per stand as christians ;-compare that with Hosea xiii. 1.- "when Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; "when a servant of God is full of self distrust and deference to others, humbling himself in the sight of God, and tremblingly owning his Master's cause, then he exalts himself, his footing is good and firm, and he is not likely to disgrace the name by which he is called; but if a man avow his hope in Christ, in a presumptuous, self righteous spirit, that says to others, stand by, I am holier, wiser, stronger than thou," he is in great danger.

III. WHAT KIND OF WALK CAN JUS

TIFY OUR PROFESSION OF ABIDING IN

CHRIST," he ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." If we would justify our profession by our walk, our walk must be such as the walk of Jesus Christ. Now, the term as is a term in this place of similitude, not of equality, we are not expected to walk with such perfection as Jesus did, but to walk in a way like to him. It would be utterly impossible that they who possess only a certain measure of God's Holy Spirit, should walk as he walked in whom that Spirit dwelt without measure; a ray of light might as well be equal to the sun, or a drop of water to the whole ocean.— But while this equality to the walk of Christ, is not and cannot be attained to, the similitude to Christ is indispensably necessary. God has predestinated his church to be conformed to the image of his Son Jesus Christ, so, if there be not a similitude, then God's purpose must be disannulled, which cannot possibly be. If you, then, dear brethren, are not exhibiting something of similitude to Christ, you cannot take to yourselves the comfort of that portion of scripture, which speaks of God as calling, justifying, and glorifying his people; you have not the marks of being within the range of that portion of scripture.

How did Christ walk? He walked in a way of holiness; as mediator of his church, and head of the mystical body, he must needs be holy. He expresses that very forcibly in St. John's Gospel, xv. 10. where he says, "if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love;"what saith the scripture, but that if it had been possible for Christ to have failed in keeping of the commands of God,

ld be equally possible for him to

We,

have ceased to be beloved of God. then, if we would abide in the love of Christ, must walk in holiness, must, as the Psalmist says, have respect unto all the commandments of God,-" then," says he, "shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments." He does not say, when I come up to the perfection of all thy commandments, but when I have respect unto them all, when my heart is intent on universal obedience, without partiality to one precept above another, for he who said, "thou shalt not bow down to, or worship graven images," said also, "remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day," he that said, thou shalt not steal, said also, "thou shalt not covet." So that man will be ashamed at the last, who is not, with his whole heart seeking to walk according to every commandment of God. We are told that God's "commandments are not grievous," but there was one commandment which was grievous, which was laid on Christ, that he should lay down his life for the sheep, and die an accursed death. The nature which he assumed shrunk from that, and yet he kept it; how much more all the other commands which were his delight, from which there was no shrinking. Thus, the man who desires to approve himself as one that really abides in Christ, is under a holy obligation, even if he is called to sham and suffering, to obey. He is never called to undergo the curse; for that is removed, he may be called to bow his neck to the yoke of suffering for Christ's sake, and surely, if he does so, he will readily walk in the other commandments of Christ, which are not so burdensome to flesh and blood.

Look at the Lord Jesus Christ in all the relations of life; for though he did not literally fill all of them, yet he virtually did. See him as a child.-Little children, look at the child Jesus, and behold him obeying his parents in the Lord, if you wish to shew yourselves branches of the living vine, in like manner "obey your parents in the Lord."

Behold Christ as regarded his disciples; he was to them as a father to his children, a master to his servants, a friend and brother to his friends and brethren; and see how Christ walked in these relations, -Love was the main-spring of his gracious and kind conversation among them, .."walk in love, as Christ also loved us,' and hath left us an example that we should follow his steps." See how he

66

"

No. CIV.

OR

"We preach Christ crucified

REV. HENRY WOODWARD,

PRICE 4D.

REV. RICHARD CHESTER.

THE manner of speaking here" but thou, when thou prayest," appears to contrast the mode and manner of prayer which our Lord enjoined on his disciples, with some spurious kinds of devotion not unknown to those whom our Lord addressed. In the preceding verse he speaks of those that prayed as hypocrites" for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward." This alludes, as you all probably know, to the Pharisees, who made it a custom to kneel down in the most public parts of the streets, and who VOL. V.

contrived, that when a particular hour arrived, when it was a matter of positive necessity enjoined on them that they should pray, took care that they should be in such parts of the town or streetsat a corner where two ways met-that the eyes of the multitude might be attracted when they knelt down to pray. In verse 7, there is another mode of superstitious worship to which our Lord alludes, "when you pray, use not vain repetitions

as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." It was customary, in fact, to repeat over and over again precisely the same words, without any

D

ceiving that such a blind mode of adoration was acceptable to their gods. In fact, prayer is the very breath of the system to which it belongs. All things are, in a certain sense, vocal with God. Every system of religion must have some mode, intended or not intended, of immediate address to the object of worship: the peculiarity of true religion is true prayer, and none but those who address themselves to the living and true God, can understand what spiritual prayer is; for prayer is the uplifting of our spirits to the Father of spirits it is communion with the powers of the world to come-it is the sympathy of the soul with eternity—this is real prayer, and every other kind of prayer is wide of the real mark it may make a show in the sight of men, but every prayer that is not the spiritual uplifting of the heart will not reach heaven, it will stop in mid air, it will recoil on the worshipper.

But though our Lord forbids us to pray in order that we may be seen of men, yet we are not to be afraid to pray, so that man may see us; I mean that the object should not be that man may see us, but we should not be deterred by false shame from offering up our homage to God. I do not mean to say that there are not natural delicacies of the mind, and that there is not a privacy that the real worshipper would seek; for instance, if a man were on his knees, and one came into the room, I do not say it is a false shame that would make one feel that one's privacy was interrupted, and that there was certain delicacies of the mind that prevented our wishing to be seen in the attitude of prayer; but I say, that that shame which would blink

vation, is the shame which our Lord most pointedly condemns-"whosoever," he says, "shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." And again, in St. Luke, we find almost a repetition of the same passage, where he tells us, "whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.'

The

It is a most remarkable circumstance in the history of man, that shame with respect to religion-the being ashamed to confess the God that we worship—belongs only to those who are the professors of pure and true religion. thing was unknown among the Heathen; it is unknown among the Mahomedans; it was unknown even to the Jews; it is unknown in every form and mode of Christianity which partakes so of outward ceremonies, as almost to assimilate it to the gorgeous worship of the heathen. In all these systems there is no such thing as being ashamed of religion; this belongs alone to those who profess themselves to be worshippers of Him who died upon the cross. And the reason of this shame is quite plain: men feel a reluctance at being singular; they feel there is naturally a recoiling of their minds from any thing that is against the general feeling and stream of custom; but pomps and ceremonies are not against the general feeling, and therefore men are not ashamed of these; but humility, and purity, and meekness, and deadness

to the world, and crucifixion of the flesh, after the image of Him who died upon the cross, these are against the general feeling, against the general course and habit of society; and therefore men that | profess true and evangelical religion alone, are those that are ashamed of their profession.

"But thou, when thou prayest." There is something very emphatic in the word "thou:" thou child of God; thou immortal spirit; thou heir of glory, "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet." There is indeed altogether in the measured clauses of this sentence something very remarkable" thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." There are many instances in Scripture in which this distribution of the clauses of the sentence, this kind of measured and deliberate movement seems to speak with peculiar power, and to carry with it a calmness and tranquillity that brings, as it were, peace into the soul; and we find this manner of speaking sometimes recorded, where the whole scene is calculated to produce excitement, as much as to show the power of religion in calming and tranquillising the mind. For instance, we find in Genesis xxii. where Abraham is just on the point of offering up his only son, where every hope that he has on earth, and every hope, I would say, (at least intelligible to his understanding), that could bear even on eternity, where God, by an unexpected and peremptory command had required of him a sacrifice which seemed in fact to be the yielding up of every thing instead of being fluttered and

discomposed, we find that when he came to the place where God had told him of, "that Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood, and Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son." And again, we find in the 1st Kings xviii. a mode of expression very similar to this. It is where Elijah is engaged in that animated controversy with all the priests of Baal, and where they cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them, we find then that Elijah put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said—fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said-do it the second time; and they did it the second time. And he said-do it the

third time; and they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar, and he filled the trench also with water." There is only one more passage that I would call your attention to, which I think very remarkable as an instance of the mode of composition I have been speaking of—it is where the Lord himself was under most exciting circumstances, where he had quite unexpectedly announced himself to be the Messiah, where he turned to that passage—“ the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bound, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And now "the eyes of all them that were in