of the proud, the revengeful, the aspiring passions of the heart; in order to contemplate a noble and affecting display of uniform resignation, perfect patience, and exalted love, under afflictions the most severe, injuries the most poignant, and persecutions the most implacable-we must contemplate the character of the blessed Jesus and follow him through his suffering life." He grew up as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground. He had no form or comeliness; and when we saw him, there was no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers, is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not. Patient and holy lamb of God! bitter anguish and misery penetrated thy innocent bosom;-and shall we, whose aggravated sins and guilt loudly demand suffering and punishment, expect to pass along the easy path of pleasure and indulgence? Scorn and persecution, pouring their revengeful fires on thy holy head, awakened only thy blessings and thy prayers; and shall we, whom the consciousness of imperfection and guilt, should cover with deep humility, proudly cherish a resentful and implacable temper? Sustaining

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the accumulated sins of a guilty world, thy innocent spirit was pressed down by the vengeful arm of divine justice-thou wast stretched on the rack of divine wrath till the agony of thy soul burst forth in great drops of blood-Ah! when thou didst thus exhaust the bitter dregs of that cup of trembling which the indignation of heaven had prepared as the punishment of our guilt, shall we impatiently murmur at those slight but salutary chastisements and afflictions which are mercifully designed to promote our spiritual and eternal health and perfection. O my soul, thy patient, meek, and humble Redeemer left thee an example that thou shouldest follow his steps. The virtues of humility, patience, and universal love, he powerfully illustrated and enforced by his own humble, suffering, and benevolent life. Worthy of thy liveliest gratitude is the infinite condescension of thy blessed Lord, who, to animate and aid thy obedience, has himself performed every precept which he enjoins, has himself sustained sacrifices and sufferings infinitely greater than those to which thou art called. Behold then exhibited in his life the most glorious model of duty, the most animating incentives to cherish those humble, lowly, patient and benevolent virtues, which illustriously adorned the Saviour's character. Distinguished and exalted the privilege of the disciples of Christ, that they are called to walk

in that path of suffering and trial which their divine Redeemer trod before them. Honorable those sorrows and afflictions which conform the believer to the image of his divine Lord, and prepare him for the fruition of those glories to which, as the reward of his patience, the Saviour is exalted. Murmur not, O my soul, under that cross with which thy Redeemer did patiently labor up the steep of Calvary. The path of suffering and trial which thy Saviour tracked out, thou must patiently follow, if thou wilt attain the celestial glories on which he has entered. It is the declaration which his own lips proclaimed and which his suffering life has sealed, "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.Through much tribulation ye must enter into the kingdom of heaven." Animated by his glorious example, and cheered by the heavenly voice, which, from the throne of eternal majesty and power, he directs to thee, * be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"resolve, to preserve thy allegiance to him amidst the most furious assaults of temptation and persecution,-resolve, to glorify his mercy and power in the most bitter agonies of suffering and death. At the altar, where the affecting representation of the sorrows and. agonies of thy Lord, forcibly reminds thee that those, who would resemble him in the glories of his resurrection, must be conformed

to him in the likeness of his humiliating sufferings and death, thankfully commemorate the animating aids and incentives to patience and resignation which his blessed life affords; -draw from the exhaustless fountain of his grace the strengthening succours which will exalt thee triumphant over the assaults of temptation and sorrow.

The suffering life of the Redeemer is calculated to impress on thee, O my soul, the humble, the lowly, the patient, and benevolent virtues which constitute the highest perfection of thy nature, which are productive of the highest joys and consolations, and which are indispensible qualifications for future blessedness. With the liveliest gratitude, therefore, should those sufferings be remembered, which are fraught with instruction so beneficial and exalted. There is no virtue however, which the contemplation of the sufferings and death of Christ more strongly inculcates than charity for universal love. Love is the celestial soul of his religion, it is the animating spring of every other grace and virtue, the eternal centre to which they all tend, and in which they will all finally become absorbed. This virtue, the inseparable badge of the true disciples of Christ, attaches the soul with the most lively and vigorous ardour to God, the source of every excellence, the infinite author of every mercy, in Christ Jesus, the God of everlasting compassion and grace. It inspires the soul

with the most lively affection for man, who bears the image of that divine Being whom she adores,--who shares in the common wants and sorrows that oppress her,-who is redeemed by the blood of the same Saviour, and sanctified by the same Almighty Spirit,and who looks forward to the same immortal destiny. Christians animated by the divine principle of love, will uniformly endeavour" to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"-to preserve the harmony and order of that holy Church, through which the streams of mercy and grace from the divine Redeemer are conveyed to them, and by which they are to be trained for the united and immortal celebration of the praises of their God in the Church-triumphant. Regarding cone another as partakers of these divine and celestial privileges, as destined for the same transcendent and eternal state of perfection and bliss, they will feel themselves united together by the most affecting and powerful ties. Yes-resting for pardon on the same precious blood, quickened and sanctified by the same Almighty Spirit, prepared for the inheritance of glory by the same course of suffering and trial, fellow-pilgrims through the same vale of tears to a blissful and eternal rest -united thus in the participation of the same wants and sorrows, in the possession of the same divine privileges, in the fruition of the same glorious and immortal promises, Chris