capable of conferring happiness. Goodness is of itself an end, an end the most worthy. It must not be degraded, or stand in danger of being degraded, into the subordinate rank of a means; which degradation would be its destruction. There is a better inheritance than house and lands; and these things are often permitted to elude even virtuous efforts, and to be snatched from virtuous hands, that their inferiority may be the more plainly seen, and they may enter into no competition with that better inheritance.

There is, I repeat it, a better than a temporal inheritance which the good man leaves to his children. As in several other respects, so it is especially better in this, that it is not, like temporal wealth, uncertain, fleeting, subject to vicissitude, but sure, permanent, beyond the reach of change. It is of inestimable value, and its value is crowned by this circumstance, that it is indestructible. The conflagration which lays a whole city in ashes, leaves this inheritance untouched and safe. The storm which whelms a richly laden fleet beneath the waves, and frightens nations with its roaring, has no more power over this inheritance than the gentlest breeze. Neither the ignorance nor the unfaithfulness of men can do it any injury; and it is not affected in the least by misfortunes in business, or the fluctuations of the times. It is an inheritance which the good man will certainly leave, and which his children and his children's children will certainly enjoy.

I would speak of this better and unfailing inheritance. I would point out some of the invaluable treasures of which it is composed.

In the first place, it is the inheritance of an The good man is careful to preserve

honest name. this treasure while he lives, knowing that its preservation lies with himself alone, and depends upon his own single care; and when he dies, a seal is affixed to it by death, which insures it against all fear, and renders it imperishable. He may rest in peace, for it then belongs inalienably to his children. Well is he rewarded for his faithfulness. Happy was it that he paid unto every man his due; that he would not incline his ear to the voice of any temptation; that he did not permit himself to be dazzled, when many others were to their confusion, by the specious glare of sudden riches, but restrained his desires within sober and moderate limits, acting always on the principle that no gain in prospect should induce him to hazard another's trust, and that no gain in possession, of whatever magnitude, could be reckoned a compensation for the loss of one grain of integrity. Happy was it that he labored cheerfully on, in the ways of uprightness, and in the hearty love of it, not pausing for a moment to question the expediency of his course, or to doubt the excellency of his soul's preference. Now his wisdom and his success stand out clear and prominent in the face of consenting earth and approving heaven. Now it is evident that he had been constantly employed in laying up a treasure

which could not be dissolved; that whether the times were prosperous or unpropitious, he was ever adding to his store, when times were most unpropitious indeed, then adding most copiously; and that whether others were losing or gaining, he was still gaining. So long as he had lived, he had held fast to his integrity, never letting it go, or bartering it away. And here is the bright result of all this constancy and accumulation, an honest name, a name without spot or tarnish, manding more true homage from human hearts than gold or gems can purchase; a treasure in which all his friends feel the most lively interest, but which is peculiarly the inheritance of his children.

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Of many things which we esteem, there will be some things which we esteem the most. What child is there, who does not esteem the honest name of his parent, a legacy more to be prized than any earthly one which he has left, or could have left him? What sons or daughters are they, who do not feel, if they have any high and generous feeling, that while their father was acquiring by diligence and faithfulness, in the sight of God and men, a fair reputation, an honest name, he was working not only for himself, but most judiciously and effectually for them? I appeal to the highest sense of our nature, the sense of right. I appeal to the filial heart. I do not fear to be disappointed by the answer. And I will appeal also, in this connexion, to the parental heart. I will beseech pa

rents to consider, that by leaving to their children an honest name, they will leave to them that best inheritance, the place of which cannot be supplied by any other bequest; and that if they do not leave them this, they may leave them nothing, leave them entirely destitute, because all earthly wealth is uncertain. I will pray them also to consider, that their children, with the common faculties which God gives to men, can obtain earthly wealth or competency for themselves; but an honest ancestral name they cannot obtain, no, not if they work till their fingers are worn to the bone, till their heart is sick, till their brain is on fire. If parents will labor to leave a temporal inheritance to their children, together with an honest name, them so labor; it is natural; there is no commandment against it; but in mercy let them leave an honest name! — and let them pray earnestly that the temporal inheritance may not prove, as such inheritance often has proved, a bane instead of a benefit.

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2. But there is another treasure which a good man leaves to his children as a portion of their inheritance. Honesty is much, but it is not all. Simple as is the description of character expressed by the words "a good man," it yet implies, especially when used in Scripture, and should always imply when used seriously by Christians, a great deal of meaning. A good man is not only honest, but generous and charitable, and he leaves to his children the blessings of his generous and charita

ble deeds. He has not merely paid his own debts; he has assisted others to discharge theirs. He has not merely resisted temptations to speculation and extravagance, but he has resisted temptations to covetousness and closeness and hoarding. He has enlarged himself unto surrounding humanity. He has been ever ready for offices of love and kindness. When the poor have cried for bread, he has not stopped to consider whether this or that neighbor had not more bread to spare than himself, but he has answered the cry at once, and given from his own loaf as he could. Infants shivering in the streets he has taken to his own fireside and warmed, and has clothed them with his own children's garments. His sympathies have been moved also for those who were suffering from mental and moral as well as physical starvation and nakedness. His pity and his aid have visited the ignorant, the misguided, the depraved, and he has done what he could, and more than the world has known of, to shed the light of instruction, and order, and virtue, into the dwellings of darkness. And therefore blessings have been invoked upon him from those who were ready to perish. Blessings have been invoked upon him from cold and narrow rooms, and by unknown tongues, but warm from the heart, and heard kindly above; and they have been repeated still more earnestly at his funeral, when all that was in grateful bosoms concerning him has gushed out as a flood; and they remain as the inheritance of his children. And let his children prize them. Let