(2 Kings viii. 15.) In the same way, so deceitful is the heart, and, when unchecked by religion and by the Spirit of God, so prone to every kind of wickedness, that the man who suffers himself to hate another, can never be sure where he will stop. He has the cockatrice-egg of murder in his bosom, an egg which by God's grace may never be hatched but there it is; and, if a man allows his mind to brood on it, who can tell what mischief may ensue? Therefore God, who foreknows things before they come to pass, and who beholds the effect in the cause, the action in the motive, has declared that hatred is murder, because it is the root of murder; just as he has declared lust to be adultery, because it is the root and spring of adultery. If the murderer of his neighbour will be shut out from heaven, so will the hater of his neighbour. If the first can gain no entrance into the new Jerusalem, neither can the other, until his hate be melted into love. Love then is one of the things above, which a Christian is to seek. But what kind of love? A real, sincere, hearty, earnest, fervent, active love,-a love "not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth," a love like the love of Jesus Christ, who went about doing good,—a love striving to be like him who left the glories of heaven to die on the cross for our sakes.

The third of the things above, which I would have you seek, is peace. Christ is the Prince of peace. When his warfare and ours against sin is accomplished, when Sin and Death have been cast into the lake of fire, then will the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the peacefulness of Christ's kingdom be fulfilled, and peace shall be for ever upon the Israel of God. Those therefore, who would begin their heavenly life on earth, must be careful seekers after peace, avoiding all strife, shunning all bitterness and evilspeaking and contention, and even waging the war, which we are bound to carry on against wickedness, in a mild and peaceful spirit. For these are the Christian's surest arms,-forgiveness, gentleness, patience, steady and persevering kindness; and hard indeed must be the heart which they cannot pierce and subdue.

Lastly, we must seek truth. For God is truth, and loveth truth. All lies on the other hand, all manner of falsehood and deceit, all underhand tricks and juggling and cheating come from the devil, from him who is a liar, and the father of lies.

Now observe how all these Christian graces strengthen and support and fit and dovetail into each other, this supplying what at first might seem wanting in that, so that by the union of them all

the servant of Christ is thoroughly furnished and supplied for every good work. Might love and gentleness weaken the character, and unfit it for walking in the rougher paths of duty, from fear of giving offense? We are commanded to follow after truth; and thus will that weakness be corrected. On the other hand, has truth a sternness, which might frighten sinners away, instead of winning them over and reclaiming them? We are charged," if a man be overtaken in a fault, to restore him in the spirit of meekness." (Gal. vi. 1.) Thus what might be too severe is to be softened by the gentleness of the affections; and what might be too weak is to be strengthened by upright straightforward principle. It is this union of principle and of love, of every thing most zealous in action with every thing most patient in endurance, that made up the perfect beauty of our Saviour's character, while he lived on earth; and if we are his people, his disciples, his followers, his brethren, we must endeavour to grow like-minded with him. If we are indeed risen with Christ, we must set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

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SERMON XVIII.

THE ASCENSION.

PSALM lxviii. 18.

Thou art gone up on high; thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men; yea, even for thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them.

THE Psalm from which these words are taken, was written by David to celebrate the removal of the ark of God from the house of Obededom to Jerusalem. The fullest account of this event you will find in the 15th chapter of the first book of Chronicles, where we read that David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with joy. It must have been a glorious sight to see David, and the singers, and the Levites who were carrying the ark upon their shoulders, with its

golden staves, all in their robes of fine linen, and then the thousands and tens of thousands who were following with shouts and music: to see this procession moving up Mount Zion, to the sound of trumpets and psalteries and cymbals and harps, while the singers were singing with heart and voice the beautiful 68th Psalm, which David had written for this great occasion, must indeed have been a glorious sight, and one to make the heart of every pious Jew leap within him. But we are not Jews: the splendour of the Levitical service has passed away: the ark itself has perished: and so many things concern us more nearly than the Jewish feasts and ceremonies considered in themselves can do, that, if the 68th Psalm spake of nothing greater than the recovery of the ark from the Philistines, and the carrying it up the hill of Zion, beautiful as that Psalm is, I should not have gone to it for a text, at least at the present season. But we know from St Paul, (Ephes. iv. 8,) that it does speak of an event beyond all comparison greater and more interesting to us, and that, while David perhaps only meant to celebrate the bringing back of the ark of the covenant from a heathen land, and the bearing it triumphantly up the sacred hill, the Holy Ghost led him to sing of Christ's return to heaven after his abode on this wicked earth.

The same is the case with many other prophe