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not men their trespasses: neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Let us learn from these repeated admonitions of our blessed Redeemer what is the only acceptable principle of every religious action, namely, a desire to approve ourselves to God in it: and let us particularly bring it into the instances in which it is here recommended.

Our Lord takes it for granted that his disciples would be both charitable and devout. Let us cultivate both these branches of the Christian temper and avoid ostentation in both; as remembering the day approaches when every one of us must be made manifest in his true character before the tribunal of Christ. And, oh, what discoveries will then be opened upon the world! How many specious masks will be plucked off, that the hypocrite's character may appear in its native deformity! And, on the other hand, how many secret acts of piety and benevolence, which have been industriously concealed from human observation, will then shine forth in all their glory, celebrated and rewarded by God himself, who sees in secret, and whose eye penetrates all the recesses of our houses and our hearts!

There may our praise and our portion be! In the mean time let us with humble pleasure obey the call of our Divine Master, and be often addressing our heavenly Father in such language as he hath taught us; entering, for secret exercise of devotion into our closet and shutting our door, excluding (as far as possible) every thought which would interrupt us in these sacred and happy moments. From thence let our prayers daily come before the throne like incense, and the lifting up of our hands be as the morning and the evening sacrifice. (Psalm cxli. 2.)

Christ himself has condescended to teach us to pray. Attentive to his precepts, animated by his example and emboldened by his intercession, let us learn and practise the lesson. Shed abroad on our hearts, O Lord, thy Spirit of adoption, which may teach us to cry, Abba, Father? to draw nigh to thee with filial reverence and confidence and with fraternal charity for

each other, even for the whole family, to whom thou graciously ownest the relation! Inspire us with that zeal for thy glory which may render the honour of thy name, the prosperity of thy kingdom, and the accomplishment of thy will far dearer to us than any interest of our own! On thee may we maintain a cheerful dependance for our daily bread, and, having food and raiment, be therewith content. (1 Tim. vi. 8.) most solicitously seeking the pardon of our past sins and the influences of thy grace to preserve us from future temptations, or to secure us in them! And may our sense of that need in which we stand of forgiveness from thee, dispose us cordially to for. give each other, especially as thou hast wisely and graciously made this the necessary means of receiving our own pardon! Our corrupted hearts are too little disposed for these sentiments; but may God's almighty power produce and cherish them in us! and while the comfort is ours may all the glory be his, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen.

SECTION XXV.

MATT. VI. 19-34.

LAY not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor

gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day-is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

How kind are these precepts of our blessed Redeemer; the substance of which is indeed but this, Do thyself no harm. Let us not be so ungrateful to him and so injurious to ourselves, as to harass and oppress our minds with that burden of anxiety which he has so graciously taken off. Every verse and clause we have been reading speaks at once to the understanding and the heart. We will not therefore indulge these unnecessary, these useless, these mischievous cares; we will not borrow the anxieties and distresses of the morrow to aggravate those of the present day: but rather will we cheerfully repose ourselves on that heavenly Father who knows that we need these things, and has given us life, which is more than meat; and the body, which is more than raiment; and thus instructed in the philosophy of our heavenly Master will learn a lesson of faith and cheerfulness from every bird of the air and every flower of the field.

Let the Gentiles that know not God perplex their minds with unworthy suspicions, or bow them down to the ignoble servitude of Mammon, that base rival of our living Jehovah : but we, far from desiring to share our hearts and our services between two such contrary masters, will cheerfully devote

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them to him, whose right to them is so infinitely beyond all room for any contest. Let us take heed and beware of covetousness, and make it our business not to hoard up earthly and corruptible treasures, but first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness; so shall other things be added for present subsistence; and so shall we lay up in store an incorruptible treasure in heaven, in which we shall be rich and happy, when the riches of this world are consumed with their owners, and the whole fashion of it is passed away.

While these divine maxims are spreading their light about us, let our eye be clear to behold them, and our heart open to receive them and let us cautiously guard against those deceitful principles of action which would give a wrong bias to all our pursuits, and turn the light which is in us into a fatal and incurable darkness.

SECTION XXVI.

MATTHEW VII. 1-20.

JUDGE not, that ye be not judged for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again, and rend you.

Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much

more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits: Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit: neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

When will the happy time come in which Christians shall form themselves on these important maxims of their great Master? When shall they be known to be his disciples by the candour of their sentiments, the equity of their conduct, and the beneficence of their actions, as well as by the articles of their faith and the forms of their worship. Let us all apply these charges to ourselves in the dear and awful name of him that gave them.

What can be more dreadful to us than to think of being severely judged by that God, without whose hourly forbearance and gracious indulgence we are all undone? Let us then exercise that mercy which we need: and to form our minds to this most reasonable temper, let us often be thinking of our own many infirmities, and be humbling ourselves before God on account of them.

Animated by the gracious invitations and the precious promises which are here given, with earnest importunity let us make our daily addresses to his throne; asking, that we may receive; seeking, that we may find, and knocking, that the door of mercy may be opened to us. And while any of us feel

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