struggle, between corrupt inclinations on the one side, and the dictates of natural conscience on the other, is frequently mistaken for the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. But the hypocrisy of such characters may be easily detected. Their resistance against sin is, at the best, only partial and temporary. At the bottom, they favour the iniquity which they profess to oppose. While they contend against one sin, they are allowedly practising another. While they strive to suppress sin in their outward conduct, they secretly indulge it in the heart. But such a conflict forms no part of the Burden of Christ. My brethren, is conflict with sin of a different nature? universal? Is it unremitted? Do you strive against all sin? Do you seek to subdue sin in your thoughts as well as in your lives? Do you pray against it? Do you watch against it? Do you avoid every temptation to it? These are the marks by which you must determine your state.

your

Is it

Do you encounter opposition from the world? Examine the grounds from which this opposition arises. Is it not provoked by your own indiscretion or obstinacy, by your ungovernable passions, by your unchristian tempers? Call it not in this case the Burden of Christ. Blessed (says our Lord), Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute

M

you, and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. But before you assume this blessedness as your own, consider whether you are justly entitled to it. Men may speak evil against you. But is it falsely?

Have you not merited the censures which they cast on you? You may be reviled and persecuted. But is it FOR CHrist's sake? The apostle reminds us, that to suffer as a Christian is a far different thing from suffering us a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busy body in other men's matters*.

do

Are you chastened of the Lord? Presume not on this single evidence. Numbers are chastened of the Lord, whom he owns not for his children. It is not merely receiving correction that will prove your adoption into the family of God. With what dispositions you receive it? Do you submit to it with patience? Do you endure it with resignation to the will of your Heavenly Father? Do you with gratitude and thankfulness kiss the rod as a mark of his paternal mercy? Can you say from the heart with pious Eli, It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good: or with a greater than Eli, O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done? Are you more desirous to have

* 1 Peter, iv. 15.

your afflictions sanctified, than to have them removed? Is it the language of your soul, "Lord, chasten me for my profit, that I may "be partaker of thy holiness?" Let these inquiries be seriously applied to the heart; and may the Lord give you grace to discover whether the Burden which you bear, be his Burden or not!

Lastly, the subject under contemplation very forcibly inculcates the exercise of mutual tenderness, forbearance, and support. My Christian brethren, are you all constrained to bear part of the same Burden? Let fellowship in sufferings excite in you sympathy of affections. Partakers of the same afflictions, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another. Taught by experience to lament the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the human heart, be not severe in judging and condemning others. Magnify not every inadvertence, of which they may be guilty, into a wilful transgression. Brand not every false step, which they may happen to take, as a mark of hypocrisy. Extend to them that favourable indulgence, which you claim for yourselves. Bear ye one another's Burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Encountering yourselves opposition from the world, and knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren, add not to the weight which they

endure, by unfriendly behaviour or uncharitable language. Imitate not the conduct which you affect to deplore. Chastened yourselves of the Lord, learn to pity them that are chastened. Pray for them. Strengthen them. Comfort them. Break not the bruised reed. Quench not the smoking flax. Let identity of interests, of trials, of feelings, swallow up all trifling differences. Travelling the same road, exposed to the same difficulties, see that ye fall not out by the way. By jealousies, by animosities, by divisions, increase not your own load, aggravate not each other's Burden. Love as brethren; be pitiful, be courteous, endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all

means!

SERMON IX.

THE DANGER OF A WORLDLY SPIRIT, ILLUSTRATED IN THE HISTORY OF LOT.

GENESIS, XIX. 29.

And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

ONE great excellence of the sacred writings is the pleasing and interesting manner in which they convey instruction. Calling to their aid not precept only, but example, they set before us living pictures of the truth; and thus, by the events and characters recorded in them, illustrate and enforce the doctrines which they inculcate. Hence the historical part of the Old Testament is to be viewed not merely as a narrative of facts, which we are required to credit; but as a collection of practical information, which we are to study for our im