"blessed upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver "him into the will of his enemies. The Lord will "strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou "wilt make all his bed in his sickness."-The same gracious hand will conduct him, in perfect safety, through the valley of the shadow of death, to that holy and heavenly hill, where he shall be hailed by the thousands he has relieved, and see the face of that Redeemer, for whose sake he has relieved them.

89

DISCOURSE VII.

CHARITY TO THE BRETHREN OF CHRIST.

MATTHEW, Xxv. 40.

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

YET once again, by the favour of the Almighty, we have lived to see the return of this holy season; again we are assembled in the house of God, to turn our thoughts toward the second advent of our Lord. The church by her services on this day directs us to do so; and we will obey her. In the portion of Scripture selected for the Gospel, his appearance and the forerunners of it are marked out for our contemplation; signs above, and terrors beneath; the earth distressed and perplexed, the powers of heaven shaken, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming-the trumpet sounds through all the regions of the grave, Arise, ye dead, and come to judge"ment;" the everlasting doors are unfolded; the King of glory, triumphant Messiah, Lord of men and angels, appears in the resplendent robes of celestial majesty the armies of heaven follow him in

procession, down to this lower world: the throne is set; the books are opened: the dead are judged; and that sentence is passed, from which there lies no appeal.

Is all this true? Most assuredly it is. No person who hears me at this moment dares even to think it is not. A monitor within bears a faithful testimony to what I say, and will not suffer infidelity or doubt to intrude.

And are we-you and I-concerned in it all? As certainly as we are now met together in this place : no man or woman who has ever been, or ever will be born, can claim exemption-"We must all appear "before the judgement-seat of Christ."

Some little degree of curiosity, I should therefore hope, may have been excited, to inquire into the grounds upon which will be passed an irreversible sentence, either to everlasting happiness or everlasting misery for there is no middle condition; of one or the other we must inevitably partake. The Scripture from whence my text is taken, will afford us considerable assistance in the inquiry, and enable us to form some sort of opinion beforehand, where our lot is likely to fall.

Our Lord, according to St. Matthew's account, being at the eve of his sufferings, the history of which commences at the next (the 26th) chapter, closes his divine instructions to his disciples with a representation of his future proceedings on the great and awful day. "When the son of man," says he, "shall

66

come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory;

66

" and before him shall be gathered all nations; and "he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd (in the evening) divideth his sheep from "the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." To the former he first addresses that inexpressibly sweet invitation, mercy to the last rejoicing against judgement, and delighting to give the inheritance which it had spared no pains to purchase-" Come, ye blessed of my Father, "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the "foundation of the world." Now be pleased to observe the reason upon which this invitation is founded. " For," saith Christ, "I was an hungred, "and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, "and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited "( me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me." The righteous, very few of whom, out of the innumerable multitudes that are to be then assembled, ever saw their Lord in the days of his humiliation, wondering what this should mean, reply, with all the submissive earnestness of affection, Lord, when "saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee; or thirsty, " and gave thee drink;" or relieved thee in any of the other circumstances of which thou art pleased thus to speak? The words of the text contain his most gracious answer" Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

66 as ye

66

Let us consider the works to be done, the principle on which they are to be done, and the acceptance they will be sure to find.

I. The works to be done-" Inasmuch as ye "have done it." By a Christian there is always something to be done. It was never intended that he, of all men, should be idle. Providence has given him powers and opportunities, and will require an account of the use that has been made of them.. In the Gospel we are told of a servant, styled the unprofitable servant. Instead of improving the talent committed to his trust, he had hidden his Lord's money in the earth; he had buried his faculties in sloth and sensuality; they had produced nothing. Dreadful was his punishment, and it was in kind; he was bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness: as he would do nothing when he had the power, that power was taken from him, and he now could do nothing, but reflect for ever on his own misery, and the happiness he had lost.

Respecting the men of the world, it cannot be said that they are always idle: they are often busily employed; they are doing something; they are doing much; but it is mischief; mischief to themselves, mischief to others. And to very few of those whose exploits fill the volumes of history, and engage the attention of ages, can it be truly said, "Well done, "good and faithful servant." The unprofitable and the workers of iniquity will be bound with the same chain.

Of doing evil we frequently think—if we think at all-with abhorrence, and, it is to be hoped, labour to keep ourselves from it. But the crime of doing nothing, with the penalty annexed to it, is not recollected. That we have often, notwithstanding all our