selves.

his creatures, throughout the endless ages of eternity. This, it is true, is hidden, and perhaps providentially so, from our eyes; we cannot ascertain the extent to which the effects of our wickedness may reach; it is sufficient for us to know that they may be far beyond our power of atonement, as well upon others as ourLet this consideration, then, if no other,—that love of our kind, which nature has implanted in every bosom,lead us so to take heed to our ways, that we may not be an occasion of stumbling or falling, in any manner whatever, to any of our fellow-creatures. It was this natural affection that induced the nobleman in the narrative to fly to the only Saviour. We have seen that we have all, in some degree or other, the same inducement before us-may the effect be in our case the same, and may our petition be like his, "Sir, come down ere my child die!" "Cleanse with thy Holy Spirit my heart from evil, and make me to walk in thy ways, ere by my wickedness or folly I have corrupted the child of my bosom,

the inmate of my house, or the friend of mine heart; and led them, by my advice, my negligence, or bad example, into that dark path from which no future effort of mine can turn them, though by me they have been led astray, and on my head will be their ruin!" Let this reflection sink deep into our minds; and let us strive so earnestly, not only for our own salvation, but for the salvation of all those with whom we are connected, that the Gospel kingdom may by our means enlarge its borders, and that, like the nobleman before us, not only we ourselves may be believers, but our "whole house."

SERMON XV.

THE TEMPTATION OF OUR SAVIOUR IN THE

WILDERNESS.

LUKE iv. 1, 2.

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil.

1

In the Gospel for this day we are presented with a narrative of one of the most remarkable and most important occurrences in the life of our blessed Saviour-his temptation, namely, by the great Principle of Evil, and his triumphant victory over his adversary.

It is a fact which deserves our utmost attention, that every transaction of our

1 First Sunday in Lent.

Saviour's life, removed as it may be from the common course of events, is still fraught with some useful and practical lesson to ourselves; and exalted as he was in his nature above the children of men, and different as was the course of action allotted to him from that which belongs to any individual among us, yet so full of humanity was every transaction of his life, that though it is beyond our power to do the same, we are constantly called upon to do something like itthough we cannot walk in his steps, yet we are able, and are bound, to follow them. His task was harder, and his power greater, than ours-but the principles on which he acted are as applicable to our case as they were to his; and from the narrative of the loftiest demonstrations of his divinity, we may derive some salutary rule for the discharge of our humblest duties. The case before us would, at first sight, appear to belong to that class of events, which, being removed from our common experience, can have little reference to our practice. It con

veys, indeed, a high and mysterious doctrine. Here we have distinctly brought before our view the grand and decisive struggle between the principle of good and the principle of evil. We see the Saviour of the world, full of the Holy Spirit of God, impelled into the wilderness, there to undergo the strongest and most dangerous temptations of the great enemy of mankind.-We see the second Adam encounter and overcome those very inducements to sin, to which the first Adam yielded, and was undone. We see him resist with firmness such offers as a false Messiah would of all others have been most ready to accept-and we are led to the irresistible conclusion, that as he was perfect man in his temptation, so in his resistance he was indeed " God manifest in the flesh." Such is the high doctrine which the passage conveys to the Christian; but the practical lesson is more plain, and not less important.

The successive temptations which our Saviour undergoes and resists, are just the same in kind, however they may differ in