them; and this they sometimes did thrice a-day, thus spending nine hours a-day altogether.* Besides, it appears that they had no variety of suitable and full prayer, but repeated the same short prayers again and again. "Use not vain repetitions," said our Lord, "as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." But, whether prayers be long or short, few or many, they are always sinful when they are made for a show, or pretence, and in order to impose on men the idea of piety. They are always sinful when they are gone about with any selfish or sinister design. "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord; but the prayer of the upright is his delight."

And

"The same

For such wickedness as this our Lord, as we read in Matthew, denounced his displeasure, saying repeatedly, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" he added, as in the close of the us, passage before shall receive greater damnation." As there are different degrees of progress in holiness, and different degrees of reward, so there are different degrees of guilt, and different degrees of punishment. "He that knew his master's will, and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."“Therefore, he that delivered me unto you hath the greater sin," said Christ; and, "it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment," than for those who resist gospel light. Surely, such pride and hypocrisy as were here rebuked, deserved, and, without repentance, would actually incur, a very weighty condemnation. Our Lord called on his hearers to beware of these persons-to beware of being circumvented and injured by them, and to beware of resembling them.

So, let us beware of all such characters, lest they injure us in our temporal or spiritual concerns. A bad example, on the part of teachers, is peculiarly wicked and dangerous; and it is a great infelicity when people need to be on their guard against those who should be their guides and patterns in the way of duty. At the same time, it is to be remembered, that similar conduct is also very criminal in others, and that no hypocrisy, or inconsistency of any kind, in any description of men, can ever justify the neglect of religion in us. Whatever be the spirit or conduct of others, then, let us seek after true faith and holiness. Let us be clothed with humility; for "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to * See Lightfoot on Matt. xxii. 14.

the humble." Let us seek to do all the good we can from motives of disinterested benevolence. Let us, in particular, instead of oppressing, succour the defenceless. Let us seek to deliver the poor that cries, and the fatherless, and him that has none to help; let the blessing of him that is ready to perish come upon us; and let us cause the widow's heart to sing for joy. Let us practise "pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father, which is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world." And, finally, as God desires "truth in the inward parts," let us pray that he would create in us clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us; let us, in all things, study "simplicity and godly sincerity;" and let us, especially, be true and unaffected in our devotions, for the Lord will "give ear unto the prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips."

LECTURE CIX.

LUKE XXI. 1-4.

"And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. 2. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. 3. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all. 4. For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had."

HUMAN nature may, not unjustly, be considered as a compound of selfishness and of benevolence, of cruelty and of kindness, of impiety and of devotion. When we think, not merely of the more atrocious deeds of the murderer, the robber, the persecutor, but of the sad prevalence of that hardness of heart which remains untouched by the misery by which it is surrounded; when we think of the prevalence of griping worldliness, and envy, and jealousy, and scandal, and scorning; especially, when we think of the awful extent to which these evils prevail where they are not met by the counteracting influence of revelation, we must acknowledge that the apostle draws, though a dark, not an overcharged picture of men in their natural state, when he represents them, "as foolish, disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." On the other hand, fallen humanity is still humanity. Who can deny (or rather, why should any one wish to deny so pleasant a fact) that, generally speaking, there are in our nature an aptitude to feel at the sight of human misery, which produces a desire to relieve it, and a tendency to some kind of religion, which often prompts to great sacrifices? The very word humanity is a proof that the aptitude to feel is characteristic of the human kind. It may be questioned whether there ever existed a man who was so much a monster as never to have done a generous action; but there can be no question that there are many who are ready kindly to interfere when the cry of misery assails their ear, or the sight of poverty meets their eye, and who habitually take pleasure in diffusing temporal

happiness around them. And yet, it is quite possible that such kindness may be exercised without any regard to God, and, therefore, have no connection whatever with religion. In fact, this benevolence may be sometimes only entitled to rank with our instincts; and it has undoubtedly remained with us in our fallen condition, as being necessary to the very existence of our species. Nor ought we to withhold from this feeling any praise which is due to it: in reference to men it is commendable and amiable. Somewhat of the beautiful, in human estimation, has remained to our nature, long after all that was spiritually and religiously good has been lost; and, what is thus beautiful, we ought to behold with a corresponding pleasure. It is thus that we are pleased to contemplate the smile that rests on the countenance of the dead body, after the spirit has fled by which it was animated; and it is thus that we admire the elegance of the ruined temple, when ages have elapsed since it echoed the praises of him to whom it was dedicated. Now, the gospel is intended, not to destroy, but to improve, whatever is really amiable in men's dispositions. It avails itself of this natural benevolence, and superinduces on it far higher sentiments. It converts the impulse into a rational princi.. ple. It often awakens feeling where it is dormant; but it establishes the exercise of benevolence on a firmer ground than that of uncertain and temporary feeling. It fixes it on the reasonable basis of duty; it connects it with a supreme regard to God; it secures for it the divine acceptance, through the Redeemer; and it stimulates to its more zealous and more abundant discharge, by every motive which can have weight with a renewed and grateful heart, and by every argument which can bear on enlightened views of the glory of God, and the temporal and eternal welfare of ourselves and others.

The passage at present before us contains much instruction in relation to the liberality with which we should contribute, both to the relief of the poor and to the support of religion. "And he," that is, Jesus, "looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury." We find a parallel to this part of the history in the 12th chapter of Mark, from the 41st verse: there it is said, "And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury; and many that were rich cast in much." Having this day enlarged very much in his teaching in the temple, our Lord, before leaving it, sat down

opposite to that part of it which was called the treasury. The treasury was in that court of the temple which was called by Jewish writers the court of the women, a name given to that court because women were not allowed to proceed farther, except when they brought a sacrifice, and then they went forward into what was called the court of Israel. The court of the women was, in fact, the place where the Jewish men, as well as women worshipped, who came to pray at other hours besides those of the morning and evening prayers, or who, at those hours, brought no sacrifice with them. This court, as the word commonly implies, was open at the top, that is, without a roof; but it was surrounded with cloisters, or piazzas, above which were many chambers for various purposes. In this court, as already remarked, was the treasury, including every convenience for collecting and depositing in safety the money which was offered by the worshippers, namely, chests placed in the open court for receiving the money at first, and some of the chambers just mentioned, for emptying the contents of the chests into afterwards. These chests and chambers together had the general name of the treasury; as also had the place where they were situated. Thus, we read in John viii. 20, "These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple." We have one example of the use of a chest in the way here referred to, in 2 Kings xii. 9, and 2 Chron. xxiv. 8: “Jehoiada, the priest, took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar” (and afterwards, without at the gate of the house of the Lord), on the right side, as one cometh into the house of the Lord."-" And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the Lord the collection that Moses, the servant of God, laid upon Israel in the wilderAnd all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought it, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end. Now it came to pass, that, at what time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe, and the high-priest's officer, came and emptied the chest, and took it and carried it to its place again. Thus they did, day by day, and gathered money in abundance. And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the Lord." This method of collecting money in the temple was continued, and carried to a greater extent. During the last ages

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in