piety by his constant activity; so also should we devote all our powers to filling with faithfulness that comparatively narrow measure of duty which God hath assigned to us. So should we evince the sincerity and strength of our piety by the cheerfulness, and zeal, and industry, with which we strive to discharge all our practical duties.

8. In the last place, I would briefly remark, that the piety of our Saviour was most signally evinced in his sufferings. You cannot but remember the meekness with which he bore the insults of men, the patience with which he endured the severest pains, the unrepining submission with which he passed through agony and death, because he considered all as the appointment of God, and as subservient to the final accomplishment of his designs of mercy. To us all there are sufferings appointed, though they may be trifling when compared with his. There are disappointments which will cross our fondest schemes; there are pains and sickness to be endured, and friends to be taken away; and there is an hour of agony to be once passed through, under which nature herself shall fail. We should now prepare for these trials, by acquiring a spirit of piety; by forming our hearts to the love of God; and by maintaining a humble and affectionate trust in his wisdom and paternal goodness. It was such

a temper as this which sustained our Saviour in the hours of his agony, and it is only such a spirit which can sustain us, when diseased, forsaken, or dying. And it will not merely sustain us in this world; for it is this disposition of piety, with the practical habits that arise from it, which will make us meet for a world which suffering and death never enter.

SERMON VI.

THE SAVIOUR TRIED AS WE ARE.

HEBREWS IV. 15.

WE HAVE NOT AN HIGH PRIEST, WHO CANNOT BE TOUCHED WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES, BUT WAS TEMPTED IN ALL POINTS LIKE AS WE ARE, YET WITHOUT SIN.

HOWEVER inconsistent the opinions of Christians may be as to the abstract nature of our Saviour, and as to the certainty or the mode of his existence before he was known to men; all agree in believing, that when he entered this world, and dwelt amongst us, he was made in the likeness of man, and was partaker of human infirmities. The text expresses a very interesting view of his character, arising from the consideration, that he once bore our nature, with all its sinless weaknesses, and all the exposures of our condition. He "was tempted in all points like as we are ;" and, exalted as he now is at God's right hand, the sympathies of that nature are not lost. He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities;" and

were it only by the remembrance of what he endured, can now regard with compassionate tenderness, the sorrows and struggles of those, who strive to follow him on earth.

"He was tempted, or tried-in all points."

meanness.

1. In the first place, there were trials arising from his bodily state. We enter the world, clothed with a tabernacle of clay, frail, easily exhausted, and liable to pain. This body, with all its weaknesses and necessities, our Saviour assumed. And the situations in which he was placed, exposed him to all those comparatively lighter sufferings, which, from the infirmities of bodily structure, arise to us. He was born in a condition of He passed through the helplessness of infancy. He spent the earliest years of his life in the labors of a common occupation, subjected to all the inconveniences to which the greater portion of mankind are exposed. The ministry on which at last he entered, was of unceasing activity, fatigue, and toil. The whole countries of Judea and Galilee were the scene of his labor. We read of him as journeying on foot to their cities; while the multitudes which thronged around his steps, the miracles to be wrought, the instructions to be dispensed, and all the various opportunities for advancing his great work, to be seized and improved, demanded incessant activity and severe bodily exertion.-We see him,

like a child of man, at times suffering with hunger and thirst, often exhausted with fatigue, fainting under long continued labors, and distressed with acute pains. At one time, he was so worn with exertion, as to sleep in the fishing-boat of his disciples, amidst all the tossings and uproar of a storm; and when he passed from the hall of Pilate to the mount of crucifixion, he sunk, entirely exhausted, under the burden of his cross. He, who could scatter the sufferings of others by a word; who could supply the needs, and recall the failing strength of thousands, by a single exertion of his power; wrought no miracle for the relief of his own wants, or the mitigation of his own pains.

We thus see our Saviour partaking with us, in all the weaknesses and evils of our bodily structure, and in the inconveniences and hardships of our commonest life. And though in this, there be less of grandeur, than in other parts of his character, and other situations of his life; yet it may teach us, by his example, in what manner these evils are to be borne; it may serve to bring him nearer to our conceptions and feelings, to produce a more unrestrained confidence towards him; and to cause us to realize the completeness and extent in which he may be touched with the feeling of our infirmity.

2. The worldly condition in which Jesus spent