poorer brethren, not to disgrace your high calling, not to bring discredit upon your lofty title,-the nobility of CHRIST. You may have a title higher than the highest noble in this land, you are CHRIST's aristocracy. Blessed then, be ye poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven. Rejoice that you are exempt from those temptations to which rich men are subject, and see that ye walk worthy of your calling, earnestly coveting and striving after spiritual riches, the Graces of the HOLY SPIRIT Conveyed in the Ordinances of the Church, plentifully to all Christians, overflowingly to poor Christians. W. D. M. SERMON IV. THE CHRISTIAN UNITED TO CHRIST IN THE CHURCH. EPHES. III. 10. TO THE INTENT THAT NOW UNTO THE PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS IN HEAVENLY PLACES MIGHT BE KNOWN BY THE CHURCH THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF God. THE mystical union between CHRIST and the members of His visible Church are represented for us under different similitudes and types in the Gospel. One of the most familiar illustrations, and which the humblest intellect cannot fail to comprehend, is that of a "vinetree" and its "branches," as employed by our LORD HIMSELF, in explanation to His Disciples of the nature of His spiritual Kingdom,-"I," says HE, "am the true Vine, and My FATHER is the Husbandman ":' in other words-I am the Root and the Fountain of that life-giving influence, which imparteth sap, and juice, and nourishment, and fruitfulness to those whom My FATHER may engraft in ME: "I am the true Vine, and My FATHER is the Husbandman; every branch 'St. John xv. 1, 2. in ME that beareth not fruit HE taketh away ";' every professor, that is, of faith in ME-every branch that uniteth itself to ME, the parent stem, My FATHER (doing the work of the husbandman) first "diggeth about it," and watcheth over it with the most anxious care; but, and if after all this care it disappointeth HIM-if after all His solicitude it bear no fruit, He "taketh it away," lest the poison which seemeth to mar its growth be diffused throughout its sister branches: but this only, remember, if it bear no fruit-the smallest promise of fruitfulness rather increaseth His wakeful care-" the smoking flax" He would desire to kindle, not "to quench," ""the buised reed" HE would set up again, and not leave to “break ": every branch, therefore, that giveth the smallest hope of fruit, HE loppeth not off, but pruneth down with parental love those suckers, and excrescences, which feed upon its lifeblood, and so become an hindrance, that the fruit spring not up into maturity: these He pruneth down and "purgeth "that "it bring forth more fruit," which shall ripen unto life eternal. And what then must be the inference which the SAVIOUR Would have us draw from these Almighty Truths? What-but that it must be our best wisdom to "abide " in CHRIST? Separate we ourselves from CHRIST, our "true vine," and we are indeed lost: so verily HIMSELF speaketh. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in ME:" "I am the Vine, ye are the branches; without Mɛ, therefore, ye can do nothing;" not a shoot can ye make, not a fruit can ye bear, "ye can do nothing: ye may fancy that ye do: ye may even, like the Pha 1 St. John xv. 1, 2. 2 Isa. xlii. 3. 4. risee of old, recount your deeds, and "thank GOD ye are not as other men";' but this your very boasting will be of itself an evidence that your deeds are not done in that meek and lowly spirit which is the character of deeds done in CHRIST; and if your deeds be not done in CHRIST, ye have in the sight of God, verily, done nothing. Deceive not yourselves: those alone are good works in the sight of GoD which proceed from right principles, are carried onward upon right motives, and tend to right ends; and the only true principle to which a right and holy Faith would direct us is the principle of "love" to GoD, the only true motive, the motive of "obedience" to God's law, and the promotion of GoD's Glory the only true end. We may bow the knee, indeed, in continued and formal service to GOD, but it is only "the prayers of the Saints" that have been "accepted by CHRIST," which "ascend with their smoke of incense" before the ALMIGHTY'S Throne. We may be kindly affectionate one towards another, doing daily deeds of alms, but it is only love of the Brethren for CHRIST's sake which shall give us "boldness" in the great "Judgment Day." We may be very strict in the outward observances of religious worship; scrupulous in our acceptance of God's ordinances, and in embracing every opportunity that is permitted us of Holy Communion at the table of our Blessed LORD, and yet except all these, "our bounden duty and service," which we dare not shrink from, be done in "the Spirit of CHRIST," we are in truth "none of His "; but they only that are "CHRIST'S," are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise"; and therefore speak2 Rev. v. 8, and viii. 3. 3 St. John iv. 17. 5 Gal. iii. 29. 1 St. Luke xviii. 11. 4 Rom. viii. 9. eth the Apostle, "CHRIST" is our "all in all."" "In HIM" we may have every thing: Out of HIM we can "In HIM," to us is Life; Out of HIM have nothing. must be Death. "In HIM, we, though many, are one Body": Out of HIм we are lost and "scattered " abroad "as sheep that have no shepherd ": " In HIм" is "GOD reconciling the world to HIMSELF"; Out of HIM GOD is to man "a consuming fire." But CHRIST is in heaven, and we upon earth, how then shall this union be maintained? The SAVIOUR of mankind HIMSELF foresaw the difficulties of maintaining it; HE Who knew well what was in man—HE Who had made man in the beginning Lord of created life, and had given him "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth," HE Who had seen the mind of man, perfect and capacious at the first, fall from his high estate through disobedience to his MAKER'S Will,-He knew, verily, with the Prophet, that "the way of man is not in himself," that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps ";" that our carnal senses having now in their debased condition more in them "of the earth, earthy," cannot by mere spiritual influences alone hope to be made heavenly, for "the things of the SPIRIT of GOD," saith the Apostle, "the natural man cannot know;" and the soul in its present fallen and corrupt state cannot of itself readily apprehend spiritual things, but requireth something visible and tangible-something that "the eyes can see, and the hands can handle, of the 1 Col. iii. 11. 4 1 Kings xxii. 17. 7 Gen. i. 26. 10 1 Cor. ii. 14. 21 Cor. viii. 6. 8 Jer. x. 23. 3 Rom. xii. v. |