the world, and which prevents them from holding intercourse with any whom they consider as their inferiours in reputation or in rank. On the contrary, as our Lord was ready to do good to all, so he disdained not to receive kindness from others; complying cheerfully with the desire of those who invited him to their houses, and accepting in good part the proffered tokens of their well-intended respect. For such instances of courtesy he was reproached by the Jews as one who wanted that external severity of manners which they imagined to belong to a professed reformer of the world. But He, who knew what was in the heart of man, saw that gentleness and condescension were more effectual methods of gaining men over to goodness, than harshness and austerity; and therefore did not decline all conversation with men of doubtful or blemished lives, as long as there was any hope of making them better. It was indeed true that he was, as they reproached him, a friend to publicans and sinners; for he was a friend to every one to whom he could do good. At the same time, it is of importance to remark, that this benignity of our Lord's manners never betrayed him into the opposite extreme, never degenerated into that easiness of good nature, which too often leads men to slide into the manners and habits of those with whom they converse, though they cannot approve of them. Wherever the interests of virtue were concerned, our Saviour was inflexibly firm. He boldly lifted up his voice, and testified against vice and corruption wherever he beheld them. He freely reproved the greatest men of the nation for their hypocritical and assumed shows of sanctity; and the civility, with

which he was entertained in the house of a Pharisee, did not prevent him from inveighing severely against the vices of that sect in their own presence.

*

III. WE are to consider our Lord in the light of a faithful and affectionate friend, and his example as the pattern of all the offices that belong to virtuous friendship. The Apostles whom he chose for his intimate companions and friends, were men of honest and candid minds, and of great plainness and simplicity of character; men, who from real esteem, and from conviction of the truth of his mission, had become his followers, and who, notwithstanding the disadvantages of his fortune in the world, continued to follow him to the last. At the same time, together with those essential principles of worth, they had also great defects. They were most of them of timid and fearful disposition, of slow understanding, backward to apprehend spiritual things, and still prepossessed with the favourite prejudice of their nation, that the promised Messiah was to be a great conqueror, who was to rescue their country from foreign subjection, and raise it to empire and grandeur. Among these men our Lord passed all the hours of his private life, acting every part of an affectionate and faithful friend, commending, advising, and reproving, with great sincerity, and at the same time, with great tenderness. In his manner of living he put himself perfectly on a level with them. Some of them he honoured with greater intimacy than others; but like a prudent father in his family, he allowed none of them to affect superiority over the rest, and checked

* Luke, xi. 37.

all that tended to rivalry among them. He never flattered them in their failings. He never soothed them with vain hopes. He never concealed the disagreeable consequences that would follow from adherence to his cause. Again and again he inculcated what they were backward and unwilling to believe concerning himself; and though the questions they put often discovered a degree of gross ignorance, he answered them all without passion or impatience, training them up by degrees to the events that were to happen after his decease, and to the high part they were destined then to act in the world.

How happy would it be for mankind, if more attention were given to this noble pattern of fidelity and complacency which ought to prevail among friends, and of the indulgence due to the failings of those who are, in their general character, worthy and estimable persons! This amiable indulgence he carried so far, that in one of the most critical seasons of his life, during his agony in the garden, when he had left his disciples for a short time, with a strict charge to watch till he should return, but upon his returning found them asleep, all the reproof which their negligence at so important a juncture drew from him was no more than this; What, could ye not watch with me for one hour? *Of the tenderness of our Lord's affections, and the constancy of his friendship, we have a very memorable instance, in that mixture of friendship and filial piety which he discovered during the cruelty of his last sufferings. It is recorded, that when he hung upon the cross,

Matt. xxvi. 40.

beholding John his beloved disciple, and Mary his mother, standing as spectators below, he said to John, Behold thy mother; and to Mary, Behold thy son; thus committing his forlorn mother to the charge of his friend John, as the most sacred and honourable pledge he could leave him of their ancient friendship. The heart of his friend melted; and from that hour, we are told, he took her home with him to his own house. It is John himself who has recorded to us this honourable testimony of his master's friendship.*

IV. THE example of Christ holds forth for our imitation his steady command of temper amidst the highest provocations, and his ready forgiveness of injuries. Though he had revenge always in his power, he constantly declined it. On one occasion, when his disciples wished him to call down fire from heaven to punish the inhospitality of the Samaritans, he turned and rebuked them, saying, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of: for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.† When he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not. The insults which he often received from a brutal multitude, had no power to alter the meekness and generosity of his disposition he continued to beseech and intreat them, when they sought to chase him away from amongst them. When they accused him of being in confederacy with evil spirits, he answered their injurious defamation only with mild and calm reasoning, that if he by means of Satan did cast out Satan, his kingdom must be divided against itself, and could

*John, xix. 26, 27.

+ Luke, ix. 55.

not stand. At his trial before the High Priest, when he was most injuriously treated, and contrary to all law, was, in face of the court, struck by one of the High Priest's officers, what could be spoken more meekly and reasonably than his return to this usage at a time when all circumstances concurred to exasperate the spirit of an innocent man; if I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?*-When his enemies were completing the last scene of their cruelty in putting him to death, all their barbarous usage and scurrilous taunts on that occasion, provoked not one revengeful thought in his breast, nor drew from his lips one misbecoming expression; but, on the contrary, the last accents of his expiring breath went forth in that affectionate prayer for their forgiveness; Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do! Shall we, my friends, who have before our eyes such an example of generous magnanimity, of continued self-command amidst the most trying situations, not be ashamed of giving vent to passion on every trifling provocation, and fiercely demanding reparation for the smallest injury; we who, from the remembrance of our own failings have so many motives for mutual forbearance and forgiveness; while He, on the other hand, had done no wrong, had never given offence to any; but had the justest title to expect friendship from every human being?

V. LET us attend to the sympathy and compassion which our Lord discovered for the sufferings of mankind. It was not with a cold unfeeling disposition

* John, xviii. 27.