On worldly honours still with scorn looks down,
Content if he at last shall wear a crown;

All worldly wealth without regret he leaves,
He treasure has beyond the reach of thieves.
The Syren Pleasure with voluptuous strain,
Strives to ensnare him, but she strives in vain;
His ear he closes to her idle noise,
And hastens upward to celestial joys;
At God's right hand he owns an ample store,
Of joys substantial, lasting evermore;
He looks to Jesus, his Almighty Friend,

Nor fails at last to reach his journey's end.

THE Christian is here depicted making his way up the path of life. The wealth of this world is offered to him on condition that he will turn aside. He rejects the offer with disdain; he points upward, intimating that his treasure is in heaven. Honours are presented ; these he despises also, content with the honour which comes from God. The votaries of sinful pleasures next address him ; they promise all sorts of delights if he would stay and dwell with them. He closes his ear to their deceitful song: he looks upward to Jesus his Lord and his God, and taking up the song of an old pilgrim, he goes on his way, singing :

"Thou wilt show to me the path of life,

In thy presence is fulness of joy,

Pleasures at thy right hand for evermore."

But what will not men in general do, in order to obtain those very things which the Christian rejects with so much disdain? What have they not done? Answer, ye battle-fields that have heard the dying groans of so many myriads! Answer, ye death-beds that have listened to the lamentations of the votaries of pleasure! Answer, ye habitations of cruelty, where the life's blood of the victims of avarice oozes away from day to day, under the rod of the oppressor! And who or what is the Christian, that these things have no influence over him? Is he not a man? Yes; an altered man from what he was once; a new man. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. He looks to Jesus. Here is where his great strength lies. Here is the power by which he overcometh the world, even by looking to Jesus. Do you ask what is this looking to Jesus? What magic is there in this so powerful? Listen! Our sins have separated us from God, for "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Death temporal has

passed upon all men, as the forerunner of eternal death, except we repent, and be converted. But how shall we repent and be converted? How shall we guilty ones dare to approach the Holy God? He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. What shall we bring to gain his favour? Alas for our poverty, if it were to be bought with money! Alas for our sinfulness, if our own righteousness could have sufficed to recommend us to God! Alas for our impotence, if we had been left unaided to descend Bethesda's pool! Alas for our blindness, if we had been left to ourselves to discover a door of Hope.

While in this plight, Jesus comes to our relief. He brings a price a righteousness—a strength—a light. He is the light of the world-the Sun of righteousness. He shines and dispels the gloom. O how cheering are His rays! As the beams of the morning give hope and consolation to the benighted traveller in some dreary wilderness, so does Jesus, the "dayspring from on high," give light and hope to those who sit in "darkness and in the shadow of death." The light of love and the hope of heaven. The path of duty is revealed, the promise of immortality is given. Do you ask yet again, what is meant by looking to Jesus? Again listen. The exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what is meant. Man is made capable of confidence, of confidence in man. In this consists the charms of domestic felicity. A man without confidence in his race is an isolated being; he is cut off from all the sympathies of his kind. Just so, man without confidence in God, is separated from Him. He is in the world without God, and without Hope. Faith unites man to God. The Christian is a man of faith. He is united to God; he walks by faith, he lives by faith. The life which he lives is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself-O wondrous gift— for him.

He looks to Jesus as, unto an 66 offering for sin." He receives it as a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that "He hath made Him who knew no sin to be a sin-offering for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." That is, that we might be completely saved by Him. This is the ground of his rejoicing that Jesus hath made " a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world," since "he by the grace of God tasted death for every man." regards his sins as being of such a nature that nothing but the

He

"precious blood of Christ" could avail to purge them away. Thu the man of God considers Jesus. He goes from strength to strength, making mention of His righteousness, who died for his sins, and rose again for his justification.

Such, however, is man's nature, such are his wants, trials, and destiny, that the Lord Jesus Christ has for his sake assumed various offices and titles. Does man feel his helplessness, that he cannot of himself do anything that is good?-he is invited to look from self to Jesus as the "Mighty God." "Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for beside me there is no God." While others look at their own weakness, at the difficulties of the way, at the strength and number of their foes, the man of faith looks from these to Jesus. Is he tempted to think that after all he shall never see the King in his beauty? He may look to Jesus as his "Advocate" with the father, who takes care of his interest in the court of heaven, and who is no less watchful over his affairs below. Does he need a subject calculated to fill his mind with mean ideas of self? He looks to Jesus as "the wonderful," wonderful indeed, God made man for man to die. In his birth, in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, and ascension, He is wonderful. In his character, in his operations, both of nature and of grace, in drawing, softening, sanctifying, and glorifying the believer, He is wonderful! O the depth both of the wisdom and the goodness of God!

Does he find the affairs of earth too intricate for him, and that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light? He looks to Jesus as "the Counsellor" who is able to guide the feet of his saints.

In the time of trouble the Christian looks to his counsellor, and finds him a 66 very present help," and no expensive charges, or ruinous issues follow. He looks to Jesus as the Author or Beginner of Faith, who has called him to be a Christian, who has pointed out to him the proper path of duty, and who will at last award to him a crown of righteousness.

Painters, sculptors, and others have, in order to be perfect in their art, studied models of excellence. The Christian studies Jesus; He is his "model" or "example." Are his trials many? is his cross heavy? He considers Jesus who" endured the cross and despised the shame." Is he poor ? "The son of man had not where to lay his head." Is he rich for the rich are also called; he considers Him "who was rich, and for our sakes became poor." Is he tempted with the