that is good while they are young, and when they are grown up, they will easily be led into sin, and will at length be punished for it. But I hope better things of you. You have here good instruction given you, and are taken to a place of worship, and if you will only make the most of these advantages, and spend your Sundays in the manner which I have described to you, you will be good and happy children-you will be saved from many great and terrible evils in this world, and in the world to come God will approve of you, and accept you, and you will never be unhappy any more.

ADDRESS XIII.

EXPLANATION OF MATTHEW vii, 1-14.

My dear Children,

You remember that a few Sundays ago I explained to you the beginning of our Lord's Sermons on the Mount: I shall now take another part of it, which you will find in the beginning of the seventh chapter of St Matthew's Gospel.

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The first two verses are, Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye

judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be meted to you again.

Here our Lord reproves the bad habit which many people have of judging and censuring others. It was probably a common maxim among the Jews, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged' signifying, 'If you find fault with others, they will find fault with you;' and certainly, if we are severe in judging our neighbors, and take delight in exposing their faults, we may expect them to be severe in their turn. This should lead us carefully to abstain from judging others severely; but our Saviour gives us a still better reason why we should do this, namely, lest we ourselves should be judged severely by God. He shall have judgment without mercy, who hath showed no mercy,' says the apostle James, ii, 12. If we are perpetually pointing out the faults of our neighbors,and holding them up to blame and ridicule, then we may expect that Almighty God will show but little mercy to us at the great day of account; then we may expect that he will severely reprove and punish us for all our sins.

And should not this make us very careful what we think and say of the conduct of others? When we observe them doing wrong, we cannot help seeing that it is wrong; and sometimes it may be proper even to mention

what we have seen them do. But we are not always called upon to speak of what we consider to be wrong in the conduct of those with whom we live; and when we do speak of it, we must not do it in a harsh manner, or from the mere love of finding fault. We should consider, how ofttimes we all offend,' and how much we stand in need of the mercy of God. We should try to render ourselves deserving of his favor, and cultivate on all occasions a spirit of kindness and gentleness to every body about us.

Christ goes on to say, And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, "Let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye," and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite! first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.'

Our Lord here shows us the folly and wickedness of those persons who are very fond of pointing out what are really only small faults in their neighbors, while they themselves have much greater faults. This, he says, is as absurd as if a man, who had a beam or large piece of wood sticking in his eye, were to think nothing of it, but were to busy himself only about taking out a small splinter which he ob

If we

sérved in the eye of another person. heard a man, who had such a large piece of wood sticking in his eye, say to another, 'I see a splinter in your eye; pray let me take it out for you,'-we should certainly say to him, as our Lord does here, You cannot see to do what you propose; for you have a large piece of wood in your own eye; first, therefore, pluck out the large piece which is in your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the small piece out of your neighbor's.' This teaches us, that we should regard our own faults much more than those of other persons. We are too apt to think ourselves better than we are; we are too ready to find excuses for ourselves, and to make too little allowance for others; and though we have ourselves great faults, which we ought to correct, we overlook these, and busy ourselves with discovering small defects in those about us. Let us rather 'examine ourselves and see whether there be any wicked way in us;' and when we know in what particular it is that we do wrong, let us strive earnestly to do so no more, and try to make ourselves as holy, just, and good, as God requires us to be.

Verse the sixth: 'Give not that which is holy unto the dogs; neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you,'

By that which is holy,' our Lord here means his own holy gospel; and by 'pearls' he means his heavenly instructions, which were more valuable than pearls. He tells his disciples that, although they should at all times be ready to preach the gospel to mankind, yet if they found any persons who were obstinate sinners, and who set themselves against it, they should leave them to their own courses, and not throw away their advice upon them. In like manner we should do all we can to bring the wicked to a better state of mind; but if we find them so ill-disposed that they will not even listen to us, then we should say nothing to them; for, to give good advice to them would be as foolish as it would be to throw pearls before swine, who do not know their value, or to give any other costly articles to dogs, who might turn again, and rend us in pieces.

Verses 7 and 8: ́ Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

Our Lord here encourages us to seek Almighty God for that of which we have need; for as he who asks any thing that is reasonable from another man commonly obtains it, and as he who seeks diligently for what he has lost finds it, and as he, too, who knocks at a door has it