business to be first finished, some plans to be first fulfilled, some will of our own to be complied with, in preference to the will of God.

Certainly there is nothing in which we more need, and less frequently attain unto, a portion of the mind of our blessed Lord, than in our views of apprehended death. This last enemy is the one which each man strives to remove as far as possible from himself, instead of aiming to conciliate as a friend. Instead of looking upon death as our admission to a heavenly inheritance, how universally do we speak and think of it as the most extreme of all afflictions, and shrink from it with reluctance as the most fearful of all ills! How few are prepared in mind, like our Lord, prepared, for their neighbours' good, to run even the slightest risk of death! How few would scruple, for the saving of their own lives, in any conceived case of emergency, to risk the safety of those who are around them!

A settled conviction of the worthless

brethren, in God's sight, would go far to make us more considerate of others, and less deeply concerned for our own security. A lively Christian faith, persuading us that to die is gain, and a fervent Christian charity, moving us to do to others as we would they should do unto us, these would make even death, for our brother's sake, a thing not unwelcome to our thoughts. And the mind thus made up for what is commonly esteemed the worst, how readily would it encounter any ordinary pain, how gladly would it bear any ordinary cross, for the furtherance of good, or of goodwill, among mankind! How gladly would the Christian thus prepared even to die in behalf of others, much more for their good put up with scorn, bear from them affront without anger, and thanklessness without intermission of regard!

Called upon to die for others we probably never shall be. But how often are we called on to crucify in their behalf our own vanity, selfishness, and ill tempers ! How often have we opportunity to submit our pride to theirs, to subdue our

own anger, when theirs would kindle it, and when their selfishness would seem to excuse in us the like, to overcome it, if it may be, by unlooked for bounty! Each hour that we have occasion to bear a cross like this, let us call to our remembrance the blessed frame of mind, which was, we know, in Christ Jesus. Let us pray Him that this mind may be in ourselves. And with grace such as He can give us, with purpose, such as He can confirm, to follow in his gracious steps, what lot should we esteem too low for our deserts, what offence too great for our forgiveness, what office too mean, what toil too hard, for our zeal to undertake, in the behalf of any brother who may need our help?

Lord give to us thy servants the mind that was in Thee! Make us content to be, like Thee, of no reputation! Make us willing to take on us the labour and the shame of service! Make us ready, if it were thy will, even to die for our brethren, far rather than they should perish in our be

us thy behaviour! Teach us to shew our mind in our conduct; to be, what we profess to be, followers of Thee!

SERMON XIV.

AFFECTION SET ON HEAVEN.

COLOSS. 3. 2.

Set your affection on things above. By things above, the apostle here means those heavenly joys in which the happiness of a future life is to consist. What they are to be we know not, but we know enough for us to set our affection on them, or we should not have been commanded so to do. We know that as certainly as we now exist, so certainly there is a state of endless life, prepared for faithful Christians, to go to when they die; a state, of which God almighty has in his word expressly promised, that it shall last for ever in joy and gladness. (See Isaiah 35. 10.) He that sitteth on his throne in heaven shall dwell among them. They shall hunger