HEN our Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured, there came a voice from the bright overshadowing cloud, which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him." It was the voice of the Father concern

ing his Son; a testimony to his person, a notification of his office, an announcement of his authority to teach and to legislate. You can understand how imperative it then was for those who heard it to heed him. But now he is gone up from us. He has entered into the excellent glory; he no more teaches in our streets, yet still, as though present with us, he speaks to us. By the written Word, his sayings are handed down to us infallibly. Oftentimes, when the Holy Spirit rests upon God's servants, they become as the voice of Christ to us; and when that same blessed Spirit, as the Comforter, brings to our remembrance the things of Christ, seems it not as though Jesus himself spake to our souls? The admonition is not out of date; it has not

lost its telling point or its vital force. Still doth the Father say to us concerning his well-beloved Son, "Hear ye him."

Let us proceed to meditate on this sacred charge. The three little words may give rise to four short questions. Why? What? How? When?

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I. Do you ask why? Why should we hear him? It might serve for a sufficient answer, had we no other reply, because God himself commands us. This injunction cometh of the Father, "Hear ye him." Over and over again are we enjoined to listen to the voice of Christ. Every messenger from God ought to have our respectful attention, how much more the greatest of all messengers; that messenger of the covenant, the Messiah, the sent One, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Did not Jehovah himself say, "This is my Son." Son." It seemed reasonable that the Son should receive more reverence than any of the servants. If senators and patriots, counsellors and prophets, had been stoned and cast out of the vineyard, deference might yet be paid to the Son. If their perverseness had refused Him homage, their scruples might have sheltered him from indignity. Surely they would not go so far as to cast out the Son himself. There is a wilfulness, a defection of heart, an enormity of sin, in refusing to hear the Christ of God, for which it is difficult to find terms. Appointed, anointed, commissioned of the Father to speak to us, to confer with us, to make known amongst us the mind and will of our great and gracious Sovereign, it becomes treason and blasphemy of the highest order and the deepest dye for us to refuse to heed his presence or hearken to his words.

Why hear him? do ye ask. Does not our Lord Jesus Christ himself deserve to be heard? Peerless among the princes of heaven, is he not very God of very God? Immaculate among the children of men, is he not man of the substance of his mother? Here is a double claim upon our attention. Beaming with divinity, instinct with humanity, he speaks as never man spake; clothing the highest oracles in the most familiar parables. And will ye not hear what this God-man hath to say? Is he not perfect in wisdom, pure in motive, and undeviating in truthfulness? To whom should we listen, if we turn away from him? He has all those high sanctions which should claim our allegiance, and all those sweet traits of character which should attract our regard. If we will not listen to such an one as Jesus of Nazareth, the gentle, and meek, and lowly, yet the truthful, the honest, and the brave, to whom will we ever lend an attentive ear? O, sons of men, there was never mentor or orator so worthy of your regard as Jesus Christ; never philosopher who had such maxims to deliver or such mysteries to unfold as this man-the Son of God-the Incarnate Wisdom.

Why will ye not hear him, when the message he has come to communicate concerns yourselves, your present and future welfare, your most solemn interests? The tidings he brings are, indeed, laden with ten thousand blessings for us, if we will but incline our ear, and hearken to them. He comes to redress our grievances, to retrieve our disasters, to redeem our souls, to secure our prosperity, to effect our salvation: as an ambassador from God he comes, not to treat upon small matters, to settle petty disputes, or to advise upon local or

temporary affairs, but with supreme authority to show how sinful man may be reconciled to his Maker, how the foul stains of transgression may be washed away, and scarlet sins become white as snow. He comes to tell us how we may escape the impending doom of hell, and how we may attain an inheritance in heaven. To fit us for that high estate, and that blessed society, he comes to cleanse us from our corruptions, and to endow us with a nature that is divine, and faculties that are suited to the celestial glory. Such a message as this should enamour our very selfishness, and constrain our ambition to regard it with favour. Hear ye him, O ye sick and wounded, will ye not listen to the physician? O ye bankrupt debtors, will ye not hearken to the jubilee trumpet that proclaims your debts paid, and your forfeited rights restored? O ye outcasts, wandering all forlorn, in climes uncongenial to your health, your peace, your homely joys; will ye not heed the voice of a guide, who comes to conduct you in safety to your fatherland? O ye despairing souls, he sets before you an open door. Ye famished poor, he invites you to a banquet, a banquet richly provisioned with all the dainties of eternal love. With such words upon his lips, such blessed news to bring to such needy creatures, our Lord Jesus Christ may well claim to be heard.

There is a further argument which ought to have thrillyou, my hearers. With what zest should those of us hear him who profess to be his disciples. Years ago some of us took his easy yoke upon our shoulders, and we bless his name it has never galled them, neither are we weary of the load. He is our Master and our Lord, and if he be so, surely our

ing force among full many of

proper place is at his feet. It is an ill thing of us, and untruthful, if we call him Master, and yet will not believe what he teaches; if we say to him "Rabboni," and yet turn aside to hail some fellow-creature-be he a noted saint long since dead, or a party leader who still survives among us, as our captain and commanderin-chief. If Peter be our master, let us call him so; if Calvin be our master, let us call him so; and if Wesley be our master, let us call him so; but if we be disciples of Jesus, then let us follow Jesus, and follow him with other men only so far as we perceive they followed Christ. Hear ye him, O ye disciples, if ye be his disciples. Will ye enlist as his soldiers, and shrink from his lead? Will ye engage to be his servants, and yet violate his orders? Will ye who declare that he is your chieftain, and wear his uniform, cede your homage to other masters? Nay, by all that is honest and just, pure and comely, and of good report, the shame would fester in every believer's conscience. Ye call him "Master and Lord," and ye say well, for so he is; but prove yourselves to be truly his disciples by hearing him.

To the rest—I am grieved at heart that I should have to speak of "the rest," but we know there is such a remnant here-to those who are not his disciples, there is an argument, that if it tell not now, will tell hereafter. You must hear him in this day of grace, or else you shall hear him in that day of judgment, and perish for ever. Do you refuse to hear Christ, there are not any tidings of mercy to be heard elsewhere. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more