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his God. That God can now, as in old time,

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prepare a table in the wilderness."

is not waxed short.

His hand Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace," for "they that know his name will put their trust in him." Even in the very darkest hour, when utterly vain shall be the help of man, the beams of his reconciled countenance will shine upon us, and the comforts of his Spirit revive the fainting soul. The weak hands will be strengthened, and the feeble knees confirmed; and the voice of mercy will whisper to the fearful heart, "Be strong; fear

not."

However great the trials of life's pilgrimage, there is a land on which the wearied pilgrim shall enter, where the day goeth not away, neither are the shadows of the evening stretched out; a land where the inhabitants die no more, where pain, and sickness, and vicissitude are unknown. Purchased at a price no less costly than the blood of God's incarnate Son, the inheritance of that land is now offered to you; thither then direct your thoughts, there let all your affections be centred, seek to be found meet to enter its blessed borders, for there, and there alone, you will fully realize the truth of the gracious promise, "The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.”

SERMON XIII.

THE DESIRE OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE.

JOHN xxi. 20-22.

"Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me."

"THAT the soul be without knowledge it is not good" is a position which few will be inclined to deny; and if it hold true with respect to the objects of time and sense, it applies still more forcibly to those which are spiritual and eternal. The prejudice against the universal dissemination of knowledge is rapidly passing away.

The

period has long since gone by, "when ignorance was regarded as the mother of devotion," and it was deemed expedient for the security of a state to keep the lower orders in mental thraldom.

The capacity of acquiring knowledge is one of the choicest and most valuable gifts of that beneficent Creator, "who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven;" and it is the duty of every man to use the means within his reach, not only for his own intellectual and spiritual improvement, but for that of others; for "he that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces, as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a light-house, might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwreck." To the humble inquirer after divine knowledge, if he seek it from that Lord "who giveth wisdom, and out of whose mouth cometh knowledge and understanding," the most gracious promises of success are vouchsafed; if thou “incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God."

It would seem, however, that with respect to subjects of a spiritual, no less than a temporal

Dr. Johnson,

nature, there is to be a limit to human investigation; that there is a boundary which man's powers cannot pass; and it is at once presumptuous, as it is fruitless, to make the attempt. The same omnipotent voice which, setting their proper bounds to the waves of the ocean, says, "Thus far shall ye go, and no further," restrains the rash impetuosity of human investigation; for the desire of knowledge ceases to be praiseworthy, nay, degenerates into vain and sinful curiosity, when the presumptuous attempt is made to fathom the "secret things which belong to the Lord our God," too often to the neglect of the fulfilment of those plain and positive duties, the performance of which is charged

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upon us and our children." "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," was one flattering promise with which the first pair were lured to their destruction; and a desire to be wise above that which God has been pleased to reveal, is discoverable in many of their posterity. The sacred volume is placed in our hands, and though there may be in other portions of it, as well as in the writings of St. Paul, some " things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction," yet he that runs may there read all that is essential to be known on the subject of salvation. With many, however, this is not enough; and

it is painful to reflect how much fruitless discussion has arisen upon subjects which the slightest reflection must convince us were far beyond the reach of human investigation; and how much acrimony has been engendered by a difference of opinion upon doctrines which Jehovah in his wisdom has not deemed it necessary to reveal.

The incident narrated by the evangelist in the text powerfully illustrates the opinion of our Lord, with respect to this unwarrantable curiosity. Let us in humble dependence on his blessing, consider, in the first place, its attendant circumstances, and attempt to draw from it, in the second, some of those practical inferences which it was intended to convey.

I. The incident, to which our attention is directed, occurred on the third occasion of our Lord's interview with his disciples after his resurrection. Seven of them had gone a fishing the previous day on the sea of Tiberias, but during the night they had caught nothing. When morning was come, Jesus stood on the shore, and by a miracle testified his divine power, by multiplying a draught of fishes. After they had dined Jesus made inquiry as to the sincerity of Peter's affection towards him,-an affection, indeed, which had been often warmly expressed; but which might fairly be questioned by that apostle's

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