and contrite spirit to Him who died that he might give gifts unto men, and submit ourselves

to his creative influence.

"A bruised reed

He will gather the

"lambs with his arms." As we look to him with prayer, and converse with him through his Gospel, we shall find new and better dispositions growing within us,-holier habits of thought collecting and increasing,-a new interest excited within us about things regarded before with indifference,-a power over sin that is an earnest of future triumphs,—a pleasure in studying the divine dispensations, and discovering fresh traces of wisdom and goodness where others see nothing but what is gloomy and unintelligible,—and an activity in the fulfilment of every duty to God and man. And then "to him that hath shall be given ;"—our progress in grace and obedience will every day become easier and more delightful,- our perceptions of future and invisible things will become more lively, and our affections will be set upon things eternal in the heavens, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Those subjects of thought which we before considered cheerless and tiresome, will wear a

beauty that was before unperceived:-and the obedience that before appeared irksome and insupportable, will become our light yoke and our easy burden. We shall be able to measure our advance, by keeping our eyes steadfastly fixed upon him, who came to new-create us by his Spirit into the image of God; who was himself the express image of the Father, softened down to human comprehension and human imitation. By keeping our eye upon that holy and divine Redeemer as our pattern, and as the source of our means of conforming to it; by constantly asking ourselves the solemn and humiliating question-" Is it thus that Christ "would have thought, or said, or acted?—or "is this the temper by which he would have "been actuated ?"-can we alone attain even the faintest resemblance. However short we may be of our divine original, we must not dare to take any human pattern. Even the devoted Paul said, "Be ye followers of me as I

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am of Christ." Divine and delightful Redeemer! who didst turn from thy bright course among the stars unto the valley of the shadow of death for our sake,-suffer us not-suffer us not to think it too much to turn from the broad

T

way that leadeth to destruction, to meet thee in this career of mercy! Suffer us not to look at thee only to hate thy beams, that bring to our remembrance what we were-from what height fallen! but change us by thy light and thy Spirit to thine own glorious image; " and "when we awake up after thy likeness, we "shall be satisfied with it."

SERMON IV.

MATTHEW, xiii. 44.

The kingdom of Heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

THIS is our Saviour's account of the kingdom of Heaven. The great body of mankind appear to differ with him in opinion. They do not seem to agree with him in either of the two points that he has here stated;-neither acknowledging, that the kingdom of Heaven is a hidden treasure; nor admitting that, even when discovered, it may cost a man all that he has to attain it. That they are of a different opinion from our Saviour upon these subjects scarcely requires a proof. The case between them may be briefly stated thus:-According to him, the kingdom of Heaven is a hidden treasure. Salvation is a treasure which is naturally none of ours. Among all the riches that nature has scattered over the surface of

the world, it is not to be found.-If we would find it, we must turn our back upon them all; and seek for it as if we were diving into the bowels of the earth. But what says the world? So far from regarding everlasting life as a hidden treasure which they must use all their power and diligence to explore, they consider it to be something that they may stoop for in their hurry through life, without either checking their speed, or turning aside either to the right hand or to the left. If they really and soberly believed that eternal life was something that was naturally hidden from them, and which they must turn out of their way to look for, or perish for ever,-it seems impossible that they could go wandering up and down the face of the earth in search of other objects, with the weight of such a conviction as this hanging heavy upon their souls. With such a thought as this following them, like a spectre, through life,-gliding by them during the business of the day,―glaring upon them in the repose of the night, what strength or what spirits would these wretched men have to go on snatching those things, the end of which they knew to be death?