the latter than of the former. We know that there is no foundation for morals but religion-every other is but the baseless dream of a philosophy as shallow as it may be showy. If then we can but bring you to feel that you have souls, to remember that you must stand at the judgment seat of Christ, to act under a consciousness that God always sees you, and registers each particle of your conduct, the greatest way will be made towards securing that resistance to the allurements of sin, that faithfulness in duty, and that submission to authority, which we look for from those born of Christian parents, and brought up in Christian principles.

Be heedful, therefore, both the younger and the elder, how you make light, or think little, of religion. You may have ability, you may have attainments: but do not imagine that you are thereby excused from attention to religion, as though religion were only fit for those of weak

mind, or deficient acquirement.

The

idolatry of intellect is one of the foul and fatal faults of the day. Know ye that a man's intellect furnishes no apology, or makes no amends, for his irreligion : talent, joined with sensuality, or linked with impiety, is but talent desecrated and debased: it may throw a false lustre over its vile associate, but it makes itself contemptible and hateful-contemptible, as the prostitution of one of God's best gifts; hateful, as an engine for God's worst foes. See to it then, that ye be not ashamed of religion, that ye think it not manly, the proof of a free and disencumbered spirit, to sneer at or despise religion. It is the petty, the dwarfish, the ill-balanced mind, which can make light of the awful God, of eternity with its tremendous realities. Come anything amongst us rather than this, rather than the levity of the scorner, than the cold, hard, boldness of the sceptic. And that the young, who are exposed to the perils of this great city, may

not lapse into so fearful a state, be ye advised to give heed to religious duties without delay and in good earnest: no neglecting prayer, no failing to read God's Word, no turning the back, when the proper age is reached and the opportunity offered, on that most blessed ordinance, the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ: but seek God at once; seek Him in dependence on his promise-for "Heaven and earth may pass away, but my word", saith Christ, "shall not pass away"-seek Him in dependence on his promise, "They that seek me early shall find me".

SERMON VI.

THE CEDAR AND THE FIR.

ZACHARIAH XI, 2.

Howl, fir-tree; for the cedar is fallen.

THERE is little debate that the prophecy, of which these words are a part, had its fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews, by the Romans. You will easily understand how the text would become applicable at a time of great national calamity. By the cedar-tree we may consider that the chief men of a country are represented, those who occupy the more prominent positions, and are conspicuous by station and influence. And when the cedar-tree falls, when the princes of a land are brought down by disaster and death, men of inferior rank, who, in comparison with

those princes, are but as the fir-tree, compared with the cedar, may well tremble and fear, as knowing that their own day of trial must be rapidly approaching.

"Howl," then, "fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen." Such words, as you must perceive, are universally applicable whenever calamity falls on those better, or more exalted, than ourselves, and such calamity may serve as a warning, teaching us to expect our own share of trouble. This is the use which we design to make of the passage on the present occasion. We will separate the words altogether from their original scope or design, and simply treat them as an admonition to those who, from inferiority in station or character, may be likened to the fir-tree, that they gather a solemn lesson from what may be seen befalling others more excellent than themselves, the cedar-trees in the plantation of God. "Howl, fir-tree"-tremble and be afraid, ye sinful and careless ones, who, though planted in the garden of the