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wise restraints. Does he attach pain and pleasure respectively to holiness and vice? Let the same nice discrimination be visible in your domestic economy. Is it a principle of his parental adminstration to sacrifice the present to the future? Let that grand principle prevail in your choice of schools, of society, and of employment for your children. Discipline them for eternity! Consider them as a precious deposit in your hands from the Great Author of your being, and of theirs. Grieve not the spirits who rejoice over one sinner that repenteth," by the spectacle of a young creature destined for the "house of many mansions," for adoption into the family of God here, and the enjoyment of God and his Redeemer for ever, robbed of his high destiny; degraded from his eminency in the scale of moral being by an education which fits him only to sport his unprofitable moment in a fallen world, and then sink hopeless and helpless into the awful gulf of perdition! Pray and labour to govern your children as God has governed yourself. Love them as he loved you. Live like the "Captain of your salvation," to be the happy instrument of" bringing many sons to glory" of presenting them at his Throne of Mercy, and saying with holy assurance," Behold,I and the children whom thou hast given me!"

3. Finally, I must be permitted to speak to the young persons by whom I am surrounded.-The argument, in the earliest part of this discourse, may have appeared to some careless observers, in raising our conception of the duties owing to our heavenly Father, to lower the conception of those due to our earthly parents. If this is the case, let me not lose a moment in correct

regard were not sufficient, the whole of the 119th Psalm, by far the longest in the series of sacred. songs, is dedicated exclusively to this object. Every additional verse may be regarded as the fruit of a new and stronger effort to celebrate the honours of this charter of our hopes and joys. If, in the other Psalms, we have here and there a scattered memorial of its worth; we have, in this, as it were, a whole temple dedicated to its glory.

It is my wish, on the present occasion, to examine, in dependence upon the Divine blessing, only one of the expressions of admiration and gratitude contained in this Psalm; and, in so doing, to consider,

1. THE TITLE BY WHICH THE PSALMIST HERE

DESIGNATES THE WORD OF GOD.

II. THE LANGUAGE IN WHICH HE CLAIMS THE

TESTIMONIES OF GOD AS HIS OWN; and, III. THE REASON WHICH he assigns for THUS

CLAIMING THEM.

I. We are to consider, in the first place, the title by which the Psalmist here describes the word of God. "Thy testimonies," he says, "have I claimed as mine heritage for ever."

The word testimonies is employed in different senses in Scripture. It is sometimes used for the tables of stone brought down from the mount by Moses, because these tables contained the "testimony" to the covenant then established between God and his people. It is sometimes, in like manner, applied to the Gospel, which "testifies" of the will of God under the new covenant; as where St. Paul says, "I came declaring unto you the testimony of God." But it is more commonly applied to the whole of Scripture: as to that Book

which bears testimony to all which God requires to be believed, practised, and expected, by his creatures, as where David says, "The testimony of the Lord is pure, making wise the simple." And this is the sense in which the expression appears to be employed in the text. The Psalmist may be considered as referring not merely to one page or part of the Sacred Volume, but to all; not to the promises without the precepts, or the precepts without the promises, but to all that God has revealed for the instruction, comfort, and sanctification of his creatures. And no expression can I conceive at once more briefly and emphatically designate the word of God. It is simply the testimony of God to a perishing world. It is the Book in which the Judge of heaven and earth bears evidence to the truths which fix the duties of men here, and their destiny through all eternity.

And what other testimony, my Christian brethren, can be brought into comparison with this? Every other is inaccurate. This, on the contrary, is "truth without any mixture of error." "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."

Every other is defective; touching only a few points, and upon those imperfectly. The word of God, on the contrary, is complete, touching on all essential subjects, and noticing every essential part of these subjects. "The commandment of the Lord," it is said, "is exceeding broad."

Every other testimony is blotted by the infirmities or corruptions of human nature. This, on the contrary, is pure as the Mind of which it is the visible representation. The " 'com

mandment" of the Lord is said to be "holy, just, and good."

Every other testimony is valuable only as it corresponds with this; as it is the exact echo of the voice of inspiration This, on the other hand, is in itself "the engrafted word which is able to save the soul."

Every other testimony, though even it enter on the points of highest importance in the eyes of the world, is, after all, confined to topics comparatively low, trifling, and sordid. But how glorious are the objects on which the word of God fixes the eye of the examiner. "It is high as the heaven; what canst thou do? it is deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" To the "wisdom" promulgated in this volume, that magnificent language belongs: "I was set up from everlasting: when there were no depths I was brought forth; I was by him, as one brought up with him; I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." And the word of God abundantly vindicates its claims to this lofty commendation. It is there that God opens up the mine of unsearchable riches, and displays the treasures of wisdom and knowledge to his church. It is there that he testifies to the truths and facts which human reason had never been able to discover; to all the mysteries involved in the state of man, and in the manner of his redemption. There we have especially the "testimony of Jesus," which is "the spirit of prophecy." There the Holy Spirit "takes of the things of Christ," to "show them to the soul." There the glories of an invisible world are displayed. There we are permitted to see things which "prophets and kings desired to see, and were not able," and which angels

stoop down to admire.-But is this statement just, my brethren; and are the "testimonies" locked up in the Scriptures thus valuable? Then how just is it, also, that prophets and apostles and saints and martyrs should concur to celebrate the honours of the Sacred Volume! how just is it that David should consecrate a whole psalm to its glory; how just, that every man should endeavour to make the treasures of this precious volume his own!And this leads me to our second point of inquiry

H. THE LANGUAGE IN WHICH THE PSALMIST CLAIMS THESE TESTIMONIES AS HIS OWN. "Thy testimonies," he says, "have I claimed as mine heritage for ever." Observe the force of these several expressions.

1. "Thy testimonies," he says, "have I claimed."-There might be lodged, my brethren, beneath the pavement of the sacred edifice in which we are assembled, a countless treasure; but of what value is that treasure to you, or to me, unless we have sought it out, established our right to it, and taken possession of it as our own? There may be lodged in the bosom of the physician the most complete remedy for our particular disease; but his knowledge is of no use to us, till we have availed ourselves of his resources and skill. It is thus also in religion. The promises of Christ are in themselves "the pearl of great price;" and they are freely and bountifully offered to all the creatures of God: "whosoever will, let him drink of the water of life, freely." But these promises are but an empty sound to the man who has not by faith approached the Saviour to profit from his bounty. It is not enough to take our stand by the treasure of the Gospel; to acknowledge it to be pre