those habits of sobriety, industry, and frugality which the Gospel itself first taught them? Behold the consequences of such parsimony. Sometimes God in his providence inflicts losses which far more than counterbalance their selfish and sinful savings; for there is as great a curse on wealth ill-spent, or ill-kept, as on wealth ill-gotten; and it is often made to take wing and fly away. If it be not removed, it may, for want of God's blessing upon it, become itself a snare and a curse, luring its possessors from him, feeding their covetous and vain desires, and thus ripening them for future wrath. Or if, in mercy, this great evil be prevented by special communications of grace, it often happens that the selfishness which is not punished by spiritual injury is chastised by bodily and other temporal sufferings. Afflictions, personal and domestic, are entailed as the accompaniments of money thus criminally detained from its best use, which render impracticable any proper enjoyment of it, and leave its owners cheerless, forlorn, and wretched in the midst of all their affluence. "For this cause," perhaps, (among other causes,) "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

In fine, (to speak in the very gentlest terms which ministerial fidelity will permit me to use,) the loss of that immediate reward, spiritual and providential, which is promised to such as abound in the work of the Lord—a diminution of present grace, through grieving the Holy Spirit-and an inferior station in the glory of the eternal world-will constitute the curse of such as "come not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

But while we faithfully warn you, dear brethren, against the sin and curse of selfishness, we delight to put you in remembrance of the blessings which will attend a contrary spirit and conduct.

1. Your zeal and liberality will have the gracious acceptance, approbation, and applause of God.

2. You will live more and more in the esteem and affection of your ministers, who, perceiving that their humble endeavors to make you fruitful in every good work have not been in vain, will labor with redoubled ardor to promote your welfare.

They will say, with Deborah, "My heart is toward those that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye Lord !"

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3. You will have, in your several Churches, an increased enjoyment of the comforting and sanctifying influence of that Gospel which you send to others. The fullness of its blessing is reserved for those who most zealously engage in its promotion.

4. Your own souls will be enriched and refreshed. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself." "They shall prosper that love thee," O Jerusalem! (Proverbs xi, 25; Psalm cxxii, 6.)

What you

5. Your worldly comforts will be sanctified. keep for yourselves and your families will be doubly blessed to you, because of what you have gratefully given to Christ and his cause.

6. When you hear of the conversion of sinners, of the illumination of the heathen, of Ethiopia stretching out her hands unto God, of Satan falling like lightning from heaven, and of the enlargement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, you will have a pleasure such as no earthly possession can yield, in reflecting on your humble share in the instrumentality by which so much good has been effected. And,

7. In the day of eternity the blessing of many that were ready to perish shall come upon you. The records of the Church will then be published. The wars of Messiah being ended, the services of his adherents will be reviewed and proclaimed; and in proportion to your activity and zeal shall be the honorable mention made of you, through the mercy of your God, before assembled worlds. The Saviour shall condescendingly acknowledge, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did it unto me." As the judge of all, he shall pronounce the welcome word, "Well done, good and faithful servants! Ye have been faithful over a few things; I will make you rulers over many things." Then "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."

Awake, awake, then, brethren! Awake to an increased concern for the honor of God; to a more compassionate anxiety for the salvation of immortal souls; to a more liberal, stated, and regular exertion of all your means of usefulness. Come to the help of the Lord! Behold, the Christian host is in motion! I see other tribes of the spiritual Israel eagerly putting on their armor, girding themselves for closer combat with the powers of darkness, and in the name of our one God setting up their banners in the very heart of Satan's empire. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them. We wish them good luck in the name of the Lord. But, Methodists! you too are called to join the ranks of this holy army, with augmented numbers, energies, and resources. Your zeal has been again and again acknowledged, even by those who questioned your prudence, or controverted your principles. Lose not the character and position which you have already gained. Let none take your crown. Meroz was cursed above all the neutrals; and Methodists will be more culpable than other Christians, if they come not, in this eventful crisis of the world and of the Church, to help the Lord against the mighty. Permit me to say to my friends in this vicinity, as Moses once said to the children of Gad and of Reuben, "Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?" Ephraim, we read in the text, followed after Benjamin. The Leeds district has nobly seized the honor of Benjamin, by leading the way in the new plans now adopted for supporting and extending our missions. The honor of Ephraim, that of being the first to follow, has been providentially granted to the Halifax district. Show yourselves worthy of so high a vocation. May the united labors of Christians in the cause of God be under the guidance of divine wisdom! May they have the blessing of divine providence and grace! And may that song soon be heard-a song descriptive of triumphs far more illustrious than those which Deborah celebrated-"THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD, AND OF HIS CHRIST. ALLELUIA! FOR THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH!" Amen.

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IX.

THE HIGH PRIEST OF OUR PROFESSION.

SEEING THEN THAT WE HAVE A GREAT HIGH PRIEST, THAT IS PASSED INTO THE HEAVENS, JESUS THE SON OF GOD, LET US HOLD FAST OUR PROFESSION.Hebrews iv, 14.

IT has been said, with much truth, that the individual who shall thoroughly understand the Epistle of Paul to the Romans must of necessity understand the sum and substance of the whole Gospel. With equal truth, I think, it may be affirmed, that he who shall understand this Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, and make himself in some good degree master of its argument and of its spirit, will, in so doing, come to the understanding of the sum and substance both of the law and of the Gospel; for it is in this epistle, more than any other single part of sacred Scripture, that we find the law, with its various types and shadowy institutions, employed, under the immediate sanction and guidance of inspiration itself, as a "schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ." The object of the writer evidently was to confirm the converted Jews in the faith, practice, and profession of Christianity; and for this purpose he labors to show them that, so far from having been losers by their transition from Judaism to Christianity, they were in every respect great and permanent gainers. He shows that there was nothing truly valuable in the dispensation from which they had passed that is not retained, with abundant increase, in the dispensation into which they have been brought. The Jews were wont, for instance, to make their boast of Moses as a prophet and lawgiver; but our apostle shows, in the first chapter of this epistle, that we have a Prophet and Lawgiver superior to Moses. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto

the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." And, as the dignity of the embassador employed was superior, so much the more important must be conceived to be the object of the embassy itself.

But the Jews were also wont to make their boast of Aaron, their high priest, and of the advantages they derived from the exercise of the priestly office under the law by Aaron and by his successors. In the text, therefore, and in some following parts of this epistle, the apostle goes on to show that in this second particular, as well as in the first, the Gospel has the advantage over the law-Christianity over the dispensation of Moses. We Christians "have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." We have therefore lost nothing, he means to say, by losing any interest we might have in the Levitical priesthood: we have gained by the superior advantages to be derived, if we are true Christians, from the priesthood of Christ. Let us, then, hold fast Christ and our Christian profession.

You perceive, my friends, that in the text thus introduced to you we have, first, an exhortation to steadfastness in Christianity; and, secondly, a motive to enforce that exhortation, derived from the priesthood of Christ. Let me invite your prayerful attention to each of these particulars.

I. We have an exhortation to steadfastness in our Christian profession.

By "our profession" we are sometimes to understand the subject-matter of our profession, or that which we profess. Thus we read, in the first verse of the third chapter of this epistle, "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Here "our profession" plainly means the religion itself which we profess, including the facts on