THE FOUR AND TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE EPISTLE.

3 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel ;

6 Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

7 As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;

8 Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

Col. i., 3 to 12.

9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness;

12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

It is always a joyful and pleasant thing to be thankful, and particularly when the benefit is great, and has been conferred in a kind manner. A sense of thankfulness must be a sense of happiness, and to perform a pleasant duty must be ever a source of pleasure, as well as a sure way to perform it efficiently. The Christian religion has created new feelings, new motives, new obligations, new pleasures; and while it has not entirely abrogated the old, it has nevertheless greatly modified, renovated, spiritualized, purified them. This change for the better is in no respect more evident, than in the marked modification and improvement of the principal ground of obligation. "Life and immortality have now been brought to light," and the great God who created us, and made himself by his act of creation our greatest Benefactor, has now done us a service in redemption, which the thanks of the redeemed of the Lord throughout an eternity, and the praises of all the cherubim in heaven, cannot repay. Worldly benefits must now cease to be man's chief ground of obligation to be thankful; and even benefits conferred on ourselves must no longer lay claim to all our gratitude, because benefits conferred on others must be disinterestedly acknowledged and felt. God, moreover, who in every sense, worldly or spiritual, has done us

more essential service than any benefactor we ever had, is entitled to a much larger measure of thanks than any; and on this principle does the Apostle here ground his thanks for the measure of grace bestowed on the Colossians. So unspeakably important, indeed, did he deem all affairs of the soul, and so entirely and exclusively the work of God did he deem their final adjustment, that he makes them the only subject meet to dwell upon, and does not even mention other blessings. And for a continuance of these spiritual gifts, and in greater abundance, and more manifest power than heretofore, does the Apostle here earnestly intercede, and, we doubt not, availed much.

It is still the chief study, the first prayer, the great joy of the ministers of Christ, that their "people walk in truth'." Preaching among them no other doctrine than Christ crucified, and placed over them for no less a purpose than to work out, so far as may be, an end so glorious, they, like the Apostle, pray that God may prosper the work; and they are thankful when he has prospered it. That their prayer and their endeavour may not be altogether in vain, and we, thus abundantly blessed, may not only know what God does for us, but what his ministers do in our behalf, let us now take into consideration, with a special view to our edification, first, the subject of the Apostle's thanksgiving, and secondly, the subject of his prayer.

And, first, the subject of his thanksgiving. He thanked God for the faith, love, and hope which "the word of the truth of the Gospel" had brought forth in the souls of the Colossians. He thanked God, then, not for any benefit conferred upon himself, but for a benefit conferred upon others. And he thanked, not man, but God, because God, and he only, had wrought the work. The ministers of Christ still rejoice in victories over sin, and still, when the victories are gained, do they ascribe all the glory to God. And what does this teach us, who are not ministers, but people? Does it not teach us that we should rejoice on like occasions and in like manner? Does it not teach us that we should mortify that selfishness which begets jealousy, quench that pride which dishonours God? Does it not teach us that we should envy not our brethren when their souls prosper, but rather rejoice, and that we should take especial interest in their soul's prosperity, and manifest great delight when they give glory to God? Yea, and what can be so good a test of the state of our own souls, as our willingness or unwillingness

13 John i., 4.

to do this? How can we so well prove whether we are in the faith or no, as by probing ourselves deeply on all these points? Let us ask ourselves then, whether we ever feel jealous of a brother's spiritual prosperity, or generally gratified at it? Can we acknowledge a brother's spiritual prosperity, or must we generally detract from it? Do we rejoice more in a brother's spiritual, or his temporal prosperity? Are we ever ready to render thanks and praise for benefits conferred, "unto him who sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb," or would we rather thank any than God, rather glorify any than "a Master in heaven?" Let us ask ourselves seriously these probing questions, and render the true answers. But let us put them at once and in earnest, and our hearts will soon tell us in reply,-whose we are, and whom

we serve.

But, secondly, what was the subject of the Apostle's prayer? He prayed that the Colossians might be "filled with a knowledge of the will of God"-with a holiness of walk "worthy of the Lord"-with fruitfulness in good works-with increase in knowledge, patience and long-suffering-and with thankfulness. Here then, as before, the Apostle thought first of others, first of spiritual blessings, and first of him, without whom he that prayed and they for whom he prayed could do nothing. This then should be our habit, if we would pray as the Apostle prayed, and be what the Apostle was. We should desire for our brethren every spiritual blessing that would richly bless them, desire it as a blessing infinitely preferable to any other, desire it in prayer, desire it in earnest, desire it of God.

Perchance many of those around us may stand in great need of the intercessions of faithful Christians-may not have that knowledge of the will of God, that holiness of life, that patience and long-suffering under trial, that thankfulness for all good gifts,-which shows the work of the Spirit of God written in the heart. Or, perchance, there may be those amongst us who are not entirely destitute of these fruits of the Spirit, but, withal, do not manifest them to their full extent, and need them to be greatly increased. These, then, are persons (and we are all surrounded by such) for whom we should be both frequent and fervent in intercession. And what must be the foundation of this Spirit of intercession? Love-the purest, deepest, holiest love the love by which faith works, and truth is known-for which preachers strive and people pray-with which a brother is served and a God adored. Since, then, we cannot well pray for

one another, unless we first love one another,—since we cannot desire that for one another which we do not already value ourselves, how can we so well ascertain our own state as by referring to our ordinary practice and habit in intercessory prayer? How can we so readily "behold our natural face in a glass," as by beholding it through so clear a medium? Where shall we find the truth so well, as by asking ourselves whether we make mention of one another in our prayers; and if we do pray for one another, whether we pray for their spiritual welfare as the blessing most chiefly needful?

And oh, may the Spirit of God enable us to come to a right decision in this matter. May we be brought to see and to know, whether the love of God be in us,-whether the love of our brother be a faithful love,-whether the things on which we "set our affections," be the "things above." And if our hearts at once condemn us," and "God, who is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things'," knows that we love him not, oh let us at once and in earnest pray, that the work of conversion may begin in us,—that the work of improvement may go on in us,-and that at length, by the gradual but glorious power of the Spirit of God, we may be made to "know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fulness of God2!"

THE FIVE AND TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. FOR THE EPISTLE. Jer. xxiii., 5 to 8.

BEHOLD, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign, and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his Name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

7 Therefore behold, the days

come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

8 But, The Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

In these words of Jeremiah are contained two distinct prophecies; the one fulfilled, the other unfulfilled. The prophecy fulfilled relates to the first coming of the Messiah, the prophecy not 2 Eph. iii., 19.

1 1 John iii., 20.

fulfilled to the final gathering of the Jews. The first coming of the Messiah is thus foretold: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness." And the final gathering of the Jews is thus presignified: "Therefore behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, the Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but the Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land."

To the latter of these prophecies we cannot give much attention, because it is not fulfilled; and "it is not for us to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power'." The Prophet did not prophesy to enable the sons of men to see the things, which they would not otherwise see, before they came to pass, but to satisfy them, when they did come to pass, that the events and the predictions corresponded. And although we may now think we see signs of an approaching fulfilment of this particular prophecy, yet must we not be puffed up with the vain notion that we really do "know the times and the seasons;" but rather wait, with "the earnest expectation of the creature," for the manifestation of the mind of God, and humbly pray with the mourners in the Burial Service, that, howsoever the affairs of the world and the dispositions of events may be ordered, it may "please God shortly to accomplish the number of his elect, and to hasten his kingdom."

But since our faith in this or any other prophecy not fulfilled, will be stronger and under better regulation, if we are made fully acquainted with the grounds of our faith in Jesus Christ, it will be a seasonable occupation, at the present time of year, to note the special force of those which the Prophet this day sets before us. "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I shall raise unto David a righteous Branch." It was always asserted and expected of the promised Messiah, that he should be "of the house and lineage of David'," and although he was apparently born, according to the flesh, in an humble station, yet is he incontestably proved, in his genealogy in St. Matthew's Gos

1 Acts i., 7.

2 Luke ii., 4.

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