96 RICH YOUTH DECLINING TO FOLLOW CHRIST. shame for His name!-Do you doubt, after all, the possibility of being saved? What said He, whose word is truth? "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." And again: "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come, eternal life*." Count the cost. Take up your cross; and follow Him, who saith to every faithful disciple trembling under the sense of his own weakness, "My grace is sufficient for thee+." * Mark x. 29, 30. +2 Cor. xii. 9. SERMON V. MATTHEW XX. 20-28. THEN CAME TO HIM THE MOTHER OF ZEBEDEE'S CHILDREN, WITH HER SONS, WORSHIPPING HIM, AND DESIRING A CERTAIN THING OF HIM. AND HE SAID UNTO HER, WHAT WILT THOU ? SHE SAITH UNTO HIM, GRANT THAT THESE MY TWO SONS MAY SIT, THE ONE ON THY RIGHT HAND, AND THE OTHER ON THE LEFT, IN THY KINGDOM. BUT JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID, YE KNOW NOT WHAT YE ASK. ARE YE ABLE TO DRINK OF THE CUP THAT I SHALL DRINK OF, AND TO BE BAPTIZED WITH THE BAPTISM THAT I AM BAPTIZED WITH? THEY SAY UNTO HIM, WE ARE ABLE. AND HE SAITH UNTO THEM, YE SHALL DRINK INDEED OF MY CUP, AND BE BAPTIZED WITH THE BAPTISM THAT I AM BAPTIZED WITH: BUT TO SIT ON MY RIGHT HAND, AND ON MY LEFT, IS NOT MINE TO GIVE; BUT IT SHALL BE GIVEN TO THEM FOR WHOM IT IS PREPARED OF MY FATHER. AND WHEN THE TEN HEARD IT, THEY WERE MOVED WITH INDIGNATION AGAINST THE TWO BRETHREN. BUT JESUS CALLED THEM UNTO HIM, AND SAID, YE KNOW THAT THE PRINCES OF THE GENTILES EXERCISE DOMINION OVER THEM, AND THEY THAT ARE GREAT EXERCISE AUTHORITY UPON THEM. BUT IT SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU: BUT WHOSOEVER WILL BE GREAT AMONG YOU, LET HIM BE YOUR MINISTER; AND WHOSOEVER WILL BE CHIEF AMONG YOU, LET HIM BE YOUR SERVANT: EVEN AS THE SON OF MAN CAME NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER, AND TO GIVE HIS LIFE A RANSOM FOR MANY. JAME AMES and John, the sons of Zebedee, were at this time under an erroneous impression, common to the Disciples of Jesus, that the kingdom which their Lord was about to establish, would be like the other kingdoms of the world. These have their princes, nobles, and other persons of distinction; whose privilege of access to the sovereign affords them opportunities of soliciting and obtaining benefits, which are objects of envy to persons not equally favoured. The two brothers, influenced by the general admiration of such advantages, were desirous, by a timely application, of securing a large share of them to themselves in the future kingdom of their Master. Fixing their desire more on the honour of occupying the posts to which they aspired, than on the qualifications which were requisite for occupying them with propriety, they determined to solicit Jesus in good time, to confer upon them the places of highest distinction. But conscious, it should seem, that there was a manifest indelicacy in the request, as proceeding directly from themselves, they engaged their mother to speak in their behalf. She, on the other hand, could solicit for her sons what she would have been ashamed to ask herself. Yet, knowing that she was about to ask what it was scarcely reasonable to expect, she endeavoured to secure compliance by obtaining a |