neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." And I can tell you further, that He has not promised you more wages than He has to bestow. I have heard of some instances among mortals of a very shocking nature, where promises are made of handsome wages, which, when they become due, the parties cannot pay. But it is not thus with our glorious Master and Lord. All worlds are His; even the heavens of heavens are the Lord's, and the "riches in glory" are said to be "by Christ Jesus." So that the wages I expect-mind, not of debt, but of grace-when my work is done, are glory and honour, and immortality, constituting eternal life. Raise your expectations then as much as you can, I tell you that my Divine Master is so condescending, and so full of grace and love to His servants, that He will never deny you the choicest fruit that grows on the tree of life, nor a drop of the old wine in His everlasting stores, nor a note of the largest amount out of His precious Banker's Book, his own word; neither will He ever deny you access to His inner apartment and presence chamber, when you require it, nor a single privilege that is contained in His covenant, and promised to His Church. Oh, blessed Master. How grieved I am that I do not know Him more. How my soul pants to elevate and exalt Him. How will I sing of Him when I get within the veil, where our dear brother Bigg now is. But even now I desire to spend and be spent for Him, though the efforts I make for Him are poor, low, and imperfect.

III.-Let us now proceed to the third particular of our subject. I have shown you that the declaration has been made, that Jesus asserted it as His prerogative, when He said, "Ye say well, for so I am." Do not forget that His immutable love is exhibited in retaining the Mastership to Himself: and treasure up, I beg you, your expectations. Do not forget these. They relate to your wants, your work, and your wages. Do not evade any one of them. But beg of Him to give you constant supplies. Solicit His gracious direction to that department of the vineyard where you are to have your work, and live in anticipation of the wages being fully paid when He shall say, "Call the labourers, and give them their hire.'

A word or two, in the last place, relative to the duties and privileges that are here involved. I was amazingly struck, in thinking of this part of my subject yesterday, with our Lord's declaration by the prophet Malachi, and I have determined upon turning to it, in order to cite it correctly. "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master; if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of Hosts." Then it seems the first thing which is involved in this duty and privilege, is that the name of the master may be honoured.

Here I turn to the idea advanced in the former part of my discourse, that it is the daily business, duty, and privilege, of a real Christian, to honour Christ; and I would that every real child of God, especially such of them as He has endowed with means, opportunities, time, talent, or property, should be ready to use the olden cry which is sometimes despised, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Will you comply with my wishes upon this point, and when you retire from the house of God, go on your knees, and seriously ask this one question, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Then, if you like, and your conscience command you, go on to confess, "I have

professed thy name these seven, ten, fifteen, twenty, or more years, and yet have done nothing. I have been enjoying the truth as it has been delivered by thy servants in hundreds and thousands of instances. I have feasted on the privileges of thy gospel. I have been overloaded by the benefits of thy providence. But all this time, what have I done to honour thee?" Now this is a question, the putting of which will, I think, do you all good. I wish there were more of the Lord's family thus anxious about filling up their places in His vineyard. And this thought struck my mind with peculiar force upon the loss of my endeared brother, who yesterday took his flight to glory. I shall not, however, say any more about him now, because I shall reserve it for the next Lord's day, but just urge that it stirred me to inquire how short the limit of time, how brief the space to work, for Christ! If I were to allow myself but four hours to sleep, and two to eat and drink, out of every twenty-four, the remainder, the eighteen, apart from all beside, is but a very limited portion of time to devote to His service. Oh, to be altogether employed for Him! Is it possible that there should be members of a Christian Church, standing for years, and hearing the word with rich enjoyment—at least asserting so much-and yet the Church never the better for them? Weak believers none the better for them? The cause of Christ none the better for them? What are they doing with their stewardship? The sentence will soon go forth, "Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward." Every Christian is steward of his life, his health, his time, his talents, his money, and his influence; and he must give an account thereof to God; for "thou mayest no longer be steward." Now I want these inquiries to be awakened. The devil's agents are always busy. The Infidel race, the Popish crew, are always as active as the devil can wish them to be. Shall Christians then be idle? Shall the child of God be the only one to say, I have nothing to do, but to eat, drink, and be merry? God forbid. Oh, for a spirit of activity and zeal to be stirred up in the Churches of the living God, that every child of God may be made active for the honouring of Christ! Are we His servants, where is the honour we do Him? We are bound to honour Him by the circumspection of our lives, by exhibiting His likeness, by working in His vineyard, by going forth with the word of life, by performing our labours in the way He condescended to appoint.

Moreover, His commands must be obeyed. I have been amazingly struck with the statement of the centurion, "I say to this man, go, and he goeth; and to another, come, and he cometh; and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it." Now you all expect that in your families and a reasonable expectation it is, especially when the commands are not unreasonable—you all expect that the servant has just to listen to what the master commands, and the more affectionately and cheerfully he executes these commands, the more you esteem him. He is expected to go without hesitation, not to excuse himself on paltry grounds, but to attend to the duties of his office with alacrity. Well, then, do you expect all this from your fellow-worm, and yet you yourselves deny it unto Christ? "This is my commandment," says He, "that ye love another,"-mind the extent of it-"even as I have loved you." Do you think that you love all the brethren as much as Christ loves you? I am afraid that some of you must admit that it is very little. This is our Master's command, "that ye love one another, even as I have loved you." And then, referring it to the Father as

using the same commandment-you will find it in the Epistle of John, it is said, "And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment." So that, believing in Christ, and love to one another, as members of the mystical body of Christ, is His command. I would have you try this matter then, whether the duty and privilege. involved in these sacred appellations, "Master and Lord," are strictly regarded and attended to by you. Now to simplify this, just ask yourselves how many among the brethren could come forward and testify of your love to them, and bring forth such and such a proof, token or evidence, and such and such an instance of your sympathy with them in distressing and trying circumstances. Moreover, we will take the apostle's challenge concerning it, when he says, "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" Where is love either to Christ or the brethren there? Very plausibly, smilingly, and with apparent affection you may say, "Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. I hope you will get through your troubles, and that God will appear for you." It is all very easy to use kind words, but it is not so easy to put the hand into the pocket and assist your distressed brother. My brethren, love not with the word and tongue alone, but in sincerity and truth. Oh, say you, you are a hard taskmaker! Oh, no; it is my Master's commandment, not mine; and He says, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another even as I have loved you;" and He loved you so much as to give His life and blood for your salvation. Now where can a Christian be found whose love is like that? He says, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you."

Let me here mention one thing more, which is that His example must be imitated. I follow this on with the verses in immediate connexion with my text," Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am.""If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." Now without dwelling upon the simple act of washing the feet, a practice which some persons superstitiously observe in the present day, I conceive the correct meaning to be this, that the holy example of deep humiliation, laborious exertion, tender love, and kind interest in all that pertains to the dear disciples of the Lord, is set before us in his example for our imitation. Oh, for power to tread in His steps. Oh, for power to obey His commands. Oh, for power to honour His precious name. Oh, for power to do His work, enjoy His table, and expect His wages. Oh, for power to consecrate every energy of body and of soul to His dear name, and His precious cause, so that when the Master shall come and call for me, as He has done for my dear departed brother, I may be ready to attend the call, to make haste, and meet Him, and so be for ever with the Lord.

May He command a blessing upon these few hints, and His precious name shall have all the glory. Amen.

THE PORTRAIT OF A CHRISTIAN;

BEING A FUNERAL DISCOURSE ON THE DECEASE OF MR. BIGG, ONE OF THE DEACONS OF GROVE CHAPEL. Delivered in Grove Chapel, Camberwell, Sunday Morning, Dec. 17, 1848, BY THE REV. JOSEPH IRONS.

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."-Psalm xxxvii. 37.

THE delivery of what are called funeral sermons is usually, to me, one of the weightiest tasks that I have to perform; and that on a variety of accounts: sometimes because being a real mourner, as in the present instance, the deep feelings of my own heart render me utterly unfit for the labour. Then, again, the fear of extremes, lest I should say so much about the creature as to leave little or no room for my Master, God forbid! I generally err, if error it be, on the other side; and then I have the apprehension lest I should omit stating in full, what mighty grace has done for departed worth. These conflicting exercises render the task the most weighty of all that I have to perform; and therefore I crave an interest in your fervent breathings at the throne of grace. If the language of my text were to be explained by a stranger to the grace of God, or a man not well instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of God, I dare say he would be looking for perfection in the flesh, I dare say he would be looking for uprightness in the creature, and commend and uphold a multitude of things that might exist, or be supposed to exist; but sure I am, if I were to take that course, could my departed brother look from heaven and rebuke me, he would beg permission to do so.

That course I cannot take; and yet if I might take such a course with regard to any human being I have ever known, it would be with regard to my beloved and endeared deacon, who is now departed and gone. But no, I must take higher ground; and whatever may be the excellencies of creatures, and however endeared to my heart, my Published in Weekly Numbers, Id., and Monthly Parts, price 5d.

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Master must have the throne; my Master must be honoured and glorified; and I can only tell of what there is in the creature, or has been in the creature, as that which He has mercifully and graciously condescended to work. Having this idea in the text before me, when I mark the perfect man, I will describe to you what that perfection is; when I describe to you the upright man, I hope to have liberty to set forth the scriptural sense of the word; and when all this description of character is developed, I trust my hearers will have grace to examine diligently whether they possess it. Well assured I am, that the end of such must be peace, for my text says so, and God cannot lie. We shall do well, therefore, to see how far we are advancing in the description of character here given. I am fully aware also, that commentators have delivered some strange, and vague, and even extravagant things on the language of my text, and would fain make it to personate Christ. Now I do not hesitate for a moment to admit that Christ was a perfect man, that Christ was an upright man; but I cannot believe that the language of my text refers exclusively to Him, because of the contrast with which it stands connected. The language immediately preceding the text marks the character of the ungodly thus, "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree:"-I should not like to be of that description of character, even if no sense of blame could be attached to me, because it approximates so much to the wicked-"Yet he passes away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.' Then comes my text, after which it follows with, "But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off." So that my text stands in contrast with a description of character going before, and coming after; the wicked in great power, spreading like a green bay-tree, to be cut off and destroyed among the transgressors; but between them both occurs the description in my text-" Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace."

Let me, first of all, invite your attention to the sacred character drawn-a perfect and an upright man. Then, secondly, to the exhortation to mark and behold such. And then, thirdly, to the end experienced by such-"the end of that man is peace."

O Holy Ghost! help me to speak in accordance with the oracles of truth, and apply what I shall advance, with invincible power, to the hearts of my hearers.

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character that is drawnThere are two senses in The first is, as the man

I. First of all, let us glance at the sacred a perfect man an upright man." which these words are to be understood. appears before God; and the second, as he appears before his fellowmen; and we shall touch' upon both. But let that which is of the highest importance go first-a man, perfect and upright before God, viewed by the eye of Omniscience, sinless and complete. Why, say you, where is such a man to be found? Is it not said expressly, that God looked down from heaven to find such, and found not one- not one, but in whom there were blemishes-not one, but in whom there was sin-all gone out of the way, altogether become abominable, and that "there is none that doeth good, no not one?" And yet, with that appalling description of human nature in its fallen state, my text talks about a perfect and an upright man in the sight of God!