most of all "that they should see his face no more:" and these (if they be properly directed) will be our feelings under like circumstances. We rejoice, yea, and will rejoice, in the prospect of extending good; we rejoice, yea, and will rejoice, in the mission of faithful men to the work of the ministry; but natural sorrow, allowed, though moderated by Christianity, must be ours. All of you, I should expect, would sorrow at the departure of your teachers, should such departure take place; but, all would as well rejoice at their object and aimthe spreading of Christ's kingdom, and the proclaiming of his will upon earth, that it may be done, as it is done in heaven.

You then, in conclusion, for your parts, endeavour to do the will of God: let your light, how feeble soever it be, SO shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven;" looking for that great and glorious period, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ,when his, supremely and undividedly, shall be the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

NINTH ADDRESS.

ON the afternoon of Sunday last, my dear children, I brought under your notice the opening of the Lord's Prayer: First,—as it respected God as your Creator, Preserver, and reconciled Father in Christ; secondly, as it respected yourselves, as his creatures and children; and thirdly, as it respected missionary labour, which I also endeavoured to explain. According to the plan then stated, I am now about to resume a consideration of the prayer from the point at which we left it,"Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” "Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself; sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," said the same Lord upon one occasion to those who were listening to his dis

course: and "give us this day our daily bread," is a prayer coming from a heart evidently under the influence of such feelings, and none other; for it bespeaks these two things in the person offering it: First,-a moderation in desire and expectation; secondly,-an humble dependence solely upon Divine Providence.

Though it is a painful fact, my dear children, that increase of possession produces increase of desire, yet, on the other hand, is it a circumstance for which we should never cease to be thankful, that our views and expectations are generally moderated, if not altogether formed, by the condition in which we are placed, and the stations in which we move. Thus, while the rich and noble are all their lives struggling hard for mastery and eminence in the world, the poor live in the happier regions of content and quietude; and, if I am asked how happens that prosperity is spiritually ruinous, while sanctified adversity is spiritually good; that while the one tends to distance the soul from God, the other fails not to draw it to him nearer and more near, I can only offer as my reply the language of the

wise man of old, as bearing out the remark just made; that, "it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting," that, "sorrow is better than laughter," for by "the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better,"-that, "the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth,”that, while by riches the heart is depraved, hardened, corrupted-by poverty it is regulated, softened, purified.

Learn then, my dear children, I will not say to be thankful that you are poor, but at least not to murmur that you are not rich. Wealth produces self-confidence and self-dependence—want drives us solely and that continually to God; and an humble dependance upon the providence of God for the necessary supplies of life, is, as I have just told you, a second thing that this passage of the prayer enforces.

Are you accustomed to regard God as the supreme giver of good? Are you in the habit of reflecting that, it is from his bountiful hand that all things living are filled with plenteous

I

ness?

When partaking of a meal in the morning, at noon-day, and in the evening, are you in the habit of reflecting that all comforts, all blessings, all provisions flow from the inexhaustible treasure of his goodness? -that, it is in mercy he supplies, what in judgment he could withhold! This, remember, is a prayer that was given for the especial use of Christ's disciples; none therefore but such should presume to use it: when found upon the lips of the worldly man, it is there by mistake, as is every similar description of prayer; with such a character it can have no place; but, with the lowly, faithful, though suffering child of God, it is well and rightly found.

Where, I would ask, is the wicked to go in his distress? I mean the wilfully, obstinately wicked-where is he to look for succour under calamity and want? The Lord is not his God— to him, therefore, of course he will not, cannot look. The Lord has never been acknowledged and served as his God in the days of his prosperity,—why then should he be gracious in the hour of his anguish?

But the righteous shall never be forsaken: