advantages improved and completed. We have the day of their dawn. Their Prophets and righteous men desired to see the things that we see, and did not see them; and to hear the things that we hear, and did not hear them. But blessed are our eyes for they see, and our ears for they hear. The Seventy therefore were to say even to Jews, the possessors of revealed religion, "the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." We have His word in our hands. We have His Sabbaths. We have His house. We have the assemblies of His people, and He is in the midst of them. We have His table spread with more than angel's food, and the King sitteth at His table. We have His servants, and the sound of their Master's feet is behind them. For they come in His name, and he that receiveth them receiveth Him.

He is not far from every one of us, in His gracious influences. O that you could be made sensible of your fallen condition, and of your need of pardon and renovation! O that you were convinced. that your understandings must be enlightened, and your hearts changed-and that all this must come from Him who worketh all in all-and that you were disposed to apply to Him! You would soon find that He is able, that He is willing, that He is near. Your cries or groans would instantly reach Him. He is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. He is nigh unto them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. But in this sense He will not be always near. Therefore seek Him while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near. And learn here also the true cause of your condemnation if you perish. It is not because you are lost creatures and are unable to save yourselves; but because there is a Saviour within your reach, and you refuse to apply to him, and will not take hold of his strength. How came the man without the wedding garment to be speechless? Could he not have said that it was out of his power to weave one, or that he was too poor to purchase one? This alone would have been some excuse. But the fact was, that garments were provided in the wardrobe, and he might have had one, as he passed by, for asking. But he neglected the provision, and was punished, not for his indigence, but presumption.

He is not far from every one of us, as an approaching Judge. People imagine his advent is a great way off, and hence they are so little impressed by it. But "the coming of the Lord draws nigh." "The Lord is at hand." "The Judge standeth before the door." This was said almost two thousand years ago. What then is the fact now? Yet, say some, it cannot be even now very near, for much remains to be previously accomplished. But God does not act according to our conclusions. He can cut short his work in righteousness. But let us allow the truth contained in the objection. Yet his coming by death is the same to you in effect, as his coming at the last day. As soon as you are dead, as to you, the prophecies are all accomplished, and your state is fixed. There is no pardon, no prayer, after death-after death the judgment. And is death far off? The days of our years are threescore years and ten. Many never reach this general average. But allowing the term to be generally true. Take seventy years. Yet what right have many of you to think your Judge is far off? You are sixty-five, you are

sixty-nine; that is within five, that is within one year of his conring. But take persons at any age-take them in middle life take them in youth-yet when you reflect upon the brittleness of your frame, and the countless accidents and diseases to which you are exposed every moment, you must acknowledge that there is but a step between you and death-between you and the Judge of all!

JANUARY 11.-"For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." -Heb. ii. 11.

WHAT cause? Read the former part of the verse. "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one." There is a spiritual union or oneness between Christ and Christians-They are of one God and Father. They are of one spirit. They are of one taste; one aim; one pursuit. They have one destination; and will appear with him in glory-"Where I am," says he, "there shall also my servants be." But the meaning is here determined by the context -they are of one nature. "Forasinuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” "In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren." "He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." This exception was not only necessary, but possible: and as Adam before his fall possessed truly the same nature with us yet sinless, so provision was made for the Saviour's participation of it, in the same immaculate way: and from the manner of his conception by the Holy Ghost, his humanity was the "holy thing" born of the Virgin Mary; and he is called, the "holy child Jesus ;" and it is said, not only that "he did no sin," but "in him was no sin." This becoming one with us in nature is without controversy a great mystery, but it is a mystery of godliness. It is the medium of our salvation. It is thus he speaks to us without making us afraid. It is thus he is capable of sympathizing with us, and gains our confidence. It is thus he becomes our example, and goes before us in the path of duty and suffering; and he can give his life a ransom for us, and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Men unconvinced of their state, may treat the doctrine with neglect or contempt; but, says Paul, "We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, His flesh."

For this cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren-And why should He be ashamed, seeing He is of one nature with them? It will not be difficult to find a reason. Though He is truly a man, He is more than human. The Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh. And there is a great difference between Him and us, in the same nature. There are not only degrees among angels, but also among men; and these distinctions are sanctioned by Scripture, which requires us to render to all their due; honour to whom honour is due, and fear to whom fear"I said, ye are gods." A king is of the same nature with the lowest of his subjects; is made of the same clay; and can no more dispense with food and sleep than they-yet does he call them brethren? Do we not deem it almost a miracle to see a prince condescend to men of low estate? A commander in chief will speak of his

brother officers; but he does not call the common soldiers brethren. The judge in court will call a counsellor brother; but not the prisoner at the bar. Though Christ has our nature, He is so exalted and glorious, that He may well disavow the nearness of our relationship, according to the feelings and usages of the world. Humanity in Him is worthy, but in us undeserving. In Him it is spotless, in us it is defiled. God is angry with us; in Him, He is well pleased -He always did the things that pleased IIim. We are mortal, and crushed before the moth; but He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him-He is at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high.

For we must consider not what He was, but what He now is. While all the members of a family are in obscurity, they all feel the same towards each other; but if one of them be elevated, as David was, to the highest condition in the state, he may be easily tempted to shame, in acknowledging the rest who are left so much below him. But though Jesus is passed into the heavens, and angels, principalities, and powers, are made subject unto Him, and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come, He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities; He is not ashamed to call us brethren. It is indeed observable that it was after his resurrection He gave his disciples this name: "Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee." Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." And when He comes in his glory, and before Him will be gathered all nations, even as the Judge of all, He will not be ashamed to say, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me."

Let this thought dignify us. The honour will not make us proud, since by the grace of God we are what we are; and the more we have, the more we owe.

Let it console and encourage us. If He calls Himself our brother, He will perform all that the relation implies and requires in its most perfect discharge. He will correspond with us. He will visit us. He will defend us. He will provide for us. Joseph supported all his father's house; and because He lives we shall live also.

And if He is not ashamed to own us-shall we ever be ashamed to acknowledge Him? "He that is ashamed of me, and of my words, in this sinful and adulterous generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He cometh in the clouds of heaven with the holy angels." But surely terror is not necessary here— surely ingenuousness, affected with a sense of our dependence and obligations, will be enough to induce us to say,

"Ashamed of Jesus! of that Friend
On whom my heavenly hopes depend!
It must not be-be this my shame,
That I no more revere His name."

JANUARY 12.-"In that night was Pelshazzar the king of the Chaldeans elain."-Dan. v. 30.

OBSERVE the person-the event-and the season.

The person was Belshazzar. He is not easily identified in profane history, and little is said of him in the Scriptures of Truth.

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He was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. Merodach Baladin was his father. His mother was Nitocris, a woman of a masculine understanding, and to whose counsel he was much indebted. He appears in the sacred story like a man by the way-side, hung in frons. The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot, or if preserved, it is perpetuated in disgrace. The noticing of some persons is renown, of others is infamy. Amyot, Bishop of Auxerre, and great almoner of France, not long before his death, was urged to write the history of his country; "I love Let us my sovereigns too well," said he, "to write their lives."

so live, as, when dead, we may yet speak, or be spoken of, to our honour, and the improvement of others.

The event-he was slain." Though a king, and even called "The king of kings," he yields to "the king of terrors." "Isaid, ye are gods; but ye shall die like men, and be as one of the princes. Man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." The dwellers in dust, who had once trembled before him, are represented as insulting the king of Babylon. "Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee"-What a change! -But observe, not only his death, but the manner of it. He might have died in a good old age, and gradually, and in a peaceful bedbut he is cut off prematurely, suddenly, and violently-he was slain.

When?"That night." What night? The night of his festivity. He had made a great feast unto a thousand of his lords, and music, and dancing, and every kind of indulgence filled the palace. How little did he suspect the vicinage of danger; of death! Marriage rites have sometimes been prevented, or immediately followed by funeral solemnities. A man has built and embellished a mansion, and prepared an entertainment to crown his wishes; but instead of taking possession of it, he has entered the house appointed for all living. Another has planned a favourite journey, but at the very commencement of it, he has been turned into the way of all the earth. "Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." That night was the king of the Chaldeans slain. What night?

The night of his wickedness. Festivity, and intemperance and profaneness, generally go together. Job therefore, though he did not oppose the feasting of his sons in each other's houses, yet feared for them; and prayed and offered sacrifices, lest they should have sinned, and cursed God in their heart. But what dreadful excess of riot was here! "Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone." Sentence against an evil work is not always speedily executed; for God is long suffering, not willing that any should perish. But sin has frequently been

instantly punished; as we see in the case of Lot's wife, and Gehazi, and Herod, and Ananias and Sapphira. And are there no instances of this now? What transgressor can be sure that he shall not die in the very act of iniquity? His breath is in his nostrils; there is but a step between him and death. A liar has dropped down dead with a lie on his lips. A swearer has called for damnation upon his soul, and the prayer has no sooner been offered than answered. The drunkard, in the midst of his intoxication, has been brought to soberness in a place where a drop of water cannot be found to cool his tongue. Derangement also may be, in effect, the same as sudden death. "He, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." What night? The night of his visitation. "In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." The effect at first seems remarkable, as the import of the inscription was unknown. Yet what can be more alarming than strangeness and uncertainty? But why does he not suppose that the prodigy is favourable, containing an encomium, or a promise? Conscience forebodes the meaning. But Daniel explains it clearly; and admonishes him—but unavailingly. He had been warned before. This was the last address, and not designed for his salvation. Of what use, as to his moral state and disposition, were a few moments of confusion, and terror, and attempted resistance, or flight? And what better, for the purpose of repentance, are the hours or moments upon which many are suspending an attention to the things that belong to their peace? Death-bed alarms and prayers, and the exercises which attend them, are most likely, if useful at all, to benefit the living rather than the dead.

Well! where is he now? Where he has been ever since that night in which he was slain. What a length of duration! And yet after two thousand five hundred years he is not yet brought to trial! Ah! not the extinction of being, but the intermediate state, and afterward the Judgment-this, this renders death so awful. O that we were wise. that we understood this, that we considered our latter end!

JANUARY 13.-" And Joseph called the name of the first-born Manasseh: for God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim: for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."-Gen. xli. 51, 52.

THERE was nothing extraordinary in his thus giving them significant names. It was usual in those early ages to attach names to things, places, and persons, in order to mark any particular occurrence, and to be a memento of it. Thus, after the victory between Mizpeh and Shen, Samuel took a stone and called it "Ebenezer," saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Thus, when God had appeared for him, Abraham call the mount "Jehovah Jireh ;" the Lord will provide. Thus Pharaoh, upon the promotion of Joseph,