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SERMONS

BY

LAURENCE STERNE.

SERMON I.

INQUIRY AFTER HAPPINESS.

PSALM IV. 6.

There be many that say, who will shew us any good?—Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

THE great pursuit of man is after happiness; it is the first and strongest desire of his nature;—in every stage of his life he searches for it as for hid treasures-courts it under a thousand different shapes, -and, though perpetually disappointed,-still persists, runs after, and enquires for it afresh,-asks every passenger who comes in his way, Who will shew him any good? who will assist him in the attainment of it, or direct him to the discovery of this great end of all his wishes?

He is told by one, to search for it among the more gay and useful pleasures of life, in scenes of mirth and sprightliness, where happiness ever presides, and is ever to be known by the joy and laughter which he will at once see painted in her looks.

A second, with a graver aspect, points out to the costly dwellings which pride and extravagance have erected tells the enquirer, that the object he is in search of inhabits there ;-that happiness lives only in company with the great, in the midst of much pomp and outward state ;-that he will easily find her out by the coat of many colours she has on, and the great luxury and expense of equipage and furniture with which she always sits surrounded.

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