were imparted. To work the works of the Father who sent him, was his meat and drink-his undivided purpose and endeavour.

What supernatural communications were to Jesus Christ, that to you, my brethren, are the several means of improvement and usefulness-whether they be riches, knowledge, talent, influence-which you are favoured with, in the order of the Divine Administration: what his especial sphere of labour and object of pursuit were to him, such to you are the respective stations, in which God has placed you, and the duties that in these it becomes you to fulfil. In those stations be it your fixed purpose to abide with God, with the Author of your lot! Discharge, with an enlightened conscience, the obligations arising from them: discharge them agreeably to His will; and you may then hope, in all events, for His blessing and His favour. Exactly in the degree in which you are sincere Christians, exactly in proportion as you have gained a correct knowledge of the mind which was also in Christ Jesus, and feel that you ought to copy after it, you will do nothing through vain-glory: nor will you be driven away by this quality from your allotted province, and hurried to scenes and efforts for which you are entirely unfit.

(3.) In the third place, The governing principle of vanity is not the Will of God, nor its end, His glory. He who exhibits this passion, seems forgetful of his dependance on a higher power: with this man fame is every thing; and even his best and most useful actions suffer alloy from their motive.

It was not thus with the blessed Jesus! He uniformly considered himself as the servant of the Being who sanctified and sent him into the world. It was not his own honour which he sought, but the honour of his Heavenly Father: it was not his own will, but the Divine Will, which he obeyed. "Even Christ pleased not himself." In a mind so constituted, so perfectly occupied-if I may employ the term-by the purest devotion, there could be no possibility of vanity finding a seat: and it will not be admitted, or, if admitted, long remain, in your breasts, should you cherish the piety that was likewise in your Master.

(4.) Lastly, the vain-glorious man forms an undue estimate of talent and of other similar advantages, and seeks not to please his neighbours for their good, to edification. He lives in practical ignorance of his having nothing but what he has received -nothing but what is given to him for the express purpose of his making it serviceable to others; and

not on his own account, or for his own gratification. Parts and learning-the power to instruct, to persuade, to attract-these he values for themselves; for the satisfaction, the credit, the authority which they bestow; and not as the means of blessing his fellow-men.

Far different were the Saviour's views and feelings! Jesus Christ looked upon all his special endowments as a trust committed to him for the highest welfare of those whom he is not ashamed to call his brethren. On the salvation of the children of men he was exclusively intent: and in no other cause, and for no other end, did he exert that fulness of Divine power, of which he was the possessor. He therefore emptied himself of his resemblance unto God; never performing a superfluous miracle, never working one for his own relief and comfort. He continued to be poor, that we might be rich: and he endured a death of exquisite agony and shame, that we might be delivered from the eternal dominion of the grave.

Even his reward is nothing personal. For this arises from the success and efficiency of his religion, or, in other words, from the present and everlasting, the spiritual and moral, blessedness of men. This is his exaltation, this his glory. While we meditate

on such a friend and leader-on so faithful and com

passionate a High Priest,-shall we not earnestly resolve that, by God's assistance, we also will "do nothing through vain-glory?"

SERMON XVI.

FAITHFULNESS IN LITTLE DUTIES.

LUKE XVI. 10.-HE THAT IS FAITHFUL IN THAT WHICH IS LEAST, IS FAITHFUL ALSO IN MUCH.

THESE words are a part of the moral of our Saviour's parable of the unjust steward; and they regard a subject of weighty and extensive application: I mean, the faithful discharge of little dutiesof obligations which, for the sake of perspicuity and convenience, though not, perhaps, with the strictest accuracy, we style inconsiderable.

In discoursing on this topic, I shall illustrate the nature of the fidelity of which our Lord speaks: I shall then recommend it on the comprehensive principle that he urges; and, in conclusion, I shall lay before you instances of faithfulness in little duties.

I. "He that is faithful in a very little”—in a narrow sphere, in a humble business, in the use of a single talent, in the labours of a retired station. Our great teacher clothes his thoughts in concise