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nought of the life of Christ in me, and nought can be discovered in the examination of my spiritual character but gross deficiencies, and coldness, and languor, in every moral effort." But I see the humility of Christ in your abasement, and his faith in your keeping the way of holiness, in spite of all discouragements. In your present conflict, your enemies are trying you as they tried him, and his victory secures yours. And the bread and the water of life are now set before you, which revive the languid, and encourage the desponding, while they establish the vigorous, and enhance the joys of the happy.

After the Service.

You have been mourning at the communion table over your sluggishness in the service of Christ, the small measure of conformity to his image which you have attained, and the dead works by which you have dishonoured him, and injured the best interests of your souls; let your future conduct shew that you have felt this deeply, and that you are resolved to serve him in holiness and in righteousness before him all the days. of your lives. Let that glorious object which is now. set before you, "the dying love of your Redeemer," be ever present to your view, and never let it lose its power over your hearts. In that death the graces of the Saviour were most triumphantly displayed; it was the noblest test of his submission as the Eather's servant; by its influence all genuine obedience is animated, and to its bitter sorrow every enjoyment even through. eternity shall be traced. Always bear about with you in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, and let. the life of Jesus be manifest in your mortal bodies."

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Let the spirit of his death, and the energy of his life, give sobriety to youth, and cheerfulness to age, probity in business, and devotion in solitude, zeal in duty, and hope in death.

Consider how Christ lived, and still lives for you. While he was on earth, every purpose which he formed, and every emotion which he felt, every act which he did, and every pang which he suffered, were devoted to your salvation; and in heaven it is said that he ever liveth to make intercession for us, as if that was his chief object in his exalted state. He not only pleads the cause of his people, and prepares for their reception, but for them he reigns, and for them he triumphs. Let the faith of these truths excite you to greater exertions in his service, and in every scene to which he calls you, let this be your first inquiry, "What can I do for my Saviour here ?" The men of the world, according to their various tempers and inclinations, live for different objects. To some pleasure is the sole charm of life, to others wealth is its chief good, and to others pomp is its only glory; but let it be your care to shew that you have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, and that the favour and the image, the honour and the service of Christ, are all your salvation, and all your desire. desire. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

And to you to die shall be gain. Death will translate you from a scene where disappointment blasts many a fair hope, and where your brightest joys are torn from you in the moments of ecstacy, where corruption wars against the soul, and grace often strug

gles for existence, to a world of perfection and felicity. How dreadful is the loss of worldly men in death! Not only is every earthly advantage, every carnal pleasure, and every flattering hope, taken from them, but every opportunity of grace, and every possibility of salvation. These are succeeded by utter despair, and by misery that shall never end. But in death you relinquish nothing from which it is not for your advan tage to be separated, and to go to heaven, though by the most agonizing mode of dying, is far better than to continue here.

In that world, you will still feel, "To me to live is Christ." Eternal life is in his Son. There the Lamb leads, and the redeemed follow. He commands, and they obey. The Lamb is in the midst of the throne, and they sing forth the honour of his name, and make his praise glorious. The Lamb dwells among them, and they are happy. Christ is in every movement of the heart, and in every act of homage-in every feeling of enjoyment, and in every song of praise-in every review of the past, and in every prospect of the future.

Your translation to that world may be a loss to your friends, and to society. To your friends it brings with it the loss of your prudent counsel, your watchful care, your improving conversation, and agreeable fellowship; but it can be made up by him who is the Husband of the widow, and the Father of the fatherless. To society it will bring with it the loss of your influence, and exertions for the public good, but God can supply it by raising up others more active, and more successful in promoting the righteousness which establishes a church, and which exalteth a nation. With God is the residue of the Spirit, and in his hand are the hearts of all. And now I dismiss you with your

Saviour's blessing, to his grace I commend you, and

under his care I leave you.

Jesus Christ be with you all.

"The grace of our Lord Amen."

ADDRESS XXXII.

EZEK. XLVI. 10.

"And the Prince in the midst of them, when they go in shall go in, and when they go forth shall go forth."

THESE words refer literally to the rulers of the Jews mingling with them in the services of the sanctuary. In the house of prayer, the rich and the poor meet to◄ gether, and rulers should consider that they are as dependent on God as the meanest of their people, and that association with them in religious ordinances is the best security for the protection of the prince, and for the allegiance of the subject. But this passage may be view. ed as pointing out to us that presence of the Lord Je sus Christ in the worship of the sanctuary, without which it will yield us little pleasure or advantage. How gracious and encouraging is the promise of his presence, "Where two or three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of them!"

"The Prince," is a title frequently given to our Lord in Scripture, and we require to be reminded of it, that we may give him the glory which is due to his name. By the Father's appointment he is invested with regal dignity; and what has been said of some earthly prin ces by lips of flattery, is true in its fullest sense of him, "that he reigns in the hearts of his people." Wisdom

and justice, power and grace, shine in all his adminis tration. He is clothed with majesty, and girt about with might eternal life is at his disposal, and the keys of hell and of death are in his hand. In the praise of earthly princes genius employs all its powers, but in the praise of Messiah, your Prince, his voice is heard whose testimony is as much superior in glory to human applause, as his wisdom and purity transcend that of erring mortals." To the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."

We see not yet all things put under him, but we know that his kingdom will rule over all. Already have the darkness and the abominations of heathenism passed away in many regions before him, and the time hastens on when the proudest of his rivals shall be humbled in the dust, and every tongue confess that he is Lord. Earth, so long a scene of slaughter and confusion, shall, through his influence, be formed into the abode of harmony and love, and bless him as the Prince of peace Hell, filled by those "who would not have him to reign over them," shall proclaim the guilt and folly of his despisers, while heaven, shining in his glory, and resounding with his triumphs, shall raise from all its borders the homage of adoring gratitude and love, "My Lord and my God."

It

But this Prince is in the midst of his people. This is a common representation of our Lord's station. was typified in paradise by the tree of life in the midst of the garden; under the law, by the tabernacle of the congregation, which was placed in the middle of the camp, and by the mercy-seat, which stood. between the cherubims in the temple. In heaven he is the Lamb in the midst of the throne; and, to point out his constant inspection and vigilant care in the church

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