of Christianity, and an inattention to the presumptions of natural religion.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies."* Now, as Christians, we must all conclude that the disposition, or state of mind, which prompted the Psalmist to review the benefits which he had received at the hand of God, and dictated such language as that which we have just cited, was of more essential worth to him than the whole of those benefits themselves. It was evidently so in his own judgment; for his words express a predominating desire to be adequately sensible of the goodness of the Lord, and at all times to bear it in remembrance. It is as certain indeed as our religious obligations and immortal destiny, that an habitual, prevailing sentiment of gratitude to the Giver of all good, is of incomparable and transcendent value; essential and powerful, as it is, to attract us to an obedience of his precepts, and to promote our attainment of

* Psalm ciii. 1-4.

that holiness, which reflects into the mind the assurance of his favour, and argues our preparation for a life of perfect and enduring happiness. Whatever then supports that gratitude is, undeniably, an especial proof of the divine benevolence. Such, however, is the indisputable tendency of all those ills, which assail or menace us in this preparatory stage of our existence. The experience or the apprehension of those ills is directly conducive, or rather indispensably necessary, to preserve in human beings a sentiment of gratitude to the Deity; to renew their impressions of his goodness; and thereby to promote their subjection to his authority, and their advancement to a state of existence, compared with which an unbroken continuance of health and prosperity, an uninterrupted succession of pleasures-all that mundane happiness which we are accustomed to regard as the principal or only token of the goodwill of the Almighty towards us, is less than nothing and vanity.

In taking this position, that our sufferings are demanded for the support of our religious gratitude, we do but assume the reality of that general experience, which was the subject of the preceding discourse: namely, that the long possession, the uninterrupted enjoyment

of a good, is almost universally found to reduce our esteem of its value, and often to efface the sense of obligation to its Divine Author; and, moreover, that we are affected in an inferior degree by the bounty of the Creator, because there are innumerable other beings, who participate it in common with ourselves; or, in other words, because the same illustrations of His goodness are everywhere and continually before our eyes. The irrationality and sinfulness of thus allowing the influence of uniformity and repetition to impair the impressions of divine benevolence, and to work the effect of ignorance itself upon our religious principles, was dilated upon in the last discourse. At present, we are concerned only with the fact itself, that the benefactions of Almighty God suffer in our estimation as they grow familiar and become naturalized to our experience and observation that our gratitude towards him is in danger of being as superficial and fugitive as the impression of change or novelty; and is consequently dependent, in an incalculable degree, on painful reverses in our own experience, or the contrast which the sufferings of others present to our own condition. The fact is universally acknowledged; but not so

generally perceived is the light which it casts upon the final cause of human sufferings, or the powerful aid which it affords us in seeking a solution of natural evil, and in justifying the ways of God to man. If such, however, be the corrupt state and wayward proneness of our nature, that gratitude to God, awakened as it is by the communication of happiness to his creatures, is laid asleep by the continuance and extension of that happiness; then is it a farther and yet more affecting proof of his benevolence, to interrupt its continuity, and to limit its extension. If a long duration of life and health gradually hardens the heart to the beneficence of our Creator in the gift and preservation of those blessings, and begets an indifference to his laws and institutions, then was it his unaltered, his persisting goodness, that sowed in our nature the vigorous seeds of disease and mortality. If the continuance of worldly prosperity engenders a false and dangerous conceit of our own security and independence, then was it the goodwill and kindness of our heavenly Father which rendered that prosperity uncertain and transitory; which founded it on no surer materials than human power and foresight, and condemned it to the waste of time, and the overthrow of disastrous vicissitudes;-thus

forewarning us that we do not build our house upon the sand, and reap the fruit of our industry in the flood and the whirlwind.

In truth, it was no less needful, in order that we might be suitably affected by the goodness of God, that our earthly happiness should be subject to interruption, diminution, and sudden extinction, than that it should exceed, on the whole, the amount of misery in the world. If happiness had not been preponderant in the average experience of mankind, so closely do our affections cling to the "things that are seen," though "temporal," and so unapt are they to attach themselves to the

66

things that are not seen," though "eternal," that we could with difficulty have conceived it possible that goodness might be the governing attribute of the Deity. Even a very partial admixture of bitterness in the cup which he has given us to drink, has sufficed, it appears, to awaken a doubt on this head; or, at least, to raise an objection to the goodness of God which theologians seem bound to combat, and to overpower with specific proofs and demonstrations of his benevolence. On the other hand, had the condition of mankind been one of universal and unbroken enjoyment,presuming such enjoyment to be compatible