your transgressions, but he remembers even the sins of your youth. Sometimes persons sin from custom and habit; and know not when they do so for instance, they know not when they lie or swear. If it were possible to secure all their evil words for one month, one year-and read it to them-what a surprize would they express? Well not one of them has escaped the divine notice he has recorded them all in the book of his remembrance. And to complete the terror of this consideration all he has seen he will publish before the whole world; and he will also punish all that he has seen" with everlasting destruction from the presence "of the Lord and from the glory of his power."

Thirdly. The reflection will be found very useful to persons of every class.

Useful as a check to sin. For can a person sin while he realizes this; can he affront the Almighty to his very face ?-Impossible. This would restrain

us even from secret faults, and make us as pure in the closet as in the sanctuary, for God is in the one as well as in the other.

-O may these thoughts possess my breast
"Where'er I rove, where'er I rest;
"Nor let my weaker passions dare
"Consent to sin for God is there."

Useful as a motive to virtue. The presence, the eye of one who is above us, and whom we highly esteem and reverence elevates our minds and refines our behaviour: and we desire to act so as to gain his approbation. A servant feels this when he is before his master, and a subject when he is before the king. One of the heathen philosophers therefore recommended his pupils as the best means to induce and enable them to behave worthily to imagine that some very distinguished character was always looking upon them. But what was the eye of a Cato compared with the eye of Jehovah? Who would not approve themselves unto God? "In his favor is life. I have kept thy precepts and thy

"testimonies, says David, for all my ways are before "thee."

Finally. Useful as a reason for simplicity and godly sincerity. O let it banish all dissimulation from our religious exercises; and whether we read or hear or pray or surround the table of the Lord, let us remember that "God weigheth the spirits." If we had to do with men only a fair appearance might be sufficient," but the Lord looketh to the heart." And can we play the hypocrite under those eyes which are as a flame of fire? What will a name to live, a form of godliness avail us with him who is "a spirit and seeketh such to worship him 66 as worship him in spirit and in truth."

Let us then no longer suffer ourselves to be led by sense, but let us live and walk by faith. Let this important truth sink down into our hearts-that the eye of God is always upon us. The truth indeed remains the same whether we regard it or not-but if we lay hold of it by faith and keep it present in our thoughts by meditation, it will be found the noblest of all principles; it will preserve us from sin; it will excite us to duty; it will make us "sincere and without offence till the day " of Christ."

DISCOURSE V.

THE DEATH OF JESUS.

(GOOD FRIDAY)

Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.-John xii. 24.

DEATH-death the most dreadful of all events has often been rendered a blessing.

The death of a believer has been useful. It has encouraged and established those who were walking in the way to Zion with many a trembling step and many a shivering fear how it would go with them at last. When they have viewed a dying christian, and have seen the grace of God they have been glad: their courage has been revived, and they have rejoiced in hope. Why may it not be so with me? "The Lord is my "helper I will not fear." His looks, his words, his experience have also made an impression on the minds of the careless which has never been erased. After turning their backs on a sermon they have been convinced by a dying bed. There the evidence was too plain to be denied, too solemn to be ridiculed. They have admired and resolved to follow a master who is so good to his servants and who does not "forsake them when "their strength faileth but is the strength of their heart " and their portion for ever."-And the death of the saint has proved the life of the sinner.

The death of a parent has been useful. His expiring charge has never been forgotten. The thought of

separation for ever from one so loved and valued has awakened in the son a salutary fear. Returning from a father's grave he has met with God saying wilt thou not from this time cry unto me; my father! thou art the guide of my youth? and turning into his closet he has kneeled and said O thou in whom the fatherless findeth mercy, I am thine, save me. And the death of the parent has proved the life of the child.

The death of a minister has been useful. Some of the servants of God have laboured faithfully without seeing the fruit of their labors. One has sown and another has reaped. But the removal of our mercies by shewing us their value leads us to prize them. It has been so with many a conscientious preacher: he has been little regarded while living, but when dead his word has come with power to the conscience; his addresses, prayers and tears have been remembered by his people; and the expectation of meeting him at the last day has forced them to exclaim how shall we escape? -And the death of the minister has proved the life of the hearer.

The death of a martyr has been useful. His patience and fortitude; his joy and triumph; his forgiveness of injuries and his prayers for his persecutors have struck beholders, rendered a religion honorable that could produce such marvellous effects, led to an examination of its evidences; and faith and zeal have been the result of inquiry. "The wrath of man has praised (6 God,"--" and the blood of the martyrs has been the "seed of the church."

But where are we now? We have an example to produce infinitely greater than all these. Let us leave the disciples, and behold their Lord: The members of the household of faith and survey the author and finisher of faith. Jesus dies, and his death is the life of the world. The death of the believer has been the life of the sinner: the death of the father has been the life of the son: the death of the preacher has been the life of the hearer: the death of the martyr has been the life

of the beholder--But our Lord Jesus as he was going to be crucified exclaimed " I if I be lifted up will draw "all men unto me."-This is the meaning of the words which I have read. 66 Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, "it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much “fruit."

Go forth and behold the process of vegetation. Take a corn of wheat-how small, how insignificant, how useless it appears. But it is extremely valuable and with care may be made to stock a field, a country. But how does it thus multiply? Keep it in the granary and it remains the same. It must be sown to fructify and increase. Let it be buried under the clods and perish as to its present form and appearance-and lo it springs up, and brings forth in some places "thirty, in some sixty, and

in some an hundred fold." And behold the mystery of the cross, around which we are this day assembled. It was equally necessary for our Saviour to suffer and die. In death he becomes the principle of our life; by this he fills heaven with praise, the church with blessings, the world with followers. This is the fruit which by dying he brings forth—an immense number of christians.

For you know a grain of corn multiplies by yielding other grains like itself. "That which thou sowest is "not quickened except it die; and that which thou "sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other grain: "but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and 66 to every seed his own body."

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If therefore Jesus be compared to seed, and he be sown to increase, he will produce others like himself. If barley be sown barley comes up; if wheat be sown wheat appears; if Christ be sown christians are brought forth. This is a very striking and a very useful thought. For it may asked what are christians? And the answer is what was Christ? They are predestinated to be conformed to him: and as they "have "born the image of the earthy they must also bear the im