of such meetings, if well attended, and conducted with spirit, must be apparent upon the slightest examination. It is desirable, at all times, for those who are engaged in the promotion of the same cause to consult together, at stated and not very distant intervals, as to the most effectual means of promoting it; to compare the observations they may have severally made, and to adopt such plans as may seem advisable for the furtherance of their common object. It is, besides, of great importance that persons so circumstanced should enjoy the advantage of that mutual comfort and encouragement, the value of which has been already illustrated. If, however, meetings of this kind be desirable for all religious bodies, it requires but little attention to perceive that they must be peculiarly so for that with which we are connected. There are no men whose united efforts are so much called for as the members of a religious community which may be pronounced to be still in its infancy. There are none to whom mutual sympathy and encouragement are so valuable, as the advocates of doctrines which, like those of Christianity itself, when the words of our text were written by the apostle, are everywhere spoken against. But, my friends, it must not be forgotten, that the moral effects produced by such a meeting must depend altoge

ther on the manner in which it is attended, and on the interest which it excites. If numerously attended, and conducted with spirit and animation, it will act as a heart upon the body to which it belongs, and send a life-pulse of vigour and activity to its remotest extremities. If neglected by those whose station and character enable them to countenance it effectually, its utility must be, of course, proportionably diminished. In meetings of this kind, my Christian friends, we have opportunities presented to us of giving our sanction and assistance to what we believe to be the cause of gospel truth, and of bestowing upon our brethren, whose feelings and opinions coincide with our own, that sympathy and countenance so gratifying and encouraging to human nature, and on which the apostle teaches us, in the text, to set so high a value. Let us be eager at all times to avail ourselves of such opportunities of meeting our brethren," that we may be comforted together with them, by the mutual faith both of them and us."

SERMON VII.

THE LORD's supper.

LUKE Xxii., 19.

This do in remembrance of me.

THERE can be no doubt, my Christian friends, that sensible ordinances are well suited to the nature of man, and that, in a large majority of instances at least, they are highly useful, if not absolutely necessary for keeping up a sense of religion in the mind. That this should be the case is not at all surprising. From infancy to age man is, in a great measure, the creature of sensible impressions. By them the dormant energies of the human mind are first awakened. They first supply the little stranger with objects upon which its latent powers of observation and memory may be exercised. From them proceed the sparks by which that flame of intellect is kindled, which is destined, perchance, at some future period, to burst forth into a blaze of genius that will astonish and delight mankind. All our earliest pains and pleasures proceed from the same source. What wonder, then, that an

influence which has been so firmly established, and which continues ever after to be so constantly exerted, should be felt even to the close of life? That it is felt, my friends, and felt most extensively, there can be no doubt. Look to the effects produced in society by sensible differences of personal appearance, dress, equipage, furniture, and other things of the same kind, by which a worthless character is so frequently gilded over. Look to the enthusiasm which has often been excited in an army, on the day of battle, by the sound of martial music, and especially of a national air, by the exhibition of a standard, or by the sudden appearance of a favourite general. Look to the magic influence exerted upon the mind by the sight of the picture, or even of the hand-writing, of an absent or departed friend, or by the contemplation of any sensible object whatever, that reminds us strongly of past scenes of pain or pleasure, and then say whether the power of which we are now speaking be real or imaginary. If, then, my Christian friends, the influence of sensible objects upon the human mind be indeed so powerful, can you think it desirable that they should be entirely excluded from religion? Can it be thought right for religion, which aims at obtaining an universal and unlimited sway over mankind, disdainfully to re

ject one of the most effectual methods of influencing them? If not, my friends, then may we reasonably expect that a religion, which had for its author the wise and beneficent Parent of the universe, will avail itself of sensible ordinances, so far as it can with safety, that is, without compromising, in the slightest degree, its fundamental principles; and if we find, upon further inquiry, that this is actually the case, and that these expectations of ours are not disappointed, it will then become an obvious and imperative duty, on our part, to avail ourselves of the assistance of such sensible ordinances, with humility and with gratitude.

It must be admitted, on the other hand, that the introduction of rites and ceremonies into religion is a matter of extreme delicacy, and requires the exercise of the utmost caution. The ignorant and uncultivated, those whose minds have not been much habituated to exercises of reflection, are the very persons for whose edification such external observances are most required, and they are, at the same time, the most in danger of being misled by them. The adoption of numerous and imposing rites may prove injurious to mankind, in religious matters, in three different ways. First, such rites and ceremonies may so effeetually dazzle and delude