all His saints ;" and this will be an earnest of our everlasting honour in His heavenly abode, in perfect friendship and communion with Him, in that blessed place where sin and temptation will be no more, "where nothing that defileth can

enter."

SERMON VI.

ON THE JOURNEY TO EMMAUS.

LUKE Xxiv. 32.

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?

THIS is a portion of one of those affecting and instructive pieces of history, with which the sacred scriptures every where abound.

After the resurrection of Jesus, on the very same day, two of His disciples were journeying together to a village called Emmaus, a few miles distant from Jerusalem. And as they went, "they talked together of those things which had happened."

And certainly never was there furnished to disciples an occasion of more interesting conversation. They were at no loss for a subject; their feelings were deeply moved, their circumstances most peculiar ; they had just been bereaved of their Lord; and were left, as they thought, helpless and hopeless upon the wide world: they had been attending the sad scene of His sufferings; and doubtless had been witnessing his awful crucifixion; abundance of matter therefore, was afforded them for reflection and discourse. But besides this, they had heard the report of their Lord's resurrection; and as they did not at all understand the purport of it, appeared indeed scarcely to believe an event so extraordinary, they were probably consulting what to expect, or what to do. "And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden, that they should not know Him."* Either

* Luke xxiv. 15, 16.

He assumed a different form, or He supernaturally influenced their sight, that they should not at first recognize Him.

Jesus, let us observe, appeared to the disciples, while they were engaged in holy meditation and converse; and thus, though no longer visible in the world, He may still be expected, at all times, to favour His true disciples in a similar manner. While they are conversing upon the things belonging to His kingdom, upon the wonders of His love, and the riches of His grace, upon their high privileges and expectations, upon the doctrines and precepts of His holy word, upon the duties and experiences of their earthly pilgrimage, upon their walk with God here, and their hope of dwelling together with Him for ever hereafter; while they are musing and discoursing of these things, the blessed Jesus will join company with them, though unknown and unseen; and will shed over their conference a holy and heavenly benediction. A reproach it is to vast numbers

K

of His professing disciples, that they are not more anxious to embrace such op portunities of enjoying the favour and presence of their Lord; that many, even intimate friends and near relations, amid the endless variety of their subjects of conversation, are scarcely ever found to exchange a sentiment or a word, upon the most interesting and important of all topics; the love of their Lord and the edification of their souls. Eagerly do they embrace every opportunity of ministering to the passing amusement, or the temporal welfare, of each other; the only subject, which appears to be forbidden ground, is the subject of an eternal life to come, their spiritual well-being here and hereafter.

But let me not be misunderstood on this point; I am not speaking of the promiscuous intercourse of society; not of religious discussions or allusions amid the ordinary business of life; not of that irreverent and dangerous habit, into which some believers have been incautiously be