and sees before him one equally large, can scarcely refrain from raising himself from particular to more general objects, and contemplating every thing more in the aggregate. For shall he not look backwards, in order to enquire what he has done in the past time, what progress he has made in it, what he may consider as finished, as acquired, as the clear profit of his exertions? Shall he not also eagerly direct his view forwards into futurity, in

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order to consider, how much time may yet be granted to him; to determine what he has to do, to form a plan for the future, and to regulate his whole conduct? Lastly, the quick change of our years, their never-ceasing stream-like course, their almost inconceivable rapidity of flight, when is this more perceptible to us, than on the morning of a new year? But is not at the same time the representation of our whole earthly existence pressed upon us? Must we not be sensible, how short is its period, how lost it is in the abyss of centuries, how it vanishes into nothing, when we compare it with the existence of Him, who continues for ever as He is, and whose years have no end! Thus disposed to stand on higher ground, to extend on all sides your sphere of view, usually confined to daily concerns, and to elevate yourselves to the conception of what is great, general, and comprehensive, have you now assembled here; this I may assume with a degree of certainty. And how do I congratulate you on this frame of mind! Would you enter on the new year with meditations, with feelings, with resolutions, worthy of reasonable creatures and of true Christians, then must your minds burst the limits which ordinarily confine them, they must with thought unrestrained ponder over years and centuries, they must be conscious of a destiny and a dignity, which lifts them above all earthly things, they must adopt measures suitable to this

destiny and dignity, they must, in short, observe the true position which is allotted them in the immeasurable kingdom of God, and according to that direct and order their whole conduct. Our position in the immeasurable kingdom of God! What a consideration, my brethren! That we live in an universe, which stretches itself on all sides without bounds; that this universe is the work, the sphere of action, and the imperishable empire of the Infinite; that the place which we occupy in it is not the result of accident, but of the wisdom of Him who disposes and governs all things; that we are thereby brought into contact with the whole, into connexion with all that it contains, and into . manifold relations with the same; that from these relations arise duties which we acknowledge and which we must fulfil, if we would answer the purposes of God, if we would not disgrace ourselves, if we would not offer a contradiction to the whole system, and plunge ourselves into misery: all this must be evident to us, this must employ all our meditations, this must determine all our resolutions and designs, if we wish to enter on the new year with reasonable prudence, and to pass through it with benefit to ourselves and others.

Raise then your view, beloved brethren; look well at your situation, and consider, on what theatre of his glory, in what part of his stupendous creation, in what station in his kingdom, God has

placed you. How will your breast heave and expand at this survey! how important will that period, which we this day commence, thus become to you; and with what confidence, with what resolutions, with what hopes, will you advance into it! We fall down then in adoration before thee, O thou Infinite, who " coverest thyself with light as a garment, thou who spreadest out the heavens like a curtain, thou who hast laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever." Make us understand and feel, with joy and elevation of mind, to what thou hast destined us, and let this hour be the commencement of thy blessings for this year! We supplicate thee in silent devotion.

PSALM ciii. 15-22.

As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone: and the place thereof shall know it no more, &c. &c.

How wonderfully is the creation of God displayed to us in these words, my hearers, how immense is it represented to us! "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting," as the sacred Bard exclaims. Thus the creation of God is immeasurable in duration, and will never cease to be the happy scene of his grace and his love which blesseth all things. And who can comprehend its extent?

"The Lord hath prepared his throne in heaven," continues the Psalmist," and his kingdom ruleth over all." Wide as the dominion of the true God extends, (and is not this dominion boundless, and do not suns and worlds fill remotest space?) far as this dominion extends, so far reaches the power of the Eternal; to him all things therein are subject. What numbers of creatures, what various beings endowed with feeling, what hosts of mighty and exalted spirits live and act in this immeasurable world! "Bless the Lord, ye his angels," says the sacred Poet in continuation, "ye that excel in strength, that do his commandments; praise the Lord, all ye his hosts; praise the Lord, all his works." And what sensations does the Psalmist himself experience at this view into immensity, at this song of praise of all creatures, at this all-embracing sovereignty of the Almighty? It is true, the feeling of his transitory nature, of his nothingness, first strikes him; alas! he appears as a flower which soon decays; as grass which suddenly fadeth away. But a glance at the mercy of the Lord, which" is from everlasting to everlasting," re-invigorates him; consoled he looks around him in the infinite kingdom of the All-gracious, he feels himself elevated as a citizen thereof, and at last cheerfully joins in the universal song of praise; with joy he cries out, "Bless the Lord, O my soul."

What a point of view is here opened to us, my