God rewards the doings of the wicked, and it shall be ill with him, according to what they shall be found to be in the book-the sinner's reward shall be as his doings are found to be. O, the importance of the present life! it is the season for sowing. The life to come is for reaping. The godly sow unto the Spirit, and they shall reap life eternal. life eternal. The Son of God was in the world accomplishing a work, the fruit of which was the sending of the Spirit, which is poured upon his people, who again sow in self-denial and godliness-the result of all the sowing will be a harvest of glory and felicity. The sowing in tears, by the saints, will be followed by a reaping in joy. "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart." If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. "He will deal bountifully with us."

Fruit of doings will constitute the harvest to be for ever reaped in the next world by all. Hell is filled with the fruit of doings. They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, shall reap the same; by

the blast of God they shall perish, and they shall be consumed by the breath of his nostrils. Unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be indignation and wrath; tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil; but glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good.

SERMON IV.

SELF-DENIAL.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.LUKE IX. 23.

It was by seeking himself that man fellseeking himself contrary to God-seeking to be God; and it is by denying himself that he is restored. We had ourselves once conformable to God, but now we are contrary to God; nothing is more contrary to him, nor can be. Nothing

can be more contrary than an enemy; and man is an enemy. Every man is what his governing disposition is; if sin and the flesh have the dominion of the heart, he is the enemy of God. "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Man by nature has nothing in him which is not opposed to God, and there is nothing in following Christ which is not conformable to God. To deny thyself, is to deny the only thing on earth that is contrary to God. Look where thou wilt, thou wilt find nothing else contrary to Him. "Let him deny himself," his whole self, every thing belonging to self by nature. Selfishness is in the soul, and the whole soul is in the ruling disposition. Selfishness is opposed to the happiness of the man. The selfish man seeks happiness with his back turned upon the source of happiness! He seeks happiness in wealth, and at last finds that wealth is of a nature that can afford no happiness to an immortal soul;

that its possession is uncertain, and its enjoyment unsatisfactory! He seeks happiness in pleasure; but pleasure is found empty, and unsuitable for the soul. The beast is a partaker of pleasure. The man seeks happiness in a name; a name from the breath of the creature-the favor and the smile of man; and this glory, when obtained, is found to be vain glory. There is ONE whose favor is better than life. A step towards God is a step towards happiness, and the same is a step from selfish

ness.

We owe our

Self-denial is reasonable. existence to another. "He made us and not we ourselves." We have nothing which we have not received, excepting our sin. We are debtors to ourselves for nothing in nature, and much less in grace. We are indebted to self neither for limb, nor motion, nor breath. Self provided no sun to shine upon us. It becomes us to be "sheep of the pasture" of Him that made us, and gave us all things to enjoy. "Thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou

art my trust from my youth by thee have I been holden up from my youth, thou art he that took me from my mother's womb, thou art my strong refuge." "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die."

A man's self has little loveliness that he should seek it. All it has is imaginary. Where God is seen, the language of man is, Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Men who spake thus, had at least as much reason to value themselves as we can have; but they found themselves so wretched that they deserved nothing; and if they were asked the question now in heaven, they would be found of the same opinion of themselves-that they deserved nothing. Paul cried out,

O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death:" that was the self that he found opposed to God continually. If we saw ourselves aright, we could do no less than abhor