In tuneful chorus on they prest, A goodly fellowship: And still their pealing anthem ran, "Hosanna to the Son of Man!" He came to earth:-Through life he past A noble army following fast All decked with palms, and strangely bright, And stainless are their robes of white, From ages past descends the lay To ages yet to be, Till far its echoes roll away Into eternity. But, oh! while saints and angels high Thy final triumph share, Amid thy followers, Lord, shall I, Though last and meanest there, Receive a place, and feebly raise A faint Hosanna to thy praise? CHAP. XII. VER. 37. And the common people heard him gladly. Ir is not, then, refinement, or learning, or rank, which necessarily, or even naturally, leads the sinner to the cross of his Redeemer. However valuable these gifts may be, either in themselves, or as instruments in the hands of God; it is by His power alone that the heart can be changed, and the base metal transmuted into fine gold. where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" -"The common people heard him gladly." But it was asked too justly, "Have "Where is the wise? I 3 any of the rulers and chief priests believed on him?" Poverty has unquestionably many trials. And let not the rich," as they journey," and behold the bleeding members of the family of God lying in their way, pass by on the other side." Let them not "slumber" on their "beds of ivory," or "chaunt to the sound of the viol," and refuse to 66 66 grieve" for the afflictions of the people of God, and to scatter with a large and liberal hand, the riches of their bounty on the path of those who, in common with their Lord, have often neither bread to eat, nor a pillow on which to lay their heads. Let them remember who it was, that, "though He was rich, yet for their sakes became poor, that they, through his poverty, might be rich." But it must be admitted that the poor have also their peculiar advantages. In their case, outward circumstances seem, in a sense, to come to the aid of religion. They see little They are less of the glitter of life. brought under the influence of philosophy so called. They are more 66 men of one book." They are not often exposed to the seductions of kindness and flattery. They have less temptation to love a state of being which brings with it, to them, nights of cold and hunger, and days of unceasing labour. They have, consequently, a stronger natural inducement to seek the "rest which remaineth for the people of God"— that land of living fountains and green pastures, of which no inhabitant shall say "I am sick "-where sorrow, and pain, and disease, never come-where 'they hunger no more, neither thirst any more; " but where "God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes!" How merciful is the spirit of compensation which thus prevails in the appointments of Providence! Lazarus without the gate, is, commonly speaking, better circumstanced for heaven, than the rich man within. The " poor of this world" are often the "rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom" of God. Awful indeed will be the circumstances of that day, which shall reduce such of the mighty of the earth as have renounced the Gospel to their proper rank and dimensions! How powerfully does the hand of prophecy delineate the fate of one of these flattered and deluded creatures!" Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the |