scend to men of low estate." And I beg leave to add, from him: Be not wise in your own conceits."

nature changes, it becomes a deadly poison. Satisfy thyself with knowing its good, and venture not to make trial of its evil. Did Jesus convert water into wine that he might minister fuel to excess? The thought is impious. As well might a bountiful Providence be charged with the gluttony, the drunkenness, and all the other sensual lusta in which men indulge themselves, because it "gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. The miracle of Cana of Galilee, as all those which our Lord wrought, was a

a necessary of life, to a family in moderate circumstances, and which lasted them, I doubt not, for many days: it was the repayment of a debt of friendship and hospitality, in a manner peculiar to himself; and it was a manifestation of his glory in the eyes of his disciples, who had far other thoughts than that of abusing their Master's bounty; they believed on him."

2. Jesus himself was all purity and perfection, but the mother of Jesus was subject to culpable infirmity. She incurred censure oftener than once, and therefore is not to be looked up to as a perfect model, much less to receive the adoration which is due to Deity alone. It is one of the most humiliating views of human understanding, to behold it so far degraded as to think of approaching the great intercessor and friend of mankind, through the intercession of an-miracle of goodness; it provided a supply of other. "There is one God," saith the Scripture, and one "Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." No, says popery, you must have a mediatrix between you and that Mediator; nay, one armed with authority to control and command him. The mind turns away with horror from the blasphemous suggestion. The rights of parents have a boundary, both as to extent and dura-" tion, the authority of God knows no limit, and never can expire. When his voice is heard, that of nature must be suppressed. The duties of the public character must absorb the feelings of the private individual. We may warrantably lay before our compassionate Redeemer our most secret thoughts, and pour out our hearts before him in prayer and supplication, in perfect submission to his will; but we must not presume either to prescribe to his providence, or to arraign his conduct. He doeth all things wisely and well.

3. Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for "it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." Whether therefore God supplies the good things of life in the ordinary course of nature, or by a special interposition of his almighty power, they are liberally bestowed, they are the bounty of a Father, to be used, to be enjoyed. When God placed our grand progenitor in the terrestrial paradise, the parental grant was large: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;" but with one single reservation: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." We are still on the same footing, in a world which has indeed ceased to be a paradise, but which, nevertheless, is still abundantly stored with every thing necessary, convenient, and comfortable for man. The grant is still as liberal: "The good of the land is before you:" take, thou mayest freely eat, freely drink. But, mark the reservation, still indispensable as ever, eat, drink, in moderation, to the support and refreshment of the body, not its depression and derangement. To a certain bound this is cordial, salutary, nutritive: beyond, its

4. We have said that this and all our Saviour's other miracles were miracles of goodness: we now add, they were all disinterested. He here gave proof of sovereignty uncontrollable. It was exercised to supply the temporal wants of a few, and to minister to the everlasting consolation of myriads. But "Christ pleased not himself.” What might not his power have commanded, of all that is exquisite on the earth, in the air, through the paths of the sea? But though an hungered, he will not command stones to be made bread for his own use; if he miraculously multiply a few loaves and fishes, it is to feed a starving, fainting multitude. If he makes the sea tributary, it is at one time to compensate the painful labour of poor men, who had "toiled all night and taken nothing," at another, to prevent of fence by paying his tribute money. Fish broiled on a fire of coals, and a morsel of bread, are the simple fare on which he and his disciples dine, even "after that he was risen from the dead." "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." "They that wear soft clothing are in king's houses;" His clothing was not worth dividing among a few of the basest of mankind: His raiment, his lodging, his fare were all of apiece. And is the servant greater than his Lord? To the poor the Gospel is preached, and to the poor the example is set, the example of contentment with a low condition, of meek submission to hardship, of superiority to the vanities and luxuries of this world, of selfgovernment, and self-denial. His modern disciples have been accused of love of ease and indulgence, of fondness for dainties and delicacies, of aiming at power and pre-eminence. If the imputation be just, it is to be lamented: and Christians of every rank and

denomination are concerned, as far as in mind that he is bound by the law and by the them lies, to do it away. If it be ill-found-practice of his divine Master, not only to ed, it must be borne, as part of the reproach abstain from all evil, but from all appearance of Christ; and his disciple must bear in of evil.

HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST.

LECTURE CXXIV.

And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house: and Simon's wife's mother was ta ken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose, and ministered unto them. Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he, rebuking them, suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ. And when it was day he departed, and went into a desert place; and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them. And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.-LUKE iv. 38—44.

THE religion of the Gospel is adapted to, tance, admiring, venerating what we cannot every possible condition of life, for it is adapted to the nature of man, who, with the variation of a few circumstances, is the same universally, and in every age. There is the difference of colour and speech, the difference of climate and soil, the difference of high and low, of rich and poor; but still it is man, with all his excellencies and imperfections, with all his capability of degradation and of improvement, with all his propensities to evil and to good. Christianity takes him up as he is, and undertakes to make him what he ought to be. "Can the Ethiopian change his colour, or the leopard his spots?" No, replies nature, I gave that colour, I painted those spots; but I cannot undo my own work. He that is black must, for me, continue black still, that which is spotted must be spotted still. But the grace of the Gospel unfolds a mystery which it is beyond the reach of nature to solve. It transforms that which was as scarlet into the whiteness of snow, what was red like crimson into the colour of wool. "Can these dry bones live?" Yes, at the word, and by the spirit of the Lord.

Miracles like these the Spirit of Christ is exhibiting every day. Do we not see: O that the spectacle were more common! Do we not see loftiness of station united to lowliness of mind; a hard lot to a contented spirit; the fulness of this world to the exceeding riches of the grace of God?

When the Son of God came for the salvation of a lost world, "verily he took not on him the nature of angels." But more wonderful still! he united the divine nature to the human, and thereby became at once an object of supreme adoration, and a familiar instructer. What he said and did as the Lord, "wise in heart and mighty in strength," we must ever contemplate at an awful dis

find out unto perfection, and which we are still more incapable of imitating. But in what he said and did as a man, we behold a pattern most amiably simple, most powerfully impressive, most consummately perfect. In vain do we look any where else for that steadiness and uniformity of character which alone can merit the distinction of being proposed as an example. Whom else can we with safety follow in every thing? In the most perfect of mere men, while there is much to respect and to commend, there is ever a something to blame and to regret; some fault of temper, some inconsiderateness of expression, some inconsistency of conduct. But in our divine Master all is estimable, uniform, and consistent. He presents one and the same character in solitude and in society, in the synagogue and in domestic retirement, at a marriage feast and before the tribunal; displaying a native dignity undebased by an infusion of insolence, condescension pure from servility, fortitude without ferociousness, sensibility without affectation, the sublimity of devotion with the perfect ease of friendship.

In the last Lecture we attended this friend of mankind to the celebration of a marriage solemnity, and beheld him partaking of the pure delights of friendly and domestic intercourse, mingling with his kindred, and with the disciples whom he had chosen; and while he miraculously ministered to their wants, as the great Ruler and Lord of nature, we observe him, as bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh, sympathizing in their joys, adopting their solicitudes, their wants, and expectations, and joining in their conversation. Thus he tacitly and obliquely reproves tha: haughty reserve, that unbending stateliness, that ungracious distance from men which

frequently attempts to pass for superior wis- | must close. There is a season of retirement dom, sanctity, and importance. We pretend and repose as there is of labour and exertion. not to arrange the several events of our The duties of private friendship, of domestic Lord's history in the exact order of time. devotion, the rights of hospitality, the care The evangelists display them in an energetic of the body, put in their several claims, simplicity far beyond the reach of art. There which must be answered. Christ accordis in the word of God, if it be lawful to say ingly " arose out of the synagogue, and enso, a majestic irregularity that transcends tered into Simon's house." The accommothe control of rule; just as the surface of dations of a poor fisherman's hovel, on the our globe, with its mountains and valleys, shore of the lake of Gennessaret, could not its precipices and plains, its rivers and oceans, be very elegant. The fare provided by a defies the application of the straight line hard-working plebeian, doomed frequently to and of the compasses; and as the face of the toil all night long, without taking any thing, starry heavens present to the eye a mag- could not be very luxurious or delicate. But nificent assemblage of worlds scattered when a man gives you the shelter of his roof, about by a hand that rejects all measure- however mean, and a place at his board, howment by any standard but its own. Science ever homely, he does all that a prince car. has indeed contrived artificial combinations do; and the difference is a paltry circum. and arrangements both of the heavenly bo- stance or two, beneath the consideration of a dies, and of Scripture truths, but their native rational being. glory and magnitude are not reducible to systems of human invention. It may be pleasant, and far from unprofitable, to ascertain dates, to unravel the chain; but it is surely of secondary moment. The actions and events themselves, and the evidence that they existed, are the great concern of the Christian world; but above all, the practical influence of those great truths on the hearts, the consciences, and the lives of men.

But the house of Peter was, at this time not only the abode of penury, but likewise the house of mourning, for "Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever." The sabbath had not been to her a day of rest, but of agitation and pain; and the distress of a sick-bed might probably be aggravated by reflecting on absence from the house of prayer, and from the comforts of the public worship of God. The value and importance of objects vary strangely, in our estimation, as they are viewed through the medium of health, or of sickness, of pain, or ease.

The

Precluded from opportunities of being eminently useful at Nazareth, through the envy and unbelief of his townsmen, Jesus withdraws from that city, not in anger but in sor-illusion of the world disappears, when the row, though a most cruel, ungrateful, and fever in the blood forms in the distempered atrocious attempt upon his life had been imagination, whirling orbs of perturbation, made by its unworthy inhabitants; and he and perplexity, and despair; or when, in cold proceeds to prosecute his labours of love at blood, conscience darts an anxious look into Capernaum, a city situated on the sea of Ga- the world of spirits. Very different is the lilee. From this place, it would appear, he aspect of the sabbath in the eye, and the was called to the adjacent town of Cana, to hour, of thoughtless dissipation, and when the celebration of the marriage; and that the son of dissipation is stretched on a bed solemnity being ended, he returns to Caper- of languishing. Then he "snuffed at it, and naum accompanied by the disciples whom he said, Behold, what a weariness is it? When had already chosen. Here we find this will the new moon be gone, that we may sell Teacher sent from God still indefatigably corn, and the sabbath, that we may set forth pursuing the great object of his mission, and wheat?" But how very different are the restill putting respect on the word and ordi- flections of "the days of darkness," of the nances of God. Behold him devoting the" months of vanity," of the "wearisome day of sacred rest to useful purposes; em- nights," appointed, when the sleepless paploying the leisure and retirement from tem-tient is constrained to cry out, "When shall poral concerns which it afforded, in execu-I arise and the night be gone." "What fruit ting the benevolent office of instructing the had I then in those things, whereof I am now ignorant and guilty, in the way of life and ashamed, for the end of those things is death." salvation. We know from the general strain The visit of Jesus to Peter's family had of his public ministrations, and particularly more than one object in view. The friend from the portion of Scripture, which he re- of man retired to converse with men, the hearsed and applied in the synagogue at Na-master to instruct his disciples, the poor to zareth, that the things written concerning himself constituted the great burden of his preaching: Scripture the source, Christ Jesus the subject, the sabbath the season, the synagogue the scene. "Never man spake like this man."

But the services of an earthly sanctuary

feed with the poor, the weary to repose with the weary. The Son of God entered into the house to manifest his glory, to display his power, to exercise his benevolence in the miraculous relief of distress. Thus amply does he repay every token of affection be stowed on himself, or on one of the least of

his brethren. Distress awakens sympathy. standing by her bed-side. He anoints the The children of the family cannot think of blind man's eyes with clay, and sends him to sitting down to eat bread, while the mother wash in the pool of Siloam; he cries with a of it lay in extremity. Filial tenderness had loud voice over the grave of his departed undoubtedly exerted itself to the uttermost. friend, "Lazarus, come forth." All demonThe poor scrip of the Galilean had, perhaps, strates the underived and independent, as been drained in purchasing medicine and well as the almighty power of God, whose cordial for his afflicted mother-in-law: though will is the sole and the supreme law, as to the this be none of the least of the evils which time, the manner, and the matter of the work. attend poverty, to behold the person whom There is a wonderful vivacity in the unwe love perish for want of advice and medi- affected conciseness and simplicity of the cine, for want of a cordial beyond the reach narration. He stood, he spake, he prevailed. of our means. As a last resource they lay"He rebuked the fever." Disease is here her case before Jesus: "and they besought personified, as susceptible of reprehension, him for her." Did he need to be importuned? and of voluntary subjection to authority, "and Was he difficult of access? Did his goodness it left her," as one who has encroached and flow reluctantly? No, but the intercourse intruded, and who feels and acknowledges between heaven and earth, between the Crea- the power of a superior repelling and casting tor and the creature is the confidence, the him out. prayer of distress meeting the benignity, the unremitting attention of the Father of mer-imperceptible in their progress. When the cies, who will be sought unto, that he may show himself gracious.

The transitions of nature are gradual, slow,

taneous and complete. "He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sca, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." When the fever has spent its force, and the crisis of convalescence has taken place, it leaves the patient feeble and languid, and it frequently requires a considerable length of time to restore both the body and the mind to the full exercise of their several functions; but when Jesus rebukes the fever, it not only in a moment departs, but the sufferer is at the same moment made perfectly whole: "And immedi ately she arose, and ministered unto them." As in creation so in Providence, he speaks and it is done, he gives commandment and it stands fast. "He is the Rock; his work is perfect"

ocean is roused into fury by the raging wind, it continues in a state of agitation long after "And he stood over her, and rebuked the the tempest has ceased to roar; but when fever, and it left her." The miracle of turn-Christ speaks the word, the effect is instaning water into wine was effected by a simple act of the will, without either gesture or speech, and the evidence of it rested, in part, on the testimony of the servants who had filled the pots with water. Here we have both gesture and speech, and the immediate and personal conviction of all who were in the house. In nothing is the sovereignty of Deity more conspicuously displayed than in the manner of his acting. It is so unlike human conjecture, that the pride of man is apt to be offended that Providence did not observe the mode which his sagacity had prescribed. Naaman the Syrian had settled, in his own mind, the whole process of the cure of his own leprosy. "Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper." Not one iota of his conjecture was realized. The prophet did not come out, nor assume the supposed attitude, nor pronounce the supposed invocation, but "sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times:" and pride is hurrying him away in a rage, to think that the rivers of Damascus should be postponed to the waters of Israel. Thus while prophecy has been successively fulfilling, the event so ill accorded with prevailing opinion and expectation, that while the prediction was admitted, the accomplishment, however coincident and exact, has been rejected.

This divine sovereignty our blessed Lord exercises in performing all his mighty works. He wills water into wine. Now he rebukes the disease, and now speaks to the patient. He heals the feverous son of the nobleman, at the distance of Cana from Capernaum, and the feverous mother of Simon's wife

The circumstance of her ministering to her physician and the family, is striking and instructive. It teaches us the proper use of prolonged life, of restored faculties. They are to be devoted to the honour of God, and to the service of our fellow-creatures. They were deeply affected by her danger, they looked in anxious expectation to the return of her health, and they besought the Lord for it; she employs that precious gift in contributing her best endeavours to promote their ease and comfort. What debt is so sacred as that of gratitude? and what benefactor has laid us under so many and such unspeakable obligations as He who gave us life, and who sustains it, as He who died to redeem us? We have here a beautiful and interesting view of human life. Every relation has its corresponding sphere of duty. The happiness of domestic society consists not in the interchange of great benefits, on signal occa sions, but in the hourly reciprocation of the little offices of love, in kind looks, in kiną

affections, in mutual forbearance and forgiveness, in the balm of sympathy, whether we sorrow or rejoice; in a word, according to the apostolic injunction, in being of the same mind one towards another.

The religion of the Gospel wears an aspect peculiarly favourable to families. The infancy and childhood of Jesus Christ were passed in the bosom of his family. His first public miracle was performed in putting honour upon a family party, at Cana of Galilee. He made one in the family of Simon, at Capernaum. The house of Lazarus and his sisters at Bethany, he made his home, and there he cultivated all the endearing charities of exalted friendship. To find a home for his mother was his last earthly care; and, as the head of his own family, he presided at the Paschal solemnity, and instituted the memorial of his dying love. Thus are domestic relations strengthened, sweetened, sanctified, ennobled. A Christian kingdom or state never existed. But a family of Christians, all of one heart and of one soul, we trust, is not a rarity. And to christianize families is the direct road to the christianizing of nations. In the contracted sphere of a family, however numerous, every one knows every one; every one cares for every one. The master's influence is felt and acknowledged by all. A common interest, both temporal and eternal, unites the individuals to each other, and heaven descends to dwell with men upon earth. So propitious is Christianity to the dearest and best interests of civil society.

for so it seemed good in thy sight. Let me be the subject of thy miraculous grace, and convey thou the healing power through whatsoever channel thou wilt.

The service of the synagogue, in the morning of the sabbath, had been disturbed by a wretched demoniac, who "cried out with a loud voice, saying, let us alone: what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art: the holy one of God." Jesus by a word, dispossessed the impure spirit, and restored the unhappy man to himself, in the presence of the whole assembly, who were justly filled with astonishment at such a display of power and goodness. It is affecting to think that this dreadful species of malady was far from being uncommon at that period; for we find the fame of the morning's miracle spread abroad, and it attracts to the place where Jesus was, in the evening, many persons in the same deplorable condition. One of the depths of Satan, in these cases, was to pay affected homage to Jesus of Nazareth, in the view of infusing a suspicion that there might be a secret combination and collusion between him and them, and of thereby diminishing his dignity and authority in the eyes of the people. To be praised by the wicked, is offensive and dishonourable to the good: and the adversary is never more dangerous than when he "is transformed into an angel of light." But when the prince of this world came, he found nothing in Christ; no weak part to attack, no foundation whereon to erect his engines; but wisdom ever prepared to meet cunning, purity to resist every evil sugges tion, and authority to silence the tempter whenever is encroachment became too daring. He disdained the testimony of a demon in his favour, and rejected the insidious praise of an enemy. "And he rebuking them, suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ:" that is, he permitted them not to declare, though they spake the truth, that they knew him to be the Christ.

The scene which we have been reviewing passed on the evening of the sabbath. Nor could the sanctity of the day be profaned by a work of mercy, or by the pious and friendly intercourse of kindred spirits, whose religion was seated in the heart, not chilled into lifeless forms. But the superstitious observance of the sabbath operated powerfully on the multitude. Though prompted by natural affection to apply for relief to their afflicted friends, they defer it till the going down of the sun, that is till the sabbath was over; for Having thus fulfilled the public duties of they had yet to learn "what this meaneth, I the sanctuary, and the more private offices will have mercy and not sacrifice;" and of friendship; having employed the greater the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath- part of the night in receiving and relieving day;" and "the sabbath was made for man, the numerous objects who came, or who were and not man for the sabbath." "Now when brought to him, he withdrew, toward the the sun was setting, all they that had any dawning of the day, into a still closer retiresick with divers diseases brought them unto ment; and, for a season, shut the world him." A sense of the weakness of those entirely out. "And when it was day he degood people is lost in respect for their hu- parted, and went into a desert place." Samanity. They are not chidden away from cred were those hours of solitude to heavenly Peter's door as unseasonable intruders; they meditation, to devotional intercourse with are not referred to another day. It is the Him that sent Him, whose glory he ever ery of misery entering into the ear of mercy, sought, and whose will it was his delight to and it cries not in vain: "and he laid his execute. "Ye shall leave me alone;" says hands on every one of them, and healed he to his disciples, "and yet," adds he, "I them." Here the mode of cure is the im- am not alone, because the Father is with position of hands. Even so, blessed Jesus, me." When some great arrangement is to