long to return, and surrounded by his family, and amid his "grey hairs," once more to bow down in gratitude, on its consecrated ground, before the God who had heard his vow, and who had "kept him in the way that he went."

II. While, in this manner, places of worship acquire a character of almost indelible sacredness from the solemnities of their dedication, they, in the second place, obtain a strong influence over the imagination and the affections, from being constantly and solely appropriated to the holy purposes of their institution. Within their walls no other voice is ever heard, but that of prayer, and thanksgiving, and divine instruction. Wherever else we go, we meet with the defilements and impurities of man, or, at least, with the littleness of human thoughts and human interests. They speak to us of God alone, and of the things of God. In the world we are surrounded by the perplexities and devices of mortal creatures,-it is in the Temple alone, that we for ever breathe the air of immortality! It is here only that man constantly appears in that greatest of all aspects, as linked to eternity, and to the footstool of the throne of

God! The pious aspirations of other scenes are occasional and casual, and are soon interrupted by the intercourse of the vulgar world;-it is here alone that the ladder, the top of which reaches to Heaven, is for ever fixed upon hallowed earth, and "behold the angels ascending and descending on it," and "behold the Lord standeth above it," and says to every successive generation of man, I am the Lord God of your Fathers. It is thus, my brethren, that when we enter into the places which are set apart for divine worship, and where no other occupations or thoughts are ever permitted to mingle, a sacred awe at once seizes upon the soul;-the world which we leave behind is heard only as the roar of the distant ocean;-we seem to ourselves as if elevated into some higher and holier sphere; and we say with Jacob, "how dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven !".

It is unnecessary to explain, of how much consequence such an impression must be, for giving a due efficacy to the views of Religion. Nothing, indeed, but the incessant influences of the world can blind us to their paramount importance.

When we are brought, in a manner, into the nearer presence of God, when the world, and its interests, and enjoyments, for a time, seem to recede from us, we cannot but see how good a thing it is for us to be thankful to that gracious Being," in whom we live, and move, and have our being,"-how much it becomes us, weak and dependant as we are, to entreat the continuance of His favour and protection, that " He will keep us in the way in which we go, and will give us bread to eat, and raiment to put on ;" and conscious of our perpetual wanderings, to sue to Him for pardon, and to raise our eyes with devout gratitude to all his overtures of mercy, and to cling to his appointed methods of Salvation, and to seek for the cleansing of that Blood in which "all the families of the earth are finally destined to be blessed!" These are the sacred meditations and exercises to which we are naturally directed when our souls are impressed with the awe of " the house of God;" and so valuable, therefore, are those habitual impressions which separate its sanctity from the vulgar contamination of worldly inter

course.

III. There is yet a third circumstance of no mean interest which renders the influence arising from fixed places of worship peculiarly salutary to the mind. They unite, in a very beautiful manner, the social affections with devotion. It is in them that we assemble along with our families, our friends, and our neighbours, to engage in the same rites of piety, and to feel the same common sentiments of gratitude and dependance. It is no longer in the light of detached individuals that we appear to each other, who, amidst the various pursuits of life, scarcely seem, at times, to have any connecting tie, but, on the contrary, whose interests and affections may, too often, be placed in opposition:-we now meet under the single and glorious aspect of the children of one equal God, of the redeemed of one universal Saviour, -of the sanctified of one Almighty Spirit ! These sacred bonds add infinitely to the strength of our natural sympathies and affections, and even create a principle of union in the midst of disagreement or indifference; nor when the ties of time are dissolved, do the inspired sympathies of Religion vanish; the vacant seat which was once filled by some venerated or beloved form,

now seems to have the seal of immortality affixed to it; the departed spirits of those who once worshipped with us under the same consecrated roof appear now to the eye of faith to be ascending and descending before us, with the Angels of God on the ladder of the Patriarch, -and the venerable temple which rises amidst the graves of the dead seems to breathe around them the calm of its eternal promises!

Such seem, imperfectly as they have now been stated, to be some of the leading circumstances which give their power and their salutary influence to places of religious worship,-and they are of themselves sufficient, even if there were no other grounds for it, to shew us the infinite importance of the Apostle's advice, " that we forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is." It is, indeed, very unwise in beings, such as we are, to neglect any of the appropriate means by which Religion, and its hopes, and its promises, may be firmly rooted in our hearts; we well know how readily they vanish amidst our common thoughts and occupations, and it is a most beneficent part of our constitution, that imagination and habit