sinners. That is, if the children of men had not been sinners, there had been no occasion for Christ's coming among them. He is the Saviour, not of man as man, but of man as a fallen creature. Had the first Adam continued in original righteousness, we had not needed a second Adam. Let us then inquire whether we have discovered our need of a Saviour, and have learned to follow the directions of his gospel.

The important instruction with which the Gospel of St. Matthew is filled, cannot fail to render the study of it increasingly satisfactory to every pious mind. Let us lift up our hearts in constant prayer for faith in believing the doctrine and precepts which here, by Divine authority, demand our attention.

Some sullen demon did a wretch invade,

And struck him dumb, to Jesus brought for aid, With eyes of pity first he him survey'd, Then bids the fiend dislodge, who dares not stay.

JESUS CASTS OUT A DUMB SPIRIT.

Tho.' murmr'ing and reluctant flies away
The poor man freed from his infernal guest
His great physician's power aloud confess'd

"THEY brought to him a dumb man possessed of a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel." (Matthew ix. 32, 33.)

Here is the healing of a dumb man. His case was very deplorable. This poor creature they brought to Christ, who healed not only those that came of themselves in in their own faith, but those who were brought to him by their friends in the faith of others.

"When the devil was cast out, the dumb spake." Christ's cures strike at the root, and remove the effect by taking away the

cause; they open the lips, by breaking Satan's power in the soul. When Christ,

by his grace, cast the devil out of a soul, presently the dumb speaks,

The Pharisees blasphemed. When they could not gainsay the convincing evidence of these miricles, they fathered them upon the devil, as if they had been wrought by compact and collusion. Because the people marvelled, they must say something to diminish the miracle, and this was all they could say.

Nothing can convince those who are under the power of pride. They will believe any thing, however false or absurd, rather than the Holy Scripture; while the reflections they cast on those who are doing good to their fellow-creatures, only show the enmity of their hearts against God.

Though the Pharisees cavilled at Christ,