of their receiving the benefits of that covenant under which they are; and such the God of mercy allows and invites man to partake of. Our Lord invites us to that very species of intercourse with Himself which forms even among human friends our greatest solace and sweetest union; but here it is to the most exalted degree of it-to the habitual intercourse with Him who is subject to no decay, and who will never leave us nor forsake us, unless we first forsake and cease to love Him; to that converse, to that union which subsists between the creature and his Maker; between the believer and his Redeemer; between the pure in heart and God. He allows, he bids us in prayer to open our hearts and tell out our sorrows to Him-those hearts, hearts, the inmost thoughts of which he knoweth and is privy tothose sorrows, often which no one but God and ourselves know; he admits, he invites us to that unbosoming of ourselves to Him, who (unlike often the vain wish and power of mortals) can supply our wants, direct us in our difficulties, strengthen us in our weakness, give assurance to the doubting, pour balm into the wounded spirit,

bind up the broken-hearted, and speak peace to the troubled soul; "if ye, saith he, abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

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And what greater encouragement amidst all the weaknesses and wants to which we stand exposed? What more desirable, than access, with confidence and ease, to Him whose help we always stand in need of whose help is mighty to save from whose only gift all the relief we are capable of does and must come? What more powerful incitement to come daily unto Him for our daily bread, than to know that if we abide in his love by a diligent and continual converse with Him, whatever is needful for us, will, through our Saviour, and from Him, be vouchsafed? nay that he represents himself even as taking pleasure in the thought of such as come unto Him for that end; "these things," says he, "have I spoken unto you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full;" be careful, therefore, to do all those things which I command you; be careful to improve yourselves in those

heavenly affections, of which I shall soon give you an example, by laying down my life for mankind. He makes his boundless love to mankind the ground and the measure of their's, both towards himself and others, both towards God and man, "this is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.

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The strength of human friendship is estimated by the services it will perform, and cemented by the sufferings undergone for its sake; it has led men to hardships, to privations, to the noblest exertions of which the mind is capable; the obligation, however, even there, depends upon the relation in which the parties stand to each other, upon necessities on the one hand, or disinterestedness on the other; upon the danger which is averted, or the blessing which is secured by it; upon every possible degree of sacrifice which is made. How far beyond all other comparisons, both in its degree, its nature, and its consequences, and every instance intended to be illustrated by it, exceeds that stupendous instance of

our Saviour's, "greater love," saith he, "hath no

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man than this, viz. that he lay down his life for his friends;" and, turning towards Himself, as the proper object of them, some of the strongest human feelings, adds, with such benignant tenderness, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." He maketh that the tie of union with Him and with each other-he "hath loved us" with an unexampled affection, which hath approved itself even unto death, and in return he bids us to love Him and one another.

It is the excellence of the Christian faith, that all its peculiar doctrines do but increase the effect which even natural religion is calculated to have upon the human heart, and to fix the best affections of the soul on God. The incarnation, the divinity, the sufferings, the very character of our Lord, however they are, and must, perhaps for ever, while we are in this mortal state, remain in some parts unfathomable by our understandings, are yet adapted to all we know and feel; they awe, and attract, and call forth our love, our trust, our confidence

13 Verse 13.

in the great author and finisher of our faith. He "talketh with us, indeed, as a friend," telling us of our plain, our essential, our eternal interests, and by what means alone they can be secured; "henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends;" as the most tender of any earthly friends would labour for your good, I, in degrees and ways as yet unknown to you, have laboured more abundantly than they all, to accomplish your salvation, and ye cannot on your parts further that great plan more than by thus working with me, by endeavouring to maintain that friendship still inviolate, and, in remembrance of me, to "keep my sayings," that I may still be "with you and in you."

The words of those who are gone are generally held sacred; their desires influence our conduct; and we look back to whatever excellence they possessed as an example to follow. In the Saviour of the world there is every thing to excite our reverence, to awaken our consideration, and to engage our love. Can our thoughts dwell on

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