seized a handful of sand and flung it toward the sky, saying, Thou hast conquered, O Galilean. Dying Stephen, heedless of the shower of stones, cries, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Some are never greatly excited to anger, except by religion; Christ brings no peace to their homes, but a sword. In contrast with them, there are those to whom the name of Christ is music, and they are most happy when they are counted worthy to do any thing for him, and for those who love him. Each of us may see just what we are, by our feelings toward Christ: if we are indifferent, we are opposed to him; we dislike his spiritual character and precepts, and the way to be saved through him. If we love him, we are loved of his Father also. As a proof of all this, we have only to consider that last, dread sentence which Christ says he will pronounce, with the reasons on which it is based: Inasmuch as ye did it, or did it not, to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it, or did it not, to me. And what follows? "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Are my feelings toward Christ, indicated by my treatment of those who love him, to settle the question, where I shall spend eternity? Let me see to it, that I think of Christ, and feel toward him, as the word of God requires.

The words of Simeon, as he took the infant

Saviour in his arms, suggest one

which is properly deduced from his expressions.

more remark, feelings and

IV. WE ARE REMINDED, BY SIMEON'S EXPERIENCE, THAT A SIGHT OF CHRIST MAKES DEATH EASY.

There is, most commonly, an effort, with the dying, to be assured of the favor of Christ; and that willingness to die, which so often changes the views and feelings of those who are approaching the grave, is owing, in most cases, to an increased sense of the Saviour's presence. For such purposes, among others, he became flesh, that we, in the hour of weakness and death, might apprehend him, as we cannot apprehend the infinite God. The presence of Christ makes death easy. He comes, and finishes his redeeming work with the believer, at death, and the sight of him makes the Christian willing to depart; and not only willing, but frequently, he says, to depart and be with Christ is far better. Simeon, with Christ in his embrace, longing to die, is a good emblem of a believer on his dying bed, when Christ, whose friend he has been, reveals himself as his Friend.

We, who preach to you, would love, as dying men, to take each of you by the hand, and say, Dear friend, you and we must have a dying bed. We know not how soon we shall find ourselves upon it.

There, the friendship and the presence of Christ is every thing; no matter what your pains are, or whom you are called to part with, the presence of Christ will make death easy. Are you a friend of Christ? When you come to die, may you claim him as a friend, by reason of your friendship to him? To have him show himself to us while the shadows fall between us and time, and to have him whisper, Fear not, for I am with thee, is worth more than a life of sinful pleasure. Be a friend of Christ in your youth, in your prime, in your advanced years, in your declining age. Many a time he will make you feel that he is your Friend, and that promise shall be yours: "AND I WILL NOT BLOT OUT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, BUT I WILL CONFESS HIS NAME BEFORE MY FATHER, AND BEFORE HIS ANGELS."

SERMON III.

JOHN THE BAPTIST.

MATTHEW XI. 11.

VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, AMONG THEM THAT ARE BORN OF WOMEN, THERE HATH

NOT RISEN A GREATER THAN JOHN THE BAPTIST; NOTWITHSTANDING, HE THAT IS LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS GREATER THAN HE.

WHAT a testimony was this for a man to receive from the Saviour of the world! He is the Judge of character, himself the perfect Man. They who love and serve him have this assurance, that he appreciates and loves every thing in them which is praiseworthy. There is no such honor and happiness as to have the approbation and commendation of Jesus Christ.

As we read this testimony of Christ respecting John, we naturally think of Abraham, and Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Solomon, and Elijah, and Isaiah, seven men who, in their respective classes of character and talent, have no equals in history. But of them, and of all others up to that time, the Saviour says there had not risen a greater than

John the Baptist. Not merely was he the greatest of Prophets, as he certainly was, in being so long predicted and expected; in being the herald of Christ; and in his remarkable knowledge of the Saviour, as expressed in his testimony concerning him; but Christ prefers him to an equality with all who ever lived. He might not, perhaps, write such lyrics as David, or utter such strains of finished eloquence as Isaiah, or possess the quick sagacity of Solomon ; but, taking him altogether, the Saviour says he had never had his superior among men. For, though another evangelist represents Christ as speaking of John as the greatest prophet, we must believe that there were intrinsic elements in his character which made him so, in addition to the outward circumstances of his mission. As a man, not merely as a prophet, no one had been greater than he.

With such brief notices of him as we find in the New Testament, we cannot fully analyze his character and determine in what respects, or for what reasons, in particular, he was equal to any mere man. But we know enough to see that he was truly great.

I. JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS MARKED BY THE GREAT STRENGTH OF HIS NATURAL FACULTIES, SHOWING ITSELF IN ENERGETIC, INTREPID WORDS AND CONDUCT.

It is said of him, " And the child grew, and waxed