Jehovah shall be sounded through the world, from the rising up of the sun to the going down thereof!

Saints above and saints below form but different parts of the same family. They now surround the throne of God rejoicing; and we are in training for the same sublime station. The militant and triumphant parts of this family are separated from each other by only a very slight partition, and such a one as is not totally impervious to the eye of faith. For, as the apostle speaks, we are already come unto mount Sion, unto the city of the living God, to the new Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. In these circumstances, we are not only warranted, but required to join our elder brethren in the upper courts of our Father's house, to catch their spirit, to swell their hallelujahs, and to sing as loud as they the praises of redeeming love. And this is more especially required of us, as we behold the day ap

proaching, which is actually to associate us with that glorified throng, among whom we shall finally take our appointed places, ascribing with them Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, unto Him who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever.

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SERMON XV.

LUKE XVI. 20.

There was a certain beggar, named Lazarus.

WHEN Our Lord undertakes to exhibit any particular character, though only in a parable, there is reason to believe that he draws from the life: whence it follows of course, that, when he set before his hearers the striking character of Lazarus, he had exactly such a person in his eye.

It is a rare thing for one found in a state of extreme indigence to become the subject of much observation. In the history of great and powerful nations, potentates and princes, statesmen and warriors, are generally set forth and dwelt upon with a studied prolixity. The conquests they made, the regulations they introduced, or the disasters they occasioned, excite universal curiosity. We read these details with a more than ordinary degree of interest, we treasure them up in our memory, and enlarge upon

them in our conversation; while the poor, in all their generations, rise and fall, live and die, as creatures almost unworthy of a thought. We make no inquiry about the actions performed, or the sufferings endured, by persons of this description. That they passed over the stage of life in incalculable groups, is too notorious to be denied: but whence they sprung, or how long they continued, or where they sunk, the pompous historiographer neither knows nor regards.

Towards this neglected class of mankind our blessed Lord was otherwise affected.

Born himself among the poor, and daily conversing with individuals of that description, he feelingly marked their ways and their wants, their pains and their cares. Not that any man was ever recommended to the holy Jesus merely by the circumstance of his poverty: but as the grand bulk of mankind is everywhere composed of this particular class, so he ever considered them as entitled to an extraordinary share of his benevolent regard. Meanness of condition was no bar to his grace and favour. He listened, on all occasions, to the complaints of the afflicted and the helpless,

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without ever discovering the smallest appearance of distaste or impatience. He never avoided their importunities, nor was he ever ashamed of being seen in their company.

Among many other proofs of his condescending attention to this inferior portion of mankind, we find him here holding up to universal admiration, perhaps, one of the very meanest among the sons and daughters of indigence and misery. Our Lord has not given us a long and laboured account of Lazarus the beggar: but, with a few inimitable strokes, he has marked the whole outline of this extraordinary character, taking in both the pains of his pilgrimage and the glory of its conclusion, the deep distress he endured upon earth, and the enviable station allotted him in the kingdom of heaven.

There was a certain beggar, named Lazarus. Whether this man had ever seen better days, we are nowhere informed: but it is well known, that such a statement of their case is adopted by the generality of mendicants, who employ it as an invincible plea to obtain relief. Lazarus might, perhaps,