moment. Perhaps he would gladly have given unto the half of his kingdom to have undone the dreadful deed. But there it glared upon him in the face, without remedy, beyond reparation. He was, no doubt, stung with remorse, or he would have been a more unfeeling monster than his previous exceeding sorrow shows him to have been. But did he repent? Alas! turn over a few leaves, and you find him setting at nought and mocking the Son of God, and delivering Him into the hands of Pilate, the Gentile. From the murder of a prophet of God, he went on to consent to the murder of the Son of God.

Who, then, that knowingly begins a sin, can tell where it will end? Most men begin it with a notion that they can stop in its course when they like, and that they will have the opportunity and the will to repent. But how miserably they are mistaken in both those notions, they hardly need even Herod's example to warn them. We have seen at length already, how utterly unable they are to stop; and a very few considerations will show how little reason they have to look forward to a genuine repentance. They forget, in the first instance, the nature of sin, which is to harden the heart, to sear the conscience, and to blind the understanding. All these effects are the very contrary to repentance. And they may, therefore, (since they have put God out of the question,)

as well expect corn to come out of thistle-seed as repentance out of wilful sin. Do they think to reap the contrary of that which they sow? So absurd is it to join the resolution of repentance with the commission of sin. It is the absurdity of putting God at the end, with Satan for the beginning; of thinking to serve two contrary masters, and after having worked for one, to go and receive wages from the other.

On the whole, the text gives us a solemn warning upon the nature of sin. It is not always barefaced and audacious, even when most heinous. The sinner may even set about his dreadful taskwork which Satan has set him with exceeding sorrow, as did Herod. But this does not avail to abate its violence, or to lessen their guilt. It must be resisted in the beginning; we must not suffer ourselves to be led to the ground where we ought to suspect that its snares and traps are set. We must beware of places, we must avoid company, which are likely to minister to the least purpose of ungodliness. Our strength lies in the knowledge of our weakness, and we must pray that we enter not into temptation. The man who enters the place where it lies, with the notion that he is strong enough to resist it, is overcome already. Do not the stupendous means which God hath prepared for men against sin sufficiently declare its danger and power? "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might de

stroy the works of the devil 1." And moreover, He sent his Holy Spirit into the world, to enable men to fight a good fight against it. Where these means are not accepted, there sin is indeed triumphant, and is steadily working out his end of everlasting death to the soul and body of man.

Let, then, the blessed means be accepted. Let Christ be received into the heart with all sincerity. Let prayer go up continually before the throne in his name, for the light and comfort of his Holy Spirit, that we may see the spiritual dangers by which we are surrounded, and also see, and have confidence in, the helps which He affords. That we may have strength to resist, and comfort to sustain us in this pilgrimage through this wilderness of temptation, trial, and trouble, and may, finally, being made conquerors over sin, the world, and the devil, arrive at the promised land of everlasting rest from sin and all its miseries.

11 John iii. 8.

SERMON XXIV.

SEEKING CHRIST.

The Epiphany.

MATT. ii. 9.

"And, lo, the star, which they saw in the East, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was."

THERE is much room for thought upon these wise men, who, though heathens, obeyed the leading of Almighty God, and following the star through a long and perilous journey, sought and found the Christ; and, pouring out their treasures before Him, presented the first-fruits of the offerings of the Gentile world. We should make them our example, and follow them as our leaders in seeking and finding Christ, and in rendering to Him the offering of our spirits, souls, and bodies. But where is our star, where is the journey, where is the house in which Christ is to be found?

We need not go far for a star, and a star in the East too. For surely the sun rising in

the East awakens the Christian to his daily work, and directs him by its motion through the heavens throughout its course. And what is the grand work of the day to him, the work to which every other only ministers, the spiritual work to which all bodily work is the servant, as the body is to the spirit? Is it not seeking Christ, that we may come nearer to Him still, seeking to find Him in the house of his Almighty Father, at the end of our journey of this life, and to meet his glorious body with our glorified body, and there to offer Him the tribute of everlasting praise and thanksgiving. And meanwhile, at the end of every day's journey, to enjoy an earnest of this in a nearer and closer spiritual communion with Him, having sought Him through the day by the diligent use of all our gifts, and by the watchful following of all his commandments.

With the sun awaking our body, the daystar should also arise in our hearts, to lead our spirits as the other directs our bodies. And this day-star is the bright and clear knowledge which the Christian has received, and which at once supplies and nourishes his faith, and regulates his works. Is there one among us who has not this in sufficient quantity to lead him aright, if he will use it? Is there one among us who can say that he has not had Christ crucified set before him; and that he does not understand well and clearly, that he must be dead