it in his hand, present it to his lips; but this is not eating. In eating there is an actual reception of the food into the animal system. And in believing we receive Christ Jesus the Lord. His suitableness and all-sufficiency to our case are made known in the Gospel, and all the blessings of his salvation are brought nigh; but still we perish unless we are made partakers of Christ. How often does the old and good divinity tell us, that an unapplied Saviour is a nonentity to us. In each case there is satisfaction. Medicine may be necessary, but we are not said to eat medicine-we take physic; but we eat meat because there is pleasure in it. Food is essential to our subsistence; yet when we sit down to a well-spread table, we never perform it as a duty to save us from death-There is immediate gratification in the action, and this secures the performance. The reception of Christ is not only indispensable, but free and delightful. Like Zaccheus, we receive him joyfully. We not only submit to the method of his grace, but we acquiesce, we glory in it. We love his salvation. We rejoice in his name. In each there is nourishment. This is the design and effect of food. It is thus the child grows; it is thus the man is sustained, and rendered equal to his labour. And " the just shall live by faith." "The life that I live in the flesh," says Paul, "I live by the faith of the Son of God."

Every image applied to the Redeemer fails to do him justice. We say there is no subsisting without food; yet Moses and Elijah lived forty days and forty nights without eating. But to live for a moment spiritually, without Christ, is a miracle that never has been, and never can be accomplished. Food, though necessary to life, is not sufficient to preserve it. This was the case even with what is called" angels' food," and "meat from heaven." "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Blessed Jesus! thy flesh is meat indeed, and thy blood is drink indeed! Evermore give us this food.

NOVEMBER 15.-" Nevertheless, let us go unto him.".-John xi. 15.

He is never too confident in his resources, nor too late in his movements. We are often mistaken with regard to our wishes and designs. We raise expectations which we cannot realize; and begin enterprises which we are unable to finish. Among men some are strong and some are weak; but the difference between them is only comparative. The one may break a larger rod than another; but when you bring them to the mast of a ship they are perfectly upon a level. But he who speaks in righteousness is mighty to save-" He is able to save unto the uttermost." Therefore he says

"Nevertheless, let us go unto him."-Not to them, but to himNot to the sisters, but to the brother-Not to Martha and Mary, but to Lazarus. "To what purpose? Lazarus is dead. It is now too late." It would be too late for you; but not for me. Your extre mity is my opportunity. I turn the shadow of death into the morn

ing, and can do more than you are able to ask or think. I surprise as well as succour; and love to arrive at the place of difficulty when creatures are all withdrawn, having said, Help is not in us.

"Nevertheless, let us go unto him"-" But he is not only dead, but buried; and has lain in the grave four days." Can the dead praise thee? Can they who go down into the pit hope for thy truth? -What! visit a corpse in a state of putrefaction ?—He cannot receive thee, see thee, hear thee. But he can hear, and see, and receive me. Let us try what an interview will produce between death and the grave, and the resurrection and the life.

And did he go in vain? We can visit the "long home" of a friend. We can go to the grave to weep there; but were we to attempt to open an intercourse with the inhabitant we should be laughed to scorn. But Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth; and in a moment his lungs heaved, his blood liquefied and flowed again, and he came forth in newness of life! What a journey, what a character was here! Had you met him in his way to Bethany you would, in appearance, only have seen a man like ourselves. But had one of the disciples stepped back, as soon as he had passed, and said, There is Jesus of Nazareth; he is going to visit a man in his tomb; and could he have informed you of the result, would you not have followed him? Wherever I see him going I will go with him. The journey will be for his honour, and my profit-He cannot move in vain-Nothing is too hard for the Lord. When the Egyptians were pressing upon them, and the Red sea was before them, he said, "Go forward." What, into the deep? Yes, into the deep. To be drowned? No, but to go through dry-shod. They were to obey: he was to open the passage. In the first creation" he spake, and it was done." And in the second "he calleth things that are not as though they were."

Let us never despond, but trust in him. Let his all-sufficiency encourage us with regard to others. Let those who in doing good meet with unlikely materials to work upon: let ministers who seem only preaching many of their hearers into impenitence; let parents, whose hearts are bleeding over ungodly children, think of him who was taking this seemingly useless journey, and never abandon their endeavours or hope. Let them use means in his name; and by faith and prayer bring him forward-He can make these dry bones live-The Son quickeneth whom he will. And let it encourage us with regard to ourselves. Am I a sinner? I ought to feel that my case is bad; but it is not desperate. Hopeless indeed it is as to myself and all creatures; but in him is my help found. (He can say to the prisoners, Go forth. He can make the blind to see, and the deaf to hear-He can make all things new. Am I a Christian? Let me bring my confidence, in every exigency and difficulty, to his power, and say, with Paul, " I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." "Yea, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us." But, says one," My wound is incurable-He will not go to the grave of my departed hope." If he keeps away it is not because he is unable to re-animate thy dead, and give back the dear treasure to thine arms; but because his power is under the direction of his

wisdom; yea, and of his righteousness and kindness too. But the truth is, that he will visit the interesting spot-Thy brother, thy mother, thy child shall rise again. The period is coming when he will look down, and say to his mighty angels, " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep"-And, lo! he descends, and the dead arise, and you embrace to part no more. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

NOVEMBER 16" For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is ⚫ able to suecour them that are tempted."-Hebrews ii. 18.

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THERE can be no question of whom these words are spoken. Let my thoughts commune with him as the sufferer and the succourer. He himself suffered, being tempted. Then a man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. In this sense the Lord Jesus was not tempted, neither indeed could be, for he was the holy One of God." We are tempted when we are solicited to sin. Hence Satan is called the tempter: and thus by him our Saviour was tempted to unbelief, presumption, and idolatry. But the word temptation does not always or principally in the Scripture signify attempts to draw into sin. God is said to tempt Abraham; and we read that we are to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations; and that if needs be we are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Here, and in many other places, the word means afflictions. These are called temptations because they are designed and adapted to try us-to prove our principles and dispositions-to evince the reality and the degree of our grace to ourselves and others. His being tempted therefore, means his being subject to all the distress, pain, and anguish, which charac terised him a man of sorrows, and justified his saying, Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce

anger.

But he suffered, being tempted. This attests the impression made upon him by what he endured; and shows us two things-That his divinity did not absorb his human nature, so as to render it incapable of passion: and-That as man, his patience was not a physical apathy, or a philosophical insensibility. There is no patience! in bearing what we do not feel: and no resignation in giving up what we do not love and value-as there would be no virtue in fasting if we had no appetite to food. Our Lord, instead of being less susceptible of suffering than others, was more so. That which adds to the impression of pain, is the delicate and fine crasis and constitution of the part aggrieved. The composition of our Saviour's body perfectly fitted it to receive the most quick and sensible touches of every object. And the same may be said of his mind. A being dull ́and stupid feels much less suffering than a man of lively conception and reflection: in the one case pain falls upon a log of wood; in the other upon the apple of the eye. Jesus groaned in spirit: wept: made supplications with strong cryings and tears; was sore amazed, and very heavy; his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground-But the sufferer

Is also the succourer. The one is the consequence of the other. "For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." This ability therefore is relative and acquired. He was made perfect through suffering; and in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted, by way of atonement, by way of example, by way of sympathy, by way of efficiency. Able

By way of atonement. And is it a light thing to know, in our deepest sufferings, that we are enduring nothing that is penal? That Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us? That every affliction is only the Stroke of a fatherly rod, chastising us for our profit? That we are accepted in the beloved? That we can never come into condemnation? Able

By way of example. We are naturally like bullocks, unaccustomed to the yoke; and even after some degrees of religious experience, we know little of the holy art of" suffering affliction, and of patience." But Jesus" suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps. When he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth_righteously." And as in him we see what disposition we should exercise towards men, who are the instruments of our distress, so we learn also how we are to submit to God, who is the author of it: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me-nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." One thing is of great importance here. In his conduct we see that we are never to go aside either to meet or-to miss our cross; but when we find it in our way, to take it up, and follow him. Able

By way of sympathy. We may compassionate a sufferer, but we cannot properly sympathise with him, unless we have been through the same. Now he was in all things made like unto his brethren; and he remembers how he felt, and what he desired and and required when in our condition. He knows the poverty of his people much better than by report: he was poor. He knows the effect of slander: "reproach," says he, "hath broken my heart."

"He knows what sore temptations mean,
For he has felt the same."

He knows what it is to die, and to enter the darkness of the grave.
Able

By way of efficiency, Pity is not power. Many can sympathise with their connexions who have not the means of relief and redress. The ear is not heavy that it cannot hear; yet the hand is shortened that it cannot save. But he is mighty to save. He is able to save unto the uttermost. He can always support, deliver, sanctify. He can turn the shadow of death into the morning. He can turn the curse into a blessing. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. But this efficiency is the consequence of his suffering-" for "the suffering of death-he is crowned with glory and honour"-all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Well may he be called "the consolation of Israel!" Let us say of him as Lamech did of Noah, "This same shall comfort us."

Let us also be concerned to resemble him. Let us be tenderhearted, and concerned to comfort them that are cast down. We cannot do much ; but let us do what we can; and be little images of him who is the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, and as rivers of water in a dry place. What is most admirable in us is not our wealth, or splendour, or even talents, but those feelings which render us pitiful and courteous; humane and divine. And these sentiments are best learned in the school of affliction. This is one of the motives that should reconcile us to our trials. We are not detached and unrelated individuals, but parts of a whole whose welfare should be dear to us--and in that we suffer, being tempted, we are able to succour them that are tempted.

NOVEMBER 17.-"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, hum will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew x. 32. LET us see what this promise requires of us in a way of DUTY. It is confession; "Whosoever confesseth me before men." Three inquiries will serve to explain it.

First-Who is to be confessed? "He that confesseth me," says the Saviour. Him therefore we are to confess in his being, person, character, offices, relations; in his sufferings and glory; in his cause, ministers, and members; in every thing that concerns him as he is revealed to us in the Scripture. Only it is necessary to observe, that as the opposition to him is often varying, so the duty of his confessors will vary accordingly; and the truth we are peculiarly required to witness must be determined by the nature and exigency of the call. The Apostle speaks of being "established in the present truth;" by which we are to understand some doctrine particularly opposed or neglected, and the confirmation and recomdation of which is more immediately called for. According, therefore, to the seasons and places in which we live, we shall have to testify sometimes in favour of his divinity and atonement, sometimes against self-righteousness, sometimes against superstition, sometimes against enthusiasm and fanaticism, sometimes against Antinomianism, and often, very often, against a mere form of knowledge or godliness, without the power thereof.

Secondly-Before whom are we to confess him? "He that confesseth me before men." What men? Godly men only? It is an easy thing to confess him before his admirers-But we are to confess him before bad men, before his enemies as well as friends. Before the poor and the vulgar only by whom we are little influenced? Nay: but before the rich, the great-" I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed." Before the ignorant and illiterate only? No: but before the sons of learning and of science, who may pity or ridicule our want of understanding. Before those only who know us, and who would despise us for denying what we profess? No: but before those who are strangers to us, and cannot be aware of our inconsistency.

Thirdly-How are we to confess him before men? The source of the confession is faith; as it is written, "I believed, therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak." If our testimony does not harmonize with our convictions and sentiments,