50 esteems his Lord's interests his own. Does a worthy child render filial love and dutiful obedience to a tender parent? they who know the Saviour's grace render him such love and such obedience. Do brethren, united in heart, unite in pleasures and pursuits? the Christian, honoured with the title of a brother of Christ, pants to resemble his exalted Lord. The branch is like the vine on which it grows. It possesses similar qualities, and, nourished by its connexion with the tree, produces similar fruit. No poisonous qualities harbour in the branch, for none harbour in the vine. So, a likeness will and must exist between the Saviour and his flock; a likeness in disposition, in character, in conduct, in interest, and aim. Those deadly fruits of nature's tree, hatred and envy, malice and revenge, and furious rage and swelling pride, are not the fruits that branches of the living vine will bear; but fruits of gentleness and love, of humility and patience, of faith, and hope, and holiness. The same truth is forcibly inculcated in those passages which represent Christians as members of the body of Christ, as his flesh and bones. Does not one spirit actuate the body, and direct every member, and move every limb? Does not the same blood flow through the hand that flows through the foot? Does not the same principle that moves the finger, move the arm? Has not every member a similar feeling? Do not all display a similar nature? and have not all a similar interest? Is it thus with the body and the members? and must it not be thus with that spiritual body, of which Jesus is the head? All that are truly members of Christ feel the same principles within, and are anxious to display the same character without. The Spirit that moves one, moves all. The life which animates one member, animates all. Jesus is the head of the body, and they are his flesh and his bones.

THE UNION OF CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES.

Perhaps in the present day there is nothing more common than self-deception, yet nothing more ruinous. How few imagine that they are not Christians! but how few bear the Christian character, as drawn by the hand of God! Setting aside the profane and the profligate, can we affirm of the generality of those that remain, that they resemble the picture of a Christian, which is exhibited in Scripture? Can it be said of them, that they seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? that they are justified, are reconciled to God,

FEW CHRISTIANS IN REALITY.

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and have peace with him through the blood of his Son? Can it be said of them, that their sins are forgiven them, and that they have redemption through the blood of Christ, and belong to the household of God? Can it be said of them, that as the faithful wife loves her husband, and esteems his interests hers, so they love the Saviour, and esteem his interest theirs? Can it be said of them, that like affectionate children they obey the Lord, that like admiring brethren they imitate their endeared elder brother? Do they appear like branches of the living vine? displaying likeness to the holy Jesus, and manifesting those heaven-born graces, which his Spirit infuses into every regenerate heart; those lovely fruits that branches of such a tree will bear? Do they appear members of Christ? So connected with him, so like him, that they may be termed even his flesh and bones? Are the desires and dispositions, the love and hatred, the joys and sorrows, the hopes, and fears, and feelings they cherish so like his, that one spirit may be said to move, one life to animate them? This is the Scriptural delineation of a Christian; is this theirs? How many of the moral and the amiable have not one feature of this portrait! Are not many, that even make a more decided profession of religion, utterly unlike the picture drawn in Scripture colours? Their careless lives, their worldly minds, their grovelling hearts, their covetous hands, their slandering tongues, their formal prayers, their half-wasted sabbaths, their proud resentful dispositions, their conformity to the vain world, make up a character as unlike the Scripture character of a Christian, as winter is unlike summer, or midnight darkness to noonday splendour. Can these be disciples of Christ? As well might you expect the branches of a vine to produce only poisonous berries; as well might you expect to find a human body joined to a tiger's limbs. Do many that are called Christians bear those marks, which make their final rejection sure? then inquire what you are. Can you in solemn selfexamination trace in yourself the growing, though too imperfect, features of the Christian's likeness? then do you feed on that immortal food, the bread of life; then do you pant after all the Saviour's likeness; and thence go with renewed strength to imitate and serve him, through the rest of life's short and fleeting span. If this is the case, you may rejoice in those promises, full of love, and life, and immortality,

52

ON LOVE TO CHRIST.

which glow in the sacred page; you may, you should believe, that having received Christ, he has received you.

סיי

§ 11. The love of Christ claims the return of fervent love, and a most important trait in the Christian character, is love to the Lord Jesus. The Lord himself asserts, that his friends possess this love. "The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me.' He declares that, without a high degree of this love, they are not worthy of him. The grand inquiry that he proposed to the apostle Peter, after his fall, an inquiry thrice repeated, was, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ?"P The Scriptures pronounce a divine blessing on all who possess this love, and denounce an awful curse on all that want it."

How vain is every hope, as to eternity, where this love is absent. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maran-atha, an accursed creature, devoted to destruction. Had it been said, if any man hate the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema, millions that now fail under this awful anathema, would have pleaded that it did not refer to them. But the words are far more comprehensive; If ANY man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. Though his character be ever so fair, his moral virtues ever so many, his knowledge ever so correct and extensive, his profession ever so shining, yet if he love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he falls under this anathema.

That love of the Lord Jesus which is thus required from every heir of heaven, is not love which can subsist in the soul, with love to the world and sin. It is love stronger than that which a child cherishes for a parent, or a parent for a child. The Lord Jesus solemnly declares, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me." If there be one friend or object on earth as dear to you as the Saviour, you have no proper sense of his worth; you have no interest in him.

The love the real Christian bears to Christ is love stronger than the love of life itself. The Son of God himself declares this, He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. To take the cross is not to subject ourselves

(0) John xvi. 27.

(r) 1 Cor. xvi. 22.

(p) John xxi. 15.

(2) Eph. vi. 24. (s) Matt. x. 37, 38.

• To understand aright the expression of taking the cross, and following

ON LOVE TO CHRIST.

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to a few small inconveniences or sufferings for the Saviour's sake; but it is to tread in the bleeding way, to encounter mockery, insult, and cruelty, and at last, to close the scene of sorrow by the slow tortures of a death full of shame and agony. The Christian may not actually be called to these sufferings, yet he must possess that love for Christ, which would lead him, if he were supported by his Lord, to encounter them all, and to love the Saviour more than ease and life. Our Lord speaks of this not as the honourable distinction of a few superior characters, but as that without which any one would be unworthy of him. He, whosoever he be, that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. The dying love of the Lord Jesus is esteemed by his disciples vast as an immeasurable and fathomless ocean. He is indeed a friend for whom they will sacrifice every other. Thus the apostle acted: I count all things loss that I may win Christ. Learning, friends, prospects for future life, ease, health, liberty, and life, all were sacrificed by him for Jesus' sake! When, expecting that he would make the last sacrifice, his friends wept around him, he calmly said, What mean you to weep and break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus." Doubtless multitudes besides have possessed a similar spirit. Many unknown, except in heaven, and others Christ, we must refer to a custom of the age in which he lived. An able writer thus describes it:

"The evangelist informs us that they obliged our Lord to carry to the place of execution the cross, or at least the transverse beam of it, on which he was to be suspended. Lacerated, therefore, with the stripes and bruises he had received, faint with the loss of blood, his spirits exhausted by the cruel insults and blows that were given him when they invested him with robes of mock royalty, and oppressed him with the incumbent weight of his cross; in these circumstances our Saviour was urged along the road. We doubt not but in this passage to Calvary every indignity was offered him. This was usual. Slaves and malefactors, who were condemned to this death, were compelled to carry the whole or part of the fatal gibbet on which they were destined to die. This constituted a principal part of the shame and ignominy of such a death. Cross-bearer was a term of the last reproach among the Romans. The miserable wretch, covered with blood, from the scourges that had been inflicted upon him, and groaning under the weight of his cross, was, all along the road to the place of execution, loaded with every wanton cruelty. He was pushed, thrown down, stimulated with goads, and impelled forwards by every act of insolence and inhumanity that could be inflicted. There is great reason to think that our blessed Redeemer in his way to Calvary experienced every abuse of this nature, especially when he proceeded slowly along, through languor, lassitude, and faintness, and the soldiers and rabble found his strength incapable of sustaining and dragging his cross any further." Horne. Thus illustrated, how solemn, how expressive is the declaration, He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

(t) Acts xxi, 13.

54 whose names are in the records of the church below. Luther, invited to Wormes, and besought not to venture himself among the perfidious followers of antichrist, replied, "Since I am sent for, I am certainly determined to enter Wormes in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, though I knew there were so many devils to resist me, as there are tiles to cover the houses in Wormes." An Italian Confessor, when tempted to forsake his Lord for worldly wealth, replied, “Let their money perish with them, who esteem all the gold in the world worth one day's society with Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit." A martyr said, "My wife and my children are so dearly beloved to me, that they cannot be bought from me for all the riches and possessions of the duke of Bavaria, but for the love of my Lord God, I will willingly forsake them."† Another sufferer, when asked if he loved not his wife and family, replied," Yes: if the world were gold, and were mine to dispose of, I would give it to live with them, though it were but in prison; yet my soul and Christ are dearer to me than all."t

THE CHRISTIAN'S VALUE FOR CHRIST.

Did these form too high an estimate of the Saviour's worth? Were they willing to lose more than was needful for him? Ah no, my friend, without as high an estimate you cannot be his disciple. He himself has taught this important lesson: "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." You may not (and under our mild governors most probably will not) be required to sacrifice friends, liberty, and life for adherence to Jesus, but in heart you must make the sacrifice. The Christian's situation is now very different from what it was in the days of a murderous Mary, and a treacherous, persecuting Charles; but the Christian's spirit must be the same; the Christian's value for Christ must be the same. God must see you a martyr in heart, though you are not called to martyrdom. Nothing less than this can be meant by those solemn and decisive words, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." He may assume the Christian name, he may make the Christian profession, he may join the Christian church, he may indulge hopes of inheriting the Christian's happiness, but he is deceived;-he can.

(v) Luke xiv. 26, 27.

Galeacius Carracciolus. + George Carpenter.

Kilian.