that they would be held in admiration by all succeeding generations? And has not this motive been sufficient to prompt men to the greatest achievements, the most heroic sacrifices, and the most diligent efforts in art and science? Have they not been content to throw themselves for renown upon all future ages? I reply, that if the Apostles thought of this at all, which it does not appear from their writings they ever did, they must have known, that as long as the world proceeded upon the same principles, it would treat their names with the same contempt that it had treated their persons; they must have known that none would honour them, but they who became possessed of the same principles, and that the honour they would give, would not terminate on them, but ascend to their Master; that it would be honour to them only as instruments, but to him as the Agent-honour to them only as the earthen vessels, for the sake of the rich treasures with which they were filled, while the excellency of its power would be ascribed to God their Saviour, by the Church in all ages. They must have known that, and they wanted no other honour; with that they were content.

Dear brethren; this is the principle of Christianity. By ascribing our salvation to the righteousness of another, and our holiness to the grace of another, it takes us forth from the root of self, and grafts us into Christ, the Living Vine, that all the fruit we bear may be to his glory. So far as our actions in religion proceed from a desire to obtain human notice and applause, Christianity denies to them the praise of real excellency; she counts them to be tainted by the motive from which they spring; and, however fair and specious in appearance, reckons them but as the apples of Sodom-empty, and nothing worth. Christianity, while it provides for the most diligent endeavours on our part, the most heroic virtues, the most undaunted sufferings, provides, at the same time, that these should grow upon the root, not of pride, but of humility and self-denial, and the ascription of all the glory that results to another. Am I a father? I must bring up my children, with unremitting assiduity, in the knowledge of the principles of Christ's religion; I must labour to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; not that their virtues may be reflected upon me for my renown, not that they may load my venerated name with their fond applause, but that Christ, my Saviour, may have the honour of saving them, and of being loved by them, and have the sphere of his knowledge, and the swell of his praise, enlarged in the world. So, as a relative, as a neighbour, as a friend, and a member of a Christian society; so as a minister, a missionary, a pastor, a martyr; the object and end of all my labours and sufferings must be, not the aggrandizement of my own name, either while living or when dead, but that Christ may be magnified in my mortal body. "Let my name perish," said Whitfield, "let Christ's name flourish." And thus it is that Christianity accomplishes the noblest victory-the victory over self. It subdues within us the universal passion of love of fame, and supplants it by a nobler principle, a stronger principle of action-the love of Christ. The former detached us from God, and sunk us into ourselves. Fame is the root of our most splendid achievements; but the Gospel, while it calls to achievements more splendid, by taking away the principle of the love of fame, and planting in its stead the principle of the love of Christ, relieves us from our degradation, lifts us from the ruins of the fall, and gives us back to our God.

These are some of the ways in which the principle we have noticed will be manifested, in the formation and progress of the Christian character.

Let us inquire, secondly, WHAT ARE THE REASONS THAT RENDER THIS PRINCIPLE NECESSARY, AND THAT JUSTIFY THE REQUISITION FOR SUCH A GIVING UP FOR CHRIST'S SAKE AND THE GOSPEL'S.

The first is a reason of necessity; in order to our safety and our salvation. We are altogether gone out of the way by the apostacy and corruption of our nature, and have become unprofitable. We must, therefore, be wrought into a different form, and upon a different mould, if we are saved. Our own opinions, for instance, in religion, and the way of salvation with God, so far as they are of human origin, must be erroneous. They are treacherous guides for eternity, by following which we shall be sure to be lost; and therefore they must be given up for the infallible ones of Scripture: the treacherous guides must be sacrificed for the true ones, if we would be conducted in the way to bliss. The same may be said of all the gratifications of our flesh, in reply to the solicitations of our carnal nature. All the ways in which the appetites triumph over reason, and conscience, and the dictates of piety-all of them are fraught with consequences detrimental to our welfare and destructive of our happiness: they leave behind them the sting of remorse, and fearful forebodings of future accountableness and a dread tribunal. Then how can the Gospel benefit us, but by delivering us from these? How can it save us but by sanctifying us, by reducing the world in us, and establishing another and an opposite interestthe interest of truth and grace. The sacrifices the Gospel requires are essential to our safety and our welfare: there is nothing that it forbids but what would be injurious—nothing that it commands but what our own peace and welfare imperatively call for. To hesitate, therefore, to yield compliance, to refuse compliance, would be to imitate those refractory children who, for the sake of some present gratification, refuse to give up, at the command of a wise and affectionate parent, things detrimental to their health, and destructive even of life. "He that will save his life shall lose it:" and the reason of the principle is, the absolute necessity of it for our peace, safety, and salvation.

The next is a reason of grateful imitation and return. We owe our salvation entirely to the principle of surrender on the part of another. Oh, what did the Eternal Son of God give up for us! "Though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich." He was in the form of God; he had the splendour and retinue of God; but he "humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He became nothing that we might become every thing. Justice receives the immolation, and releases us from its claims. Oh, what benefits spring to us from the cross of Jesus! It was a tree of torture to him, but it is a tree of life to us; adorned with clusters of the richest fruit-remission of sins, liberty of access to God, peace of conscience, the first fruits of the Spirit, the guardianship of angels, the protection of Providence, the resurrection of the body, the

heavenly inheritance-all accrue to us from the cross of Christ. There is not a pang of perdition that shall be prevented from wringing my heart with its torture, not a rapture of heavenly felicity that shall thrill through my bosom, not a ray of glory that shall beam upon ine, but shall all be traced to the cross, as the centre around which they revolve, the fountain from whence they all spring. To man the bleeding cross has promised all; to man the bleeding cross has sworn eternal grace. "Who gave his life, what gift can he withhold!" Oh, who does not feel inspired with the sentiment of the chorus of the Bengalee hymu

"To him who dying, redeem'd my soul,
O my soul forget him not!"

And is it so? Do I owe my redemption, my eternal redemption, to that costly ransom? Then I feel that I am not my own, but am bought with a price, and am bound to glorify God my Saviour, with my body and my spirit, which are his. I am not my own, but the Lord's. I am the Lord's by a double tie, not only of obligation, but of affection. I am the Lord's, not only because he has the right to me which the master has to the slave, whom he has redeemed at an immense price, but because I love him, and feel that he is worthy of my love; and know not how to set any bounds to a love which cannot be too ardent, since it has infinite loveliness for its object. Does he call upon me for sacrifice, does he say to me, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me?" Behold, he sets me the example. Did he give up all that was glorious for me, and shall I hesitate to give up all that is vile for him? Lowe him sacrifice for sacrifice, heart for heart, and, if I should be called to it, life for life.

The last is a reason of spiritual and eternal recompense. There is no man that hath left house, or father, or mother, or brethren, or sisters, for Jesus' sake, but he shall receive manifestly more in the present time; and in the world to come life everlasting. What is the recompense for the present time? It is sometimes of the same nature with the loss which has been sustained. When God shall see that we have been tried sufficiently, and that it would not hurt us; and that it is necessary to prevent the misconceptions of those who form their judgment according to sense, he will restore to us, even of this world's good, more than we lost for Christ's sake and the Gospel's. We shall prove that godliness is profitable to all things, and hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come. "The meek shall inherit the earth;" and he will give us richly all things to enjoy." I suppose instances are known to most of you in which this has been verified; when, after a scene of trial, with regard to the principle we have noticed, the Christian has had restored to him, even of this world's goods, more than he had given up for Christ s sake and the Gospel's.

But, most generally, the recompense is of another nature, of a different and superior kind to that of the loss which has been sustained-a recompense of spiritual, in lieu of earthly good-the favour of heaven, instead of the friendship of mortals; instead of the treasures of the earth, the rich treasures of spiritual grace and consolation; and instead of an earthly kindred, fathers and mothers, brethren and sisters in Christ, who will love us with a love above that of

nature; who will hold a communion with us sweeter than that of nature, and fraught with richer benefits and lasting for ever. No one, on adverting to the change which these Apostles had made in their fishing occupation, and their earthly parentage and kindred, and their home, for the sweet presence of Christ, and the entertainment of their minds by his divine discourses, and the endearments of his friendship, and the promise of his eternal life, can suppose that they had sustained any loss; they had received far more for the present time. And so it is with Christians generally; ask them which have been the seasons of their brightest manifestations of the favour of Christ; and they will tell you the seasons of their hottest persecution. As when Jesus heard that the blind man, whose eyes had been opened, had been cast out of the synagogue for the confession of him, he found him out, and revealed himself to him more clearly. Go and ask Christians when their religious consolation has most abounded? and they will tell you, almost to a man, when their persecutions for Christ have most abounded. The paper, I believe, is yet extant, on which the martyr Smith recorded his experience, in the midst of his sufferings and persecutions for Christ's sake and the Gospel's. His persecutors denied him the use of paper, pen, and ink: but one day, not long before his death, they allowed him, in their presence, to sign a draft on the treasurer of the society in this country; and he seized the occasion, and when he had signed the draft, put down on the corner of the paper in small capitals these figures, as descriptive of his experience at that moment:-2 Cor. iv. 8, 9. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." He shall receive "manifold more in this present time.”

And, it is added, "in the world to come life everlasting." There is a peculiar honour reserved in heaven for the sufferers for righteousness' sake; especially if they suffer unto death. For every trial here, a distinct recompense there; for every disgrace here, an additional ray of glory there; for every drop of sorrow here, an exuberant cup of comfort there. "These are they that came out of great tribulation, therefore are they nearest the throne; and the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne doth feed them, and doth lead them to fountains of living waters, and doth wipe away all tears from their eyes." They are promoted in the ranks of the blessed; they enter into Christ's joy, and sit down upon his throne, even as he hath overcome, and hath sat down with his Father upon his throne. They have not only life with all the saints, but they have it more abundantly. "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall sare it."

But I apprehend you will be ready to say, "Is not this to impeach the disinterestedness of Christians? After all, it is « denial of self only in order to a greater gratification. It is self-interest and self-love that moves them, after all, in the whole of their proceedings." No, my brethren, the gratification here is not the gratification of self-of sinful, carnal self; but of a principle within us superior to self; a principle that absorbs our will into the will of God; that makes it our highest happiness, and our highest dignity, to give him glory. The enjoyment of heaven will not be the enjoyment of self, but the enjoyment of God; losing ourselves in Him, in light ineffable, that God may be all in all.

"The more thy glories strike mine eyes,

The humbler I shall lie;

Thus while I sink, my joys shall rise
Immeasurably high."

Such is the principle of the Christian character, and such are the reasons which justify its requisitions. Let us, in the third and last place, just glance, very briefly, at THE ADVANTAGES WHICH ARE LIKELY TO FOLLOW FROM THE CULTIVATION OF THIS PRINCIPLE, AND THE EXISTENCE OF IT IN HIGHER MEASURES AND DEGREES. It is to be regretted, that in many instances, where the existence of the principle cannot be denied, it is yet so faint in its appearance, and so languid in its operations. There are cases in which it seems difficult to tell what is the principle on which the life moves; but where this is not the case, and the existence of the principle must be admitted, how is it retarded in its operation! And hence the departure from us, in so great a measure, of what constitutes the true glory of the Church; hence such a comparative want of the tokens of the presence and the approbation of the Lord among us; and hence the narrow limits that have hitherto been put to the progress of Christianity. Ah, brethren, we must seek for a revival of the Church, before we can expect the conversion of the world. And when this principle that I have been advocating, shall be strong in the bosom of every Christian, then shall great advantages result, both to the Church of God, and the world at large.

Then, in the first place, what a much closer agreement will there be between the creeds and sentiments of Christians of different denominations. Whence that vast diversity of religious sentiment that has split the Church into such innumerable sections, and produced such an excess of religious controversy, to the prevention of that unity of spirit, and that disposition to associate, which are so requisite to any grand operations, to any grand impressions? Is it not owing, in a great measure, to the want of a thorough submission of reason to divine revelation? We appeal, in most cases, to our sense of propriety, for the correctness of what the Scripture says; and because we cannot perceive this propriety, and the agreement of it with our principles, we hesitate to receive it, unless under some modified view. Hence the vast diversity of religious sentiments and disagreements among Christians. But when it shall come to be understood, that the sole ground of our receiving what the Scripture says, is not our ability to perceive its fitness or propriety, but the veracity of its Author; and wher the habit of systematizing in religion, and making all things agree together, shall be laid aside; and when we shall be content to receive apparent inconsistencies, because stated in the Scriptures, and because we know that God can reconcile them, and will reconcile them, although we cannot; what a death-blow will be given to party spirit and religious controversy! Most questions, would then be reduced to one-What is the exact meaning of the Word of inspiration? That being agreed upon, there will be an end of further disputes, and all angry contention. And is this a thing improbable, unlikely to be expected? Why, we who are converted have the principle now in existence; we must have received some truths, at least, of revelation, not on the ground of their fitness, and their propriety, but solely on the ground of their divine authority. We must have submitted our reason to them; we must have