THE expression, sobriety or soundness of mind, is used in the Scriptures in various senses. Sometimes it is opposed to madness; as where the demoniac was found sitting at the feet of Jesus; clothed and in his right mind. Madness disposes men to act irregularly, furiously, and extravagantly. Soundness of mind, therefore, implies recollection, calmness, and discretion; the guidance and controul of reason; a disposition to examine coolly, to weigh impartially, and to determine according to the sober dictates of reflection, rather than by caprice or passion. In other places, soundness of mind is opposed to levity and impropriety, as where women are required to adorn themselves in modest apparel, with sobriety; or to intemperance and sensuality, as where young men are exhorted to be sober minded, and, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live so

berly. Sometimes it is contrasted with pride and selfconceit: thus the Apostle forbids the Romans to think extravagantly of themselves, instead of thinking soberly, as they ought to do. In my text, the same expression is used in a more general and comprehensive sense. St. Paul is exhorting Timothy "to stir up the gift of God which was in him by the imposition of the Apostles' hands;" that is, to make full proof of his ministry, to use the spiritual powers entrusted to him, -to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering, not fearing the face of man; "for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power," to enforce our injunctions, and to controul and punish the unruly; "and of love," to use our power for the good of mankind; and "of a sound mind:" we are well convinced of the truth of the doctrines we deliver, and of the propriety of the discipline we exercise; we are assured that we speak and act according to the will of God; ours is not an unfounded or foolish doctrine, it is not the raving of enthusiasm, nor a flight of fancy; we know what we speak, and declare the words of truth and soberness.

The state of mind thus described may therefore be considered as opposed to credulity, to superstition, to enthusiasm, to scepticism, and to religious indifference. All these are proofs of a want of soundness or sobriety of mind. The general characteristic of all unsoundness of mind may be said to be false perceptions. He whose mind is in this state dares not see things as they really are: they appear to him extravagantly magnified or diminished, distorted, or confounded with different objects. As the eye clouded by disease does not distinctly see the material objects presented to it, but confounds them with dissimilar things, or views them in an unnatural or distorted attitude; so the mind affected with this disorder mistakes what it perceives, and does not distinguish the real nature, rank, and value of the objects to which its attention is turned. A sound mind, on on the contrary, forms a just view of the subjects pre

sented to it: it estimates correctly the relative value and importance of different subjects, and is not governed by prejudice, caprice, or idle imaginations.

Having thus attempted to ascertain the meaning of the Apostle's expression, I shall proceed to consider soundness of mind in religion in the sense in which I conceive it to be used in the text.

I. Soundness of mind is opposed to credulity-Credulity arises from a misapprehension of the nature and value of evidence. The credulous man believes on insufficient authority. He does not perceive the proportion which different kinds of evidence bear to each other. He is therefore apt to adopt, with equal confidence, opinions resting upon slight grounds and those which are built on the surest foundations. Hence the belief of lying miracles, absurd legends, and pretended visions prevailed for a long period in the church, to the disgust of every man of sound sense, endangering the credit of even the real miracles by which Christianity was first established. The present age is indeed more enlightened, and these idle tales are no longer credited; but the principle which caused them to be believed still remains. That principle is an undue value of the authority of man. How many in the church at this day receive the doctrines of Christianity, not on account of the evidence by which they are supported, nor because they are plainly delivered in Scripture, but because this or that particular man has held them! This evil is of wide extent: it prevails over the far greater part of the Christian church. All range themselves under the standard of some particular leader: "I am of Paul," saith one; "I of Apollos," another.-A still larger class, influenced by the very same principle, exerting itself in a different direction, adopts, upon the authority of men, a course of conduct and a system of doctrine directly opposed to the plain dictates of the Apostles. One man will believe only as his fathers before him have done; another will act just as the world around him is acting. Why should he presume

to be more religious than the rest of mankind? Thus error and irreligion are upheld, and continue their empire in the world.-The true remedy for this evil is to attend distinctly to the very different value of divine and of human authority. A man of sound mind will not despise human authority, and, in the spirit of innovation, doubt a tenet because it has been generally maintained; but he will be very careful to found his faith upon the truth of Scripture, rather than upon the opinions of men. He will be deeply sensible of the importance of that principle, "Call no man master:" he will give due weight to the lamentable proofs of human fallibility which have in all ages been exhibited to the world: he will see particular churches erring and contradicting each other, whole councils of men opposing the truth and sanctioning error. He will reflect, that every tenet, the most absurd, has in some ages or places been maintained; that there is no conduct, however palpably wrong, which some eminent men have not sanctioned. The external history of the Christian church has been the history of follies, or of errors the most serious and the most absurd, and of crimes perpetrated under the name of Religion. Never did a bold and confident innovator arise who did not find some person to revere him as an oracle of truth, and to receive all his extravagant positions. Deeply affected by this review, a man of sound mind will beware of attaching too much credit to any man, or to any sect or party: he will not believe every boasting pretender, but will take into his hands the sacred volume of revealed truth, and be guided entirely by the clear and express declaration of the Apostles and Prophets: "Here,” will he say, "I can find what I seek for in vain elsewhere; truth, unmixed with error, clearly revealed and established on indisputable evidence. Gladly will I rest on the authority of Christ, as my faithful Guide to direct me through this world of darkness and uncertainty; as my gracious Saviour from guilt and sin, to whom I am under obligations which can never, even

through eternity, be repaid; who came from heaven to redeem me, who died for my sins, and who now is risen to make intercession for me. His word is truth; he is the light of the world; and I will implicitly rely on all that he or his inspired Apostles have declared, respecting the doctrines I ought to believe, and the course of life I ought to pursue.

II. Soundness of mind is opposed to superstition.A person in the dark sees nothing distinctly, and is therefore very apt to form confused and erroneous ideas of every object around him; his imagination giving to them what form and colour it pleases. Such is the situation of a superstitious man with respect to all objects of a spiritual or religious kind: he sees nothing in its proper form and proportion. He fears he knows not what, and trembles at imaginary dangers: his reason bends under the force of his imagination. An illustration of this unsoundness of mind may be given in the belief which once prevailed of the influence of the stars on the fortunes of men, or in the belief of omens, and the unnecessary appearance on earth of spiritual beings. But a far more frequent and dangerous superstition is that which lays an undue stress on mere external religious observances. The whole religion of the heathen consisted of rites and ceremonies, which had no connexion with virtue or morality, but were imagined, they knew not how or why, to propitiate the Deity. It were well had such superstitions been confined to them; but, alas! in the Christian church a similar unreasonable value of mere ceremonies has been one of the most dangerous sources of error. A man, therefore, of a sound mind, while he attributes to forms and ceremonies their true value, substitute them for more substantial good. He will regard them as eminently useful in their proper place, as conducive to important ends, which they have a manifest tendency to promote: he will consider, also, how far they have been actually enjoined by our blessed Lord, and how far they have been invented by men,

will not