profit is there if we pray unto him ?" Is it possible for human language to be more expressive of criminal alienation of spirit, and of a state of heart at enmity against God? Equally decisive of a state of heart"right with God," are many strains of expression which indicate the character of the prevailing desires. "Whom have I in heaven but thee," said the man after God's own heart, "and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."-"The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee."-" One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."

These considerations, then, it may be presumed, are sufficient to exhibit the urgency of the Inducements by which we should be impelled to aim at the right regulation of our desires. Let me now direct your views, SECONDLY, To the Principles by which our attempts should be regulated.

First, Let us have recourse to infallible guidance and influence.

Pitiably, uninstructed, are the moralizing guides, who have not derived their system, in all its entireness, from the volumes of revelation. An eloquent

lecturer on the Philosophy of the Human Mind has given the following enumeration of the desires which he deems natural and universal :-" A desire of continued existence, without any immediate regard to the pleasure which it may yield; a desire of pleasure, considered directly as mere pleasure; a desire of action; a desire of society; a desire of knowledge; desire of power, direct, as in ambition, or indirect, as in avarice: a desire of the affection or esteem of those around us; a desire of glory; a desire of the happiness of others; and a desire of the unhappiness of those whom we hate." The last of this specification is represented not only as having existence in the human mind, but as deriving origin

a

from the very Author of our being. "As the whole system of things is at present constituted," affirms Dr. Brown, "it is not of less importance, that man should be susceptible of malevolence on certain occasions, than that he should be susceptible of benevolence in the general concerns of life; and man, accordingly, is endowed with the susceptibility of both.-The desire of evil to others, is to be measured, in our moral estimates, by the nature of the brief or permanent hatred in which it may have originated; and is allowable, therefore, only in the cases in which the hatred is truly a feeling that is necessary in such circumstances for the protection of this social scene." But is malevolence, under any

circumstances, necessary, or is it salutary, or is it right? Can it be approved, can it have been implanted in our nature, by Him who made us, and who originally constituted our nature holy? Is such a desire justifiable by the letter or the spirit of any moral precept contained in the word of God, or by any interpretation of the divine law, given by our divine Master, or by his Apostles? The authority of heathen moralists might be pleaded in its favor, and the authority also of the Jewish Scribes and Elders: but what saith our Lord and Lawgiver? "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; but I say unto

you, Love your enemies; bless them