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IX.

DISC. find one that can stand in competition with that which was conferred upon him"The disciple whom Jefus loved!" Beloved of Him who was himself the beloved of his Father! Could we fuppofe a prince to reign univerfal monarch over all the kingdoms of the world, the fole fountain of every kind of earthly honour to every individual man under the whole heavens, how gladly, at the hour of death, would he resign all, to be the beloved difciple of fuch a Master? And if nothing be efteemed too high a price for the favour of an earthly fovereign, a man, whose breath is in his noftrils, what fhall we not give to obtain the love of him who abideth for ever, and will make us partakers of his own immortality? We are all the difciples of Chrift, and candidates for his favour. Let us, therefore, take a view of the life and character of the perfon who enjoyed fo large a share of it, as to be styled eminently" that difciple whom Jefus loved;" fince, to be like him, is the way to be loved of our Mafter as he was.

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St. John was the son of Zebedee and DISC. Salome; the fame Salome whofe pious care had provided spices to embalm the body of our Lord, when Mary Magdalen and she, coming early to the fepulchre, found him risen from the dead. The place of his birth was one of the fea-towns in Galilee, probably either Bethfaida or Capernaum, where, with his father Zebedee, and his elder brother James, afterwards diftinguished from another of that name by the title of St. James the Great, he followed the fishing trade. Youth is no obftacle in the way of obtaining the favour of Christ. The disciple whom he loved was the youngest of all the Apoftles. And certain it is, that religion never appears to greater advantage, than in the perfons of those who "remember their Creator in the days

of their youth," and are admitted early into the number of the difciples of the holy Jefus. It is then like a diamond fet in gold. There is something more noble in renouncing the world for the love of Chrift, when the relish for fenfible enjoyments

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is at the higheft, than there can be in doing it when the evil days come, in which there is no farther pleasure or fatisfaction to be had in earthly things. He

furely is not fo likely to accomplish his journey, who begins it when the fun is going down, as he is, who fets out at the hour of it's rifing. Youth, like the morning, is the proper feafon for every task that requires time and pains. Then all the powers of body and foul are fresh and vigorous, as thofe of one awaked from a found and kindly fleep. Then is the golden opportunity, the fweet hour of prime, and the day is before us. "The night cometh, "when no man can work. I have written "unto you, young men (faith John himfelf), because ye are ftrong, and the word

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"of God abideth in you, and ye have "overcome the wicked one ".' Rejoice then, O young man, in thy youth, not becaufe thou art able to riot in excefs and wantonnefs, as the heathen who know not God, but because thou haft it in thy power

* 1 John ii. 14.

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to become, like the youthful John, the be- DISC. loved of thy Mafter, who feeketh fuch to worship him.

Nor let him of low degree neglect to take comfort in the confideration, that the beloved disciple of Christ was a common fisherman. The distinctions of high and low, rich and poor, noble and vulgar, obtain in this world, and in this world only. In the kingdom of God they cease, and are no more. There virtue only gives precedence, and the meaneft mechanic takes place of the nobles and kings of the earth, if he were a better Chriftian than they were. The vanity and the folly of those, whofe confidence is placed in titles and pedigrees, will then appear in it's proper light, when the fuppofed carpenter's fon shall be seen on his throne of glory, and the fisherman feated at his right hand.

The account of John being called, by our blessed Lord, from his employment of fishing, to that of preaching the Gospel,

DISC. is thus given us, Matth. iv. 21.

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Jefus going on from thence," that is, from the place where he had just before called Peter and Andrew, "faw other two "brethren, James the fon of Zebedee, and

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John his brother, in a fhip with Zebe"dee their father, mending their nets; "and he called them. And they imme

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diately left the fhip, and their father, "and followed him." Their minds had been prepared for the advent of the Meffiah by the fermons of the Baptist, who indeed had pointed him out to Andrew, and another difciple, not improbably John himself, for the Lamb of God. Upon his appearance and call, therefore, they readily received and obeyed him, laying the foundation of the Chriftian building in the renunciation of the world. And here it always must be laid by every one who is defirous of being "the disciple whom Jesus "loveth." All are not called to forfake their occupations and to commence preachers, as the Apostles were, Chrift having appointed in his church a regular way of entering

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