to the humble." We are to be clothed with it. It ranks as a grace of superior eminence in Christianity. Jesus places it first among the beatitudes: "Who is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?" "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." It is the humble that "shall be exalted." Humility never was taught by the philosophers. Well then did Jesus say, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." While pride turned Lucifer into hell, humility exalted Jesus to the right hand of the Father.

2. Store your mind with knowledge. Ignorance and impudence are twin-brothers: "He is proud knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings."* Become acquainted with your own sinfulness and the holiness of God. "When I survey thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast created, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him."+ To obtain knowledge read the Holy Scriptures, attend the ministry of God's word, pray, seek counsel of pious Christians: you will sink lower accordingly. God will give you grace, and afterward give you glory.

3. Its effects. Consists not in railing against yourself. Thou likest not others to speak ill of thee. Sayest thou, "I am a fool?" May I say it of thee? If it be thy opinion, all men wish others to think as they do; if not, thou art a hypocrite. He who calls himself intemperate, foolish, &c., and is angry when his neighbour calls him so, is false and proud.

It consists more in feeling than saying: it is a sense of grace the fulness of God in the soul. A noble mind is distressed at the attentions of his superior: so here. Such a person is ashamed of sin only. Ashamed of doing a dishonourable thing, will not stoop to sin! Humility is the first, second, and third Christian grace.

Improvement.-1. Never be ashamed of birth, parents, trade, or poverty. The humble man will speak of them * 1 Tim., vi., 4. † Psalm viii., 3, 4.

when any occasion offers requiring it. Primislaus, king of Bohemia, kept his country shoes. Agathocles, king of Sicily, by the furniture of his table confessed he had been a potter.

2. Let others be praised in thy presence; object nothing: his disparagement increases not thy worth. Be content that he is employed and thou art rejected, he preferred and thou fixed in a low employment. With some, one fly is enough" to spoil a whole box of ointment.

"In

3. Nay, exalt thy brother, if truth and God's glory need it; the Christian standard is not sufficiently held up: honour preferring one another." "Esteem the other brethren more than thyself." Cyrus played only with those more skilful than himself, lest he should shame them by his victory, that he might learn something of them, and do them civilities.

Do not suppose that I want you to be indifferent to a good name; no; I would that all might speak well of you. But secure it by living virtuously and humbly. Be content to be loved and prized by God alone. Let your good name he nursed abroad, and never brought home to look upon. Let others use it; let them speak of it if they please, but not thou at all except as an instrument to God's glory and thy neighbour's advantage. Like Moses's face, shine to others, but make no looking-glass to thyself.

SERMON XI.

SERVICE FOR GOD ALWAYS REWARDED.

PREACHED ON THE OCCASION OF COMMENCING THE ERECTION OF A NEW CHAPEL IN DUBLIN.

Ezekiel, xxix., 17-20.—And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me saying:

Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus; every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled; yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:

Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.

I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God.

but he revealeth his seWhen he would bring divulged the secret to

"SURELY the Lord doeth nothing crets unto his servants the prophets. in the flood upon the ungodly, he Noah. From Abraham he would not hide the thing he was about to do in the destruction of the cities of the plain. When by his judgments he resolves to punish the house of Eli, he lodges the heavy tidings with Samuel. To Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel he announces the doom of surrounding nations." What a friendship have God's children with

him!

I. Consider the circumstances which led to this prophecy. II. The instruction which it is intended we should draw from it.

I. The circumstances which led to this prophecy.

We might carry up the origin of this prophecy higher than the time of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah; but this is sufficient for the present purpose. That unhappy monarch ascended the throne of Judah by the mere suffrage of Nebuchadnezzar, whose vassal he had become, and that at a

time when the sorrows of his house were before his eyes, and with a consciousness that the Lord had brought them upon him because" Jehoiakim did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done." Notwithstanding, "Zedekiah did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done." He had now filled up the measure of his fathers. There is a time in national wickedness as well as individual, when the cup of iniquity overflows and the guilty are given up to the sword. God having withdrawn his protection from the Jewish nation, it became an easy prey to Nebuchadnezzar. Having cast off the fear of the Lord and confined his prophet Jeremiah, Zedekiah made a treaty with Pharaoh-Hophra, king of Egypt, engaging his aid in breaking off the Babylonian yoke, though he had sworn a solemn allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. The consequence is known: Nebuchadnezzar sends his army, Jerusalem is destroyed, the Temple is burned with fire, and the royal family slain except Zedekiah, whose eyes were put out.

The proud and haughty inhabitants of Tyre exulted in the overthrow of the Jews (see chap. xxviii., 24). God will not suffer his judgments to cause exultation in others, but rather fear and trembling." Has God cut off the Jews and grafted thee in? Be not high minded, but fear."

The prophet therefore denounced their doom, for their pride reached to heaven (see chap. xxvi., and xxviii., 2). Nebuchadnezzar, eager for conquest, proceeded against Tyre; thirteen years he besieged it, and when at length it yielded to his power he found only the bare walls of a deserted city. The inhabitants had removed, with all their wealth, to that part of their town which stood on an adjacent island.

Having failed in his expectations, Egypt is promised him; Egypt had offered her power to Zedekiah, and forsook him in the moment of his greatest need; and God now gave it to Nebuchadnezzar, thus punishing both the perfidious Egyptians and the rebellious Israelites, and at the same time rewarding the Babylonians. Thus was the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar overruled and made to praise God: he had no

design of glorifying God therein, but God caused him so to do. Having briefly noticed the circumstances which led to the prophecy contained in our text, we notice,

II. The lesson of instruction which we are to draw from it.

1. This passage affords us a striking view of, and insight into, some of the mysterious acts of God's Providence. We find an effect depending upon its cause, which effect in itself becomes a second cause, and produces other results depending on it; and all suspended from the throne of God. Often do we see him skirting his throne with darkness and concealing his ways from man; acting altogether independently of the creature's wisdom, and refusing to admit him into his council-chamber or answer his question, "What doest thou ?"

"We cannot always account for the acts of his Providence; and because we see not as God sees, we naturally feel inclined to insult the Deity with our advice or encumber him with our help; and when both the instructions and assistance of man are rejected, when the Almighty pours ineffable contempt on his little plans and cobweb fortresses, the disappointed creature begins to think that the pillars of the universe are shaken, that heaven and earth are to participate in that wretchedness which he has procured to himself, and perish in sympathy with his ruined hopes and expectations."

Doubtless the revolutions of which we have been speaking were covered by the veil of futurity from those who were immediately concerned therein; but time having drawn that veil aside, we, upon whom the ends of the world are come, can clearly read this subject in the volume of God's providential dealings; and therein discover him riding upon the whirlwind, holding the winds in his fist, and saying to the waves," Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther."

It is thus that we perceive the glory of his power as the moral Governor of the universe; and while, we gaze with wonder, we adore! We behold how he can maintain his throne in the midst of the commotions of the universe; that no earthquake, throe, or agony in the terrestrial world can shake the foundations of its pillars or remove it from its