SERMON IX.

A NEW YEAR'S WISH.

I HAVE NO GREATER JOY THAN TO HEAR THAT MY CHILDREN WALK IN TRUTH.

THE aged apostle John, who wrote the epistle or letter from which this text is taken, which is the fourth verse of the third epistle, did not mean by the words "my children" young children, for he was writing to grown up people; but I, in using the same words, do mean young children, to whom I intend particularly to speak on this first Sunday morning of the year. The apostle John was so old when he wrote this letter, having lived probably almost a hundred years, that he well might speak of grown up people as his children; especially if he had taught them a new and true reli

gion, and had nourished them up in it. And well might such people look upon him, with his thin white locks, as their father. But for my own part I can only address as children those who are really such; and I can say, in the words of St. John, that I "have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." If you walk in truth, you will walk happily; and therefore I do not know how I can wish you a happy new year, my children, in any better manner, than to wish that you may this year, and every year you live, walk in truth.

You have doubtless some idea of my meaning, when I say that I wish you may walk in truth. But in order that you may have a yet more clear and more distinct idea of it, I will express the same wish under four different forms. I wish that you may love the truth, learn the truth, speak the truth, and live the truth.

1. I wish that you may love the truth. Give your approbation to whatever is candid, honest and open. Be always better pleased to see things as they are, than as they are not. Do not permit yourselves to be pleased with deceit. Have nothing to do with it, even though it may seem to be favorable It can never you any thing but harm in

to you. the end.

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I cannot ask you to be displeased with praise, for praise is often honest, and as useful as it is pleasant; but I can and will ask you to be displeased with flattery, that is, with praise which is not honest nor true. In this sense, love truth more than you love yourselves. Love truth more than you love to be praised; more than you love ease; more than you love any earthly advantage. If you love truth more than any selfish indulgence, then you will be valuable yourself, and will feel that you are valuable, and that the love of the truth has made you valuable, and that you can afford to go without praise, and without indulgences, because your own truthloving soul is worth more than all those things. But if you love praise so much that you will have it at any rate, or love money or things to eat and drink more than you love the truth, then you cannot help feeling mean, because you will feel that you have put your soul on a level with things which please your eyes or your palate, and that in fact you value your soul less than you do those things. A child, or a man either, must feel mean, and must be mean, when he places so little value on his own soul. Therefore love the truth which gives value to the soul, before all those things which please the

senses or gratify selfishness, and the intense love of which degrades the soul.

Love the truth wherever it is to be seen. Love it in a stranger, as well as in a person whom you know. Love it, and honor it in one who wears coarse clothes as well as in one who wears fine clothes. And despise falsehood and deceit just as heartily when it is dressed in jewels as when it is covered with rags. Put vanity and fear behind you, come out of the darkness, and stand up in the daylight, and love truth.

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2. I wish that you may learn the truth. deed if you sincerely love the truth, you will endeavor to learn it, and you will meet with success to all essential purposes. Most of the obstacles which hinder people from learning the truth, come from their not loving truth, or from their loving something else more than truth. Learn as much truth as you can, and when you find that you have learned anything which is not true, throw it away. Try to get as much truth as possible by your own exertions; but do not refuse help. Neither while you are children, nor after you are grown up, will you be able to learn the needful truth without help. But some are more able and better fitted to help you than others. Your parents are your best human