them to live a really religious life. O let all of us believe that the fault is, not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. That our lot in life is our path of duty, and that there is not one of us who may not live to God, if he will. In every thing, in every sorrow, in every happiness, a voice calls to us from the pages of the Bible in the words of John the Baptist, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, for the axe is laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire, (Matt. iii. 8, 10.) and in the words of the Lord Jesus, "Search the scriptures," for they are they which testify of me;" (John v.) "these things say unto you that ye might be saved:" "Come unto me and ye shall find rest unto your souls: ""Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy, and my burthen is light. burthen is light.” (Matt. xi.) The time is passing by. Let us use it for the purpose God gives it.

I

Let us examine into our hearts and lives. Let us search and see whether the sin of the men of the generation in which Christ lived on earth is not also our sin. Whether we do not throw on others the blame that is due to ourselves.

The Lord Jesus having shewed to the Scribes and Pharisees, who had refused to listen to John the Baptist, and refused His teaching also, that they were like perverse and quarrelsome children, added these words :

LUKE vii. 35. "But wisdom is justified of all her children."

Though they might lose the time that was given them for repentance in self-willed murmuring and disputing, the truly wise would see and own God's wisdom in all His dealings with them. They would bless him for his warnings and reproofs. They would bless him for His comforts and tender loving-kindness. In sorrow, and in joy, in all His works, and in every place they would bless the Lord.

Prayer.

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name: who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with tender mercy. (Psalm ciii.)

Thy loving-kindness is better to me than life, therefore my lips shall praise thee. (Psalm lxiii.)

"Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice."

In sorrow and in joy I will praise thee, my God, for all that thou hast done is well done. In sorrow thou hast shown me comfort in thy Son, my Saviour; in joy, O let me not forget thee. Thou art good, but I am evil. Perverse and foolish, my heart turns away from thee, and the precious time is hastening on. Eternity will soon be here. O God, have mercy on thy rebellious child; give me to hear and heed each warning word of thine.

"Give me a heart to love my God,

A heart from sin set free,

That I may always feel the blood

So freely shed for me.

Give me a heart submissive, meek,

My dear Redeemer's throne

Where only Christ is heard to speak;

Where Jesus reigns alone."

In His name I ask it, O my God. Amen.

XXII.

MATTHEW XI. 21-30.

The Lord Jesus, having shewed how great was the perverse folly of all those who had refused alike to listen to him, and to the Baptist John, went on to show them how great was their sin, and how great would be their punishment.

Never, since the world began, had there been a place so favoured as the country round about the Sea of Galilee. There the Lord Jesus had spent by far the greater part of His time; and it was there, that miracles without number had been wrought, and the kingdom of heaven had been freely offered to all. Yet it was but a few among the crowds, who followed him from place to place, that truly joined themselves to him to receive from him a new heart and a new life. By far the greater numbers wondered at him for a while, and then, turning from him, remained given up to a life of careless sin.

Perhaps, from the place where our Saviour stood, at the time He was speaking, He could see the city of Capernaum, where He chiefly dwelt, and the towns of Chorazin and of Bethsaida, both of which lay within a few miles of it. He lifted up His voice as if calling aloud to them, and well might the inhabitants of "these cities, wherein most of His mighty works were done," tremble, even while they crowded round him, as they heard His awful words.

MATTHEW xi. 21-24. "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell for if the mighty works which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee."

Solemnly and awfully must these words have sounded through the listening crowd, and along that fertile shore, where Capernaum, a busy city full of men, and the smaller towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida, lay smiling in the sun. Their day of doom was

at hand. The presence of the Son of God might now have made them like heaven itself. The hour was hastening on, when so utterly would these cities be destroyed, that the traveller would ponder over a few scattered stones, and wonder where they stood.*

The cities themselves were but streets and houses; it matters little that low mounds of ruins are all that at this day remain for us to guess at, but where are the men, who, in their madness and their pride, refused to listen and to heed, when the Son of God stood among them, bringing heaven down to earth, raising the dead, and healing all manner of diseases by a word? Alas! we are not left to guess at their doom. The Saviour, He who came to save all who would be saved, has said that it is "woe" intolerable. The men who heard the Lord Jesus speak, knew that every word the prophets had foretold, of the utter ruin of ancient Tyre, once the most flourishing city in the world,† had come to pass, because " that iniquity was found in her," and her heart was lifted up with pride because "of her beauty and her riches." (Ezek. xviii. 5.) They

* See Robinson's Biblical Researches, Buckhardt, &c.

† Ancient Tyre. The richest and strongest commercial city that the world contained in the early days of its history. It stood on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, about half way between Egypt and Asia Minor, near the north western side of Palestine or the Holy Land. The time when it was built is not known, as it was before any of our secular histories began ; but it is believed to have been a city 200 years before the days of king Solomon; and the prophet Isaiah in foretelling her ruin, speaks of "her antiquity" as "of ancient days." He calls her "the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth." Isa. xxiii. 7, 8. Tyre was a colony from the still older city of Zidon. The prophecies against Tyre are very remarkable for their number and distinctness-and every one of them has been fulfilled in every particular. It was at first built upon a rocky hill on the mainland; but having been vainly besieged for five years by the same king of Assyria who took and destroyed Samaria, the people of Tyre, for greater safety, in case of another invasion, made a stronghold on a small island about half a mile from the city. This stronghold, in time, became the principal city, and that on the mainland was called Palaio Tyrus, or old Tyre. The strength, and riches, and pride of

knew she had been "brought down to the dust," and that the place which had been a city of palaces, was now bare as "the top of a rock, a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea." (Ezek. xxvi. 4.)

They knew that the glory had long since departed from the still more ancient Zidon; and that where Sodom once had stood, the most flourishing of the cities of the plain, the Dead Sea now rolled its dismal waves-all this they knew, and acknowledged that the punishment was just. What then should they have felt when they heard that a heavier woe was to fall upon themselves because of their deeper guilt?

Tyre were known all over the world, and its manufactures were so beautiful, that every king coveted a robe of Tyrian purple. While its glory was at its height, the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel pronounced God's doom against it : "That it should be overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," Ezekiel xxvi. 7-13. "That it should be forgotten for seventy years," Isa. xxiii. 15. That it should revive and become again a wonder and a glory, but that at length it should be destroyed, and never rebuilt. All this has happened word for word as the prophets have spoken, and, so minutely has each verse been fulfilled, that there is no more curious and satisfactory study of the prophecies of old times, than to compare these with the events in history by which they were fulfilled. Ezekiel had said, "They shall lay thy stones, and thy timber, and thy dust, in the midst of the water." Ezek. xxvi. 12. And 332 years before Christ, Alexander for seven months vainly besieged Tyre, the city on the island, but being unable to land his soldiers upon it, he at length took the ruins of old Tyre, and throwing them into the sea, built with them a mole or narrow passage from the mainland, across the dividing sea to the island, which he took and utterly destroyed by fire. And then were these prophecies fulfilled at once, that the dust, the timber, and the stones of ancient Tyre should be laid in the midst of the water." That it should "be sought for, yet should never be found again." Ezek. xxvi. 21.. And according to the words of Zechariah ix. 4., that "Tyre should be devoured with fire." The younger city of Tyre was partly rebuilt, though it never again became of importance, and in the year 1291 it, at the end of the crusade of that period, was finally reduced to a heap of rubbish by the Moslems; and Tyre has indeed become "like the top of a rock," "a place to spread nets upon." Ezek. xxvi. 45. "The still more ancient Zidon." This city is supposed to have been built by Sidon the eldest son of Canaan, the grandson of Noah. Even in the time of Joshua it was called " great Zidon." Joshua xix. 28.