CHAP. X. VER. 28.

Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

brother

How deceitful is the heart! and how long before the sacrifice is really made do we conceive ourselves to have abandoned all for Christ! It was after Peter had so confidently declared himself and his disciples," to have left all" for Christ, that James and John discovered such undue anxiety for seats of honour in the supposed temporal kingdom of the Messiah; that our Lord found occasion to rebuke Peter for his worldliness; and that the whole body of disciples, influenced chiefly by the fear or love of the world, “for

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sook" their Master, and " fled."-Nor is such self-delusion unusual. Long, perhaps, after we presumptuously conceive ourselves to have left all for Christ, it is obvious to those around us that scarcely any real object of our attachment is sacrificed. When the Prophet approaches the camp of Saul, the self-satisfied monarch makes haste to assure him that he has performed the commandment of the Lord. "What meaneth then," asks the indignant messenger of God, "this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" And we may well address similar questions to many, who profess to have abandoned all for God: What means this lingering love of dress, of money, of applause? What means this silence when God is dishonoured; this lukewarmness in all the great enterprises of religion;

this spirit of accommodation and of compromise with an ungodly world; this carrying of human passions and tempers into the controversies of religion; this deadness to spiritual things, and absorption of soul in the interests of this life? Why, when occupied with any earthly object, is the whole heart poured into the work; why does the countenance brighten, and, as it were, the statue quicken into a living man? And, on the contrary, when the soul is called to a heavenly employment, why does the countenance fall, the fire of the eye become extinguished, and the man subside into the lifeless statue?

Let us beware of error upon so fundamental a point. The disposition to forsake all for Christ, is of too marked and decisive a character to be long concealed where it is, or feigned

where it is not. It serves God with a single eye, and with a simple heart. It has no rule but his law, and no paramount object but his glory. It holds no parley with temptation, and makes no compromise with the world. Such was the temper of mind in Enoch, when, in the midst of an unthinking generation, he "walked with God." Such was Noah, when he proclaimed the warnings of God to the world before the Flood. Such were the Patriarchs, when, at the call of God, they "went out, not knowing whither they went." Such was Moses, when "he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season." And such, in general, was that noble army of saints and martyrs, who "through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob

tained promises.....of whom the world was not worthy."-And oh that every follower of Christ would bring his conscience to the test upon this important point! Have we left any thing for Christ? Are we ready to abandon all which interrupts our union with him? Have we, in any measure, "the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world?"

If the result of such an inquiry be satisfactory, let us render the due homage of praise and love to Him. who has begun this all-important work in the soul. If, on the contrary, there is reason to doubt whether we have as yet sacrificed the "besetting" sin, the cherished lust or passion, yet let us not despair. The disciples