those feelings which will make the cross of Christ your joy and your crown.

It would be in vain for an unconverted man to think of being happy, as a Christian, while he retains his love of the world and sin. No wonder that religion is uninviting to him, and the service of Christ a cross from which he flies, so long as he is conscious of no love to Christ. But religion does not take your pleasures from you, and give you nothing in exchange. On the contrary, it substitutes for your poor, unsatisfying pleasures, joys which, once tasted, will make your worldly joys distasteful. Begin to love the Saviour who loved you, and, in the same sense, loves you still. Then we shall put no cross upon you, in bringing you into his kingdom; but that which others consider a cross, you will esteem your glory and your crown.

While we live here, with these natures but partly sanctified, we shall always have to bear some cross, if we would live holy, and righteously, and godly, in this present evil world. May we, instead of shunning the cross, be willing to walk so near to Christ that we could (as some interpret Simon's bearing the cross" after Jesus") feel and bear one end of his cross on our necks, and, instead of fearing reproach, and seeking for reputation and pleasure in the world, plant our feet in his very footsteps, though they lead to Calvary, taking part with him, despised and

rejected of men, and, if need be, 'filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for his body's sake, which is the church.' No man ever had a nearer and sweeter union with Christ than the man who, willingly and joyfully, bore the cross which was taken from the Saviour's neck, and laid on him. We may question whether it were not a greater honor, and is not now a greater happiness, to Simon, if in heaven, to have been thus joined to Christ by his cross, than it was, or is, to the beloved disciple merely to have leaned on his breast. Who would not as willingly be Simon, with the Saviour's cross, as John upon the Saviour's bosom?

Of the two pictures which have been drawn of Simon, one of them corresponds to the character and feelings of each of us, in our public and private life. If we are not fugitives from the cross, and from Christ, as he may have tried to be, we are compelled to keep up the profession of a Christian, feeling unhappy, and looking this way and that to escape; or, if a picture could be made of us, it would represent us as coming to Christ, offering ourselves to be the partners of his shame and of his cause. We almost envy some who have the opportunity to make a sacrifice of feeling and worldly interest in becoming Christians. If Simon the Cyrenian is with Christ in heaven, we would all of us give the whole world, could we do so, for his joy, and for that love which

Christ bears him. He who turned his back toward him on the way to Calvary, and suffered him to bear his cross, now turns his face on him with a smile which is a heaven in Heaven.

Do not wait till it is easier for you, as you suppose it may hereafter be, to become a Christian. That might be an irreparable loss, and, when Christ distributes our last rewards, an occasion for great regret. Come then, take up your cross. "Jesus, also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. LET US GO

FORTH, THEREFORE, UNTO HIM WITHOUT THE CAMP, BEARING HIS REPROACH. FOR HERE HAVE WE NO CONTINUING CITY, BUT WE SEEK ONE TO COME." And, “IF WE SUFFER, WE SHALL ALSO REIGN WITH HIM."

SERMON X.

THE PENITENT THIEF.

LUKE XXIII. 42, 43.

AND HE SAID UNTO JESUS, LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM. AND JESUS SAID UNTO HIM, VERILY I SAY UNTO THEE, TO-DAY SHALT THOU BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.

THE three crosses which stood together on Mount Calvary, are a continual emblem of our world. A dying Saviour had, on one side of him, an enemy and unbeliever, and on the other side, a friend and believer. Thus it is to-day in every part of the globe where Christ is preached; thus it is in every Christian congregation.

This narrative is an instance of those discrepancies which we find in the several accounts of the same events by the different evangelists. One of them says, "The thieves which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth," that is, the same reproaches with the scribes: If thou be the Christ, save thyself.' But another evangelist represents that only one of the thieves upbraided Christ; and therefore

some are disposed to reflect upon the accuracy and trustworthiness of the sacred penmen.

The discrepancy is satisfactorily explained in either of two ways. 1. It is a common method of speaking to use the plural number, when only one of a multitude may have been intended. We have an instance of the same kind in the story of the alabaster box of ointment. "And they that sat at meat with him had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?" But another evangelist says that this remark was made by Judas Iscariot; and his motives are given. All that one of the evangelists wished to intimate was, that fault was found at table with this precious gift; while the other historian enters into particulars. We use the same method of speaking. If a mob surrounds a house, and we say, They threw stones, this would be true, though but one man threw them. The idea is, stones were thrown; and this mode of speech is deemed sufficiently accurate in a general narrative, while, in a court of justice, the narrator might be required to tell whether he saw more than one man commit the outrage. So, one evangelist merely notices, in passing, the affecting circumstance that Jesus, in the agonies of crucifixion, received insult from among the two who were themselves dying by crucifixion. Even they who were crucified with him contributed to his sufferings. This is sufficiently accurate for the purpose.