ble stock, grow and flourish; and thus, in this his spiritual resurrection from darkness and ignorance, what was "sown in weakness, shall be raised in power."

But this meek and humble disposition must exist not only in the understanding, but in the heart. More men reject or despise the Gospel, from moral, than from intellectual pride. It is not to the slow and gradual stage by which religious knowledge is to be gained, that men altogether object; but it is to the discoveries, which in every such stage, open upon them. When every step we advance in the Gospel, we find something in direct opposition to our darling habits, dispositions, and affections; our pride is wounded, our hearts are offended, we close the book of life, and walk no more with Christ. Then it is that we raise difficulties, and multiply objections against the engrafted word, "which is able to save our souls." And why? because our pride and our prejudices do not approve of the manner, and the means by which that heavenly word proposes to save them. Men, instead of receiving with meekness the admonition of Christ, are ever ready to excuse, or justify their own obstinacy in rejecting them.

The wealthy and the avaricious shall open the Gospel, what does he read? "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for

a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God;" he closes the book, and in sullen desperation exclaims, "who then can be saved?" he pronounces in haste and in pride, the word of life to be impracticable, and by that impracticability he both justifies and continues his sin. But petulance and obstinacy will prove but poor excuses at the judgment-seat of God. Had such a man been prepared in meekness, and humility, to listen and to learn, he would have found that "with God all things are possible," that none of his commands are harsh or impracticable. He would have learned that generosity, kindness, charity, and benevolence, are highly possible and highly practicable graces and virtues. He would have learned that such kind and Christian dispositions, so far from saddening or impairing the present life, are the sources of the most exalted gratification. But why was he ignorant of this? Because he saw that his pomp, and his avarice, must be sacrificed; rather, therefore, than submit to such a privation, he proudly repudiates the engrafted word, and that Saviour who is both able and willing to save his soul, but at a price which he will not consent to pay.

As with avarice, so with pleasure, with sensuality, and with any other sin "that doth so

easily beset us." To receive the engrafted word with due effect, we must receive it with meekness. We must lay "apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness," (that is, the proud and presumptuous feeling which so often attends the consciousness of sin,) we must feel a humble sense of our errors and infirmities, and a hearty desire both to detect and amend them. Let a man come to the Gospel in a frame of mind thus chastened and subdued, and he will find at once, reformation and rest to his soul. To the meek and the lowly in spirit, the yoke of Christ" is easy, and his burden is light."

We know from whom the words of eternal life came down; from him, "the Father of light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." With what humility should all that descends from such a source be received, and cherished. Christ is the great physician of the soul: "he speaketh the word only, and his servants are healed." Under such a physician we have little reason to feel either pride or impatience. In every disorder of the body such a temper of mind can only retard or prevent the cure; and can we think that in the deeper seated diseases of the soul, a less degree of patience and confidence is necessary to effect a cure? Severe indeed sometimes is the treatment,

and bitter the medicine his word prescribes, but we know the skill and the power of the hand by which it is administered.

With meekness then of understanding and heart, let us receive "the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls." This is the temper, and the only temper of mind in which the Holy Scriptures can be read with advantage, or studied with effect. It is a temper of mind which, though it will grow and increase with the study of them, must, notwithstanding, be previously provided and prepared. It is the stock upon which the word is to be engrafted; and if the stock be dry and cankered, the engrafted branch, holy and heavenly as it may be, will never flourish.

And how can this preparation be better made than by humble and anxious prayer that the spirit of meekness and humility may descend upon us? and that so the word, being grafted upon a disciplined understanding and a patient heart, may bring forth fruit unto life eternal. Then, in the words of the prophet," the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel."

SERMON XXXI.

ST. LUKE viii. 18.

Take heed therefore how ye hear.

THESE words were addressed by our Lord to his disciples immediately after he had explained to them the parable of the sower. "To them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God," that by their means and through their labours these mysteries might be afterwards revealed to every child of the Gospel. "Take heed, therefore," says Christ," how ye hear," beware, lest you neglect the opportunities which God has offered you of acquainting yourselves with that blessed word, which ye are hereafter to preach, opportunities for which you will be called to a solemn and a severe account; "for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have."

This caution, however, of our Lord is applicable not only to the ministers, but to the hearers