not a brother, or sister, or inmate, (and this can seldom be the case with any,) still he will gratefully glory in his own light, though grieving for the darkness around him. The dwelling is blessed in him: God has an altar there; the Saviour is there; the Holy Spirit is there. Highly favoured mortal! to be made the means and receptacle of such divine manifestation and love! Let thy light shine; and the Lord, in His due time, may cause the darkness to comprehend and receive it; may make it shine, with saving power, on other eyes and hearts. Let thy prayer be daily presented before the throne of grace, for the conviction and conversion of those around thee, for thy "brethren in the flesh;" and the Almighty may employ thee as the favoured instrument of making them "brethren in the Lord." Thy prayer, and the light of thy charac ter, may be appointed, by His unsearchable wisdom, as the means, in His hands, of such transcendent blessedness. Thou knowest not into how many hearts thy light may be ultimately reflected, how many thou mayest be bringing to glory; even the most hard and unpromising may be softened, in due season, by that grace of which thou art a minister. And Oh! how great will be thy joy, in the mansions of the blest, to see there a relative or friend whom thou wast permitted to lead into thy Saviour's kingdom. But whether or not, whether thy influence be little or none; be thou faithful; and thine own heart will overflow with thankfulness, while thou sayest to thy Lord, "mine eyes have seen thy salvation." SERMON XXIII. CHRIST KNOWETH THE HEARTS OF ALL. John ii. 25. And needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. IT appears from the 23d verse, that Jesus,. soon after He wrought His first miracleof turning water into wine, wrought many others also, of which no particular account is given; it is impossible for us even to conjecture the number of His miracles; as "He went about continually doing good," so was He continually exercising His divine power. On account of the miracles which He performed about this time, it is commonly CHRIST KNOWETH THE HEARTS OF ALL. 405 supposed, that many of the Jewish people had formed a design of setting Him up as their king. They knew, from their prophets, that when Messiah came, His appearance would be attested by many wonderful works, such as they had probably witnessed in Jesus; and therefore looked upon Him as that temporal deliverer, whom they had been taught to expect; in this view, and with this purpose it was, that they seem to have concerted their plan of establishing His pretensions to the kingdom. This explains an observation in the 24th verse, "Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men." He did not give Himself up to their views, did not yield to the execution of their purpose; being fully aware of their secret intention, seeing how greatly they had mistaken His character, and knowing that the time was not yet come for the full declaration of His nature and office. He understood their design just as perfectly, as if they had dealt openly and laid the whole matter before Him; understood it for this reason; not because He had exercised a skilful judgment upon that particular case, or was endued even with heavenly wisdom for that especial occasion, but because of that property which essentially belonged to Him, of His perfect knowledge of all men, of His thoroughly understanding what was passing in the heart of every individual. On this account, "He needed not that any should testify of man," that any one should declare to Him what man's thoughts and intentions were: He knew them all as well without the declaration as with it. How very exalted a view must this afford, to every considerate person, of the nature and character of Jesus. Who, that has heard or read the holy scriptures with any attention, does not know that this is invariably represented as the peculiar property of the Godhead; that the eye of God alone can penetrate into the breast of man, and be intimately acquainted with every desire and thought? If I were |