sphere of my influence, by devoting my days and my nights to an indiscriminate attendance upon religious instruction? Will my boarding up the treasures of speculative truth enrich my neighbour so long as I keep those treasures locked up in the secret chambers of my own mind? Will the righteousness of patriarch or prophet, in whose steps I have not been careful to follow, bring to my heart the peace that springs from a consciousness of duty cheerfully discharged, or of follies lamented and forsaken?

No:-these are all false grounds of religious confidence. They neither make us, nor prove us to be, benefactors of mankind and though they may all have a tendency to lead us to the doing of righteousness, not all of them together show that we are already righteous. No one of them, nor yet all of them united, can be regarded as ultimate duties. They do not imply, still less do they prove, that we do, or bear, or abstain from any thing, in compliance with the will of God, and in the hope of his favour and so long as they do not, they entitle no one to the character and the hopes of the righteous: for, saith the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, 'Let no man deceive you, he that doeth righteousness is righteous.'

SYMPATHY OF OUR SAVIOUR.

Ir is a very interesting part of our Saviour's character, and one to which I fear we do not often enough advert, that he was by his nature capable of sympathising, and did in fact, and in a remarkable degree, sympathise with mankind in their concerns, and particularly in their calamities; and that he was a high-priest who was touched with the feeling of human infirmities, since, though without sin, he was tempted in all points as we are.' In this view of his character, connected with the divinity of his mission, he was peculiarly fitted for a religious teacher.

1. His own trials were such, as enabled him not only to feel a concern in the like trials to which others were exposed, but also to adapt his instructions to the necessities of men in a state of probation. Hence it is, that, in his entrance on his ministry, soon after the account of his temptation, we find in his sermon on the Mount, the longest of his discourses on record, those maxims of prudence under trials, and those consolations and hopes, which are applicable to all the exigencies of the christian's life. According to these instructions, every act of suffering virtue is to be met by a corresponding reward. If we are called to endure perse

cution, the recompense of fidelity is nothing less than the happiness of heaven. If, in encountering the temptations to sin, the temporary suffering be like the plucking out of the right eye, or cutting off the right hand, we are taught that the future reward will be infinitely more than commensurate with the present sacrifice. We are told, not of the pleasure of revenge, but of that which flows from disarming enmity by kindness and forbearance. We are directed not to put our trust in those treasures which are perishable, because they may tempt us to neglect that provision for the soul, of which we cannot be deprived by any accidents of time. And we are admonished not to judge our brother rashly, lest we betray our own want of self-knowledge, or expose our own hypocrisy. I might proceed to a much greater extent in this enumeration of particulars, but these examples are sufficient to show, that our Saviour addressed his disciples from a complete knowledge of the force of temptation.

2. The miracles wrought by Christ were a continual testimony of the interest he felt in human happiness. What could serve more than these to recommend him as a teacher, and to give efficacy to his instructions, by exciting the confidence and love of those to whom they were addressed? We can imagine a succession of miracles more splendid and dazzling, and more terrific; but such were not the effects he intended to produce, and they would have been ill adapted to his general design. They would not have been in harmony with his meek and unostentatious character, and with the nature of that kingdom, which came not with observation; which consisted not in pomp, and parade, and extrinsic show. Yet, for genuine moral sublimity, we can conceive nothing superiour to those operations of power, in which were blended with supernatural agency, that tender concern in human suffering, which finds direct access to the heart. Some instances, in the Hebrew Scriptures, of the visible manifestation of Divine power, are indeed awfully sublime, and perfectly adapted to the end to be produced; but, in the miracles of Christ, it seems not to have been intended that the witnesses should ever overlook the immaculate author-that man of sorrows, who was acquainted with grief. When we read so often, before his performing a miracle, of his being moved with pity, when we are told of his weeping with the sister of Lazarus, of his affectionate lamentation over Jerusalem, and of his various expressions of tenderness to his bosom companions, is there any thing wanting to command as well our love for his amiable participation in human wo, as our reverence for his beneficent exercise of power?

3. In his intercourse with his disciples, nothing could serve to

give a more powerful effect to his instructions, than that habitual condescension and kindness, which were manifested in his whole demeanour towards them. We can conceive of an inflexible justice more austere than amiable, of sincere attachment too distant and reserved to command an adequate return of love; but these virtues were so prominent and perfect, and so blended in the character of Christ, and came, if I may thus speak, so directly home to the business and bosoms of the persons engaged in his service, that they were less overawed by his supernatural character, than charmed by the purity and perfection of the

man.

In all bis concerns with his followers, there was every thing to secure their confidence. They were never afraid to propose to him their cases of conscience, and to inquire into the design of any thing peculiar in his religion. It was this nearness to his disciples, this uniform condescension, which made him at all times accessible, that gave a very peculiar and distinctive character to his religion. It was hence that his personal instructions breathe such a spirit of love and tenderness; instructions which we can so easily comprehend, and which give such a value to charity, above mere intellectual superiority.

When we examine the conduct of our Saviour as a teacher, in relation to those who were as yet opposed to this new religion, and consequently enemies to its author, we must see not only whether the means were innocent, but whether they were adapted to the end. Incredulity must in some cases be overcome by the direct interpositions of miraculous power, appealing to the senses; the obdurate heart, if it cannot be softened by pity, and won by persuasion, must first be impressed by fear; the profligacy of vice must be met by adequate denunciations of punishment; and that numerous class of men, who seem to be go. verned (as it were) by accident, and are often subjected to the will of the more adventurous or cunning, must be plucked from their seducers by seizing upon their curiosity, and retained by giving them more just conceptions of the value of their souls, by presenting the objects of faith in their most attractive forms, and by encouraging their hopes in the final rewards of fidelity.

Now it seems to me, that every one who examines the history of our Saviour's personal ministry will perceive that it was distinguished by a strict adaptation of means to the several circumstances and conditions of men, to whom he ministered. I shall only remark therefore, in general, that while he never temporised (in the bad sense of the word) with the proud, the rich, or the powerful he always paid such regard to distinctions in society, and the prejudices founded in the different gradations of rank, as

not unnecessarily to court persecution, or to excite those worldly feelings, which he would rather correct and subdue by the humble spirit of his religion.

We see then the constant efforts of our Saviour to cultivate a temper of love among his followers, and the undeviating correspondence between his verbal instructions, and his teaching by example. If he watched over his erring disciples, and gently led them back into the path of duty, it was never meant that his followers in any age of the church, or in any portion of christendom, should bite and devour one another. The love which he taught and exemplified, is that which distinguishes between the offender and the offence. Never do we find any countenance for giving up a wandering brother to the waywardness of a perverted mind, or for driving him farther from the right path by the arm of violence. If he go astray, we are to leave the ninety and nine which have not gone astray, and search for him, and if possible, recover him. If he be prodigal, and lay waste the fair inheritance of virtue which he might have possessed, and despise the chastened pleasures of religion, choosing rather; the mad intoxication of sensual riot and excess,-yet, if the returning light of reason and religion should burst upon him, and he should thus see the real deformity of his character, we are to receive the penitent, not with repulsive distrust, but with marked expressions of joy.

The tender concern which our Saviour felt for his disciples, and still feels for all who acknowledge him as their master and teacher, demands on our part a corresponding love. But how is the sincerity of our love to be tried? We shall all acknowledge that strong professions are of themselves of little value; and, though we should ever avoid indulging unreasonable suspicions, yet we sometimes find the most clamorous pretensions proceeding from the most hollow hearts. We are to judge none except by that least deceptive test, which our Saviour himself furnishes: By their fruits ye shall know them.' That man, therefore, in whom we find professions of love to Christ, united with genuine love to his neighbour, and those individual, domestic and social virtues which endear him to his family and associates; who repairs to the moral instructions of his divine teacher for rules which he is to apply to his various relations in life, and does every thing from deep convictions of duty, settling all his cases of conscience, as far as practicable, by the example and the maxims of Christ,-although his devotions may never kindle into rapture, and his expressions of love to the Saviour may never glow with that fervour, with which they do from the lips of some good men, yet gives the best evidence of his sincerity, New Series-Vol. V.

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that with our ignorance of the human heart, we can ever obtain. But he, on the contrary, whose ardour in professions of love to Christ seems limited only by the limited power of language to express them; who deems all devotions cold, unless they are couched in words that burn ;'-if, at the same time, he does not love his brother whom he hath seen; if he is not alive to those tender charities which bind us to each other; if his selfishness is visible in all those offices which he performs, under pretence of personal kindness or extended philanthropy,-has not a genuine love for Christ; and I am not casuist enough to exculpate him from some share in the earnest expostulations of our Saviour with the scribes and pharisees.

But I would not be understood to invite, or even to justify any unnecessary decisions on the characters of those about us; and the best use which can be made of such rules and illustrations as I have just briefly brought together in contrast, is to bring us to a close self-examination, rather than to make us too curious and obtrusive in our inquiries into the professions and conduct of others.

I have said that the love of our Saviour to his disciples demands a corresponding love. It is lamentably true, that we are prone to be very deficient in the exercise of this affection. Though the shocking expressions which we sometimes hear uttered by those, who have undergone a sudden change in their religious views and feelings, and who are strongly excited by looking back on their past indifference and neglect, are the result of a diseased frame of mind, (often produced by artful exaggeration,) thus mistaking coldness for hatred by the force of contrast, when ecstacy has taken place of indifference,-yet, if we examine our own hearts, we shall often find too much of that coldness, and want of lively gratitude to our Saviour, which they may choose to call hatred. Thus, at the same time, we perceive there is a fault existing, the opposite to that of coldness, and though by no means so common, yet far more obtrusive, and perhaps more mischievous in its consequences. I mean that extravagant rhapsody of address and invocation, which is sometimes directed to the Saviour, and those familiar terms of endearment, which are alike offensive, and irreverent, when their object is no less than the son of God. These extravagances are commonly the result of the most exaggerated conceptions of the malignant nature of the human heart, and of the awful vengeance of God, contrasted with the clemency of Christ, which interposes between the anger of God and the demerit of man. And here it is to be apprehended, that the extraordinary supposition prevailing among so large a portion of christians, of two distinct and oppo