Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. St. John viii. 45.

Since the Son of GOD thought fit to appear in another manner, than they expected Him, the Jews thought themselves too great to be saved by so mean a Saviour. If He had made all the kingdoms of the earth to have bowed under Him, and the nations about them to have been all tributaries to them; if Jerusalem had been made the seat of an empire, as great as the world itself, they would then have gloried in His Name, and entertained whatever He had said, whether true or false, with a wonderful veneration. But truth in an humble dress meets few admirers. They could not imagine so much power and majesty could ever shroud itself under so plain a disguise. Thus Christ to His own, and His own received Him not." Yea, those, that should have known Him the best of all others, those, who frequently conversed with Him and heard Him speak, as never man spake, and saw Him do what never man did, were yet so blinded by the meanness of His parentage and education, that they baffle their own reason and persist in their infidelity, because they knew the place and manner of his breeding, the names of His mother, and His brethren, and sisters. (Bishop Stillingfleet.)

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And they were offended in Him. St. Matt. xiii. 57.

O fools, and slow of heart to believe. St. Luke

xxiv. 25.

How often must our Lord have mourned in secret, that He could not speak to His disciples as unto spiritual, but as carnal. How often must He have prayed His heavenly Father to give them the spirit of wisdom and grace, that they might be filled with all spiritual understanding. How must His soul have been vexed from day to day, while they were fools and slow of heart to believe, and filled with perplexities and doubts at all that they saw and heard. How must He have sorrowed at the number of those who were offended at His hard sayings, and desisted from their attendance on Him, Hence it is that Christ frequently complains of the ignorance in spiritual matters with which He had to contend. He saith unto them, "Are ye so without understanding also?" "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you?” Their astonishment at every renewed display of Christ's power shewed how little conviction the many signs and wonders they had witnessed had wrought upon their minds. And even after His resurrection, He upbraided the eleven" with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them that had seen Him after He was risen."(Bishop C. R. Sumner.)

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Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. St. Luke ix. 55.

Many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye Him? St. John x. 20.

Because His words were greater than belonged to man, and not of common use, they said that He had a devil, calling Him so now for the fourth time. Or rather we should say, that He heard this not for the fourth time, but frequently. For to ask, Said we not well that Thou hast a devil, is a sign that they had said so not twice or thrice, but many times.

What then did Christ? He answered nothing to these things. Before this He had replied, “I have not a devil;" but not so now; for since He had afforded proof by His actions, He afterwards held His peace. Wherefore He was silent, and bore all mildly. And not for this reason alone, but also to teach us all meekness and longsuffering.

Let us now imitate Him. For not only did He now hold His peace, but even came among them again, and being questioned, answered and shewed the things relating to His foreknowledge; and though called "demoniac " and "madman," by men who had received ten thousand benefits, not only did He refrain from avenging Himself, but even ceased not to benefit them. To benefit, do I say? He laid down His life for them, and while being crucified, spake in their behalf to His Father. This then let us also imitate, for to be a disciple of Christ, is the being gentle, and kind.-(St. Chrysostom.)

I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. Ps. xxxviii. 14.

MATTHEW STACK, AND OTHERS, MORAVIAN MISSIONARIES TO GREENLAND, SAILED, 1733.

Preaching peace by Jesus Christ. Acts x. 36.

To the enquiries of Beck, Who had made heaven and earth, man, and all other things, the heathen replied, they did not know, nor had they ever heard. He then gave them an account of the creation of the world, the fall of man, and his recovery by Christ. The Spirit of GOD enabled him to enlarge with more than usual energy on the sufferings and death of our Saviour, and in the most pathetic manner to exhort his hearers, seriously to consider the vast expense at which Jesus had ransomed their souls. He then read to them the history of our Saviour's agony in the garden. Upon this, the Lord opened the heart of one of the company, whose name was Kayarnak; who stepping up to the table, in an earnest manner, exclaimed, How was

that? Tell me once more; for I desire to be saved." With great emotion, Beck gave them a general account of the life and death of our Saviour, and of the scheme of salvation through Him. The impression made on Kayarnak was not transient. And the first fruits of the Greenland nation, who were publicly baptized on Easter Sunday, 1739, consisted of Kayarnak, his wife, his son, and his daughter.-(Missions of the United Brethren.)

The Gospel of Christ. . . is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Rom. i. 16.

Contradiction of sinners.

Heb. xii. 3.

It seems not unreasonable to suppose, that the contradiction of sinners formed a principal ingredient in our Saviour's cup of misery. In proportion as He was spiritual Himself, He would feel more acutely the want of a corresponding sentiment in the hearts of His followers. His devotion to His Father's service would render Him peculiarly alive to the guilt of those who obstructed by their obstinate unbelief the progress of His Kingdom,-His intimate acquaintance with His Father's will must have filled Him with sorrow for the ignorance in which the world was lying, and His knowledge that God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, would lead Him to view with mingled pity and indignation the hypocritical and formal homage which had been substituted in the place of the circumcision of the heart.

And if our Lord's nature revolted thus instinctively from whatever had the least tendency to unholiness, how must He have felt the humiliation to which He was subjected, when abandoned in the wilderness to the temptation of the devil. How must His soul have been grieved when He heard the eternal enemy of the human race, the author of all their miseries, assaulting His ear with blasphemies, and summoning up with deadly though impotent rage all his artifices against Him.-(Bishop C. R. Sumner.)

Get thee hence, Satan. St. Matt. iv. 10.