but the continuance of existence can rationally satisfy. As you value unbroken peace in the hour of dissolution, and as you value the happiness of these dear pledges heaven has lent you, study for the evidence of Christian truth, search the Scriptures, and labor to enter into that rest that remains here to the believing people of God, who are born again and specially saved through faith in the truth.

This labor is not only important in view of the solemn hour of death, but important in view of the life you here live in the flesh. Happiness is the ultimate pursuit of all mortal beings. They vainly imagine, that it can be found in riches, honors, and titles; yes, even imagine that it can be found in the hard ways of the transgressor. Though sensible, that worlds before them have failed, and gone down to the grave with the pangs of disappointed hope, yet man is so strangely inconsistent as still to believe, that these earthly pursuits contain some hidden charm, which he flatters himself he shall find, even though all before him have failed. Here is the delusion, kind reader, of which you are cautioned to beware. There is no happiness but in the path where the hand of mercy has sown it, no happiness but in the objects where God has placed it. It is nowhere to be found but in the enjoyment of the religion of Christ. This will sweeten every earth

ly pursuit, make every burden light, afford solid enjoyment in life, and divine consolation in the hour of death. Flatter not yourself that there is any happiness beneath the sun, aside from this. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," and he who says there is contradicts Jehovah, and is yet" in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." A speculative faith is of but little consequence, so long as it does not influence our life and conversation for the better. We must believe to the saving of the soul from the evil of the world. "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rere-ward."

SERMON X.

ON A GOOD NAME.

"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold." PROv. xxii. 1.

A GOOD name involves all that can render man exalted and amiable, or life desirable. The good opinion of mankind has, in all ages, been considered as a blessing of the first magnitude, and has, in various ways, been sought for by all. There is no man so dishonest, but that he labors to impress upon others the conviction of his honesty ; no man so deceptive, but that wishes to be considered sincere; nor cowardly, but desires to be reputed brave; and no man is so abandonedly vicious, but that he desires to be considered virtuous by his fellow-creatures. All choose a good name in preference to a bad one. This being a fact, the appearance of virtue is kept up where the reality is wanting, and the shadow is often mistaken for the substance.

There are many at heart insincere and false, who pass in society generally for persons of sincerity, candor, and virtue, while their real principles are known only in their own families, and among their confidential friends. They desire a good name, and outwardly maintain it, while they

in reality but little deserve it. In order to know what a man really is, we must be acquainted, not only with his public but his private character. In his own family every man appears what he really is. There the heart, word, and action are in unison. They embrace each other. In public, they too often separate; and the word, or action, speaks what its divorced companion, the heart, does not feel.

Such not only literally choose, but often bear, a good name. But this is not the choice suggest

ed in the text. All men, even the most vicious, in some sense or other, choose a good name. But the passage under consideration has a higher, a nobler aim, than a mere choice, unconnected with virtuous principle and action. It has a higher aim, than to encourage men to be rotten at heart, and by an outward, hypocritical manœuvre, maintain a good name among their fellow-creatures. By the text, we are to understand, that a man should early cultivate, in his heart, a virtuous principle, as the pure source from which all those outward actions spring, that justly merit the esteem of mankind, force approbation even from the vicious, and thus entitled him to that good name, which is far above all price. This will not only afford its possessor unbroken peace, arising from the inward consolations and joys of virtuous sincerity, but it will also open to him another rich

fountain of felicity, arising from the consideration, that he enjoys the confidence and esteem of the great and the good, with whom he is conversant in life, of his intimate friends, of his companion and children, and above all, the smiles of kind heaven and the approbation of his God. His life is calm; his sleep is sweet and associated with golden dreams. No fearful spectres haunt his brain, but the kind angel of mercy is ever at his side. He looks forward to death undismayed, yes, with satisfaction and composure looks beyond that dark scene, to brighter worlds and more substantial joys. He feels the assurance, that even when he shall be here no more, his name shall live in the hearts of those he left behind, be embalmed in the memory of the just, and that it is beyond the power of rolling ages to sully it. This is what we understand by choosing a good name, as stated in our text.

Of the truth of this, there can arise no misapprehension when we compare it with the subsequent phrase, with which it is contrasted; "a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold." By the choosing of riches, we are to understand, not only a desire to obtain them, but, that this desire shall be sufficiently strong to prompt us to use all the honorable and efficient means in our power to accumulate them. The wise man did not