that proverb, "Out of pride cometh contention." Therefore choose not your more intimate connections from among the proud and the haughty. Choose them rather among those "who do not think of themselves more highly than they ought to think, but who think soberly."

Neither ought we to seek our familiar friends among those, who have established no regular controul over their own temper. Men who live for ever at the mercy of the boisterous passions, or in whom there is much of that sullenness, which is the bane of all domestic comfort, are assuredly not qualified to enjoy or to communicate the advantages of friendship. Meekness is the first requisite in those with whom we must daily converse; and he who cannot command his temper amidst the common intercourses of life, must very often forget, what is necessary to its more private endearments. In truth, unless we learn to controul our angry passions, we shall soon alienate even those, who were once most disposed to live with us in the harmony of affection.

But

But when we speak of meekness, we do not mean insipidity. There must be feeling, or there cannot be friendship.

The meekness of John was evidently full of sensibility; and sensibility, to render it the basis of pure and permanent friendship, must be supported and directed, as it was in him, by the love of God and of our fellow-creatures. You have no sure hold of that heart, which is not staid God. It upon have may many good qualities from nature: but the world too often debases or extinguishes them. To give them steadiness, they must be strengthened and exalted by religious principle. You must look upon them as the gift of God, to be improved and accounted for. You must see in them the seeds of that virtue, which will flourish, when the honours of the world are humbled in the dust. You must behold in God the perfection of beauty, which can never be admired or loved with sufficient ardour; in man, some transcript of it, to be a visible object of our regard, and to beget within us all those sympathies towards him, as the crea

ture

ture of God and the heir of immortality, which will impel us to the offices of an active benevolence.

It is by regarding these qualifications in others, and cherishing them in ourselves, that we shall secure,

2dly, The friendship of that Saviour who, for these qualifications, possessed in an eminent degree, chose John from among his other disciples, as the object of peculiar regard. In vain shall we think of being approved as his friends, at the great day of retribution, unless we are in some degree assimilated in temper and character to himself, and to those who shared his particular regard. I have pointed out the principal grounds of his preference for John. How far can we perceive in ourselves the same qualities? Are we labouring to become more meek and lowly in heart; more humble in our claims; more mild and engaging in our manners; more averse to embroil ourselves with our brethren, by the pretensions of pride or the ebullitions of anger and resentment? Have we learned to sanctify our attach

attachments by that love of God, which softens and improves every heart in which it dwells, and renders it more fit for the exercise of all humane affections? Are we acquiring more of a devout spirit, and practising more of an exalted charity in contemplating his character, whose meat and drink it was to do the will of his heavenly Father? And do we consider it as our highest honour to gain his friendship, by doing the things which he hath commanded us? We are this day to renew our professions of gratitude and affection. O that we could feel and act like the beloved disciple! Then should we be distinguished, like him, by our Lord's peculiar regard; our souls would be soothed by his doctrine; and our hopes permanently built upon his resurrection. We should then run and not be weary. Encompassed by a cloud of witnesses, and animated by the author and finisher of our faith, we should go on our course, rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; looking for, and hastening to, the coming of our Lord. Amen.

SERMON

393

SERMON XVI.

PAUL BEFORE FELIX.

Acts xxiv. 24, 25. And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled.

THE scripture history abounds with circumstances and events, which, independently of their forming a part in the general scheme of revelation, are in themselves peculiarly interesting to a reflecting mind. The narrative contained in this chapter, relative to the appearance of Paul before the governor of a Roman province, is a striking exemplification of this remark.

The apostle, after narrowly escaping with