Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/123

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98 RECOLLECTIONS OF A SERMON.

but in the West Indies, British America, and the far regions of Australia. Who can compute the benefit that may result from their labors, each in his own separate circle lighting the lamp of knowledge, and scattering the seeds of heaven ? Or who fully estimate the value of those charities, which aid in rightly edu cating the unformed mind, except that Being who gave it immortality ?

Among the clergymen whom we heard in Glasgow, was Mr. Robert Montgomery, the poet, sometimes mistaken for Mr. James Montgomery, to whom he is not related ; and Mr. McMorland, who, on the subject of Heaven s discipline, and its intended good, spake like one who had himself borne that test.

His text was Revelations 3d and 19th: " As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten : be zealous, therefore, and repent."

Afflictive dispensations are not always viewed in accordance with their design. There is an obduracy which resists both. One of the prophets speaks of those who " set their faces as a flint." But when the sorrow that presses out the bitter tears from the heart, comes upon us, and we inquire, why is this from God s mercy? behold, a letter in His handwriting, which solves the doubt, " As many as I love I rebuke and chasten."

Christian ! dost thou suffer from sickness ? from bereavement ? from domestic evils ? from disappoint ment of cherished hopes ? or from the attainment of those hopes, and the discovery that they are but van-

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