SERMON XX.

LUKE Xvii. 37.

They answered and said unto Him, Where, Lord? And He said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. THE contents of this chapter, especially of the latter part of it, to which my text belongs, are of the most solemn and alarming kind. A question put to Jesus by the Phariseeswhen the kingdom of God should come-was the immediate occasion of such His discourse. He began with telling them, that the kingdom, about which they had asked Him, should not presently come with observation, i. e. in a manner to be gazed at, and admired, and shewn, as it were with the finger, to inquirers, but rather in the hidden man of the heart; and then He forewarned His disciples of much to be suffered, both by Himself and them, and of many terrible things which must intervene, previous to the establishment of it in power and glory. Days resembling those of Noah, and of Lot-days of sudden and sweeping ven

geance-should first, He gave them to know, be experienced. The ungodly and sinners should be visited with so swift a destruction, that the righteous should be "scarcely saved." He would allow time, in that fearful crisis, for nothing else but flight. If one would stay to collect his worldly goods, he should probably perish with them. If one would look back, after the example of Lot's wife, he should probably forfeit thereby his opportunity to escape. If one would attempt to preserve his life from the impending danger, by denying his profession, or by any unworthy means, he should certainly lose it both temporally and eternally, without remedy; the only true security should be found, in setting at naught this life, and keeping a fast hold on the next. After these awful forewarnings, Jesus proceeded to declare, that of two persons in the same place, or about the same occupation, one should be taken, or fall a prey to the calamity, and the other be left, or permitted to go free from it: and when, at the conclusion of His discourse, the disciples "answered and said unto Him, Where, Lord ?" His reply to them only was,-" Wheresoever "the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together."

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I design, now, my brethren, first, to explain the verse proposed, agreeably with the fore

going introduction; and, secondly, to apply it, as written for our admonition, and for all unto whom at any time it shall come.

First then; "Where,Lord?” the disciples asked of Jesus, when He had brought His prophetic words to a close. This information they desired of Him, respecting, probably, the whole which He had stated to them. Having heard

at His mouth of events and circumstances in store, the sound of which might justly make their ears to tingle, a natural wish possessed them to ascertain the place wherein such predictions were to be fulfilled. So, they endeavoured by a precise inquiry to draw it forth from Him; Where, Lord, they demanded, where shall all these things, which Thou hast foretold, come to pass?

But, Jesus could not be thus induced to make known more particulars than He had seen good. He never thought well to satisfy the vain curiosity of those around Him,—not even of His own beloved disciples; nor would He subjoin anything in the present instance which might prevent men of all countries and places from feeling themselves interested in what He had been saying. Accordingly, to their unwise question-Where?-Jesus replied, not here, in this region, or there, in that, but, in terms of a somewhat mysterious, and general import.

His Divine wisdom prompted a mode of answer which will allow none, anywhere, when they shall have heard or read of the preceding matters, to suppose,-these cannot at all pertain to us; we need not apprehend, or think about them. On the contrary, it strongly signifies, that there is no spot under heaven, which may not, in its turn, be made a scene of those wasting judgments. "Wheresoever," Jesus proclaimed, "the body is, thither will the eagles be

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gathered together." This may have been a proverb in common use at that time; but, whether or not, it is a figure of speech, which may at all times readily be understood.

St. Matthew more exactly describes our Lord to have said, "Wheresoever the carcass,"-the dead body" is, thither will the eagles be ga"thered together." To every such spot birds of prey continually come. Seldom do they fail in this our land, presently to find out, and devour the flesh of the few dead bodies which are suffered to lie abroad. But in hotter climates, where birds of the above description more abound, and carcasses are less carefully removed, it is wonderful (travellers report) to observe, how certainly and speedily they do their part. No sooner has an animal fallen, and its life departed, than they begin to appear, like scarcely visible specks, in some remote quarter of the