end, an unspeakable gainer even here; yet we must remind you that this is the portion only of the whole-hearted and decided. A lukewarm, irresolute, unstable religion is the source of little joy here, and of small hope hereafter. To shun the cross, is either to make it ten-fold heavier in the end, or to lose the crown. You cannot be faithful followers of Christ without trouble, self-denial and devotedness. There are within you evil tempers to be mortified, unholy dispositions to be repressed, besetting sins to be laid aside. There are without you snares to be avoided, temptations to be overcome, frowns to be faced, enticements to be spurned. You must, if you would serve God and follow Christ, in many things go counter to the love of ease, the voice of the world, the pleadings of misguided friendship, the solicitations of appetite. To be a safe and happy Christian, you must be a diligent, pains-taking, earnest Christian. You cannot have the world, and the flesh, and the Saviour together. You must choose between them, and be resolute in your choice. No sooner are Christ's disciples brought to confess him as their Messiah and Lord, than he instructs them in the nature of his service, and warns them against that timid, temporizing, self-indulgent course, so congenial to our corrupt hearts. This is their Lord's manner of educating them for holy lives, peaceful deaths, and crowns of righteousness.

Let not, then, this admonitory passage in the Apostle's life fail of a salutary effect upon you, who profess to be seeking the kingdom of heaven. Regard those as your truest friends, not who counsel you to spare yourself in God's service, and deprecate all religious fervor and earnestness, but those who point out to you most plainly your dangers and besetting sins, and urge you most anxiously to patient continuance in well-doing. Guard against the self-pleasing suggestions of a deceitful heart. Expect not to be saved without pressing on vigorously in the Christian race, and striving manfully in the spiritual conflict. Enter into the exalted privileges of your high vocation; contemplate the glorious prize presented to your hope; think of the amazing change effected by your Re. deemer's ungrudging love, in the condition, prospects and destiny of your undying soul, and you will "count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord." For him you will be content "gladly to suffer the loss of all things, and count them but dross, that you may win Christ, and be found in him." And when tempted to murmur at your trials, and shrink from the burden of your cross, look at that cross which your Redeemer bore for you. Mark how willingly he suffered its unutterable agonies, for the sake of your salvation; and how indignantly he repelled the solicitation to cast it away. And surely you

also will be strengthened to bid the tempter depart, and take up with renewed energy the hallowed burden. Welcome, dear Lord, any way, however rough, so it lead to thee-any cross, however galling, so we pass from it to thy kingdom.

THE DEATH-CHAMBER, THE MOUNT,

AND THE GARDEN.

MARK V. 37.

"And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.”

It was the high privilege of the twelve Apostles to be the constant attendants upon our Lord Jesus Christ. During the three years of his ministry they were very rarely absent from his side. He admitted them into his closet and most familiar intimacy. He favored them with a near view of his daily life, and made them his companions as

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he went about doing good," that they might be enabled to testify, from fullest knowledge, what manner of man he was. His was a life so pure and spotless, so benevolent and disinterested, so devout and heavenly, that it must be presented to a redeemed world in just and exact delineation. And hence, those his chosen followers, to whom was to be entrusted the task of recording and testifying to that life, were privileged with so close an intimacy. But while the twelve were all thus surpassingly favored, they were not all alike favored. The same good pleasure which chose them out of a world of sinful men to be his Apostles and Evan

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gelists, selected certain of them to be witnesses of some scenes, so peculiarly sacred, that even their brethren were not admitted to be present. To three of the twelve the Lord saw fit to extend this distinguishing grace. These were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and the Apostle whose life is the subject of our present consideration. It is probably not for us to know all the reasons that determined our Saviour in this selection, from the twelve, of confidential and bosom friends, to be with him in those peculiarly solemn seasons. was no injustice or disparagement to their brethren to be excluded while they were admitted. These were occasions of such mysterious and hallowed tenderness, that the presence of any large number of bystanders would have been burdensome and intrusive. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." So many were required to prove to the satisfaction of the enquiring the reality of these marvellous events. Of the selected individuals, two, we know to have been distinguished from their brethren by the peculiar fervor of their attachment to their Master. Not exempt from infirmities and failings, they yet loved their Lord with a warmer and more lively affection-and it may very probably have been in response to this affection that their Lord bestowed upon them such special marks of favor.