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overheard your reckonings of profit and loss; will you now consider this question, 'What will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?'" That admonition resulted in the conversion of two of those young men ; may it be blessed to the conversion of those who hear me this day. Amidst the cares and anxieties and ceaseless urgencies and activities of business, revolve incessantly this question, What will it profit me if I gain the whole world and lose my own soul? Write this solemn question in your ledgers, in your daybooks, on the walls of your stores and counting-houses. Write it there; for soon-it may be to-night-the hand of God will write it on the walls of your death-chamber.

Lastly, Christians, my beloved brethren, this parable is for us also. For my own part, I have long since been convinced that the love of money is the most common, insidious and fatal sin in the church. When we consult the sacred 'Oracles, we find scarcely any vice placed upon such an eminence of guilt and infamy. If Balaam seeks to ruin Israel, it is under the influence of covetousness. If Judas betrays, and Demas forsakes, Christ, it is through covetousness. We know how fiercely the anger of God burns against idolatry, "but covetousness is idolatry." In fine, the Scriptures everywhere denounce this passion as the most deadly and .prolific wickedness in the church as well as in the world. When, however, we consult the discipline of our churches, covetousness is no sin at all. If a professed Christian yields to intemperance, or licentiousness, or dishonesty, he forfeits his character, and the laws of the church ar-. rest and perhaps save him. But he may be steeped in

covetousness, he may be a by-word for covetousness, his standing is not impeached, and no rule of the church arraigns him. It is, therefore, the more needful that I remind you of a crime, which is not the less heinous because concealed under specious names, of a peril only the more fatal because unsuspected.

But let me not finish in this strain. No, my brethren, there is another use we should make of this parable. The Saviour contrasts the corruptible with the incorruptible riches. If the world seeks only to lay up treasures on earth, there are those who are coveting eternal riches. "He has transported his wealth to heaven, and has gone there to enjoy it"—such was the noble inscription upon the tomb of a rich man; let us so live that this epitaph may be ours. Laying up treåsures for ourselves-this Jesus pronounces the height of folly; let us shun this folly. To be rich toward God— this he declares to be true wisdom; let us be wise, let us be rich toward God.

Hitherto I have been condemning covetousness, and seeking to retrench its power; but now I would sanctify and inflame that passion; I would excite in you a boundless avarice. Be rich! Be rich! such is the cry everywhere. In the market, in the wareroom, in the street, in the counting-house, the universal cry is, Be rich To-day I utter the same words in the sanctuary. Be rich but be rich toward God. Here is affluence worthy of all your toils, your cares, your sacrifices-a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. "Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched,

and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich."

He who was rich became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich. In Him are unsearchable riches of grace and glory. Moses wisely "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." Let us receive this adorable Redeemer by a faith which shall make all these infinite riches ours. Every human being is still either in "the first man” Adam, or in "the second man" Jesus; and every human being is, thus, either poor or rich, far beyond mortal conception. Let us be rich, rich by union with Christ. And let us live for this adorable Redeemer; and thus be, not only "rich in faith," but "rich in good works." Thus shall we be rich toward God; rich, however poor― "as poor, yet making many rich-as having nothing, and yet possessing all things;" rich, though all earthly possessions should fail; rich now-" for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's ;" rich, above all, in that reversion as to which the Apostle says, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”—heirs to glory, honor, and immortality, to an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, "to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved for us in heaven."

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"And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures ?"-LUKE, Xxiv. 32.

VERY memorable were the six days of creation, but they were scarcely so memorable, so crowded with great events, as that week of which the narrative before us gives a closing hour or two.

It is now the third day after the crucifixion. On the afternoon of that day two men leave Jerusalem, and take the path to Emmaus-a small village a few hours' walk from the city. They are not Apostles, but probably of the seventy. One of them is Cleopas; as to the other, there have been many speculations, but we know not his name. Instead, therefore, of wasting time in idle conjectures, put yourself in his place and proceed on the journey. It is spring, and parting day lingers along the summits and glades through which their road passes; but they heed not the beauty of the landscape. These two travellers are in earnest conversation, and everything about them-voice, countenance, gesture-shows that it is no ordinary topic which is absorbing their

minds. It is plain, too, that the subject which engages their thoughts has cast a gloom over them, for they neither laugh nor smile, but are greatly dejected.

About midway between the city and village, these two disciples are overtaken by another traveller-a stranger who joins them and asks, "What manner of communications are these that they have one with another as they walk and are sad ?". At first this intruder is most unwelcome, for theirs is a sorrow with which a stranger intermeddleth not; and, besides, who knows if he be not some spy, seeking to wind himself into their confidence that he may betray them. Such at first are their thoughts, but soon their feelings are entirely changed. Scarcely has this stranger began to speak, before they are conscious that a spell is upon them. In his looks, his tones, there is something which immediately awes and fascinates them. They cease speaking. They hang upon his words with palpitating bosoms. He has probed the very source of their griefs. How he counsels them, and cheers their heart; how hope begins to take the place of despondency; how clear are the Scriptures as he unfolds them; how "foolish and slow of heart to believe had they been.". This sympathy, this love, this tenderness, these glorious prophecies thus explained, cause their hearts to burn within them. Who is this stranger? They cannot part from him. He must stay with them, that the night may be spent in such sweet discourses. "They constrain him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent." Nor does he refuse. He

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