everlasting life and glory, or the gate of everlasting death and
misery? Will you claim your glorious inheritance, and be for ever
equal to the angels, doing God's will on earth as they in heaven; or
will you fall lower than the stones, who, at all events, must do
their duty as stones, and not DO God's will at all, but only SUFFER
it in eternal woe? You must do one or the other. You cannot be
like the stones, without feeling--without joy or sorrow, just
because you are immortal spirits, every one of you. You must be
either happy or miserable, blessed or disgraced, for ever. I know
of no middle path;--do you? Choose before the night comes, in which
no man can work. Our life is but a vapour which appears for a
little time, then vanishes away. "O Lord, how manifold are Thy
works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy
riches. That Thou givest them they gather: Thou openest Thine
hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are
troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to
their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and
Thou renewest the face of the earth."



SERMON IV. THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT



JAMES, i. 16, 17.

"Do not err, my beloved brethren; every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights."