will undoubtedly meet with. And you need neither be insensible to such returns, nor unthankful for them but they are not the things, the hope of which must incite you to exertion.

What you do must be done for Christ's sake; because you love Him; because you love His little ones, and "His brethren that are in the world;" because you desire to be like Him, and to follow His steps; because from Him, and Him only, you look for your reward.

This must be your motive, your principle of action. In this, amid disappointments, you shall find support and encouragement; in this you shall assuredly find hereafter, your eternal recompence of glory.

Bliss more perfect than tongue can tell, or heart conceive, shall be the portion of those for whom even the lowest place in heaven is prepared: but if, as we stand before the throne of God, redeemed ourselves, and absorbed in the reality of our own happiness, and the mercies of a Saviour's love,-if, I say, that joy can receive an addition which will overwhelm us with its fulness ;-yea, if, in our unfading crown of glory, one more jewel may be yet inserted, which shall increase its blinding lustre, and enhance its inestimable value, that addition to our joy shall be to find the seed we have sown beside all waters, ripened for an harvest, whose fruits,-"good measure,

pressed down, and shaken together, and running over" is now returned into our own bosoms;—that jewel in our crown shall be the knowledge that many, yea, that one immortal soul, aye, of the poorest, the weakest, the most ignorant of mankind, has been brought, through our instrumentality, to the Cross of Christ, and that we with him, and he with us, are now secure for ever amid the joys of our Lord.

"A CERTAIN man," said our blessed Lord, in reply to one who had expressed his sense of the blessedness of those to whom it should be given to eat bread in the kingdom of God,-" A certain man made a great supper, and bade many and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse, The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and, therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and

showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper."

It can be scarcely needful, my brethren, for me to remind you, that this parable was addressed originally to the Jews, and had its primary reference to their reception of God's proffered mercies in Christ Jesus. They had been first invited as the most favoured guests to the "great supper." The lost sheep of the house of Israel were first called into the fold. To them the Gospel was first preached.

But they refused the gracious invitation: they would not be convinced in spite of the clearest evidence that God could give or man receive, that the Lord Jesus was He to whom all the prophets gave witness; their pride and their prejudices forbade them to acknowledge Him to be the Messiah, Who confessed unhesitatingly that His kingdom was not of this world; they shut their ears against the "glad