mercantile world calls a respectable man. He has no generous impulses, no heart, and, therefore, has not in him that which can awaken love in others. The just man is a very popular character. Secondly, the "good" man has power to excite it. Who is the good man here? kind man-the man of warm sympathies and loving soulthe man who can weep with those who weep. Such a man evokes the sympathies of others. He has often done So. The The case of Job opening by his kindness the heart of his age, and of Pythias enduring the punishment for Damon, and of Jonathan and David, are cases in point. III. THAT THE SACRIFICE OF LIFE IS THE HIGHEST EXPRESSION OF THIS AFFECTION. 66 Scarcely for a righteous man will one die." There is nothing that man values, as a rule, so much as lifefriends, property, health, reputation, all are held cheap in comparison with life. To give life, therefore, is to give that which he feels to be of all the dearest things most dear. A man may express his affection by demonstrative language, by indefatigable toil, by costly gifts, but such expressions are weak compared with the sacrifice of life. "Greater love," saith Christ, "hath no man than this," &c. The sacrifice of life for another demonstrates at once, in the most powerful way, both the intensity and sincerity of the affection. IV. THAT CHRIST'S DEATH IS THE MIGHTIEST DEMONSTRATION OF AFFECTION. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." This will appear, you consider, (1) the characters for whom He died-"sin if ners." (2) Consider the cir cumstances under which He died. Not amid the gratitude of those whom He loved, but amid their imprecations. (3) Consider the freedom with which He died. He was not compelled. (4) Consider the preciousness of the life He sacrificed. His life was worth all other lives. Truly, herein is love. Learn from this subject, first, the moral grandeur of Christianity. There is no such manifestation of love in the universe as this. Secondly, the moral power of Christianity. The motive it employs to break the heart of the world is this wonderful love. Mamre, sheltered, perhaps, apart from him. At last the from the scorching rays of We en introduction comes. him to be an angel to usour guide in a great difficulty -our support in a sad trial, &c. Do not shun neighbours. oriental noon by overshadow-tertain him, and time proves ing trees, three travellers came up to him, whom he entertained with the hospitality common to his age and his country, and common in Arabia even to this hour. These travellers turned out to be angels-benign messengers from the eternal heavens of love. The text is an exhortation founded upon this circumstance. Our subject is that "strangers" may often be "angels." I. Strange PERSONS may often turn out to be "angels." First: It may be so with the "stranger" who enters our household. Whatever his errand, in whatever condition he appears, though he be a pauper with a pauper's petition, if we entertain him we may find, perhaps, something of the angel in him. He may breathe a spirit, utter a sentiment, express a soul indicating a kindredship with the skies. Vulgar heartlessness often hustles from its door a suppliant in whom the angelic lives. Secondly It may be so with the "stranger" in our neighbourhood. A stranger comes and takes up his abode in our vicinity. For a time foolish pride, or unnatural shyness, or a meaningless conventionality, may keep us Thirdly: It may be so with the "stranger" in our Church. A man joins our communion. There may be much that is strange in him to us. He may be a Catholic, a Churchman, a Baptist, or Wesleyan. Still, entertain him with brotherly love, and perhaps we may discover something of the angel. Fourthly: It may be so with the "stranger" in our country. A foreigner enters our land-a Russian, Pole, Spaniard, Hindoo, Chinaman, it matters not. Don't despise him. Treat him kindly, and you may find even in him something of the angel, something that may contribute to the progress of the state. The moral is Treat all men with generousness and goodwill, and you may, perhaps, find angelic things within them. they thrust it from them with indignation. Yet he who receives a new thought may receive an angel-an angel that may solve his difficulties and enfranchise his intellect, and make the horizon of his soul beam brightly with unearthly stars. Secondly: A strange trial may turn out to be an angel. Adversity may come, and exchange your mansion for a hovel; disease may come, and reduce your strong frame to an emaciated skeleton; bereavement may come, and make home circle a deyour solation. Still, do not battle against these messengers. Entertain them with loyal submission to the God that is over all, and they may prove blessings in disguise. They may be like Lot's angels, dragging you from Sodom to the mountains of God. Thirdly: Strange charities may turn out to be an angel. Some fresh philanthropic or religious institution may knock at your door aud solicit your support. Do not thrust such charities from you. Entertain them. They are angels that can do you more good than you can them. "It is more blessed to give than to receive." "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." A CHRIST'S RESURRECTION HIGHER FACT THAN HIS DEATH. "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again." Rom. viii. 34. THE text starts the though that Christ's resurrection is better than His death-"Yea rather, that is risen again." I. HIS RESURRECTION PRESUPPOSES THE FACT OF HIS DEATH. His death is not to be disparaged. Its importance cannot be overrated; none can appreciate it too highly. It is the highest expression of love the universe ever witnessed the highest homage to truth, rectitude, and order, that the Divine government ever received. It was a deathblow to all past dispensations; it rang in the new era of eternal mercy. But great as is his death, the great thing is implied in his resurrection. There could not have been a real resurrection had there not been a real death. And that His resurrection was real, we have often endeavoured to demonstrate.* II. HIS RESURRECTION DEMONSTRATES THE WONDERFULNESS OF HIS DEATH. First: His resurrection demonstrates the absolute volunHe tariness of his death. who could rise from the dead by his own power, could have avoided death. His rising proved that He had power to *See "Resurrections." lay down his life, and take it up again. Secondly: His resurrection demonstrates the supernatural character of his death. Only a few of the millions that have died, have ever been raised to life; only one ever rose by his own power, and that was Christ. The supernatural resurrection shows the supernatural death. It is the resurrection, therefore, that gives a meaning to Christ's death. Thirdly: His resurrection secures the moral purpose of his death. The great end of his death was to give spiritual life to humanity, and this his resurrection ensures. He is alive, to carry on by his Gospel and his Spirit the great work of man's spiritual restoration. Brothers, let us think rather of the risen than of the dead Christ. A dead Church worships a dead Christ-bows before His effigy on the canvas -kisses his feet on the crucifix. But a living Church keeps her eye ever on a living Christ. Alas, the modern Church generally lives rather on the gloomy Saturday, when Christ is in His grave, than on the bright Sunday when He appeared to His disciples; -the blessed Easter of the world. THE LORD'S SUPPER. "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread: and, when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come."-1 Cor. xi. 23-26. men ac THESE verses give an count of what is called the "Lord's Supper." This supper was instituted by Christ Himself the night in which He was betrayed while He was observing the Passover with his disciples. On that night the He virtually directs minds of from all Jewish ritualism, and centres them on Himself. "Do this in remembrance of ME." True religion now has to do with a person, and that person is Christ. In reading the words of the apostle before us, there are four things which strike us with amazement. I. THAT ANY SHOULD DOUBT THE GENUINENESS OF CHRISTIANITY. Here is an institution that was started the night previous to our Saviour's crucifixion, which was attended to by the First: The gustatory. The Church at Jerusalem after. Corinthians, to whom the St. re the day of Pentecost, celebrated by various other apostolic churches, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and which Paul here states he ceived from the Lord," and delivers now to the Corinthian Church. From the apostolic age down to this hour, through eighteen long centuries it has been attended to by all the branches of the true church. Since its origin thousands of generations have passed away, many systems have risen and disappeared, nations have been organized, flourished, and broken up, but this ordinance continues :and continues, what for? To commemorate the great central fact of the Gospelnamely, that Christ died. Is there any other fact in history sustained by evidence half so powerful as this? These words suggest another thing which strikes us with apostle now writes, thus used it. They introduced a lovefeast to immediately precede it, probably because a Jewish feast preceded its first celebration. This led to gluttony and other evils. Hence, in the preceding verses he "When says, ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating, every one taketh before other his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not." The members of the Corinthian Church were converts from heathenism, and they had been accustomed, in their heathen festivals, to give way to gluttony and intemperance. Many of them, from the force of old habits, were tempted to use the Lord's supper in this way, hence they were guilty of the 'body and blood of the Lord," that is, guilty of profaning the institution designed to commemorate His death. Thus, they ate and drank "unworthily," and by so doing, ate and drank condemnation to themselves. 66 |