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service of God, irksomely laborious. All our religious efforts proceed on this very fact, that we work on an accursed soil; that our iniquity has imposed on us excessive labor; and that in the sweat of our brow we must eat our bread. The pangs of hunger are the strong impulse to these toils; the mouth craveth them of us; the changes of the seawhich indeed are requisite in these unpropitioùs climes, to bless our efforts, are all subject to the curse; the heat of summer oppresses, the cold of winter discourages, and often prohibits the use of the plough: "thus I was; (says every inhabitant of "the restored Paradise,) in the day the drought "consumed me, and the frost by night; and sleep, "the privilege of the weary, departed from mine "eyes." But there "they hunger no more, nei"ther thirst any more; neither shall the sun light "on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is "in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and

"shall lead them unto living fountains of waters;

"and God shall wipe away all tears from their "eyes."†

"The world to come, redeem'd from all

"The mis'ries that attend the fall,

"New made, and glorious, shall submit

"At our exalted Savior's feet."

The land that is on high, inhabited by the ser

* Genesis, xxxi. 40.

+ Revelation, vii. 16, 17.

vants of God, is subject to no painful or disagreeable vicissitudes; everlasting spring; never-withering flowers; immortal and unfading satisfactions, are there uninterruptedly enjoyed; nothing can be added to the sublime bnt brief delineation in our text, "there shall be no more curse."

II. Nor shall the curse extend to the persons of the saints, for there his servants shall serve him: and do they not on earth, where the curse is found? No: they, it is true, attempt it, but such are their multiplied infirmities, that they confess when they have done all, they are unprofitable, and deserve not to be viewed even as the hired servant. Listen to the lamentations of one whose outward man is decaying day by day, and who is cheered by the sweet and delicious prospect of the promised land; and reversing his complaints, you have an experimental comment on the words "there shall be no more

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curse, there his servants shall serve him." On the evening of some hallowed day, to him, the best of all the seven, he muses until the fire burns, and thus he speaks with his tongue; "I feel the dire effects of the first curse in my enfeebled body; the creature is subject to vanity; much is necessary to urge my drowsy and unwilling powers to exertion; a wearisome night leaves me more languid, than when, entering my chamber, on the previous evening, I said, my couch shall ease my complaint; during the pleasant engagement of the closet, every

outward circumstance irritated my weakened frame; in the temple of God, alas! though my spirit was willing-Lord thou knowest thy servant!” --and he blushes and is confounded as he utters that word "my flesh was weak; and I was aroused by the voice of mercy, saying, What! couldst thou not watch with me one hour?-He sighs, and weeping, groans out, Thou knowest my frame, thou rememberest that I am dust. As a father pitieth his children, Lord pity me; take me in thine own time to that place where, as thy servant, I shall serve thee, unweariedly, without infirmity, as I now desire." Proceeding in the review of his sabbath engagements, he mourns over the distraction of his mind; the treachery of his memory; the wandering of his affections; the darkness of his apprehensions; the corruption of his entire heart; and almost expects to hear a voice saying, "Who hath "required this at your hands? your services are

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an abomination unto me, I am weary to bear "them:"-but alas! the half of what he deplores is not yet revealed. He groans, being burdened; his sorrows now assume a darker character; inspecting his heart, he finds that when he would have done good, evil was present with him; he was in almost all evil in the midst of the congregation; his motives in service were mixed, were base, were sensual, were cursed; the pure waters of the river of life, flowing through the defiled channel of his

heart, became turbid, corrupt, offensive;* that which is holy, just, and good, became sin to him; his troubled spirit cast up mire and dirt; now was the hour and power of darkness; unholy thoughts, like the obscene birds of night, took possession of his mind; it became a habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, a cage of every unclean and hateful bird; he discovers even greater abominations than these. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death!

In this delineation of inward feeling, perhaps some of you can follow me. Such are not without hope-are not comfortless. "For we know, that

"if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis"solved, we have a building of God, an house not "made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For "in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed

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upon with our house which is from heaven: if so "be that being clothed, we shall not be found na"ked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan "being burdened; not for that we would be un"clothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might

"Here every drop of honey hides a sting;

"Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers;
"And e'en the joy, that haply some poor heart,
"Derives from heaven, pure as the fountain is,

"Is sullied in the stream, taking a tint
"From human touch-at best impure."

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"be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who "also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent "from the Lord: (for we walk by faith not by sight.) We are confident, I say, and willing "rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."* "And there shall "be no more curse, and his servants shall serve "him."

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Nor is this all, for as one of the consequences of the curse, he has not to suffer alone; he weeps with them that weep; and laments that so few of God's servants can or will unite in harmonious and accordant worship. Separation, either of person or heart, mars our service on earth. Oft-times He who fixeth the bounds of our habitation, so directeth us where to pitch our tents, that we can no longer take sweet counsel with such, as we had gone with to the house of God in company; deprived of the sweet communion of hearts and voices with such of the excellent of the earth, in whom is our chief delight, our spirits are cast down within us. "When "I remember these things, I pour out my soul in

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me: for I had gone with the multitude; I went "with them to the house of God, with the voice of

* 2 Corinthians, v. 1—8.

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