teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God; proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation through Christ to Jews and to Greeks; going from house to house making known the Saviour; spending and being spent for his sake; making great sacrifices, and enduring great afflictions, devoting the whole soul to the great work of communicating Christian knowledge, is according to the maxims of the most perfect reason; for it is employing the means which God has appointed to promote the temporal and eternal happiness of man. Nor is a comparative disregard of those things which are seen and temporal, with a supreme attention to those which are unseen and eternal, the mark of being "beside" one's-self. Alas! how much do they mistake, who imagine that a plodding and perpetual anxiety about this world, is a mark of wisdom, and of a sane mind; whilst the never dying spirit and its affairs are neglected. If indeed a supreme regard to things temporal and personal were a mark of wisdom and sound mind, then would the great majority of the men of this generation deserve the character of being wise and rational.

But if a high-toned feeling of affection for the Saviour, a feeling of the constraining power of his love, a sacrifice of self, of personal and domestic considerations for Christ's sake, be a mark of wisdom, then is there not much wisdom or sound judgment in the world; for as yet it may be said, as it was said in the apostolic age, when duty is contrasted with the doings of Christians," All still seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's."

We would not be unjust or querulous; there is some regard with many professors to the affairs of the Saviour's kingdom, and there is much regard with a few; but oh, when the churches bring their conduct, their feelings, and affections to the standard of apostolic precept, and apostolic example, where shall we find the symptoms of that intense zeal which Paul experienced, and that devotedness which he practised? Earthly Monarchs, great Leaders and Captains, and human Patrons, often receive the offer of life and fortune in their service; almost every country, from the rising to the setting sun, has furnished most striking

examples of this sort; and superstition, or false religion, has many devotees, prompted to the greatest sacrifices for the sake of their system. And the Christian cause has, in ages that are past, produced many honoured names, who have not counted their lives dear unto themselves, that they might manifest their gratitude and attachment to the Captain of Salvation; and in the present age (we mean not to deny it) there are many who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and are his devoted and zealous servants; yet, after all this admission, we fear that when the rule is applied generally to professed disciples of the Nazarene, Jesus, the Son of God, it will be found that both men and devils are more zealously served than he is—that living kings and captains, and dead deified heroes and canonized saints, in different nations of the world, have more of men's affections, and time, and property, and actual personal service, than our adorable Redeemer.

When we look round on the ten or fifteen thousands of Christian ministers in this highly favoured land, how great a number is there who exhibit no symptoms of feeling the constraining power of the love of Christ? Is there not reason to fear that personal and domestic comfort, and the aggrandisement of their families, generally take the precedence of all other claims?

And of the private Christians, possessed of wealth and of leisure, how small is the proportion who consecrate their time and their property to the Saviour's cause. The principle seems scarcely admitted that God our Saviour has the first claim upon us. We give not the first fruits of our increase to him, but are satisfied with leaving the gleanings to Christ's cause, after we have appropriated and hoarded up for our own old age, or our posterity, the rich harvest that heaven entrusted to us; and then mark, in many instances, the consequence; the man who distrusted Providence, and filled his own barns, never arrives at old age, and posterity is corrupted by his wealth, for which they never laboured, and in Satan's service is squandered, what Christ's disciple would not spend in his Master's cause. Alas! in this prudent, and I fear ostentatious age, how

few who seem carried forwards to personal sacrifices, and disinterested labours, by the constraining power of our Lord's love! How few of the disciples live to him who died for them! There are some, blessed be God! we deny it not. The associated efforts of many individuals and many churches to educate the young, to visit with the Gospel destitute villages, and to carry the glad tidings of salvation to the ends of the earth, indicate the existence of much love to the Saviour in the land, which is a foundation on which to build the hope of still brighter and better days. Yet, alas! among the baptized and professed Christians of this land, how large is the number of those who still continue the devotees of amusement and frivolity; who spend on mere self-gratification their time, and their property, and the exertions of their minds. Day after day, and night after night, do the trifles of fashion and amusement occupy their thoughts and their conversations; and yet are they to be found in churches or in chapels at least once of a Sunday. In such cases, how evident the defect of Christian love and living to the Saviour. How little evidence have they that they are indeed Christians.

And there are, too, men in Christian societies, whose hearts are wholly set on the accumulation of wealth and fortune. How industrious, how laborious are they. Early and late do they fix their attention on schemes of gain, laying up treasures on earth, anxious to leave riches to their children or near relatives, whilst Christ's cause is either neglected, or receives some scanty crumbs from their well-spread table; they live to themselves, and not to him who died for them.

Again, the lettered men of this land, who profess the Christian name, what do they study to promote the diffusion of Christ's gospel throughout the world? Alas! this is but rarely their object. Their own fame, or the agreeable or the fashionable pursuits of literature, are those to which they attend; and the living languages of mankind, amongst nations to which the gospel has not yet reached, are left to here and there a solitary individual; and scholars and divines will spend their lives in perusing,

or in translating dead pagan books into English, whilst the translation or composition of Christian books, for the instruction of hundreds of millions of living pagans, is by them totally neglected. These instances will convince every pious mind that much yet remains to be done, to evince the general existence of the love of Christ in the hearts of his professed disciples throughout the Christian churches of this land. But I must close:

This subject should lead us all to self-examination, and to put to ourselves this question:-To what has the love of Christ constrained me? and, first of all, has it constrained me to hate sin? for they were the sins of men which crucified the Lord of Glory. A hatred of sin is the first and the best evidence of the love of Christ being efficacious in producing a corresponding love in our hearts; for a love to the Saviour and a love of sin cannot exist together in the same heart. He that loves sin, hates the Saviour; therefore, the first effect of the love of Christ being shed abroad in any heart, is inducing it to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. Take St. Paul's reasoning and advice on the subject: "In that Christ died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God: likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should fulfil it in the lusts thereof." And take St. Peter's admonition: "Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." Thus you see that the love of Christ must constrain us, in the first place, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, and by well doing putting to silence the ignorance of foolish men. This first effect of the Saviour's love terminating in ourselves is essential to the Christian character, and without it the utmost apparent zeal for the enlargement of the visible church, for the increase of education,

or for the conversion of the nations to Christianity, will not prove any real attachment to the Saviour. Wilful and habitual sin in professed disciples is like crucifying the Son of God afresh, trampling his blood under foot, and exposing him to open scorn. It will, at the great day of judgment, be in vain to say, "Lord! Lord! have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works," and shewn great zeal for thy cause in the world, if we love and serve sin. He will say, Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity, I never knew you: they that loved me kept my commandments, but ye despised and disobeyed them. True zeal and ardent affection to the cause of our Lord, is not shewn by assailing the sins and ignorances of other men, and indulging our own; but since, humanly speaking, our own sins are most within our own reach, they will be first cast away, whenever our hatred of sin is real. And ministers, and parents, and teachers have need most especially to regard this, when attempting to communicate moral and religious instruction to the young, if they would have God's blessing rest on their labours.

There have been periods of the church, when pious good men seemed to neglect the external diffusion of Christian principles, and to retire within themselves, and let their love to Christ terminate in holy contemplations, and devout admiration of his infinite and ineffable grace. The present is an age of external effort and exertion, and as man, weak and wicked, is ever prone to go to extremes, there is a danger of being hurried onward to activity by the impulse of men's opinions, instead of being actuated by an internal principle of love to Christ. I may, therefore, be permitted to suggest to you, my fellow Christians, the propriety of self-examination on this point, to see whether you are drawn by the cords of divine love, or with the bands of man's opinion. Alas! if man's opinion only, or chiefly, or the importunity of zealous individuals, are the things which carrry us forward to support schools, and to advocate the cause of education, and the building of chapels, and the raising up of ministers, and printing Bibles, and sending forth missionaries, and all the while