sition. Humbleness of mind makes the Christian temper; and the poor in spirit are the heirs of the promise.

3. No single branch of goodness deserves more of our attention, in order to judge of the improving or declining state of our souls, than this of humility. If we grow in knowledge, and are puffed-up along with it, we lose more in goodness than we gain in profitable furniture. If we improve in other excellencies, but outstrip that improvement in the conceit we have of ourselves, we only make those things nothing in the sight of God, which would otherwise be valuable. This is a dead fly that will spoil the whole box of ointment. Whether we advance in right knowledge of God or ourselves, it cannot fail to make us sensible of our defects, and humble in the sense of them. A man that improves in learning, sees more defects in his attainments when he hath made a good progress, than he did at setting out: he discerns a larger field of knowledge before him, after all his advances, than he had any notion of, when he first turned his thoughts that way. So it is with an active Christian: he sees so much before him, that "he forgets those things that are behind, and reaches forth unto those that are before." This was St. Paul's character, when he was most fixedly set in heaven's way and it will be the character of any Christian, when he is ripening fastest for the heavenly harvest. (Dr. EVANS.) [See Sermon cxv., in my "First Course of Sermons for the Year;" and Sermon cix., in my "Course of Sermons on the Psalms."]

Our Lord complains of the perverseness of that generation. MATTHEW, Xi. 6–19; LUKE, vii. 31-35.

[And the Lord Jesus further said,] To what then shall I compare the men of this generation? and to what are they like? 32. They are like little-children, being in the public places, callingout to one another and saying, We have piped to you pleasant and cheerful tunes, and ye have not danced: we have chaunted a funereal dirge, and ye have not wept or smitten your breasts. Such is the obstinacy of the Jews. 33. For John the Baptist came with abstemious austerity, neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He is a demoniac. 34. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, familiarly associating himself with you. as your guest, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine

bibber; a friend and companion of publicans and sinners. 85. But the divine wisdom will be justified and vindicated by all its children.

THE austerities of John the Baptist, and Christ's humanity, gentleness, and condescension, were alike disagreeable to the malicious Jews; and upon both, they put a construction equally perverse. Our Lord compares them to children, sitting in the market-place; but some of them so froward that no contrivance could induce them to join in the diversions of their fellows. In Judea (as elsewhere) cheerful music with dancing, was used at feasts melancholy airs, uttered by hired mourners, were adopted at funerals. The children appear to have imitated those things in their diversions; while one band of them performed the musical part,-if the other would not answer by dancing or lamenting, as the game directed, this sullenness gave occasion to the complaint, We have piped or mourned, and ye have not performed your corresponding part:' which, at length, passed into a proverb. The Jews, in equal obstinacy, censured the mortified life of the Baptist, whose austerity is represented by the mournful airs; nor did they listen to the cheerful music, which was the emblem of our Lord's sweet and affable instructions. Our Saviour briefly animadverts on this perverseness of his countrymen, by saying, that wisdom is justified or vindicated by all her children: though many of the Jews are so froward and foolish as to censure the proceedings of me and my forerunner, yet all the counsels of God are approved and vindicated by the children of wisdom; by those who are so wise as to lay aside prejudice, and to enquire into the methods of divine providence with humility and sincerity. These children of wisdom will see, that the difference between the manners of the Baptist and myself suits the purposes of our respective appearances, and is adapted to promote the general designs of God in relation to the Gospel.

The assertion of our Lord suggests the following considerations:

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1. The children of wisdom, all thoughtful and discerning persons, will justify the conduct of our Lord, in his conversing among men in a familiar manner. Our Lord came (among other purposes of his mission) to promote universal good-will. His

affable and condescending compliances, for which the Jews reviled him, were intended as a general pattern: and it was such as ought to have civilized the very Pharisees themselves. Though our Lord occasionally retreated into solitude, yet his chief business obliged him to frequent places, where his miracles, the credentials of his ministry, might be openly displayed. He prepared his hearers for the reception of his doctrine by a gracious conformity, on all innocent occasions, to the common usages of men. By mingling with them, even at the hours of refreshment, he found fit opportunities of conciliating their affection, and of sanctifying their food with heavenly instructions.

2. The children of wisdom will justify the wisdom of our Lord, in appearing in humble condition. If the Messiah had assumed a pomp and power suited to the political and worldly desires of his countrymen, the enemies of the Gospel might have ascribed its establishment to secular influence. But when Christ chose his preachers from low station, and such as had no attractive qualities, the foolishness of God was miraculously founded upon the wisdom of man, by bringing to nought things that were, by things that were not.

3. The children of wisdom will justify the wisdom of their Lord in reference to his precepts. To speak to a sensual man on the pleasures of temperance; or to warn an unjust man, that his crooked paths lead to ruin; is to address them in language which they esteem folly. But the true disciple knows, that obedience to the Gospel fills the breast with substantial comfort; and that the conquests, by grace, over evil lusts, is preferable to licentious liberty. He anticipates the day, when sinners will see the righteous triumphant; and be compelled to exclaim, "We fools accounted his life madness: how is he now numbered among the children of God!"

4. Lastly, we learn that a Christian has no reason to be discouraged upon the account of those calumnies and reproaches, which wicked men may cast upon him. If our Blessed Saviour himself could not escape the stroke of evil tongues, surely none of his followers will wonder at the like treatment.

When we

consider how amiable and inoffensive Christian virtue is in itself, it may seem strange that it should meet with enemies. However, it appears from our Saviour's own observation, that these

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are not to be looked upon as competent judges: and, therefore, a good man, upon that account, has no reason to be solicitous either about their praise or dispraise; since he is sure of approving himself, by conscientious labour, in the sight of his Redeemer. Let the opposition and contradiction of sinners be what it will in this life; yet, by a patient continuance in welldoing, the children of wisdom will find glory, honour, and immortality, in the life to come. (BALGUY, chiefly.)

Our Lord urges the suddenness of approaching vengeance as an engagement to constant watchfulness. MATTHEW, Xxiv. 43, 44; LUKE, xxi. 34, 35.

Luke, 34, 35: TAKE heed to yourselves, lest at any time, your hearts be overcharged and your rational powers be stupified by gluttony and drunkenness, and by secular cares; and so that awful day should come unexpected upon you. 35. For it shall come upon all them who dwell on the face of this whole land, as a snare on careless birds.

Matt. xxiv. 43, 44: But this ye know, that if the master of a house which has been plundered, had known in what hour of the night the thief would have come, he would have watched; and would not have suffered his house to be dug-through. Therefore, be ye also ready: for at an hour when ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.

THOUGH Christ's warning to his disciples primarily referred to the destruction of Jerusalem; yet as that awful event was a type of a still more awful event, the Last Judgment; we are equally obliged to adopt the same caution in respect of death and its final consequence.

Over the last great day, God has thrown a thick veil, through which no eye but his own can penetrate. But of this, we may be assured, that he is equally benevolent and merciful in whatever he reveals, and in whatever he withholds from us.

If the day and hour of the last judgment were known with precision and certainty; its terrors, if near, would intimidate too much; if distant, might affect us too little in the former case, we should be too neglectful of our affairs in this world; in the latter, too inattentive to the concerns of the next. God, there

MATT. xxiv. 43, 44; MARK, Xiii. 33.] The Thief in the Night. 435

fore, in all the dispensations of his providence equally wise and good, and who desires to have both our hopes and our fears, our knowledge and our ignorance, to be alike instrumental to our happiness, has been pleased to hide the important secret in his own bosom; to conceal from us the period of the general judgment, in order that we may be always prepared, without being terrified; attentive always to our salvation in the next world, without too much indifference to the concerns of the present.

Hence appears the wisdom of holding ourselves always in a state of preparation for the coming of our Lord. Whenever we reflect, that the present life is meant to be introductory to another infinitely more important state of being; and that the awful period is approaching, how soon we know not, when we must all appear before the tribunal of the righteous Sovereign of the earth, whose irreversible sentence will be decisive of our fate for ever; this surely ought to create in us a most serious solicitude to avoid every behaviour that may offend our Almighty Judge; and apply to every duty that can recommend us to his approbation and acceptance.

At what distance this great event may be, or how long our Lord may delay his coming, we are not informed. Our Lord himself has foretold, that as a snare, it will come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth, and will surprise them in such an hour as they think not. The judgment of the great day, may possibly, even now, be near approaching; in which case, if we are unprepared, it will be too late for preparation to begin. Such as our condition is, such will be our irreversible state for endless ages. If we are are not in readiness, the opportunity for it, and we ourselves, are for ever lost.

It may indeed be supposed, with more probability, that this may be a remote event, and that the general judgment may be at the distance of many ages; but yet another awful event must soon and certainly happen. The period when our state of probation will determine and our trial be concluded, cannot be far distant; and that event is, in effect, with regard to our future condition, the same as that of judgment; and, like it too, unknown and wrapt in darkness. For such is the natural weakness of the human frame; such the various disorders and unknown accidents to which we stand exposed; so numerous, so