from Capernaum to the heathen places of Tyre and Sidon; and from thence HE was obliged to avoid the places where the Pharisees were. He kept aloof from them, and passed from one place to another, on the Gentile side of the lake of Galilee 3. Now this state of persecution in which our LORD lived must have been a great trial to His disciples; for doubtless the Pharisees sore beset them, and left no means untried to set them against their lowly MASTER; and this they did, not only with threats of violence against HIM, but denouncing HIM with a great show of learning and worldly authority. It was in the midst of all this our LORD's continual flight from His enemies, and about six months before our LORD's death, we read that He was in the parts of Cæsarea Philippi; where HE appears to have led His disciples far out of the reach of their malicious enemies. And then He asked Peter, what He appears never before to have told either him or any of His disciples, namely, who He was; "But whom do ye say that I am?" And when St. Peter confessed that He was in very deed the CHRIST, the promised MESSIAH,and the very SON OF GOD; then our LORD blessed him, and, doubtless, all the other Apostles and Christians who believed this truth in him; and said that this faith was revealed to him of the FATHER; and that on this as on a Rock He would build His. Church. Then did HE at once begin to teach them of His sufferings; no less than nine times after that did HE tell them of His approaching Crucifixion and death, of which, He had never ventured to speak to them before. And not only this; but immediately, as it would appear, after this confession of belief in HIM did our LORD go wn boldly into the midst of His enemies; for we read no more of His going to the parts of Tyre and Sidon, or of Magdala; but on that day week He was transfigured before them on Mount Tabor, in the midst of Galilee; and HE afterwards sends forth the seventy to proclaim Hiм aloud in the cities where He would go HIMSELF; whereas before that He had ever been hiding HIMSELF from them. And this shows that it was especially for the disciples' sake that He thus withdrew HIMSELF; for now that they had come to know Him to be GOD, HE seems to think them equal to withstand all things; to be firm as a rock

3 Mark vii. 24-31; viii. 10-13.

on this Faith against the storms of the world. Now HE "set His face stedfastly," it is said, "to go to Jerusalem," knowing the things that should befal HIM there; and teaching His Apostles more and more not to be offended at those His sufferings.

But we shall find, that although our LORD thus brought them by degrees to the full knowledge of HIMSELF and of His spiritual kingdom, yet He never, like an earthly teacher would do, gave them any flattering hopes of ease or honour in this world; on the contrary, from the beginning He always told them, that they were to expect persecution and suffering-as in His last affectionate discourse, when He speaks so much of His love to them, and His Divine union with them, and of the promised Comforter-yet throughout He taught them, "In the world ye shall have tribulation."

We may also observe, in tracing out our LORD's conduct to them, that He dealt with each, and disclosed HIMSELF to each, more or less, according to what each of them was. And, indeed, He appears to have given them different places in His regard, or attendance on HIMSELF. Thus St. Peter seems to have been first in authority; St. John first in the love of his LORD. St. James stood also very high in his LORD's favour, for some reason, and in some way we are not told; but he seems equal, or nearly so, with Peter and John. Next to these seems to be St. Andrew, who, on several occasions, seems full of watchfulness on our LORD's conduct. And then next to these, and in some things, St. Philip seems to be one to whom our LORD appeals. Perhaps each of the disciples, in some respect, had marks of favour and particular gifts. In one thing, Judas Iscariot, who became the traitor, seems to have had the first place or pre-eminence, that is, in the care of their worldly goods, keeping "the bag," that is, all the money and property of this little company. In this worldly covetous age many would think this the first and best place of all, to have trust and authority in matters of money. But our LORD showed how much HE valued money by giving the care of it to the traitor Judas; and has set before us a very dreadful and sad warning, and, perhaps, prophecy also, to indicate that the sin and temper of Judas will be found in His Church to the last, even among its ministers.

Now the chief consideration which makes our LORD's conduct to the twelve disciples so interesting to us is, because we see

therein so palpably what our LORD's dealing, probably, is with ourselves. We make a great mistake when we look upon persons whom we read of in the Gospel, as if they were another order of beings to ourselves-as if they were not, under the circumstances, treated very much as ourselves. Indeed, I do not know any consideration that appears so awful, so much calculated to throw us each upon himself, with a very anxious desire to set himself in good earnest to flee from the wrath to come; and in order to do so, to set about a course of life very different from those around him. Nothing, I say, seems calculated to urge one so much to this as the thought, how much our temptations and dangers are the same as those of the first Christians, and how very different our lives are to theirs. It makes us suspect that there may be something more fatally wrong about us than we are inclined to suppose, while we compare ourselves with other people in these easy times. For there seems every reason to believe, that even among us, in these latter days, there may be some one like Judas, with as great advantages as he had, and yet no better, in the eyes of God, Who is no respecter of persons. And also there may be -i. e. there is nothing to hinder why there should not be one as high in the love of JESUS CHRIST as St. John and St. Peter.

And this our LORD HIMSELF seems to set before us; for, on one occasion, St. Peter said to our LORD, "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed THEE; what shall we have therefore 3 ?" To which our LORD replied, "Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake, and the Gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life *." And to this declaration our LORD added those memorable words, " But many that are first shall be last; and the last first." By which He seems to signify, that although they were the first of all to do these things, yet that, even in the last days of Christianity, among those that would be last of all called into the Church, there might be some who would do the same as they did; and that with so pure and good a heart, as that they might stand among the first in His Kingdom. It was, indeed, fulfilled in those very times, when Judas, who was among the first called, became 3 Matt. xix. 27. 4 Mark x. 28, 29.

VOL. X.

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not "

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among the last; and St. Paul, who was the last called, was behind the chiefest of Apostles," by his own confession and "laboured more abundantly than they all." But the words seem also to signify, that these blessed friends of our Lord, though first called, would have no advantage above others with regard to the Kingdom of GOD; but that whosoever did best, and gave up most at any period of the world, should stand the highest. Much to the same effect in the Gospel 5 for to-day our Lord says, "That to sit on His right hand, and on His left, was not His to give," that is to say, that it was not to be given by any partial choice or election even to those who were with HIM-" but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of MY FATHER."

As the world advances onward to its end, and is getting further and further from the times of the Gospel, it becomes more and more necessary to turn our attention to the holy Apostles; and for that purpose, to pay particular attention to those Saints' days which our Church has appointed to be kept holy.

Life is to us a trial for eternity, as it was to them: we have the same prize to contend for as they had, the same danger of falling; CHRIST is present with us as surely as He was with them; to teach us, to prove what is in our hearts, to support us from sinking, to warn and encourage. He speaks to us daily in our conscience, in His Providence, in His Church. Our Blessed LORD has our interest at heart as much as He had theirs; we are as near to HIм as they. Our trials, indeed, and temptations are far less severe than theirs were; but if in these we fail, what would we have done if we had had to encounter theirs. As it is said in the Prophet, "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan"?" But a time will come to us all when our great trial shall overtake us— -the rain shall descend, as our LORD has said, the floods come, and the winds blow; and every one of us shall be tried, whether we have built on the rock or on the sand; whether we have been in our actions obedient followers of JESUS CHRIST, or only His followers in outward profession.

SERMON CCCXIX.

FAST DAYS OF OUR CHURCH.

ST. MATT. vi. 16.

"Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance."

THERE is, perhaps, no Christian duty more neglected than that of fasting; so much so that, probably, some persons have never considered the obligation at all; and many are hardly aware that the Church has, weekly and yearly, appointed Fasts,-seasons when families and individuals are called upon to afflict their souls: and these it has had ever since the time of the first Christians.

Others may, perhaps, consider the practice as superstitious, and ask, whether Holy Scripture does expressly command it. It is true, that it does not so. Our Blessed LORD, in His wisdom, and the Inspired Teachers of His Word, have not given any express injunction on the subject; neither do they expressly enjoin our meeting together for the purposes of public worship: though Scripture implies, and takes for granted, that we do.

And we must not think that there is any thing in fasting which is of itself pleasing to GOD-merely and of itself; for we may fast, and be none the better for it; like the Pharisees of old. But it is a natural expression of repentance, and an instrument which, if properly used, is a most powerful one to a holy life. And though our SAVIOUR has not positively and expressly commanded it, yet what He says on the subject, implies the necessity of it; for He has given us directions how we are to fast; which, of