must follow the husband. The feet of them that carried thy husband, &c. Death is formidable to all, because it is the fulfilment of a sentence, the execution of a penalty, the infliction of a curse. It brings the sinner into the presence of his Creator, the subject to his Sovereign, the criminal to his Judge.

II. A privilege all must envy

Hope in death. All envy the privilege, because all have reason to dread the prevalence of distressing fears; and the wonder is not that any should be afraid, but that any should be without fear in the prospect of meeting the king of terrors-in the prospect of entering an unknown world-in the prospect of standing before a holy God.

Hope then is invaluable, because it is a season in which little comfort can, according to the course of nature, be expected—a season in which faith might be expected to drop her shield, and hope to loose her an chor, and joy to fold her wing-and dark despondency to become the genius of the scene.

Do you ask what the good man hopes for? I answer, he hopes for a safe passage through the valley of death and a happy issue beyond it. He hopes to have the presence of the Shepherd of souls in deathand to have the friendship of the God he loves after it. He hopes to be the partaker of a blessed immortality -to be clothed with the garments of salvation-to wear a crown of life-to rise to a spiritual existence to attain the ultimate perfection of his nature—and to be happy for ever in the presence of God. He hopes to be gathered to his fathers-to rejoin the friends he has lost to be numbered with the most illustrious of mankind to see the face of him who lived and died for him, and to cast his crown at his feet.

Do you ask what his hope is built upon? I answer, it is built on the foundation laid in Zion-the death, and intercession, and promise of Christ-not upon his own works and deservings, but upon the free mercy of God proclaimed to sinners in the gospel, and secured

by the advocacy and righteousness of Christ. It is not the forlorn hope of the infidel, that the Bible may be false, but it is the good hope of the believer that the Bible is true. It is not the hope of the Pharisee, which, like a house on sand, must be swept away; but it is the hope of the penitent which is an anchor of the soul, &c. It is not the hope of the hypocrite which shall perish, but it is the hope of the upright, which is an everlasting foundation. I know whom, &c. Is this your hope in prospect of death?

III. A dispensation all must approve.

The righteous hath hope, &c. This is as it should be. Reason teaches that if any rise up above death it should be the righteous. It is reasonable that religion should reserve her honours for her servants-reasonable that those who go weeping, come rejoicing. We so framed as to rejoice when character triumphs, and the wicked approve the dispensation, though they hate the man.

are

Who are the righteous? There is none righteous, &c. A justified sinner through the merits of Christ—a sanctified sinner through the renewing of the Spirit-a holy character, though conscious of imperfection, in aim, and principle, and desire, and effort. Ps. xxxii. 1—5.

It is delightful to see such a character meeting death in the strength of principle, and the humility of hope. He may have dreaded it, but finds the lion turned to a lamb.

Hope. It is not said triumph, but a good hope. Hope may not always be in exercise. We must not depend on death-bed feelings. People die peacefully who do not die safely-some die safely who do not die happily. The wicked have no bands, &c.

But have not some, considered as Christians, departed sorrowful, almost desponding? We answer, we are fallible judges of character. Admitting they do, view it as an exception. It may arise from imperfect views of the covenant of grace, or of gospel truth, the peculiar nature of the disease. the careless walk of some, or

without any of these, may be permitted for the benefit of survivors.

Let it never be forgotten :

That there is no alternative between the hope of the righteous and being driven away.

XIX.

THE CHRISTIAN A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST.

BY THE REV. J. A. JAMES,

OF BIRMINGHAM.

JOHN xii. 26.

"If any man serve me let him follow me, and where I am there shall my servant be."

THE Cross is the symbol of our holy religion, as regards both its doctrines and its duties. Christ was crucified literally for our salvation, and we must be crucified figuratively for his glory. This is stated in effect, in the language preceding the text; "He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." The words of the text confirm and illustrate this truth, "It is the invariable law of my kingdom," said Christ, "that if any man, Jew or Gentile, will be my subject and servant, he must resign himself absolutely to my will, observe all my commands, and follow me, not only in the path of obedience, but of suffering also; and let him know that whatever sacrifices this may call him to make at present, he shall be no loser in the final issue of things, for where I am there shall my servant be; and he shall receive glory and honour from my Father also." Now that this is the test and term

of discipleship for all persons, as well as for those to whom it was originally addressed, is evident from the manner in which it was proposed, "If any man serve me." None can be a servant of Christ who does not follow him. The passage thus briefly explained furnishes the following remarks.

I. Every true Christian is a servant of Christ.

This is a very frequent description of his people, My servants;" and it proclaims in no equivocal language his supreme divinity: for as no man can serve two masters, if Christ be not God, and we are required to serve him, how can we serve God also? If we are to give our body and our soul to Christ, and to serve him with all the powers and energies of both, what have we left for Jehovah? How fully and strongly is this stated by the apostle when he says, "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living." Rom. xiv. 7-9. Can this be predicated of a man, a mere mortal, like ourselves? Impossible. For if we are to live entirely to Christ, i. e. to his glory, as the supreme end of existence, and Christ be not God, we leave God out of our contemplation, and actual service.

In one sense all men and all creatures are the servants of Christ: they are subject to the control of his power, the direction of his wisdom, the accomplishment of his purposes, and the manifestation of his glory. But it may be more properly said he serves himself by them, than that they serve him. His servants are all who, in the exercise of faith, have submitted themselves to his gospel, and, in the exercise of love, to his law who, under the teaching, and by the renewing influence of his Spirit, have thrown off the usurped yoke of sin, Satan, and the world, and have yielded Ahemselves unto him. The idea of a servant implies

submission, obedience, devotedness, and dependence, and all these are exercised by every true Christian towards Jesus Christ.

We are not to confine this relationship to those who serve Christ in the ministry of the word, either at home or amidst the moral wilds of pagan superstition. They, indeed, are his servants in an eminent, but not in an exclusive sense. The services of reformers, martyrs, preachers, and missionaries, are of a higher order than those of private and ordinary Christians, but they are not the more entitled to the character of real service than the sincere and consistent piety of those who are never drawn forth from the retirement of private life. Every subject of this realm is a servant of the sovereign, though comparatively few are called to serve her majesty as ministers of state.

To be a servant might seem to imply no very lofty eminence of distinction, no very rich honour. This, however, depends upon the dignity of the person we serve. When the queen of Sheba saw the glory, and heard the wisdom of Solomon, she poured forth her raptures in congratulations to his servants, who stood continually in his presence, and ministered before his throne. There are beings now so great in rank, power, wisdom, or transcendent excellence, that to perform for them the lowest office is accounted an object of ambition, and an enviable distinction. In all instances of human greatness the servant shines in the reflected splendour of the master. What then is the honour of being a servant of Jesus Christ? It was the boast of apostles. Paul, in the inscriptions of his epistles, calls himself, as by his highest and most valued title, “ A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST." And the angel which appeared to John in Patmos, took to himself the appellation as one in which he gloried. "I am one of thy fellow-servants." And who, that considers who Jesus Christ really is, can wonder at this? I speak not now simply of his glory as the living and true God, but of his mediatorial character, as God-manifest in the flesh. He is God and man in one mysterious and incompre