And innocence laments her rules defiled.

Who further sings must change the pleasant tune
To heavy notes of wo."

How changed his physical condition! Instead of a life extending from age to age, full of fruition and full of hope, looking forward to an interminable duration of growing strength and enjoyment, "man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth as the flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as the shadow, and continueth not." He is subject to toil, hardships, and privations; to disease, pain, and death. Nor has his physical condition alone experienced this direful change; his intellectual and moral natures are not less involved in the ruin of the fall. Disarrayed of their primitive glory and perfection, they have sunken into weakness and disorder, have lost their original supremacy, and, without divine assistance, necessarily fail to accomplish the great end of a rational nature. The reason is obscured and obstructed in its operations, by the influence of the passions. The moral constitution fails of its design, not only through ignorance and the stormy power of the passions, but sometimes through a hardened insensibility to duty;-as where obligation is clearly seen and acknowledged, but neither felt nor regarded. In this case, volition follows the inferior desires, a sacrilegious usurpation subverts the divine order of the soul, and "the temple of the living God is turned into a den of thieves !" That such is man's present intellectual and moral condition, is matter of individual and universal experience, and is, moreover, confirmed by all history and observation. This melancholy fact was conceded and deplored by the wiser and more considerate among the heathen. That it is not the result of the influence of early example and education, is manifest from this, that the mind often decides in opposition to both these, when enforced by every motive of truth, duty, and interest. It is therefore false to assert, that in order to secure the will, it is only necessary to enlighten the understanding. The language of the apostle, when describing the condition of the mind, first enlightened by divine truth to see itself surrounded by the horrors of guilt, without power of escape, is not the language of an individual, uttering his solitary complaint, groaning over an inward misery with which others are unable to sympa

thize, because without a similar experience;—it is the language of fallen human nature, struggling like a captive with his chains which he cannot break, and sighing for a deliverance which he sees not. Who has not felt at some period of his accountable existence-I care not under what favorable circumstances, in respect to instruction and training, his childhood has been past-who has not felt the consciousness of that inward moral condition, that worse than Egyptian bondage, that slavery of the soul to vice, which has forced upon him the humiliating confession, "The thing that I do, I allow not; I find a law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death?" Place a hearing and an understanding ear where you please among the dwellings of men, civilized or savage, Christian or heathen, and it shall become a witness to this spontaneous confession of the human heart. Man, therefore, as at present found in all countries and climates, and under every allotment of Providence, is bound by a moral condition, fearful in its nature and tendency, dependent on no outward circumstances, and from which he has no power to release himself. The language of the truly awakened heart is, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?"-language betokening either flat despair, or hope looking only to the possibility of deliverance from some unknown power. Such, at least, must be the import of this language, when uttered by one entirely ignorant of the gospel. And O! how joyful to the self-convicted, heart-broken, and despairing sinner, must be the apostle's answer, "Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord"—that is, that through him deliverance can be obtained.

Which leads us to notice the important change in man's moral condition, through the introduction of the gospel. Without the gospel there would settle down over all his prospects of the future the darkness of absolute despair. or as the eye of imagination could scan the illimitable of future duration, he would behold them peopled ith the formidable ministers of divine justice, prefor him scenes of unending and unmitigated -a condition, reducing the proud lord of this lower to the most pitiable object on the face of it, com

pared to whom the meanest reptile would become an object of envy, looking forward to a destiny infinitely to be desired. But, thanks to redeeming grace, this is not man's condition; he has been freed from it by one mighty to save, and strong to deliver."

"God was made flesh,

66

And dwelt with man on earth! the Son of God,
Only begotten and dearly beloved, between
Man and his Father's justice interposed;
And in their name suffer'd, obey'd, and died,
Making his soul an offering for sin."

In consequence of this divine offering for sin, man, though still guilty and condemned, has been brought within the reach of mercy and hope; rendered capable of recovering his lost purity and innocence, and attaining to everlasting felicity. Arrayed in the righteousness of gospel faith, he may, without fear, listen to the awakened thunder of a broken law, or enter into the presence of his omnipotent Judge; because he has secured the friendship of one, who, in his stead, has fulfilled to the last tittle the demands of the law, and made it honorable.

We come now to the last particular in our discourse, namely, What is man in his destination? This question may be considered in a twofold light, having reference to man as an inhabitant of this world, and as an expectant of the next.

The knowledge and feelings of right and wrong, found in connection with the earliest developments of reason, prove man possessed of a moral nature, in the cultivation and perfection of which consists his supreme good. It has been said, with great truth, that "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever." But how is a creature, so limited in faculties and resources, to glorify God, a being infinitely exalted above all he has made, glorious in character and in external condition, whose sceptre is an everlasting sceptre, and of whose dominion there is no end? He can add nothing to the perfections of an infinite nature, to the grandeur of a boundless empire, or to a blessedness whose overflowings reach the extremities of the universe, and satisfy the desires of all the living. But, though he has not power to create an attribute or circumstance, which could invest the divine nature with a higher

intrinsic glory, he has power to bring it more within the sphere of his own thoughts and affections, and to increase toward it the respect, love, and veneration of others. And in doing this, he manifestly fulfills the design of his creation. He honors the Creator, and, to the extent of his power, promotes the true happiness of his fellow-creatures. Were all inspired with similar dispositions, and to adopt similar conduct, all would be speedily restored to favor and communion with God, and brought to obey those laws on which their perfection and supreme happiness depend. So that, to know, love, and obey God, to bear his image, to be made a partaker of the divine nature, by resembling it in our moral character, is doubtless the chief end of man, whereby he glorifies God, and is prepared to enjoy him for ever. And here we perceive the connection of the gospel with man's destination. It has removed an impassable barrier, which otherwise must have for ever prevented his return and reconciliation to God. It provides for his moral renovation, without which there could be no union with God, and no moral advancement. It provides for his ceaseless and illimitable growth in holiness, and commands that, leaving the first principles of the doctrines of Christ, he go on to perfection-to this perfection of virtue, and consequently of bliss.

No one can fulfill his destination in this life who lives to himself alone. He must live chiefly for the good of others; to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, administer consolation to the sick and the suffering, and bring back the wanderer to the paths of truth, duty, and peace. This is clearly indicated by his social constitution; and in thus fulfilling the intentions of his nature, he obeys the second great command of the gospel, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Nay, the gospel inspires a universal benevolence, breathing good-will, not only to man, but to every creature, however low in the scale of existence, capable of deriving benefit from its exercise.

The design of the present life, therefore, requires, as the great and paramount duty, this improvement of our rational nature; that we aspire to intellectual and moral excellence, and in all our intercourse with our fellow-men, and in all our treatment of the inferior creatures, that we be actuated by kind and benevolent affections.

Man's present and future destination do not at all differ in nature. In securing the true interests of this life, in the right use and enjoyment of its blessings, we are making the best preparation for happiness in the life to come. So, when our attention is most earnestly and exclusively directed to provide for the wants of our future being, we are not thereby neglecting our present happiness, but, in fact, are doing the very best we can to promote it. The principles of our constitution are arranged in view of the whole extent of its duration. And as duty and interest cannot conflict with one another, so at different periods they cannot conflict with themselves. In the present life there is no peace to the wicked; their mind is "like the troubled sea when it cannot rest,"-tossed and torn by the tempest of contending passions. Without holiness no man can see the Lord. Holiness is the great law of our nature, from the influence of which it is impossible to escape at any moment of our existence, however we might desire it. Hate it as we may, eschew it as we may, it has a mastery over us which it will maintain for ever, meting out to us a just retribution

66

"While life, or thought, or being lasts,
Or immortality endures."

There is a necessary and unalterable connection between the happiness of the soul and its moral condition. In this respect, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." As a life of virtue leads to eternal blessedness, so a life of sin leads to eternal misery, by a law of our nature. "Man," as one very justly remarks, "is happy, not in proportion to what he has, but what he is." Happiness, in this sense, is not a possession, but a condition. It consists not in riches, honors, or external circumstances of any kind. It is not to be sought without, but within. This is a universal truth, applicable to all intelligent natures; and not less to man's present, than to his future, existence. Future blessedness is but the continuation and perfection of that which commences here, depending on intellectual and moral character-on elevation of mind and purity of heart. The same simple and sublime truth is beautifully and forcibly expressed in the lines of the poet: "The mind is its own place; can make heaven of hell, or hell of heaven."