respect, like a deceased friend, whose death was caused by his love to you; and yet, perhaps, you have never requited his love with gratitude, never have gone with faith and love to his tomb, never have uttered a strong, impassioned protestation of your feelings toward him, as you so often do with regard to a deceased friend.

It is not uncommon to hear the name of the Saviour used profanely; indeed it is probably connected with oaths and cursing more frequently than any other sacred name, this being, as many feel, but erroneously, a step this side of taking the name of God in vain. What mournful evidence have we here of the baseness and depravity of man, that the name of his Redeemer is joined with ribaldry and angry passions! Still, they who do this, oftentimes are not the greatest sinners. Probably there is no such object of astonishment and sorrow to angels as a human being who, with a full belief in Christ as his incarnate God and Saviour, treats him with indifference and neglect. Paul, closing one of his Epistles, was seized with a sudden and overwhelming conviction of this dreadful wickedness, and abruptly exclaimed, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha." That a man like Paul should thus express himself, that such an imprecation should be pronounced in connection with a dying Saviour's name, shows that indifference to Christ-merely not

to love Christ—is cause for the deepest shame and sorrow. We can not admit all that is declared in the Bible respecting Christ and his relation to us, and not see that ingratitude to Christ is surpassed by no other sin which comes within the reach of mercy.

Ambassadors are sometimes sent to contract marriages for royal persons with those whom they would affiance. We are ambassadors for Christ; and the great object of Christian ministers should be to join their hearers to him. In seeking to do this, a preacher once used these words for his text: "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thy people and thy father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy lord, and worship thou him.” This invitation to receive the Saviour's love was accepted by one of the congregation, and, so far as the preacher has ever learned, by only one of them at that time. There was one whom the Saviour did then espouse, as though he did greatly desire her beauty. That individual was the only colored person in the congregation a half-breed Indian. When she was examined for admission to the church, the pastor said, "What is your greatest desire?" She thought a moment, turned her eyes, suffused with tears, upon him, and said, in broken speech, "O, sir, to be joined to Christ!" That a sermon from that text should be employed as the means of joining her to Christ, that it should have had this effect with

her, and perhaps with no other in the assembly, illustrates what has already been said of the Saviour's disinterested love. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them." As you love to have your own intimations of regard and friendship promptly met and responded to with confiding affection, so treat Christ in the offer which he now makes to you of his love. Enter into an engagement, make a covenant with him, and an event will thus take place whose blissful history no pen, no tongues of angels, can describe. His offers may soon be withdrawn; he may turn from you and go away; death will come; others will take the happiness which might have been yours.

As you read in these discourses what a Friend Christ has been to some of every class and condition, to sinners of every name and degree, may your confidence, your love, your joy, in him increase, his name be to you as ointment poured forth, and the language of the redeemed church, the Lamb's wife, be yours: THIS IS MY BELOVED, AND THIS IS MY FRIEND.

SERMON II.

THE CALL OF MATTHEW.

MATTHEW IX. 9.

AND AS JESUS PASSED FORTH FROM THENCE, HE SAW A MAN, NAMED MAT

THEW, SITTING AT THE RECEIPT OF CUSTOM, AND HE SAITH UNTO HIM, "FOLLOW ME." AND HE AROSE AND FOLLOWED HIM.

WE have before us a man of business at his accustomed place, and the Saviour of the world appearing to him there. He who bought us with a price uses his right to stand before us at the busiest hour, to come between us and the dearest earthly friend; nor, in the midst of the most important and profitable transaction does he hesitate to absorb our whole attention and thoughts; so that, whether he comes to make us his friends, or to hold communion with us, or to call us away from the world, he claims and takes precedence, in his right as Redeemer and Lord. While the appearance of Christ at places of business would to many be exceedingly unwelcome and embarrassing, to some of you at such places he is no stranger. In your busiest hours, and sometimes while conversing

with others, he is in your heart; moments of peace and joy at the thought of him, sudden impulses of gratitude and love, generous deeds done in his name to his friends, letters written breathing his spirit, doing justly and loving mercy prompted by him, are proofs that you can reciprocate his gracious words, and say, "Where I am, there may also my " " Saviour "be." May he be with you always, that you be not overcharged with the cares of this life; to sustain you in trial, defend you in prosperity, keep you from the evil, make you bear his image, and amidst covetousness, injustice, and deceit make you to shine as lights in the world.

A man of business penned the words of the text. When you consider the honor bestowed on Matthew in being called by the Saviour to be his disciple, and think of the privilege given to him of writing the Saviour's life, and then read this unpretending account by himself of his call and appointment as a disciple, you may search long before you find a better instance of conciseness and simplicity. He does not say, As Jesus passed forth from thence he saw Matthew, as though every one must needs know who Matthew was, - but " a man named Matthew." He tells us nothing of himself that would seem to make his call deserved, or that would take any thing from the free grace of Christ, for he tells us that he was found in his ordinary occupation as a publican. We