adversities, and at the close, of life; how much happiness, and prosperity would follow to the nations under their care.

But the instruction to be drawn from these words is not to be limited to the public affairs of nations; or to the relative obligations of religion and government. In this world, there are many Cesars and our king, our country, our wives, our children, our friends, our business, and our worldly interests, all with whom we acknowledge a connection, or which, in this world call for our exertions, or our care, — are all implied in the one command of rendering to Cesar the things which are Cesar's. Not only as prudent men, not only as endued with natural affection, are we bound to be active and diligent in the performing of our worldly duties; and in rendering honour, tribute, obedience, fatherly care, love, and charity, to our sovereign, to our superiors, to our families, to our kindred, to the poor; but as Christians, we may not, and must not, neglect them; since, though these are called worldly duties, yet is our duty to our neighbour commanded in the same breath, and upbuilt on the same divine authority, as the duty, which we owe to God. When, therefore,

you meet men with high pretensions to faith and holiness, in whose lives this faith and holiness do not shine forth, to warm and cherish their brethren; if you meet a zealot in

religious matters, who is careless of his duty to his king and country, unkind to his friends, and idle in his worldly business; be sure that this man's religion is far too imperfect to be acceptable to God. God will not split and separate his commandments; He will not suffer us to obey any two or three which we chuse, and leave the rest unattended to. He, who bids us render to God the faith and honour due to Him, requires also at our hands, that the ties and duties of the world should, in no case, be overlooked, or forgotten. Away then with those, who pretend that a faith alone in the merits of the Son of God has power to lead us into Heaven! Neither our faith, nor our prayers, nor our miracles, had we the power of working them, could set us free from a single duty of those which we owe to our neighbours. "If any man bridle not his tongue, that man's religion is vain ';" if any man do not labour to provide for his own, that Christian is worse than an infidel.2

It is, then, a fatal error to suppose that our strictness in rendering unto God the things which are God's, can justify us in neglecting those things which belong to Cesar. But it is an equally deplorable, and still more common mistake to fancy that, by leading mere harmless and useful lives in this world, by being industrious, civil and sober in our dealings with men,

1 St. James, i. 26.

21 Tim. v. 8,

we may be excused from the faith, the holiness, and the prayers, which properly belong to God the Almighty. For, how, my friends, can we in common sense expect that God will suffer us to make any such compromise; or that He will allow us to neglect Him, because we are upright in our dealings with mankind?

What should we ourselves say to a favourite son, who was always undutiful to his parents, yet well-behaved to every one besides? Should we excuse him for his ingratitude to ourselves, because he made himself useful to others? or should we not rather say, that the unkindness, which he showed to those who most strongly claimed his affection, was aggravated and made worse by the general good character which he supported in other things? "To others," might

the wretched parent exclaim, "to others, my son “is kind; — to me alone, hard and undutiful; "and every good action which he does to his

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neighbours, only serves to increase the bitter"ness of the conduct which he maintains to"wards me!" Exactly such are those who boast themselves in the kindness of their hearts, and in the accuracy of their dealings among their brethren of earth; while God alone, the Great Parent and Benefactor of all, receives no share whatever of their love, their honour, and their thankfulness.

My friends, while you are careful and troubled

about many things, forget not the one thing needful. While you are zealous for your king and country, forget not Him, by whose Almighty blessing that country and that king must stand. While you are labouring hard for the support of your families, cease not to pray, that God would make your labour prosperous! While you are anxious to pass honestly through the world, and to render to every man his lawful due; recollect, that you yourselves, your hearts, your affections, your faith, and your prayers, are the purchased property of Christ. Our bodies bear the stamp of His image; our souls are redeemed by His blood; our hearts are prepared temples, wherein the Holy Ghost should dwell; and our best love, our warmest gratitude, our purest and most ardent services, are all too little, when we seek to pay the debt of a Christian to his Creator and Redeemer ; and to render unto God the things, which are God's.

That we may so love Him, and so strive to keep His commandments, as that we, who now bear His earthly image, may be superscribed with the promises of the Gospel, and bear, at length, in our immortal bodies, the image of God eternal in the Heavens, may He grant, whose purchased flock we are, and who shall claim us as His own in the great day of final reckoning.

SERMON LVII.

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

ST. JOHN, xiii. 34.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: : as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

THESE Words were, as you have heard this morning', spoken by our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand for His leaving the world and returning unto God the Father; and when, in His last solemn meal, and melancholy discourse with His disciples, He prepared their minds for the loss which they were soon to undergo; and communicated to them those truths, which, as of the greatest importance, He had reserved for that aweful occasion which was most likely to fix them in their hearts the most deeply. The words of dying men almost always are long remembered. When the friend, whom we have loved, and who has loved us, is taken when we miss, at every moment, that company, which was so delightful to us; that counsel, which was so profitable;

away;

The 24th Sunday after Trinity falling on Nov. 21.