then, indeed, it does any thing but instruct us to the kingdom of heaven; the exercise of our understanding, if made in such a case our principal employment, is one of the surest and speediest poisons to our souls; there is no evil spirit who may not find room for himself easily in that heart, which is occupied only by the gay and yet dead furniture of intellectual knowledge.

I have spoken more at length upon this point, because it concerns what is our peculiar business here. Yet the next point is no less worthy of our notice our labours of charity, or our acts of kindness to our neighbours. "If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability that God giveth." If we give but a cup of cold water to one of the humblest of our brethren, let it be done for Christ's sake. Perhaps the need of our remembering this is greater than we are apt to imagine. There is something so delightful in kindness, so natural in the wish to please and to relieve, so exceedingly sweet in the consciousness of having done good to others, and in receiving the return of their grateful love, that I am afraid our charity is very often unsanctified; we think of our suffering brethren only, without remembering who it is that puts himself forward in their persons to receive our love, and if we will but see him, to take in their behalf the office of overpaying all that we can do to them. We see not Christ in those who need our charity:

we see not God in our own ability to relieve them. For what have we that we have not received; and that which we give them, are we the owners of it in truth, or only the stewards of God's bounty? I speak of charity, and of relieving the poor; but it applies no less to every kindness, to whomsoever bestowed. Good-nature, and all the various ways which we have of obliging one another where there is no need of alms, are naturally highly popular, and, to most minds, carry their own reward with them. But here, too, we give or we show kindness, without thinking of God, and the consequence is evil both to others and to ourselves. To others, because, thinking that whatever kindness we show, we had a right in a manner not to show, we soon become satisfied with what we do, and even allow ourselves sometimes to look upon it as a compensation for ill-humour, neglect, or even positive unkindness and insult. To ourselves, because, forgetting our Master, and what he has done for us, and what he requires of us, we compare ourselves only with ourselves, and are then soon contented with our progress. A little thing becomes magnified, when the scale is so minute; and we are pleased with ourselves for our good and amiable qualities, when, had we tried our hearts by Christ's law, we should have seen how little room there was for self-satisfaction, and how much more there was in them of selfishness than of love.

So again, in all those parts of our conduct which do not come under either of these two heads, there is no real goodness, there is even no safety from condemnation, unless we glorify God through Jesus Christ. With regard to the employment of our time, the exercise of our bodily faculties, the government of our tongues, how soon shall we be satisfied, and into how much of real sin shall we continually be falling, if we do not, in all these matters, remember that we are but stewards of God's manifold bounties: that our time, our bodies, and the wonderful faculty of speech, were all only lent us to improve them; lent us to glorify him who gave them. And to glorify him in Jesus Christ, for the Father and the Son may never be separated; and we can neither know nor glorify, nor in anywise please the Father, but only through his Son Jesus Christ. That is, that all our thoughts, and all our actions, are unworthy of God's acceptance; that they can be accepted by him only in his beloved Son. He in our place and we in his that as he took upon him the infirmities of our nature, we might be clothed with the perfections of his; and as he died because we were sinners, so we might be loved, and receive eternal life, because he is righteous.

SERMON XXI.

MARK, vi. 31.

And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

THERE are a great many considerations which this single passage may give birth to; but two in particular may be made most applicable to our present circumstances. The one is, the example of earnest and unabated labour afforded by Christ and his Apostles: "they had no leisure so much as to eat;" and the other, the spirit and meaning of his words, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while." Both these points seem capable of yielding much that is useful to all of us who are now here assembled.

We are accustomed to think of our Lord as furnishing us with an example of many things; but not particularly of energy and constant exertion. We think of his devotion to God, of his benevolence, his meekness, his patience, and of many

others of the perfections of his character; but we do not perhaps observe, that he affords to us a no less perfect pattern of those excellencies which St. Paul has so well described in one single verse, when he tells the Roman Christians to be "not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." In this, as in other things, "Christ pleased not himself;" but was content to give up his whole time and all his faculties to the service of God. They had no leisure so much as to eat."

66

These last words are well illustrated by another passage in the Gospel of St. John, where it says, that his disciples left Jesus by the side of a well, in Samaria, while they themselves went to the neighbouring town to buy food. Whilst they were absent, a woman of Samaria came to the well, and our Lord was engaged in speaking with her, and with the men of the town, whom her report of him brought to see him. At last his disciples came back and brought the food, and begged him to eat. But even then his answer was, that he had meat to eat which they knew not of; and this meat, he said, was to do the will of him that sent him, and to finish his work.

It appears then that what hindered our Lord from having leisure so much as to eat, was the intense interest which he felt in doing his Father's work. His was not a bondman's service, giving to the task he hates the least possible share of his