when the enemies of religion have taken for their models the persecutors of Christ and of his apostles.

I suffer, I die for the gospel, said our confessors and martyrs within themselves, in the extremity of their sufferings: I suffer, I die for the gospel; it is my highest glory; it is my badge of conformity to my adorable Saviour; I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, Col. i. 24. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus, Gal. vi. 17. It is one of the motives which our Lord himself proposes to his apostles: if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. The servant is not greater than the lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you, ch. xv. 18, 20.

I suffer, I die for the gospel. The world places before me a theatre of misery and persecution only. But it is because I am not of this world. I am looking and longing for another establishment of things, and every stroke aimed at me by the men of the world, is a pledge of my being a citizen of another, of a heavenly country. This is a farther motive suggested by Jesus Christ to his disciples: if ye were of the world, the world would love his own : but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you, ch. xv. 19.

I suffer, I die for the gospel. How glorious it is for a man to devote himself in such a cause! How glorious it is to be the martyr of truth and of virtue! Our Lord suggests this likewise as a motive to his disciples: all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him who sent me, ch. xv. 21.

I suffer, I die for the gospel; but God is witness of my sufferings and death: he feels every stroke which falls upon me: he who toucheth me toucheth

the apple of his eye, Zech. ii. 8. And as he is the witness of the barbarity of my tormenters, he will likewise be the judge and the avenger. This likewise is a motive suggested by our Lord to his disciples he that hateth me hateth my Father also, ch. xv. 23.

I suffer, I die for the gospel: but I have before my eyes the great pattern of patience and fortitude. I derive the support which I need from the same source whence my Saviour derived his: I look to the Author and Finisher of my faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, Heb. xii. 2. and I aspire after the same triumph. This is a motive suggested by Jesus Christ to his disciples in the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, ch. xvi. 33. What cross would not appear light, when the mind is supported by motives so powerful?

III. We observed, in the third place, that our blessed Lord is, in this address, cautioning his disciples against forgetfulness of his commandments. The presence of a good pastor is a bulwark against error and vice. The respect which he commands by his exemplary conduct, and the lustre which his superior intelligence diffuses, impress truth upon the understanding, and transfuse virtue into the heart. He has his eyes ever open upon the various avenues through which the enemy could find admission into the field of the Lord, to sow it with tares, and by the exercise of constant vigilance, defeats the cunning of the wicked one.

Conformably to this idea, one of the most grievous solicitudes which, at a dying hour, have op pressed the minds of those extraordinary men to whom God committed the oversight of his church,

proceeded from the apprehension of that corruption into which their charge was in danger of falling after their own departure: and the object of their most anxious concern has been to prevent this. Behold Moses approaching the last closing scene of Life: Take this book of the law, says he to the Levites, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee: for I know thy rebellion and thy stiff-neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death? Deut. xxxi. 26, 27. Behold St. Paul: Consider the terrors which he feels as he prepares to go up to Jerusalem: it is not that of being made a partaker of his Master's sufferings: no, says he, the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me at Jerusalem. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God, Acts xx. 23, 24. But that which fills him with painful apprehension, is the danger of apostatizing, to which his beloved Ephesians, among whom he has been so successful, were going to be exposed after he had left them: for this reason it is that in bidding them a final adieu, he expresses an ardent wish that a last effort should indelibly impress on their hearts the great truths which had been the subject of his ministry among them: I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men: for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which

he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, Acts xx. 26-29.

Jesus Christ, in like manner, is ready to finish the work which his heavenly Father has given him to do: he shrinks from it no longer: he advances forward, braving the cross, being now ready to be offered, 2 Tim. iv. 6. Arise, says he to them, arise; (he was still in the house where he had just eaten the passover, when he pronounced the discourse which we are endeavoring to explain) let us go hence, ch. xiv. 31. I must pass no more time with my beloved disciples; I am going to be delivered up to my executioners: I must no more drink with you of the fruit of the vine, Luke xxii. 18. in a feast of love; it is time for me to go and drink to the very dregs the cup which the justice of my Father is putting into my hands: let us go hence: let us go to Gethsemane: let us ascend to Golgotha. But, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, Luke xxii. 31. But, all ye shall be offended because of me this night, Matt. xxvi. 31. But, the Devil, and the world, and all hell, are going to unite their efforts to dissolve your communion with me. What does he oppose to danger so threatening? What means does he employ to prevent it? What ought to be done by a good pastor when stretched on a death-bed: not only earnest prayers addressed to heaven, but also tender exhortations addressed to men. He gives them an abridgement of the ser-mons which, during the period of his intercourse with them, had been the subject of his ministrations: if ye love me, keep my commandments, ch. xiv. 15.

But what merits special attention in the last ad

dress of Jesus Christ to his apostles, is the precept on which he particularly insists: and the subject of that precept is charity by this shall all m n know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another, ch. xiii. 35. A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another, ver. 34. a precept which they were bound to observe as Christians, and more especially as ministers of his gospel.

1. As Christians. Without charity Christianity cannot possibly subsist. A society, the individuals of which do not love each other, cannot be a society of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Tell me not of your passing whole days and nights in meditation and reading the scriptures; of your uninterrupted assiduity in exercises of devotion; of your fervor and frequency of attendance at the table of the Lord. The question still recurs, Where is thy charity? Lovest thou thy neighbor? Makest thou his interests thy own? Is his prosperity a source of satisfaction to thee? Canst thou bear with and overlook his infirmities? Respectest thou, recommendest thou his excellencies? Defendest thou his reputation? Laborest thou to promote his salvation? Such questions are so many touchstones to assist us in attaining the knowledge of ourselves: so many articles of condemnation to multitudes who bear the Christian name. Of charity, alas, little more is known than the name: and the whole amount of the practice of it, is reduced to a few of the functions altogether inseparable from mere humanity when a man has given away a small portion of his superfluity to relieve the poor: when he has bestowed a morsel of bread to feed that starving wretch: when he has covered those shivering limbs from the inclemency of the air, he