We must walk circumspectly, we must do every thing to avoid setting a stumbling-block in the way of a brother in Christ, we must live in continual fear of hearing from an offended Saviour the lowest, faintest whisper of the words, "Why persecutest thou me?" And therefore we must ever look onward to the honour and glory of our Lord Christ, which is so deeply concerned in the welfare of his people, for they, if faithful, are one with Him, and if not faithful, require our endeavours that they should become so faithful that they may be one with Him: and still more, they require our personal endeavours that we should not be in the least accountable for any hindrance to the attainment of that happy state. We should not only avoid evil, but even the appearance of evil, and not think it a trouble or inconvenience, or the least cost or sacrifice, to step out of our ordinary way, if our goings, however innocent in themselves, should happen, by giving a handle to misrepresentation, or from whatever other circumstance, to be in their way. This is the circumspection of the man who walks in the love of Christ, who sees Christ in his Christian brethren by representation, and on his throne in heaven in spirit, and hears Him in his conscience, crying out thence, in behalf of his injured flock against all that ravage it, and persecute its souls by sinful walking, "Why persecutest thou me?"

When the Apostle St. Paul heard those

words, he was indeed (as far as Christ was concerned) a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious. And he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief2. He thought that he was doing God service in persecuting the Church of God beyond measure, for he thought it a synagogue of Satan rather. None of us can plead his ignorance. Can we expect therefore, if we offend at all in like manner, to obtain the mercy which he obtained? In fact, we have had that mercy already. For what did St. Paul obtain but a knowledge of salvation from sin by faith in Christ, a call into his Church into which he was shortly after admitted by baptism, and a promise of everlasting life after death? If the lives of any of us should declare that they despise this mercy, what will be left for them to obtain? We begin, therefore, you see, where this transaction of St. Paul ends, and therefore our business is to be like St. Paul, after these words had been spoken unto him ; like him to edify the brethren by good example, to see Christ continually present in them, doing unto them as He would have us do to Him, were He to be any one of them. Like him to exercise that charity which concerns not the bodies only, but the souls also of the brethren, and by which a man serves the Lord diligently, withstanding not only temptation to himself, but also the least occasion in himself of temptation to others.

21 Tim i. 13.

Thus we shall have the love of Christ in us, and also the love of Christ on us. And what that love of Christ on his people is, this passage of Scripture plainly declares. He was sitting in the splendour of his glory on the throne of heaven, when He beheld his flock in danger of the persecutor. And immediately He interfered with a voice, and a glorious shining from that throne, and struck the persecutor speechless to the ground. That flock which He has purchased with his blood upon earth, He feeds and watches from heaven. If Christ then so love us, we ought to love one another. If He so regard his flock, we should regard it also, and be watchful against doing it any harm, and awake to opportunities of doing it all good. We should remember that the persecutor of the soul is the worst persecutor of all, and that every one is a persecutor of the souls of the brethren who endangers and perhaps even kills them, and at least does all he can to kill them, by the bad example and evil teaching of corrupt conversation of life, of disobedience to God's commandments, and neglect of his ordinances. Let not that day ever come that any one of us, having the blood of his brother on his head by giving occasion to such temptation to sin, should deserve that remonstrance of an indig nant Saviour, "Why persecutest thou me?"

M

SERMON XVII.

THE YEAR'S LAST DAY.

PSALM CXliv. 4.

"Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away."

How more than usually impressive are these words, when we have pronounced them, in the course of the Psalms, not only on the last day of the month, but also of the year! What a proof do they bring with them of their truth, when we repeat them standing upon the brink of another year, while the last few spans of the present year are passing away from beneath our feet, and so little is left, that even the time of our service of praise here has brought us perceptibly nearer to the close! We have no longer to measure this year by days, no not even by hours, but by minutes and seconds. How shortly will it be gathered to the 1843 years, which will have passed since our Lord came in the flesh, born of a pure virgin! How shortly

will its whole course be taken away from the sum of those years which have yet to run before the Lord comes again in his glorious majesty! And to speak of ourselves individually, what a large portion has been added to the days of the younger! How very much more have they now to account for than they had at this time last year! And what a large portion has been taken out of the remainder of the lives of the elderly: and how much nearer are they brought to that day when they must render an account of their use of the years, and months, and days, which the mercy and long-suffering of God hath continued unto them! Should a day, which brings such solemn thoughts to our mind, be suffered to pass over without remark? especially, when in addition to the awakening words of the text, its service of praise informs us that, when man's "breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish 1."

Man is like to vanity. That is, he is like unto those empty and unsubstantial things, such as vapour and smoke, which are so thin and bodiless, that you cannot handle them; and are so fleeting, that even while you are looking at them, they have vanished away, without leaving a trace behind. When the breath of a man is gone from out of him, what remains behind?

1 Ps. cxlvi. 4.