SERMON V.

BY REV. EZRA S. GOODWIN,

OF SANDWICH, MASS.

NO REST ON EARTH.

MICAH II. 10.

THIS IS NOT YOUR REST.

IN discoursing from these words, we remark,

In the first place, that the human soul needs a rest. The heart requires some fixed point of repose, some one thing to which under all trials and in the

pressure of all calamities we may always settle, and find support and satisfaction. This rest must be something fixed before the eye of the mind, something towards which the affections are uniformly directed, something sure and unfailing, which always remains the same, a centre of attraction round which the soul may revolve, as it is impelled by various moving causes, but towards which the soul so steadily gravitates, that unto this one central point it is always disposed to return, and unto this it will finally return, when other objects cease to act upon it, or when their influence is overcome. Further, the point of the soul's repose must be something established in a choice. It must be something which we discern

clearly in the mind, choose, resolve upon, place confidence in, and determine to follow at all events.

It is a

citizenship of the mind, a home, a spiritual dwelling place, in which we lay up our treasures, consecrate our affections, and erect our hopes,-the strong city of the heart.

Now the proposition we advance is this, that the human soul requires such a rest. Without it man has no character, no fixed principle, by which to govern his life or his affections. He is the mere creature of the time being, the creature of present circumstances or of his own present whims, a wandering, vacillating and slippery soul, on whom no man can place dependence, and who can place no dependence on himself. There must be a point of satisfaction in the heart, before there can be any established path for the feet to walk in.' There must be some anchoring ground for the soul, if it will not be driven hither and thither by every wind. Without some fixed rest man has no solid happiness; all the pleasures he can enjoy must be found in temporary expedients, in temporary excitements, and these renewed from hour to hour, as his temporary feelings prompt; and so he is apt to rove from one scene of excitement to another, to quell his present uneasiness, and gain a temporary respite from his vague and disquieted thoughts. Without a rest man is a houseless pilgrim, a wanderer on a wild waste, exposed to all causes of disquietude, and without a resource for healing or safety. It is, because the human mind is so made that it requires and needs a rest, as truly as our bodily natures

require a dwelling place to afford us shade from the heat and shelter from the storm.

We remark secondly, that man is exceedingly prone to seek and expect to find a point of repose for the soul somewhere on earth. This world, as well as all others, is the work of God, and in all the works of God there is much goodness, much beauty and much attractive influence. The consequence is, that among the things of earth the heart sees much to love, much to desire, much to choose, and many things on which we imagine we may set up a rest. Hence the eagerness with which one seeks after riches, another after pleasures, another after honors, and another after a domestic establishment. And hence the intensity of the human soul in desiring one or another earthly object, or earthly state of things. It is because the heart desires rest, and hopes to find it in the possession of this or that object of love. The earliest views of the mind are confined within the bounds of the life that now is, and among the things that are seen man at first expects to find his home. Happy were it for him if this were the extent of the evil; for then he would meet indeed a desolation of soul at last, in the final loss of his earthly objects of attachment, when they shall be taken from him or he from them; but still when the trial was past, he would be free to embrace the new spiritual things of Jesus Christ. But the misfortune is, that in the corruptions which have taken place on earth the mind is apt to be corrupted itself. The consequence is, that man often seeks his rest not only among things earthly and sensual,

but sometimes in things devilish. So that while one treasures up his hopes on property, or on his friends, his parents, his brethren or his children, or on general familiar and social conditions, and looks for satisfaction in them, another sinks down to iniquitous purposes and wicked plans, to the deep corruptions of the carnal mind, and hopes to obtain his rest in the ultimate accomplishment of these. It is, because there is a disposition in man to regard as permanent the things which are present; and when he experiences the need of a rest, he is given to seek one among the persons or objects of the present world.

We remark thirdly, that the present world affords no such point of repose as the human heart requires. View the world at its best estate, and it offers many things which God has made, and made them good. It gives to many of us parents, associates, brethren,children, country and friends-objects which deserve our affection and esteem to a high degree. But do these or any of them afford a solid, and unchangeable rock for the soul to rest upon? By no means. They are all exposed to daily and painful variation; their thoughts and feelings are subject to the same changes as our own, and their breath is in their nostrils ready to be expired, as our experience of the death of parents, relatives and friends so truly proves from week to week. Place the supreme confidence of the heart in these, and the soul is every moment exposed to sudden, violent and desolating convulsions. The present fashion of this world passeth away, and its fairest grace and brightest glory perish; it affordeth no rest to

the immortal mind.-There is a better respect still in which we may regard the present life. We often lay plans for doing good, and put forth powerful efforts to do good to men in natural and in spiritual things, and think that when our plans take effect we shall rejoice and rest in peace. In this case our desire is to see the natural or spiritual state of man ameliorated in those respects to which we are directing our efforts. But even here the world affords no rest. Benefits may be offered to the necessitous through much labor and much sacrifice of our own, and these benefits may be repelled as fast as they are proffered. Instruction may be spoken to the ignorant, reproof to the vicious, and consolation to the mourner; aid may be extended to the feeble, medicine to the diseased, light to the blind, and eternal life in Jesus Christ to the dying; and yet all these things may be utterly despised and rejected of men; and of all our labor we may see no fruit, however much we may have devoted of our property, time and comforts to the cause. In the actual success of any individual efforts, even of a beneficent nature, we have no right to seek a rest on earth, for it may not please the Deity to grant an increase to our planting or watering. We must still have our foundation of repose in something higher than our success-something not of this world, or we have nothing which remains with unfailing endurance.

From these highest and best grounds of earthly hope let us come down to lower objects, and see if they afford a satisfactory promise of rest for the mind. What shall we say of property? How many have believed,