weight of the subject were greatly enhanced acquaintance, eminent qualities are regarded by the manner in which he rehearsed it. Into with a jealous eye. The reputation, ability, his lips grace was poured: what majesty sat and wisdom of exalted goodness are consienthroned on his brow! what mild glory dered by the less deserving as a reproach to beamed from his eyes! what dignity and themselves: What is every day within our grace in his attitude as he rose and sat down, reach we every day neglect. What costs us in receiving the book and delivering it again little we lightly esteem. Difficulty, and danto the minister! Behold every eye is fixed ger, and distance enhance the value of every upon hun, every ear is attention, while in object of pursuit. But the very apology implies these few but emphatical words, he explains a censure of human nature, as wicked, unjust, and applies the prediction of the prophet, and absurd, in undervaluing worth merely "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your because it is allied to us, and neglecting good "I am He to whom the prophet gives for no better reason than that it is known. witness; I am come into the world on this benevolent design; I, your bone and your flesh, your brother, your neighbour, your fellow-citizen, your friend." "Come to me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

ears.

On this admiration gradually gives way to a feeling less gentle. Familiarity lowers the object with which it converses; self-love cannot brook to acknowledge a superior in an equal; envy seeks to indemnify itself under the oppression of eminent worth and excellence, by discovering and fixing upon some humiliating, mortifying circumstance, that reduces the hated greatness nearer to its own level. This explains the change which so quickly appeared in our Saviour's auditory. Dazzled, at first, by both the matter and manner of his address, they crown him with applause. But perceiving themselves eclipsed in the lustre of his graces and virtues, sinking as he rose, they strive to tumble him from his excellency, as if by degrading him, they were themselves to mount. His parentage is his only vulnerable part; that was poor, and mean, and despised, and that, accordingly, envy brings forward with affected surprise. "Is not this Joseph's son?" And when once this baleful, malignant passion has taken possession of the breast, every claim of justice, every plea of worth, every call of gratitude, every emotion of mercy, is disregarded, stifled, trampled under foot.

Our blessed Lord, accordingly, blends mild and gentle reproof with the excuse which he makes for the unkind return that his countrymen and kinsfolk had made to his affectionate endeavours to serve and to instruct them. And this seems to be the force of his reasoning." You have heard, my dear friends, of my going about doing good, at Capernaum and elsewhere; and you will naturally and with justice say to me, in the language of the common proverb, Physician, heal thyself: look at home; in attention to objects more remote, overlook not such as are equally pressing, and still more nearly interesting; let thy own country, if not in preference, at least in common with strangers, reap the benefit of these thy extraordinary, supernatural powers. Well, my beloved countrymen, here I am for this very purpose: ready to instruct you in the way of salvation, ready to heal all your plagues, to perform all the offices of mercy and loving-kindness which the prophet, in the passage which I now read, predicted concerning me: but I know the meaning of these ungracious looks, of these malignant whispers, of that envious inquiry into my pedigree, and occupation, and connexions in life. You are under the power of prejudice, you are too well acquainted with me to reap benefit from my ministrations: my labours will be more acceptable where I am less known.

"It happeneth to me as it did to the proChrist observes it with pity, not with in- phets of old; they were neglected, hated, dignation; for he came not only to relieve the persecuted of their own countrymen; and miserable, but to bear with and overcome the you inherit the spirit of your fathers, whom froward, to convince, subdue, and melt the no calamity could subdue, no arguments conobstinate, to cure prejudice, and to instruct vince, no goodness charm. I appeal to the indocility. Their uncivil, invidious inquiry history of our own nation. The times of Eliexcites in him no resentment; it can do him jah's prophecy were marked with many signo hurt; but grieved at the hardness of their nal interpositions of Divine Providence, parheart, and at the same time, compassionating ticularly with a grievous famine, occasioned their weakness, he at once reproves the one by a drought of uncommon duration, three and makes an apology for the other. The years and six months. It was universally apology he draws from the common, and well felt, particularly by the poorer and more unknown principles of human nature. No pro- protected part of the community, the widow, phet is accepted in his own country. Among and the fatherless; and the extraordinary strangers, a man is esteemed according to his powers of the prophet were equally well talents and virtues. His ancestry and kin-known and acknowledged. But what is the dred are a matter of no moment. It is even fact? Was the prophet sought unto? Did a degree of merit to have emerged out of the general distress drive the sufferers to obscurity; but at home, among kindred and seek relief in the piety and miraculous pow

her not ashamed.

ers of the man of God? No, he was the Tish-| description. Their indignation falls, not as bite, the son of somebody whom they knew, it ought to have done, on their own mean, he was at home, among his own, and there- unworthy, ungenerous, unmanly spirit, but fore his person was despised, his office slight- on their kind, affectionate, gentle monitor. ed, and even the widow and the fatherless, And what follows? Is it the cynical repreunsubdued by the strong hand of necessity, sentation of some surly traducer of mankind; perished from want, because they scorned or is it truth and history? Merciful Father the humane and compassionate interposition of mankind! must I believe that the very of a neighbour and kinsman. But O how persons who just now gazed with delight on acceptable was his visit to a stranger, a pa- that super-angelic face, who listened with gan, a woman of Sidon? She felt with rapture to the accents of that celestial voice, others the pressure of the common calamity; who justly gloried in their townsman, comthe law of self-preservation, and compassion panion, and friend, are instantaneously confor the son of her womb, were strong in her, verted into demons of hell? What, meditate, as in any widow or mother in Israel: but digest murder! the murder of innocence, more faithful and believing than they, she truth, and wisdom! What, all of them! not cheerfully made the sacrifice of her last one calm, moderate spirit to suggest milder earthly provision; at the word of the prophet, counsels, to plead the cause of goodness, to she gave up her own and her son's subsist- arrest the hand of violence! No, not one. ence; she reposed confidence in heaven, she O human nature, what wert thou; and what acknowledged the ensigns of Deity, she cast art thou become! I tremble to think that I herself upon a miracle, and her hope made am a partaker of thee; of a "heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." They rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong." And shall not fire come down from heaven, as it did once, and a second time, to avenge a lighter insult offered to a much inferior prophet? () no! "the Son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Behold a more glorious triumph, a miracle of grace and condescension, a triumph worthy of the Son of God, and the Saviour of men. "He, passing through the midst of them, went his way." Behold power and mercy united. Were they, like the men of Sodom, stricken with blindness? Were their hands, like Jeroboam's, dried up and rendered immoveable? Were their eyes, like the disciples going to Emmaus, holden, that they should not know him? I stop not to inquire. Suffice it to say, his "hour was not yet come," and they had no power at all over him but what was permitted of God. And vain is the contention of man against God: it is hard for thee, O persecutor, to "kick against the pricks.”

"Take another example, my friends, from your own history, and let it admonish and reprove you. Elisha inherited a double portion of the spirit of his master Elijah; he performed many notable miracles, he divided the waters of the river, he made iron to swim, he raised the dead to life, he employed the supernatural powers which were conferred upon him, in removing the miseries of his fellow-creatures. Among these the leprosy was one, a disease which baffles the skill of the physician, which not medicine, but the immediate power of God alone can cure. Now, what saith the record? What Israelitish lepers applied to the prophet, of the multitudes who were affected with this loathsome distemper? Not so much as one. He was at home, among those of his own house; the wretched patient, loathsome to himself, and burden offensive to every one about him, chooses rather to continue an abomination, than to be beholden to an acquaintance, to an equal, to a prophet of his own country, for the miracle of cleansing. Not so the son of the stranger: Naaman, the Syrian, the commander of armies, the favourite of a prince, a worshipper of strange gods. He believes the report, he flies to the physician; he follows the prescription, he washes in Jordan, and becomes clean."

In the history referred to by our Lord, and in the instance of a miraculous supply of food to the widow of Sarepta, in a season of extreme scarcity, as well as in the other equally noted instance of a miraculous cure The conscience of his audience makes the of leprosy performed on the body of Naaman application of our Saviour's doctrine; and the Syrian, we perceive the dawning of the what ensues? What always did, and always gospel day upon the Gentile world. They will, when the principle of conscience is believed and obeyed the word of the proawakened, either humble and contrite sub-phet, and they obtained relief, while mission to the reproof, and an honest endeavour to profit by it: or else a rancorous animosity against the reprover, the confirmation of prejudice, a wilful exclusion of light, or a determined perseverance in what is known to be wrong. Unhappily the frequenters of the synagogue at Nazareth were of this last

the

seed of Abraham after the flesh" remained unbelieving and impenitent. "Of a truth, God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation, he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to

repent: because he hath appointed a day in heaven." That same apostle was spared to the which he will judge the world in right- address epistles "to the strangers scattereousness by that man whom he hath ordained throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, ed; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." How God will deal in the judgment with those who never enjoyed the benefit of either the law or the gospel, it is not for us to determine. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" But "we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which, at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, accord-out her hands unto God." ing to his own will ?"

Asia, and Bythinia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Philip, the evangelist, "went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did." That evangelist finds a proselyte in the desert of Gaza, in a person of "great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure." He, too, gladly receives the word, is baptized, and goes on his way rejoicing, to carry into those dark regions the light of divine truth, and the Scripture is fulfilled which saith, "Ethiopia shall soon stretch

Time would fail in tracing the progress, Among other evidences that the Christian and marking the success, of him, who is dispensation is from heaven, the universa- emphatically denominated the Apostle of the lity of it is not the least. This act of Gentiles, through the islands of the Meditergrace contains no unkind exceptions. There ranean, over the states of Greece, in Italy, is no proscribed region, or family, or indivi- at Rome. John the beloved disciple, had the dual. The proclamation is, "peace, peace pleasure of despatching particular letters, to him that is far off, and to him that is near, dictated by the Spirit of wisdom and revela saith the Lord." This dawning light was tion, to the seven churches of Asia. He was now in a progress "unto the perfect day." one of those, then, concerning whom Christ Though Christ's personal ministry was, in the said, in the passage already quoted, "verily first instance, addressed "to the lost sheep I say unto you, that there be some of them of the house of Israel," its influence quick-that stand here, which shall not taste of ly spread far beyond the confines of Judea. "His fame went throughout all Syria;" a woman of Canaan believed on him, and her daughter was healed: the Roman centurion, who had been made partaker of the same precious faith, in like manner had power with God, and prevailed in behalf of his palsied servant. Some of our Lord's immediate attendants lived to see "the kingdom of God come with power." "The centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus" on the cross, "when they saw the earthquake, and those things that were done," though unaccustomed to fear, "they feared greatly," and made this open confession; " Truly this was the Son of God."

The miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, in the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost, opened a passage in all directions for the speedy diffusion of the truth as it is in Jesus, over all lands. Peter no longer trembles and denies his master, but stands boldly up to plead his cause, and precious souls by thousands are added unto the Lord. Cured of his Jewish prejudices, by a vision from heaven, he descends to Cesarea, preaches the word of life to the centurion, Cornelius and "his kinsmen and near friends." It is accompanied with power, and "with the Holy Ghost sent down from

death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." His life was prolonged to extreme old age. He saw the kingdom of his divine Master established in Europe, in Asia, in Africa. The great Western World was still unknown; but, in the wisdom of God, it too has emerged out of the bosom of the vast ocean, to swell the Redeemer's empire. To embrace the whole globe is its generous design. The period approaches, when "great voices in heaven" shall proclaim, saying: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." "Though Israel," therefore, "be not gathered," "Messiah "shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord:" for he saith of him; "it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." And as the ancient dispensation contained many intimations of favour to the Gentile world, so the Gospel contains and discloses a dawn of hope to the Jewish nation. "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come

out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out?"

lofty spirit of man now subdued to the obedience and love of Christ? Has not a daring attempt lately been made by a great nation, once denominated Christian, to obliterate the name, and overwhelm the cause of Christ? Wherefore change the ancient measurements of time? It was in the hope of swallowing up the distinction of days, and thereby of sinking the observance of the Lord's day in the mass. With the abolition of the sabbath the service of the sanctuary is swept away; and the spirit of Christianity, it was presumed, would not long survive its forms and rites. Are there none among ourselves who express rancorous animosity against the

Some interpreters of note have remarked a coincidence between the duration of the great famine which afflicted Israel, in the days of Elias, and that of our Saviour's ministry from his baptism to his death, namely three years and six months. As during the former period, at the word of the prophet, heaven was shut up, and all elementary influence suspended, to the inexpressible distress of the whole land; so during the lat-worthy name which they so unworthily bear? ter, through the mediation of a greater than Elias, full communication was opened. In the one we have displayed the severity of the Law, in the other the grace of the Gospel; in Elias, the minister of wrath and condemnation: in Jesus, the minister of mercy and reconciliation; the one inflicting a temporary curse, the other calling down an everlasting benediction; there the clouds bound up, and the dew restrained; here a "doctrine dropping as the rain, and speech distilling as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." The prophet represents, in beautiful language, the blessedness of an open communication between earth and heaven: To this fell spirit in man, what a striking, "It shall come to pass in that day, I will what an amiable contrast have we in the hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the hea-temper and conduct of our blessed Lord! vens, and they shall hear the earth; and the To withdraw himself from among these inearth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and grates is the only mark of displeasure exthe oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And pressed by him. He desisted from teaching I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I persons who were determined not to learn; will have mercy upon her that had not ob-"He did not many mighty works there," betained mercy; and I will say to them which cause they were liable to misapprehension, were not my people, Thou art my people; to misrepresentation. "He, passing through and they shall say, Thou art my God." But the contrast is dreadful! "She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax; and I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees." The prayer of faith is the channel of this nteresting communication.

Is not the Lord's day profaned and the temple deserted; and, in defiance of the law of the land, to say nothing of the obligations of decency and religion, are not efforts made by persons high in place and station, to discredit and disuse the ordinances of the Gospel, and thereby to bring the Gospel itself into disrepute? We say, however, concerning such men, in the spirit and words of the wise Gamaliel: "Refrain from these men and let them alone: for if this counsel, or this work, be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, they cannot overthrow it; lest haply they be found even to fight against God."

It is humiliating to observe, and to reflect on the uniform and unrelenting malignity of the human heart. That greatness, power, wealth should be envied, and the possessor hated and thrust at, is not so much an object of surprise; but that simplicity, innocence, kindness, beneficence should provoke hostility, would exceed belief, were not the proofs too numerous and too stubborn to be resisted. We justly detest the wickedness, injustice, and ingratitude of the Nazarenes, in attempting to destroy their unassuming, unoffending townsman: but is the angry, the

the midst of them, went his way." Thus men grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and he departs from them. And thus the Apostles of the Lord, Paul and Barnabas, when "the Jews, filled with envy, spake against them, contradicting and blaspheming," they said; "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo we turn to the Gentiles." And is it no punishment to be forsaken of a friend; a friend whom we have grieved and offended, who feels himself constrained to retire, but retires silently, slowly, reluctantly? Little do men reflect what sorrow, what remorse they are treasuring up to themselves, in slighting, in neglecting a day of merciful visitation. It drew tears from the eyes of the compassionate friend of mankind: "And when he was come near he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid

from thine eyes." "For if we sin wil-1 exhibit! through evil report and good re fully after that we have received the port, through opposition and discouragement, knowledge of the truth, there remaineth through sorrow and suffering, by night and no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries."

We conclude with pointing out the Saviour as a pattern of perseverance in wel!doing. Nazareth is no longer a theatre of teaching and working. Does he therefore sullenly, resentfully cease from discharging the duties of his high office? No, other cities will gladly receive him. "He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath-days." And what a course of active, unwearied beneficence did the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage

by day, till, bowing his head, he could say, "It is finished.” "Arm yourselves,” therefore, Christians, "with the same mind:" "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith:-consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." "And let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST.

LECTURE CXXI.

Now, when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee and leaving Naza reth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea-coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people which sat in darkness saw great light: and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death fight is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.-MATTHEW iv. 12-22.

means, of friends, of worldly wisdom; he was a pensioner on the bounty of others, and frequently without a place where to lay his head.

AMONG the other means of arriving at cer- | tainty, respecting "the things wherein we have been instructed," it may be of importance to compare the present state of Christianity with its origin; to contrast the small- Will any one presume to allege that he ness of its beginnings with the greatness of associated with the great of this world, that its success; to consider the real influence he insinuated himself into the favour and which a cause so unpromising has had on counsels of the princes of the earth, that he human affairs, and the changes which it went forth armed with their commission, and actually has produced on the face of the advanced in their name conquering and to globe. Who is its Author? A mighty po- conquer? No, history contradicts all this. tentate, armed with sovereign power and au- He lived up to the age of thirty in the very thority? An invincible conqueror travelling depth of obscurity; his associates and coadin the greatness of his strength, at the head jutors were few in number, men of mean of triumphant legions, from victory to victo- parentage and parts, in the very lowest ranks ry? An experienced statesman skilled in of society, fishermen, the sons of fishermen. every art of intrigue, and amply furnished Did he employ, then, the arts of insinuation, with all-commanding gold, to gain over cre- address, and flattery to captivate the vulgar? dulous, or to purchase the suffrages of cor- Did he teach an easy, palatable, pliant moruptible multitudes? The reverse of all rality, and attract the countenance and supthis is the fact. The Author of our faith, port of the million, by gratifying their pas Christians, as has frequently been repeat-sions, by conniving at their vices, or by hned, was the reputed son of a carpenter; mouring their prejudices? No such thing. he was brought up in an obscure village His life and doctrine were quite the reverse. of a region proverbially contemptible, of He preached and exemplified mortificaa conquered country; he was destitute of tion, and self-denial, and patient submission