about them to others, or even to welcome them thankfully in our own hearts; but we must begin some course of conduct, or make some sacrifice of self, which will give them an abiding influence after they are gone.

For instance, we may imagine that each of the holy apostles was conscious of some inward stirring, similar to those of which we have been speaking, when they first heard the summons of our Lord. Their conversion, if we may so speak, does not seem to have been gradual. Christ called them their hearts were prepared for Him, and they were moved to obey His voice, though they knew not why; they did not merely talk of their feelings, but they acted upon them. They arose, left all, and followed Him. Had they lingered till the morrow, they might perhaps have made a different choice; for the first impulse passed away, and doubts, and fears, and perplexities at times encompassed them in their after-path. But the sacrifice was

already made; they had begun to follow Christ; and step by step He led them onward on their way; and thus it was that, with one exception, they continued faithful even unto the end.

Or, to take the individual instance, to which I referred yesterday. The devout Mary, at the supper at Bethany, would appear to have acted from a religious impulse, when she poured the precious ointment on the head of our blessed Lord. Her conduct appeared strange and unreasonable to the other disciples, who did not share in the same feelings. They said truly that the ointment might have been sold for many pence, and given to the poor. We need not suppose that any except Judas urged this with insincerity. Their words were probably in accordance with what they felt; but Mary's action had been in accordance with what she felt also. She was conscious of a higher aspiration, and it led her to a deed of more entire self-devotion. She at once bestowed the

whole of her costly offering upon her Divine Master; and her good work remained when the immediate impulse which prompted it had passed away.

3. Lastly, let us remember that these impulses, if we do not turn them into blessings, will prove burthens. They will leave us either better or worse than they find us. Satan watches them as well as God; and if they do not awaken us to hasten on our journey, they will expose us to new temptations where we stand. Thus it was with the children of Israel. They rejoiced in the day of their visitation; they felt that the Kingdom of Heaven had come very near, and waited perhaps to see what God was about to do for them. But, alas! they did not perceive that God's part was already done; that the feelings of the day were His and not theirs; and that, if they would make them their own, they must act upon them. And so it was that the good seed was scattered in vain, and their hearts only became the more barren and unfruit

ful by the brief interval of spiritual sunshine. At length the light passed away, and the hour of darkness arrived. And then Satan came to them instead of God, and he in his turn put thoughts into their hearts; and these took root and sprung up quickly, and bore much fruit, and assumed a fearful life and reality, by the crucifixion of their Redeemer. God grant that their example may not speak in vain to ourselves! Let us be careful at all times, and especially on solemn seasons such as this, that the stirrings of His Spirit may not leave our hearts empty when they pass away, and so open them to a fresh invasion of Satan, and prepare us to crucify our Saviour by some new act of sin.

Tuesday before Easter.

THE EVENTS OF THE TUESDAY.

"AND on the morrow, when they were come Mark xi. from Bethany, he was hungry:

And seeing a fig-tree afar off, having leaves,

:

he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves;

And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.

12-18.