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the Saviour of the world, as the complete model of that spirit of tenderness and charity which it is designed to inculcate. It is a singular feature in the character of our Redeemer, that, in the perfection of his love, He regarded all, as though all were one; and one, as though one were all; that nothing could equal his sympathy for the whole, except his tenderness, his sleepless anxiety, and unwearied activity in the care of each individual. Let this depth of feeling and vigour of action, this readiness to suffer, or even to die, for a world at enmity with him, serve, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to fill you with admiration and love for the Master you serve. Other masters may have a right to be satisfied with a cold discharge of those duties alone which rigid justice demands: your Redeemer has a deep, unquestionable, and unmeasured claim on all the strongest affections of your soul. "If any man, says the Aposle, "love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha." May that curse never light on ourselves! May each of us, my brethren, have our affections thus strongly drawn to the Saviour of the world; and may this love melt us into his own sacred image! "Seeing him as he is," may we "be like Him" in all we say, think, and do! May patience, tenderness, and vigour characterize every movement of our lives! And may this testimony be forced even from the most reluctant witness to the power and value of religion, that none more than the servants of Christ carry along with them the qualities which sweeten and adorn life; that none are more meek and cheerful in the endurance of their own trials; and none more quick to feel, and more anxious to mitigate, the sufferings of others.

SERMON XIX.

THE CHRISTIAN NOT A SERVANT, BUT A SON.

GAL. iv. 7.

Therefore thou art not a servant, but a son.

THE Apostle, in the chapter from which the text is taken, is contrasting the circumstances of the church of Christ with those of the Jews; and, in order to illustrate this contrast, he begins by employing the figure of an "heir," first in a state of non-age, and then after he is come to age. But as the former state, in the age and country in which St. Paul lived, "differed nothing from" that of "a servant," or slave, he gradually subsitutes the one figure for the other; and represents the followers of Moses and of Christ as respectively in the condition of slaves and of children. "We," says the Apostle-that is, "we" Jews" were in bondage under the. elements of the world; but when the fulness of time was come"-the time, that is, appointed by the great Father of the universe for the ushering in of a brighter dispensation-"God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying," or disposing and privileging us to cry, “ Abba, Father;" to address God, that is, as our reconciled and affectionate Parent. Such was the increased tenderness of the new dispensation, that the Christian, released from the shackles of Judaism, might be compared to a man from whom the chains of slavery or bondage are struck, and

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who is invested with all the privileges of a child. "Thou art no more a servant, but a son." To you is granted the distinctions, the comforts, the unbought intimacy, the cordial union, the high and immeasurable privilege granted by a father only to the child of his bosom: "Thou art no more a servant, but a son; and, if a son, then an heir of God, through Christ."

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Such being the connexion in which the verse stands with the context, and the sense it is intended to convey, I should be strictly complying with its language and spirit, if I were, on the present occasion, altogether to employ myself in displaying to you those blessings and distinctions of the Gospel which invest it with so vast a superiority over every other system of religion. But let me at present take for granted that these distinctions are familiar to your minds; that you are aware of the privilege of a release, not merely from the darkness and cruelty of idolatry, but from the obscurity, the burdens, and costly sacrifices of Judaism. Let me hope that you are no stranger to the joy of turning from the Law to the Gospel-from the cloudy to the bright side of the "pillar" of the Divine presence-from "the mountain which burned with fire," to "Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to an innumerable company of angels, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant;"-from the yoke which our " fathers were not able to bear," to the immunities and the consolations of the Gospel of peace. My wish, on the present occasion, is rather to call your attention to the personal obligations which arise out of the new relation in which we stand to God. If, indeed, we are real Christians, we are

adopted as children into his family. Let us, then, endeavour to trace out some of the features which ought to characterize a child of God. And may our Heavenly Father both guide us in our inquiry, and abundantly impart to us every quality by which the true members of his family are distinguished!

I. The first general feature, then, by which the children of God will be distinguished, is LOVE TO THEIR GOD AND SAVIOUR.-Take the case of an individual, who, although a stranger in the first instance to the claims of some person who stands before him, is suddenly instructed that he is a father, and a most tender father: would not the mind, under such circumstances, soften, and the affections awake, and the whole man be powerfully impelled towards this new-discovered parent? And as the child became more conversant with the excellence and affection of his father, would not his heart be more deeply interested, and his indifference be gradually exchanged for tenderness and love? And such, I am persuaded, will be the effect wrought upon the Christian by the discovery of the fartherly character of God. How striking are the acknowledgments of those devout persons who, even under the Law, caught a comparatively partial glimpse of this feature in the Divine government and character. "Thou, Lord," says Isaiah, "art our Father: we are the clay, and thou art the potter; we are all the works of thy hands." "Have we not all," asks the Prophet Malachi, "one Father? hath not God created us?" And how feelingly, under the Christian dispensation, do the servants of God express their love to Him, and inculcate this love upon others!

"We love him, because he first loved us :" "I pray that your love may abound more and more:" "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha." Here is nothing of doubt or hesitation as to the claims of God to our deepest and most devout affections; nothing of the jealousy on this point so common in the world, and so dishonourable to mankind; nothing of the preposterous notion, that, although every other father should be loved, the most compassionate of all Parents should be robbed of his undeniable rights in the souls of his creatures. The language of Scripture is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart;" and the only limit or qualification suggested with regard to this affection is, that it should be a love, not of fancy, but of fact; not of mere expression, but of practice; not a fiction of the imagination, but the hearty and affectionate consecration of every practical power and faculty to the glory of God and the good of his creatures" If ye love me, keep my commandments"—"Whoso keepeth God's words, in him verily is the love of God perfected."

II. In the second place, a real filial spirit will discover itself IN THE DEPTH OF OUR GRIEF FOR SIN.-There is much difference in the grief felt by various classes of individuals for their crimes against God. The grief of some for their transgressions is little more than the dissatisfaction attached, by a law of our original nature, to that which is wrong. In others, it is mere selfcondemnation for an act opposed to our own interest. In others, it is nothing more than the fear of the disapprobation of those whose good opinion we desire. In others, it is exclusively

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