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Again, these things which we call pleasures on earth, and which so carry away our weak hearts; what are they to the heavenly joys, the pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore? They are nothing to be compared with them, yet it should seem that by God's merciful condescension, the one are made images and shadows of the other. There is the pure river of the Water of Life, the Tree of Life with its twelve manner of fruits, the voice of harpers harping with their harps; the new song chanted continually before the Throne, the sun that no more goes down, the moon that never again withdraws itself: all that here seems bright and desirable, has in Heaven something to answer it, only infinitely brighter, and more desirable than it as a picture stands for the living man, and the shadow for the substance, so what we admire and love here stands for something there to be truly admired and loved.

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On the other hand, the miseries also, the shameful and tormenting accidents, which our life is beset with ever since Adam sinned, are to a considerate mind, understanding the Scriptures, so many tastes and samples of God's anger, faint tokens of the anguish prepared in the other world for them that hate HIM. To be tormented with fire and brimstone: to have no rest day nor night to have poison for drink: to be torn with wild beasts, and with the teeth of serpents of the dust: to be chained hand and foot in outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth: to be turned with shame from the highest room to the lowest to be driven out for ever from the Presence of CHRIST, the care and love of His holy Angels, and the brotherly kindness of His Saints :-these are the accounts of the portion of the wicked, after they shall have completed their wickedness, dying impenitent; and all these, dreadful as they are, we know are mere shadows and parables, compared with the horrible and eternal reality.

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This is how CHRIST would have us look at things; that is, He would have us see them as they really are: HE would have us despise both the good and evil of this world, in comparison. with that which is to come. He would have us firmly believe that nothing is true and real which passes away so very soon: that it is all but a shadow, cast before in the way which GOD knows best for us: a shadow of the true riches, the true glory,

the true want, the true shame and reproach, which are to

come.

So much our SAVIOUR teaches, by what He says of the true riches and the unrighteous mammon: and He adds, moreover, that none of the things here in fact belong to us. Men call themselves owners: they say commonly, my house, my land, my money, my children, my servants; but the truth is, these all belong to another: they cannot be ours, since we are not our own. We are left awhile in the midst of these shadows, in order that by them GoD may try us, whether we are meet to receive the true blessings, which are the substance of these things much in the same way as little children are taught this and that, by "making believe," as they call it.

Again, GOD trusts us for a while here with a little portion of that which is not our own but His, in order that by and by, we having rightly and sufficiently proved and exercised ourselves in this little, may have, not the same, but a great deal more and more perfect, given us for our own and for ever in Heaven : even as people give children a little something which they may call their property-a little garden for instance-and tell them, "Now let us see how well you can manage this; do your best, and by and by you may have one for your very own.”

Or we may liken our own case to that of servants when their master is out of sight, that is, of course, for the far greater part of their time. Like them we have the use and handling of our Heavenly Master's goods, and HE expects us to be very conscientious in preserving and improving them. If we spend them as our own, we break our LORD's trust, and forfeit His favour. We had need make the most of any little pleasure they may give us, for it is all we shall ever get from them: they will be soon taken from us for ever, and will leave nothing but a bitter taste behind. If, on the other hand, we do our best with them, conscientiously, because they are His, HE will give them back to us, and far more than they are, infinitely higher in their kind, made perfect and eternal.

Though we, and all we have, must ever be in GoD's hand, yet in some secret and wonderful way the heavenly blessings shall be our own. What we have here, is not at all our own: it is strictly and properly His, to be accounted for by us: but

what we shall have there will be indeed our own, our portion for ever, in some sense which we cannot yet at all imagine. For indeed the Great Gon and Owner of all will HIMSELF vouchsafe to be ours in that day, and all that is His will be truly ours, according to our measure and fitness for such a blessing: all that is CHRIST's will be truly the property of each one of CHRIST'S glorified members, though as yet we cannot say how, nor perhaps shall we be ever able to do so.

This is what our LORD is doing with us, when He trusts us with any kind of property: and what He does we know not now, but if we be worthy, we shall know hereafter.

In the mean time, let us cast aside, once and for ever, that most unworthy and unchristian way of saying or thinking, "I will do what I will with mine own." Too many think in this way of their worldly substance, be it more or less: rich men think they are free to please themselves with their riches, poor men think the same of their bodily health, their time, skill, and strength, which are in fact their riches on earth. We are all too apt to say, "It is mine own: who has any right to challenge my doing what I will with it?"

But you and I, my brethren, if we would be good and happy, must entirely leave off all such words and thoughts. We have nothing of our own in this world: how should we, since we ourselves are not our own, but bought with a price ? and again, how should we, since the things of this world are not real things, but shadows only, for a time, of great and true and eternal blessings to come?

CHRIST'S merciful purpose in teaching us these things will be accomplished, if we will begin this day, and go on every day of our lives, to use every thing as being not our own, but His : and if we will every night on our knees give an account to HIM of our stewardship for that day: certain as we are that the time must soon come when we shall be no longer stewards.

SERMON CCLVIII.

JERUSALEM REFUSING TO BE GATHERED.

FOR THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY,

ST. MATTHEW Xxiii. 37.

"How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

WE are reminded in the Gospel to-day of our SAVIOUR'S sad and solemn warning to Jerusalem; how at His last entry therein, when every thing about HIM seemed more joyful and encouraging than we read of in any other part of His Ministry, He beheld the City, and wept over it, looking onward to its sad downfall.

This was most likely on the Sunday in the week of His death: and two days after, on the Tuesday, He ended His last teaching in the Temple with a tender and grave farewell to the incorrigible City, now on the point of finally rejecting HIM. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Words which our LORD had uttered once before, overcome in a manner by His deep compassion for the wicked City, which He knew would not repent.

It is as if He had said, "You know, all the world knows, what loving care I have taken of this unhappy people: and that there may never be wanting somewhat to put them and you, My whole Church, in mind of it, I will show you what it is like:-It is like a hen gathering her chickens under her wings:

like that wonderful instinct in dumb creatures, especially in birds, which all men see and admire."

The difference is, that the chickens, the young of the birds, come when they are called by their parent: they acknowledge her loving care, and their own duty: but Jerusalem, God's own people, doth not so. "I would have gathered thy children together, but ye would not."

As often then as we see that common sight, a hen taking care of her young brood, we see something which our Blessed SAVIOUR has expressly made a token of HIMSELF; and as often as we see how obediently the young ones come at every call of their mother, so often we see what may put us to shame for neglecting as we do the many calls of our SAVIOUR. Let us consider these things a little more at large.

One of the first things which strikes young children, as they begin to grow up and look abroad in the world, is the wonderful parental instinct, as it is called, of dumb creatures-that secret and silent law which makes the mother of every animal almost so earnestly and affectionately watch over her offspring. Now here our SAVIOUR teaches us, that this instinct is not only put into their hearts by HIM, but that it is actually a sign and token from HIM, a pledge and visible shadow of the peculiar mercy with which He watches over His Church. Look to the whole History of GoD's ancient people, Israel. It is nothing from beginning to end but a course of these parental Providences.

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This is the LORD's own account of it in the Book of Deuteronomy: As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings so the LORD alone did lead him." So GoD went with the children of Israel, now before and now behind them, leading them the way, pointing out where they should rest, and how obtain supplies for their thirst and hunger, putting HIMSELF between them and their enemies.

And it is much the same afterwards, through the whole History of the Old Testament. Every where the LORD offers to gather them under His wings. His promises are repeated to Saul, to David, to Solomon, to the Prophets: there is no good thing which He does not offer, if only they will obey His Commandments.

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