of life; but meek spirits, having the temper of Christ, really inherit all the good that is around them, and enjoy it for themselves.— "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled;" those who find themselves guilty before God, and with a desire strong as a hungry man has for meat, or a thirsty man for drink, look for acceptance with God through a better righteousness, or better merits than their own,-shall be satisfied with the righteousness of the Saviour.-"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" those who show mercy and kindness towards the bodies and souls of their fellow-creatures, for Jesus Christ's sake, shall receive mercy from him."Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God;" and none else shall see him in glory, but those whose hearts or dispositions are made clean and new by the Divine Spirit.-"Blessed are the peace-makers: for they shall be called the children of God." Those who do all they can to make men live quietly and harmlessly, like real Christians, and to stop strife whenever they see it, God will bless, and they shall be owned as his children, who so strikingly bear one of the marks of his image; so you see that those who love to quarrel have no right to look for the Saviour's blessing."Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" this means, that those who are illtreated by wicked people, because they are religious, shall be rewarded at last with the blessings of glory, which their persecutors, except they repent, can never enjoy.-"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." Those who are called ill-natured names, or names intended to reproach them, because they serve God in sincerity, shall be blessed too. "Rejoice and be exceeding glad," if this is the case, "for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets;" and, if they did so to the holy prophets, you must expect that they will not spare you.

Our Divine Teacher then goes on to show what he expects from those who are his disciples.

He removes every ground of mistake about his doctrine, and shows the people that his disciples must reverence the holy law of God, and the truths taught by the prophets, and have a better righteousness or holiness than the Scribes and Pharisees, who were men that made only an outside show of religion, while, in their hearts, they did not love the law of God.

To help you better to understand our Lord's discourse, I must just notice these two classes.

The one class of persons is called "Scribes." They wrote copies of the Scriptures long before printing was known in the world, and whatever they heard of traditions, or things in the Jewish history which God's word did not record: they also read and explained the Scriptures to the people, giving their own fancied meaning to them, while the people listened to their comments with great reverence. Many of these Scribes were Pharisees, and so our Lord often couples them together.

The other class of persons is called publicans. By publican, we understand a person who sells beer; but these publicans were not beer-sellers, but tax-gatherers, employed by the Romans to collect taxes of the Jews, who were then subject to Rome. They were a very bad set of men, and, in gathering the taxes, generally cheated the people, dealt hardly with them, and took more from them than they ought, for the purpose of putting the money into their own pockets.

In continuing his sermon, our Lord warns against making a show of our charity, and also against making a show of prayer.

And here our Lord tells us what kind of expressions are fit for prayers, in what we call "The Lord's Prayer," which, as you probably know, I wish you well to understand. Here you address God as your Father; for, as a father, he provides for you; you look to him in heaven, the holy dwelling of his glory; you express a desire that his name may be treated with reverence; you wish that he may reign over your heart, and over the hearts of others everywhere, and that his holy law may be done among all mankind; you acknowledge that you live by his bounty, who gives you daily bread; you confess your sins, which are debts to God, because they have left you short in paying God the duties you owe to him, and you ask him graciously to pardon them, as you pardon those who offend you-which I hope you do; you ask God to preserve you from doing sinful things, which is meant by, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," or from the evil one, who is Satan; and you express your full belief that God can do all that you ask, and your desires to give him honour and praise, by ending the prayer with saying, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

Other warnings given by our Lord are against being covetous. Jesus Christ tells such persons, that, if their treasures consist in fine garments, like those laid up by rich people in the East, the moth will by-and-bye eat them up; or, if in precious metals, they will at last canker; or, in other treasures, they may be robbed of them; and it is, therefore, much wiser to

EE

look for a lasting portion of better treasure-the happiness of heaven; the love and favour of God for ever, is far better than all the riches that ever were got together in this world.

He then goes on to warn against being insincere in religion-against thinking uncharitably of others-against doing harm to any body-against being deceived by false prophets, that is, false preachers or teachers-and also against deceiving ourselves.

Lastly, our dear Saviour concludes his sermon by a pretty and striking comparison, taken from fishermen in the East, who, to be near the sea at fishing-time, build their huts on the sands, when the storms come, and, in a moment, sweep them all away. So, he tells us, will the hopes of all those perish, who are contented with hearing what he taught but never doing it; but those who mind his sayings and do them, shall be like a wise man, who built his house on a rock, which floods, rain, and wind, could never sweep away. The house of the wise man fell not, for it was founded upon a rock; the house of the foolish man fell, and great was the fall of it, for it was built upon the sand. Christ himself is as a rock, on which thousands have safely rested their hopes for eternity; but this world, with all its hopes of pleasure, is but as sand; and those who build upon it for happiness, must at last lose everything, and be ruined for ever.

Thus Christ ended his divine sermon, and the people were astonished at hearing him. All he said was so heavenly and so good; all he said was so different from what the Scribes and Pharisees had taught. And he still preaches to us in this sermon: he still preaches to us in his holy word. May we learn of him, for he is still, by his Holy Spirit, ready to teach us -he is "meek and lowly of heart, and we shall find rest for our souls."

Miraculous Cures performed by Jesus Christ.

MATTHEW VIII, IX.

When Jesus came down from the mount, the people did not like to leave him, they were so delighted with what he had said. Crowds followed him wherever he went.

Matthew now tells us about a wonderful cure which Jesus performed. A poor creature afflicted with leprosy earnestly cried to him for help. If we had seen him our hearts would have felt the greatest pity for him, for the leprosy was a most miserable disease. I think I see him, with his white skin covered all over with scurf, which, had it been taken off, would have shown a body full of raw wounds. Perhaps he could hardly drag along his swollen limbs, with deformed joints, the effect of his horrible disease; and every one stood away from him, lest he should be infected by him. But Jesus, whose

"Heart is made of tenderness,"

was ready at once to help him; and if others pitied him, and could not help, Christ both pitied and helped him too. He touched him, and he was cured; his word was enough to remove the disorder-"I will, be thou clean."

Matthew here tells us of another wonderful cure which he did. A Centurion, or officer in the Roman army, met him in a place called Capernaum, where he was dwelling; and, doubtless, having heard of his fame and readiness to do good, he humbly asked him to cure his servant. "Lord," said the officer, "my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented." Not that the palsy gives much pain, for it is a disorder which deadens all the body, and makes it not able to feel at all,

but it was a severe affliction to the poor servant to be so laid aside like a log. Doctors can seldom cure in this disease, but Christ could cure it as well as he did the leprosy; so he said, "I will come and heal him." The officer thought it was too great an honour for Christ to visit him, and again humbly asked him only to command the disease to go, and it would obey him, as readily as his soldiers did when he gave them the word of command. This was great faith in his power, to believe that he could cure the man though the man was not there. But he knew that Christ could see the man, though the man could not see him; and, as Christ delights in those who fully trust in him, he praised the man's faith to his disciples, to teach them to trust him with the same confidence; and he told the Centurion to go home, and he would find his servant well; and so he was, for he "was healed in the self-same hour."

The next account of Christ's curing the sick informs us, that the mother of the disciple Peter was "sick of a fever,"-a disorder that is often very severe and killing, and, if cured, it is not to be cured in a moment. Jesus only touched her hand, and the fever left her.

But

At that time Satan and his wicked spirits tormented the bodies of some persons in a surprising way, as though they would prevent Christ from gaining honour by curing these victims. But these were nothing before him, for "he cast out the devils with his word."

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If you

Perhaps you have seen the sea, and how rough are its waves. ever saw it in a storm, it foams most furiously, and its waves swell like high mountains. It dashes against the rocks as if it would even crush them to pieces. When this is the case the winds blow with a force that scarcely anything can resist. In such a storm the disciples were when Christ was with them in a ship, crossing the sea of Tiberias into the country of Gadara. While they were all in alarm, and the ship was covered with waves," he was in a sweet sleep. The disciples, whose faith in his divine power was now fully strengthened, having seen what wonderful things he did, im mediately awoke him, and cried, "Lord, save us, we perish!" His tender heart felt pity for their distress, and he instantly commanded the winds and the waves to be still, "and there was a great calm." Well might they wonder and say, "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and

the sea obey him!"

The next instance of our Lord's power is the cure of two men possessed These men lived in caves of the rocks, where the Jewish people used to make their tombs to bury their dead, and they were so "exceeding

of devils.