try against each other would never see the light. As the number of those Israelites increase in whom is no guile, we shall see pure religion prosper, and there will be "peace upon Israel."

It is interesting to see, as we do, from this interview between Christ and Nathanael, that no one can be secretly good and not be seen and approved by Christ. Nathanael had not come to the knowledge of the Messiah when Christ first loved him. "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." We should all be willing to know what he was doing under that fig tree. It is hardly to be supposed that it was some common act of prayer. Some secret deed of piety, of which Christ would not inform Philip, the Saviour had witnessed there some special sorrow and repentance, some covenanting with God, some forgiving interview with an enemy, or secret protestation before God of forgiveness, some season of devotion in the midst of an overwhelming trial, some special thanksgiving; at all events, a spiritual experience with which the fig tree that served him in his retirement was always remembered by him, as a stone or pillar in his history.

Christ seemed to take pleasure in the thought of all which Nathanael was to enjoy in knowing him as the Mediator. We notice his kindness in responding as he did to the faith of Nathanael, who exclaimed at the proof which he had received of Christ's omniscience,

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Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." Christ here connects Jacob and Jacob's experience with Nathanael, in the mind of Nathanael. Jacob's pile of stones proved to be the foot of a ladder which maintained communication between heaven and earth. Nathanael's fig tree would prove to be like the foot of a ladder, or the beginning of events, by which as great things as Jacob saw should be revealed to him. For Christ was to bring heaven and earth into nearer fellowship and communion; Nathanael was to know and love Christ, by whom he would come to the Father, and the Father would draw nearer to him. Could we know the history of Nathanael as a Christian disciple, we should, no doubt, see a man whom Christ greatly loved, and who loved Christ; an Enoch, who walked with God. He disappears, however, among those who are hereafter to shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

If we will put away from us all guile in our intercourse with Christ, if we will be strictly observant of our word which we have given him, and be in secret that which we profess at the table of Christ to be,

then he to whom one said, "Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee," whose favor is life, whose loving kindness is better than life, will be our Friend. The beloved disciple tells us how we are to secure and maintain true friendship with God: "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another;" that is, God and we; then, and not unless we are thus sincere, then, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Of all the instances of simplicity in the communication of truth, a simplicity which the Holy Ghost alone teaches, perhaps we rarely find an instance which surpasses one which occurs in this same beloved disciple: "This then is the message which we have heard from him," -at which words we expect some great disclosure," that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." So simple, so obvious, do these words seem, we are tempted to pass them by. Apply them, however, to the exercises of your deceitful heart for one day, examine your Christian consistency by them, your fairness, your truthfulness, and you will see the practical value of the words, as well as the admonitory, and to the doubting and desponding, and to the perplexed and despairing soul, the cheering and consoling nature of that "message." In proportion as we walk in the light, we are sincere, and so have fellowship with God and with Christ, and we are taught by the Saviour's words to Nathanael that we shall then

see continually greater things in the disclosures of divine wisdom and goodness to our experience. May the Spirit help our infirmity. "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." Whatever qualities in some whom Christ loved are unattainable by us, or whatever circumstances favored them in obtaining blessings from him which we can not enjoy, there is one commendation from which we surely may not feel necessarily debarred, one which if we possess, we shall "never fall, but so an entrance will be ministered to us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." That commendation, bestowed upon Nathanael, is a surer passport to general respect and influence than any thing else, because it is something which all can appreciate, and to which every man is willing to do homage. Its chief value is in this that it that it prepares us for fellowship with God on earth, for great advances in every form of moral excellence, for peace and comfort in life and death, and through grace for acceptance with Him who is to judge the secrets of men's hearts for their last rewards. Amongst the many occasions which others have had for love and praise from Christ, we would desire not the least, but rather first of all, that Christ might say of each of us," in whom is no guile."

SERMON IX.

THE FRIEND OF SEAMEN.

MATTHEW IV. 18-22.

AND JESUS, WALKING BY THE SEA OF GALILEE, SAW TWO BRETHREN, SIMON, CALLED PETER, AND ANDREW, HIS BROTHER, CASTING A NET INTO THE SEA; FOR THEY WERE FISHERS.

AND HE SAITH UNTO THEM, FOLLOW ME; AND THEY STRAIGHTWAY LEFT THEIR NETS AND FOLLOWED HIM.

AND GOING ON FROM THENCE, HE SAW OTHER TWO BRETHREN, JAMES, THE SON OF ZEBEDEE, AND JOHN, HIS BROTHER, IN A SHIP WITH ZEBEDEE, THEIR FATHER, MENDING THEIR NETS; AND HE CALLED THEM.

AND THEY IMMEDIATELY LEFT THE SHIP AND THEIR FATHER, AND FOLLOWED HIM.

THERE is reason to think, as many do, that the Saviour of the world is in a special manner the Friend of seamen. He showed an interest when on earth in classes; for example, in the afflicted, in great sinners, and in children. Among the reasons which lead us to think that he may be called the Friend of seamen is, Their opportunities and qualifications for promoting religion in the earth are great, and, Christ chose four out of twelve of his first Apostles from the sea. His selection of a third part of his twelve disciples from one

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