by reproach on earth; and thus it is now, that men, who are fed by His bounty, and loaded with blessings from His hand, are not ashamed to refuse to give back to Him some small dole, to lighten the burden of human misery, or to save ruined souls. "O Conscience! thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason!"

But is it really so, that money given to Christ is lost? Impossible! Many costly sacrifices have been offered on earth to the Saviour. I see Moses spurn riches, and royal honours, to endure affliction with the people of God. I find that Paul counted all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Were these lives wasted? No: their names are imperishable as the truth for which they died.

Finally, it is the fallacy of the selfish, that, while they will not make sacrifices for Christ, they think they have a right to prevent others; but this will not exempt us from doing our own duty.

II. What the world calls waste, as done to Christ and His cause, the Saviour Himself commends, as duty, which secures our truest, interest, and honour.

This act of Mary was a simple and sincere tribute of homage to her Saviour, prompted by a sense of grateful love, which could not be suppressed, for benefits which could never be compensated. If we are Christians at all, we owe everything to Him for salvation, which it cost Him His life to procure for us; and the least we can do is, to consecrate that life to Him who has redeemed it. The Saviour, in visible person, is no more on earth, and we cannot now show Him any mark of personal homage; not less true is it, that He is beyond the need of any gift or service of any of His creatures. Certainly, for the love He bears us, He expects and claims our hearts and the devotion of our lives. Not otherwise can we attest the reality of our redemption; and the welfare and happiness of our own souls are bound up in this love-labour. Christ has left His cause and people to represent Himself on earth; and everything that is dear to Him will be precious to us, precisely in proportion as His Spirit is in us. We cannot now, like Mary, anoint that blessed head, because it needs it not, having ceased from all its throbbings of anguish, and long passed the humiliation of burial; but can we not visit the fatherless and widows to bless them, comfort the broken-hearted, and rescue

the perishing? You may discern, in a soul saved through your instrumentality, the reflection of Christ's person. The work itself is so heavenly and Godlike, that it is worth more than all the wealth of the world to secure it; nor can loftier renown, or richer blessedness, belong to man, than when Christ says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." If we ask why Mary brought this alabaster-box, the readiest answer is-because she had nothing else so precious. Hers was a love that must honour the presence of the Lord, and nothing was sufficiently costly to express her obligations to Him who had done everything for her soul. Every sacrifice was too little. This might have been her whole life's savings; and, in parting with it, she may have exposed herself to poverty for all her future career; but, to express her love for the Redeemer, she poured out her heart along with it. It was the tribute of a soul that gave itself up along with its offering, which, more than all the perfume of the ointment, was precious to Christ, and caused Him to vindicate and applaud her, as He said, "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached, in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."

Now, how should you and I express our obligation to Christ as this woman did? We owe Him as much, if He is indeed our Saviour; and we cannot serve Him with love which costs us less, if we are partakers of her spirit. May we not make sacrifices to Him of our money, our time, our talents, our life ? Is there no sweet recompense in the approbation of Him who has done all for us? Ah! not one effort of the loving is lost. All shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

What was counted waste here is fragrant with the love of Christ, and turns into treasure which is stored up in heaven. The cup of cold water given shall not lose a disciple's reward. Be assured, therefore, that the real waste of life is in the world's service. Whether you serve that world by hoarding, or by spending on your own lusts and amusements, you will find that these things carry with them no satisfaction, bring back no fragrant memories, no blessed recompense. But you will find that they who serve sin with the most lavish expenditure, learn, when too late, that they have sacrificed their souls for that which cannot profit them. On the other hand, let it sink deeply into every heart, that what the worldly call "waste,”the soul that counts all things loss for Christ, the life that is

spent in lessening the miseries of mankind, and seeking to convert sinners, the silent sufferer, whose existence has been meek and happy endurance of evil for Christ's sake,—those who live—

"The world forgetting, by the world forgot :"

these, after all, are the ornament, defence, and glory of society, the salt which preserves it from corruption, the true and imperishable riches, which invest time with its best wealth, and accumulate glorious treasures for eternity. And when the world and the works that are therein shall be burned up, what alone shall survive the conflagration,-what but those deeds, formerly despised, that were done from love to Christ? And when all those shall be swept away into everlasting destruction, who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus,— who are they that shall shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, but those who have poured out their hearts, like Mary, at Christ's feet, and emptied the treasures of their life, like precious ointment, in His cause, till the earth has been filled with the fragrance, and it floats upwards, to be treasured as the sweetest incense of immortality?

Thus have we shortly set before us, the world's false estimate of deeds done for Christ, and the Saviour's commendation of those deeds as the truest riches. It is for each of us to ask ourselves on which side we take our stand,-with those who do nothing for Christ and His cause, or with those who are ready to embalm His blessed cause with all that we hold dearest, even to the consecration and sacrifice of life itself? Let us not forget, that, if we are prepared to be workers for Christ, and desire to secure His commendation, we must bear much obloquy and misrepresentation. Let us be faithful, and we shall be fearless. It is a small matter for us to be judged of any man's judgment. The grand secret of good-doing is, doing work for Christ. Many such opportunities lie open to us in walks of love and usefulness around us; and if God is willing to employ you or me in such glorious work, let us know that no higher blessing can belong to us than to save souls from death, and hide a multitude of sins; for "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."

FELLOWSHIP OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS:

A SERMON.

BY THE REV.

PATON J. GLOAG, D.D.,

GALASHIELS.

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.' PHIL. iii. 10.

IN the verse from which these words are taken, St Paul expresses his earnest desire to "know Christ," that is, to know Him experimentally as his Saviour; and "the power of His resurrection,"—that is, not the power by which He was raised, but the almighty power which His resurrection exercises on believers; and "the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death."

By the fellowship of His sufferings," we are not here to understand a participation in the sufferings of Christ, inasmuch as He was the substitute of sinners. It is true that believers have, in this manner, in a certain sense, fellowship with Christ in His sufferings. Not only do they share in the advantages derived from these sufferings, but the sufferings themselves are in an important sense theirs; they are sharers in them. Christ stood in our room and stead; what He suffered was the punishment of our sins-the penalty attached to our disobedience. "He bore our griefs, He carried our sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities." And therefore His sufferings may be regarded, in a peculiar sense, as ours, so that we, as it were, suffered in Christ; we died with Him in His death; "Our old man," as St Paul expresses it, "was crucified with Him." And hence, all believers who have a saving interest in these sufferings may be said to know experimentally "the fellowship of His sufferings." But

still I do not think that this is the meaning which the apostle intends to convey. It does not appear that he here alludes to the sufferings of Christ in their expiatory nature, but merely to sufferings in general. And although we may be said to have fellowship with Christ, even in His expiatory sufferings, yet this is not a very obvious sense of the expression, nor is it one which, I think, would recommend itself to the Philippians as the meaning of the apostle.

Nor, again, is there any necessity to understand the expression as metaphorical,-that we have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings by being spiritually made conformable unto His death. This is, indeed, the sense which most commentators attach to the words. They represent the apostle as meaning that, as Christ died, so are we to die to sin; that, as Christ was nailed to the cross, so are we to crucify our corrupt passions; that, as Christ suffered in the body, so are we to suffer in the spirit. And, indeed, an important truth is expressed by this meaning—a truth elsewhere adverted to by the apostle, as when he says, "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." But, still, this is not the import of the text; it is not the truth conveyed by these words of St Paul. It is a real, and not a mere metaphorical fellowship to which he adverts, a true participation with Christ in His sufferings, drinking the same bitter cup of which He drank,— treading the same path of sorrow which He trod. St Paul here expresses his desire to share with Christ in His sufferings, and, if need be, to be conformed to His death,-like his Master, to suffer the agonies of crucifixion, or at least to die a martyr's death.

Now this is a strange desire of the apostle,-fellowship in suffering a choice which certainly few of us would make. We wish to have fellowship in joy—to be made partakers of others' happiness, not of others' miseries-to frequent the house of feasting in preference to the house of mourning. We seek how we can pass most comfortably through life, experiencing the fewest inconveniences. But the apostle desires fellowship, not in joy, but in sorrow; he seeks to drink, not the cup of pleasure, but the cup of woe. It would not have been surprising, had the apostle desired fellowship with Christ in His glory, to live under the sunshire of the Redeemer's love; or had he desired fellow