permanent, which is most favorable to the discharge of duty, and to the enjoyment and diffusion of happiness' The attainment of that control will be the happy result of the cultivation of those attractive and engaging qualities, which are delineated, with equal force and feeling, in the words we have now read. Keeping then in view this admirable sketch of the Christian temper, drawn by the hand of a master, under the guidance of direct inspiration, it shall be my object to set before you

FIRST, The Motives which should effectually urge us to the cultivation of this Temper; and

SECONDLY, The best Methods of aiming at its attainment.

FIRST, Let us very briefly advert to the Motives which urge its cultivation.

I would remind you, then,

First, That the duty of controlling and governing the Temper in social intercourse, arises out of the grand and primary principles of the law of God.

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" is the condensed and comprehensive precept, which embodies all the subordinate requirements essential to human happiness. Is it possible to love our neighbor without endeavoring to promote his peace and comfort? And shall we not strike at the very root of his peace and comfort, if, in the hours of social

intercourse, we exercise no control over our temper and spirit? "There is a power in every individual, over the tranquility of almost every individual.

There are emotions, latent

in the mind of those whom we meet, which a few words of ours may at any time call forth; and the moral influence, which keeps this power over the uneasy feelings of others under due restraint, is not the least important of the moral influences in its relation to general happiness.-There are minds which can delight in exercising this cruel sway, which rejoice in suggesting thoughts that may poison the confidence of friends, and render the very virtues that were loved, objects of suspicion to him who loved them.

In the daily and hourly intercourse of human life, there are human beings who exert their malicious skill in devising what subjects may be most likely to bring into the mind of him with whom they converse, the most mortifying remembrances :—and who are faithful in conveying to every one the whispers of unmerited scandal, of which, otherwise, he never would have heard, as he never could have suspected them; though they are careful to express sufficient indignation against the slanderer, and to bring forward as many grounds of suspicion against different individuals, as their fancy can call up." Can you conceive of more direct, or more degrading, or more malignant violations of the

law,-"Thou shalt love thy neighbor

as thyself?"

Secondly, Let it be considered,

that the cultivation of the Christian Temper will exert a most beneficial influence on our own happiness.

If an unquiet and fretful temper be a source of perpetual annoyance to others, it is still more hostile to the bosom in which it dwells. It infixes the sting of a self-tormentor. It poisons the cup of every enjoyment. On the contrary, a spirit serene and contented has an habitual aptitude for delight, whenever pleasurable excitement occurs; and, even in the absence of all foreign excitement, has sources of internal delectation. This temper of mind, so desirable for its own sake,