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cially a qualification for the invisible and eternal world. He has made the discovery, which men are either so slow to make or so unwilling to recognise, that not earth (except indeed as respects its duties) but heaven, is the proper object of regard to an immortal being. His language is, "When shall I come and appear before God?"—"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."-" I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wiekedness." Thirsting thus anxiously for his proper element-for the world of promise and of joy-it becomes the great business of life to obtain a qualification for it.

It is not a little striking to observe how strongly, in every case but that of religion, the necessity is insisted upon of each individual possessing a fitness for the particular station he is to occupy in society. If a man, for example, offer himself to fight the battles of his country, how carefully is he required to discipline himself.

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for the field! If the child insist on the privileges of the grown man, how ready is: every one to rebuke his presumption! If a person of coarse manners, or uncultivated mind, force his way into the more refined circles of society, how strongly is the intrusion resented! When the great Roman conspirator insolently obtruded himself into the senate, and took a particular seat in it, the great mass of the senators arose, and passed over to the other side. But if this fitness of the individual for his particular post be considered as of high importance in the things of this. world, why should it be disregarded as to the things of another? And in what respects can the mere man of this world conceive himself fitted for the world of spirits? Do the indulgences of the table, the objects of ambition, or covetousness, or lust-those glittering and fugitive prizes which so intensely occupy him in this stage of existence-find any admission into heaven? Suppose such an individual, in his present unsanctified state, to be able to force his way into that bright world, and seat himself amidst the "assembly of the

first-born;" would he be a welcome associate to those glorified spirits; and might they not be expected to arise and take their flight into some still loftier and purer region, where only those sympathizing in their joys and occupations could approach them?

Brethren, it is for the pure world which they occupy that the real servant of the Redeemer is anxiously and habitually, in patience and in faith, seeking his title and his qualification. And how glorious and delightful is the object with which such a pursuit supplies him! What a subject for devout prayer! What an occupation even for the longest life! Surely, if it is the maxim of art, "No day without a line," it should be the maxim of a Christian, "No day without a vigorous effort, in dependence upon God, to shake off the defilements of original corruption, and to clothe ourselves in the image of Christ."Brethren, the time is short;" and the work of sanctification is long and arduous. Live, then, as men who feel it wrong to borrow an hour from the all-important business of life or its heartless vanities and

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follies. Say, to all who require you to participate in the comfortless, and frivolous, and sordid pursuits in which they waste the hours of a hasty and uncertain existence"We are doing a great work, so that we cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst we leave it and come down to you?"— "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth, at the right hand of God."

There are two practical inferences from this subject, with the statement of which it is my wish to close this examination.

1. In the first place, if it be the primary duty of the man "risen with Christ," to "seek those things which are above," in how forcible a light does this consideration present an offence to which the world is apt to attach scarcely the smallest degree of criminality! With many, to be profane is a crime; to be licentious, is a crime; to be dishonest, or idle, or enthusiastic, is a crime-but it is no crime to be

earthly minded."-Is such a decision, however, in the smallest degree consonant with Scripture? Is it not important, for all

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who have come to this conclusion, to remember the rank assigned to their crime in the volume of Inspiration? St. James, for example, when speaking of some fierce enemies of the Gospel, describes them as "earthly, sensual, devilish ;" and St. Paul, in like manner, says, Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." Or, let such judges of the quality of human actions look at the text, and remember, that, if it be the essential characteristic of a Christian to "seek those things which are above," it is every way impossible to class the earthly-minded except among the open and determined adversaries of the Gospel. -Let no man, therefore, deceive himself on this vital question. We read in Scripture of but two classes, the earthly and heavenly minded; of but two eternal worlds, heaven and hell; of but two states of existence in those worlds, a state of endless happiness or of endless agony.

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