is, to put no such trust in them-"Thou fool," being the language of Scripture with respect to such. More questions of the same kind I might put to myself; and if my conscience condemned me, any troubles and vexations of mind that God suffers to harass me might be very well accounted for; for I am not doing the Father's will, and therefore Jesus will not own me for a relation. He will not have me for mother, or sister, or brother; and so He will not do a relation's office in being my comforter, but will rather so order it that "my table shall be a snare unto me."

But secondly; if we be brothers, and sisters, and mothers unto Christ Jesus, can we believe that He will let us want for anything in the next world that He has to give? Are we not naturally anxious, above all things, that our own kindred - those of our own flesh and blood, and who are near and dear to us should have their souls looked after, and their eternal interests secured, by any means we can devise? Could a father think with any calmness of a son's or daughter's everlasting miscarriage? Even the rich man in the parable, selfish as he had made himself, could not think of his five brethren coming to join him in the flames, without a pang more keen than the sense of the fire and the thirst that tormented him! It would be a heavy reflection for any members of a household to feel assured that at the judgment they should be severed, and that some of them would be seen no more for ever—the pit closing on them. But if this family interest, that none should perish that belong to it, is so keen amongst men, is it not a great thing to get Christ Jesus to be of our family, and so to get Him to feel after this manner for us and ours?-to feel, I mean, as a mother, or a sister, or a brother would, touching the everlasting portion of those of their own flesh and

blood? Christ Jesus, who is to be Himself, on that day of doom, the Judge, and in whose hands will lie the lots of us all, and who surely would not condemn a brother, or sister, or mother to the depths of hell; but rather would most joyfully welcome them to the mansions He will have prepared for Himself and them, eternal in the heavens ? Was it not His last act in the flesh to find a home for her who bare Him? Therefore let us secure Him for our relation, and He will keep our souls here with the care of one, and send them whatever is good for them; whatever will make their passage safe, and draw them nearer and nearer to Him. And when death comes, it will be only the enemy which He, our own very relative, will be Master of and destroy; and which He will not, meanwhile, allow to hurt or harm us. And when the voice speaks that shall wake the dead, it shall be as the voice of a mother, or sister, or brother waking us out of sleep, and telling us that the day is risen which shall never more set, and bidding us up and rejoice in the light.

hereafter lightened

Wherefore, my friends, as ye would prosper here and as, if poor, ye would have your poverty enas, if rich, ye would have your abundance sanctified as ye would have your souls nursed unto glory, and find in death the Spirit that shall soothe, and in judgment the Spirit that shall befriend, and in heaven the Spirit that shall receive you to Himself- "do the Father's will;" and so doing, ye shall have all this and more. For then your Saviour Himself promises you (whose word is never-failing), that ye shall be unto Him as a brother, or sister, or mother.

177

SERMON XXI.

OMISSION OF DUTY IS SIN.

ST. MATTHEW, xxv. 24-27.

"Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.”

TAKING advantage of this portion of the parable of the Talents, I propose in this sermon to draw your attention to a class of sins not so much thought of as others are—not thought of enough-I mean sins of omission. Sins of commission we take note of; and perhaps judge of our progress as Christians too exclusively with a reference to them; flattering ourselves, that if such sins do not appear, on a review, very numerous or heinous, we are in a satisfactory condition as to our soul's estate. It is well, indeed, if even such a partial review as this, honestly made, does not condemn us utterly; but, however that may be, more than

this is wanted before we can pronounce upon ourselves justly; we must sum up, as I have said, as well, our sins of omission; and this count will bring us in heavy debtors to God, most assuredly, whatever the other may do. And therefore it is that our Church, in the confession which she puts into the mouth of the congregation, and with which their public devotions are most fitly made to begin, expresses herself thus: "We have done those things which we ought not to have done; and we have left undone those things which we ought to have done;" thus leading the people to examine themselves, not only upon their sins of commission, but upon their sins of omission too. I have chosen, I say, the passage in the parable of the Talents for my text on this subject; for you see the charge brought against the man with the one talent was, not that he had done harm with it but that he had done nothing with it—not that he had committed what was wrong, but that he had omitted what was right. And yet you find that this sin proved enough to be the man's ruin. His reproach was that he was a wicked and slothful servant; and his sentence was to be cast into outer darkness, where was weeping and gnashing of teeth. So that the question we are upon is a very serious one; and a minister has God's Word to back him, when he denounces the terrors of the Lord against omissions of duty, just as much as when he denounces them against commissions of sin; when he preaches that they who do wrong, and they who neglect to do'right, are both wicked servants.

Now several considerations will make this point clear: I mean that sins of omission may be our destruction, as well as sins of commission. Thus we are commanded to contemplate our heavenly Father's ways, His dealings with mankind, and to be perfect even as He is perfect : not, of course, that it is expected of us we shall attain unto the

perfections of God, but that we must have them in our eye, and conform ourselves to them as far as human frailty will allow. Now what a world would this be to live in- if indeed life could subsist in it. were God to govern Himself, with respect to it, upon a principle of not doing mischief, instead of a principle of doing good! i. e. if God were to content Himself with committing nothing against it, but only omitting every thing for it. Suppose, for instance, God were to hold His hand, and send no pestilence to destroy all flesh-no lightnings to consume the creation no floods to drown it-no earthquakes to shake it in pieces; would that be enough, that forbearance from injury, to make this earth a fit habitation for His creatures? Is not more, infinitely more, wanting on His part to make it what it is? Do we not find Him filling all things living with plenteousness-showering down upon us blessings of all sorts with both hands, as from an urn; our existence secured to us by a continual, unwearied stream of active mercies proceeding from Him? Do we find Almighty God burying, as it were (to use the language of the parable), His infinite perfections; or do we find Him putting them forth, and exerting them incessantly for the good and comfort of everything that hath life? We then, I say, are not imitating this high and sovereign example, if we content ourselves with aiming at not committing sins, and at the same time think nothing of omitting duties: if we are satisfied with not abusing our talent (be it what it may), and are yet regardless about using it.

Or again-to prove the point from another consideration akin to the last-Christ Jesus is unto us an example that we should follow His steps. He, being God, took flesh, as for other reasons so for this reason also, that He might be a pattern for men. Now only conceive what an amazing