convince you and it will be our attempt to convince you more systematically -that all have gone astray like lost sheep; and that God has laid help on one that is mighty. The Lord has laid on Christ Jesus the iniquities of us all : and in Christ, the curse of the Law is removed, and we are entirely justified by the righteousness of God in Christ. Apply to Christ; study the character of Christ ; launch forth, with every affection of your soul into the promises made over to dying sinners. It is a sure and never fading refuge; a tried stone, in whom whosoever believeth shall never be confounded, world without end. May it be your happiness, and mine, thus to believe on Christ; and, living, and dying, to be found in him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.

"THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.“

"THE resurrection and the life; these are thy magnificent titles, Captain of our salvation! And therefore we commit to thee body and soul; for thou hast redeemed both, and thou wilt advance both to the noblest and most splendid of portions. Who quails and shrinks, scared by the despotism of death? Who amongst you fears the dashing of those cold black waters which roll between us and the promised land? Men and brethren, grasp your own privileges. Men and brethren, Christ Jesus has abolished death:' will ye, by your fearfulness, throw strength into the skeleton, and give back empire to the dethroned and the destroyed? Yes, the resurrection and the life,' abolished death.' Ye must indeed die, and so far death remains undestroyed. But if the terrible be destroyed when it can no longer terrify, and if the injurious be destroyed when it can no longer injure; if the enemy be abolished when it does the work of a friend, and if the tyrant be abolished when performing the offices of a servant; if the repulsive be destroyed when we can welcome it, aud if the odious be destroyed when we can embrace it; if the quick-sand be abolished when we can walk it and sink not, if the fire be abolished when we can walk through it and be scorched not, if the poison be abolished when we can drink it and hurt not; then is death destroyed, then is death abolished, to all who believe on the resurrection and the life; and the noble prophecy is fulfilled (bear witness, ye groups of the ransomed, bending down from your high citadel of triumph) O Death, I will be thy plagues; O Grave, I will be thy destruction.'

"I heard a voice from heaven-oh for the angel's tongue, that words so beautiful might have all their melodiousness- saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.' It is yet but a little while, and we shall be delivered from the burden and the conflict, and with all those who have preceded us in the righteous struggle, enjoy the deep raptures of a Mediator's presence. Then, re-united to the friends with whom we took sweet counsel upon earth, we shall recount our toil only to heighten our ecstacy, and call to mind the tug and the din of the war, only that, with a more bounding throb, and a richer song, we may feel and celebrate the wonders of redemption. And when the morning of the first resurrection breaks upon this long-disordered and groaning creation, then shall our text be understood in all its majesty, and in all its marvel: and then shall the words, whose syllables mingle so often with the funeral knell, that we are disposed to carve them on the cypress-tree rather than on the palm, I am the resurrection and the life,' form the chorus of that noble anthem, which those for whom Christ died, and rose, and revived,' shall chaurt as they march from judgment to glory."-REV. H. MELVILL, A.M

416

THE HUMILITY OF JESUS A PATTERN TO HIS DISCIPLES.

REV. F. ELLABY, A.M.

PERCY CHAPEL, FITZROY SQUARE, MARCH 2, 1834.

"But I am among you as he that serveth."-LUKE, xxii. 27.

THESE are the words of Jesus; and while he uttered them, his actions spoke more loudly than his words could do. Endeavour, if it be possible, my dear friends, to realize the scene which was present to the disciples to your own mind. See, at least by faith (for this is possible), the Lord of lords, and the Master of masters, becoming really and literally the servant of servants. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich:" and ye know that he is as he was, that one, and that only one, "which was, and which is, and which is to come, the Almighty;" "who being in the form of God, and who thought it not robbery to be equal with God," yet was himself of no reputation; took another form, even "the form of a servant, and appeared in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Now this is a blessed point: it is the humiliation of Jesus; it is the Eternal Son coming down to us; the Son of God becoming the Son of Man. And there follows another point, a blessed point, a grand point in divinity: it is the exaltation of Jesus; and the exaltation of Jesus is so sublime and glorious a topic, that our thoughts, and desires, and affections, should ascend where Jesus is exalted. But the point of the humiliation of Jesus, which is before us, and and of which we must not lose sight, is especially meant for our instruction; we so deeply need the instruction, that it behoves us to dwell often, and with great solemnity, upon it.

But ye

Now we read, in the twenty-fourth verse-"And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth." You see, beloved, it is the Lord's will against pride, against highmindedness, against a disposition which is common to men, and common to good men too, to be thought highly of, to be esteemed and lifted up among the rest of men. I am, therefore, first of all, to call your attention to this very remarkable reproof, and the remarkable way in which the Lord administered the reproof.

You perceive that his disciples were indulging vain thoughts, and you have read that the Lord saith, "I hate vain thoughts:" their conduct, therefore, to him, at this moment, must have been exceedingly trying, for they were examining and inquiring, which of them should be greatest. But look to the words, in order to discover the magnitude of this, which at first appeared to be but a little offence. Think of the time. It had been a grievous thing at any time, that disciples of the Lord should divide with one another to see which should be greatest; but at such a time as this-at the time immediately after the institution of the sacrament-at the time, a little before the Saviour's offeringat the very eve of his agony and his bloody sweat, his cross and his passion, his death and his buria'; can you conceive any thing more unsuitable, more to be deplored, than that such a strife among brethren should be discovered at such a time?

My friends, I feel reproved in my own soul this day, for having been led often to envy these men, who I perceive were vain in their imaginations, although disciples, and the first disciples, and who I perceive were rising up in pride one against another. Ah, I have sometimes groaned under a sense of unworthiness; groaned under a sense of manifold infirmities and great corruption, and many sins, and I have been ready to say, "Oh, had I but lived and been numbered with the Apostles! had I only been numbered with the martyrs and confessors! Surely, though at such a time as that, I might have shared in the hardships they were called to endure, yet I should have been delivered, as they were delivered, from those things which now so harass me, so beset me, and so overcome me.* But I perceive that this thought of mine, this idea, was a very vain thought, a vain idea; for I remember, that among the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, there was a Judas, a thief who carried the bag, a traitor, one among the twelve who had a devil, at whose ear also, and whose heart, the great tempter, the master of the legions of devils, was ready and at hand, enticing and propelling him to commit the unpardonable sin. I perceive that not only was this the case with regard to one, but that this same tempter was busied among the Apostles, and that the Apostles were men of like passions with us; that the martyrs themselves were men of like infirmities, and that they were all prone, as it were, all tempted by the same things by which we are tempted, and subject to the same trials to which we are liable. I learn, therefore, that I, and every other man ministering in the Gospel, should rather receive the reproof which the Lord giveth in this present state, than that he should desire to be found in another. Oh, it is a better way to prepare ourselves for reproof, than that we desire to change our circumstances. There was a strife among the disciples, which of them should be greatest, which of them should be most caressed and most esteemed among men, and which of them should be most popular, most venerated, which of them should be most idolized. Oh, how natural, how common, my friends.

But think again, at such a time as this, when the Saviour was about to suffer; when the master was taking leave of his household to go his journey; when the friend was giving his love-tokens to his dear friends, whom he no longer called servants, but friends; when the brother was about to redeem the inheritance: où, at such a time as this! What shall we say to it? Brethren, we sometimes hear of relatives and children, who are waiting for the places which their parents or their friends inherit; we sometimes hear of priests, or of statesmen, waiting and looking for the places which others now have: we find persons in

various states of life waiting for the dead. This is the idea of waiting for something that shall be; and when we think rightly, nay, when we think naturally, as men ought to think, we are sometimes surprised, and we are made But there is much to feel a righteous indignation against such conduct as this. vanity in all this; for the heart of man is vain, vain as it is deceitful, and desperately wicked.

My dear brethren, let me come very nigh to you, and speak not only to your ears, but let me speak to your hearts this day. Oh, this was not only common to the first disciples; it is common, and perhaps very general: it is applicable to us indirectly, if not directly, at this very time. At such a time as this, oh, how unsuitable! For think only on that high and proud look; think for a moment of that thought, that vain thought, which escaped you; then call to your recollection that vain, that sinful imagination, which arose in your mind. In a word, think of the contempt that arose in your mind at such a time as this -either a little before the Lord's supper, or immediately after it. Oh, dear brethren, seal up those two eyes of yours, and send them to your hearts; see what there is in that cage; it has been called "a cage of unclean birds:" behold the state of that heart; it is Satan's throne, if the Lord be not enthroned there. Oh, see what is the language of that deceitful and desperate heart of your's, and then you shall neither censure nor envy any other; but you shall be prepared to take the reproof which Jesus by his servant would administer this day.

NOW THE REPROOF is this. The world possesses, and the world practises, many things which you would possess, and which you would practise. The hearts of the people of the world go forth after the very things to which your hearts are likewise prone; and they that have authority do exercise lordship, sometimes not in a lawful, but in a tyrannical way, over their masters; and you, according to your own natural propensities, are ready likewise to exercise authority in this undue and unchristian manner and if ye do it, what are ye more than they? Now I charge you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to hear and receive reproof this day. Look unto Jesus, and hear his voice; believe he is before you at this moment, and he seems to say (oh, that he may be heard!) "Here am I serving; not now washing the feet of my saints, but washing their souls with my blood: here am I serving; here am I ready to serve; administering to them the bread and the wine, which I have commanded should be received to the end of time: and here am I teaching, that, if it be in love, a cup of cold water in my name, shall not lose its reward. And behold, I am now, in the fullest and plainest manner, among you as he that serveth. Be ye also reproved; and from henceforth be ye in love with serving."

attention is, THE EXAMPLE "But I am among you as he

The second point to which I would call your WHICH THE LORD GIVETH BY HIS CONDUCT. that serveth." Now, my brethren, there is a secret here which the Lord may give us to reveal; for "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he shall shew them his covenant." Now the secret is love; love divine, love that dwelleth in Jesus our head; the love which was with the Father (and God is love); the love which caused the Father to give the Son; the love which brought the Son into the world. It was his meat and his drink to do the will of his heavenly Father. To do his Father's will he came; as it is written"Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will,