ence; he is conscious that there is a soul within him, and that this soul is only connected with his body by a certain state of organization. When this is broken up, he ceases to exist. Thus far, all is obvious-all is intelligible. Beyond it, shadows, clouds, and darkness, conceal from him even a glimpse of information. He looks around him, and beholds friends, relatives and neighbours going, one after another, to their long home, and the mourners traversing the streets. He sees the funereal pageant, slowly advancing through the public ways, and conveying to the vault or the churchyard the dissolving remains of what was once stamped with the dignity of the human mien.

But "shall these dry bones live?" Nature seems to repel the very idea-reason suggests the probability-but revelation blazes upon us with the full radiance of indisputable assurance. The doctrine of the resurrection is not with Christians a subject for controversy, but a fact established by proofs and miracles. It is not conjecture, but certainty. The Christian believer points to the widow's son, and as he sees him, in imagination, rising from his coffin, he says within

himself Thus shall I rise from the grave, when the Son of Man has given the loud signal for the recomposition of the dust of a thousand generations, for the reunion therewith of the separated souls. As the voice of the God in human flesh was heard proclaiming, "Young man, arise”— the sound of the last trump shall ring through the measureless extent of the universe, on the day of solemn adjudication, bidding the swarming hosts awake, arise, and come to judgment. As the young man was delivered to his mother, so shall parents and children meet again. Friends shall once more embrace. The sacred affections commenced on earth shall be renewed, indissolubly renewed. The pangs of separation shall be felt no more, for an immortality of bliss shall consolidate the happy union.

But while we thus indulge our feelings of gratitude and satisfaction at the clearing up of all doubts on the subject of our future destination, let us ask ourselves individually, Am I pursuing that mode of life which will convey me to the arms of mercy? Am I living as a Christian ought to live? Is it my daily practice to crucify the corruptions of the flesh, and to strive after

that holiness without which no man shall see God? Am I studious to conform myself to the precepts of the Gospel, or am I guided by the fatal standard of the world, and swayed by its overruling dictates? It becomes a momentous question with us all, whether we are thus preparing to take our station on the right hand or on the left hand of our discriminating Judge. Ye mothers, to whom is principally consigned the task of rearing the little progeny around you, are you training them up in Christian principles, are you teaching them to lisp the infant prayer, and to look up with habitual love and gratitude to the Author of their being, in his threefold character of Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier ? If not, you can never presume on meeting your children in heaven. The Saviour's compassion will be changed into vengeance, and your ruined sons and daughters will accost you with bitter remonstrances in the regions of despair. The widow of Nain received her child again at the hands of him who significantly entitled himself the "resurrection and the life." The careless and abandoned mother, already consigned to torment by the sentence of her righteous Judge,

shall likewise receive her offspring, whom she has been instrumental in conducting to perdition. But oh, what a reception! Mutual execrations, mutual agonies, mutual hatred and remorse.

May our reflections on this subject promote in us a due solemnity of feeling. May we be persuaded to think profitably of the certainty of death, and of its tremendous sequel, the resurrection, by the pathetic epitome of those two great events contained in the narrative of the widow's son restored. May we daily prepare ourselves for the inevitable crisis, and live and die in the consolatory hope of renewing in heaven those bonds of attachment, which have linked us to friends and kindred upon earth.

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SERMON X.

THE SPIRITUAL LEPER HEALED.

2 KINGS v. 13.

Wash, and be clean.

NAAMAN, the commander in chief of the Syrian forces, although "a great man with his master, and honourable," was, nevertheless, made to feel the hand of Omnipotence, and to groan under the infliction of a loathsome disease. "He was a leper." This distemper, in the virulence and obstinacy in which it existed previous to the introduction of Christianity, is evidently unknown to us. The very heathens were wont to consider it as an immediate visitation from their deities-as a malady beyond the reach of cure, except by their express interference. That they thus regarded it, is confirmed by the readiness with which the