of the gospel by which the doctrine of Christ's perpetual presence with his disciples is still more strikingly illustrated; and that is, the remarkable manner in which he has promised, not only to concern himself with the interests of all his followers, but even to identify them with his own. He declared indeed, on another occasion, that "he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him;"* and again," he that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me." But in the passage of which I speak, and which forms part of our Lord's description of the final judgment, he went even further than this, and condescended to regard the treatment which his people received at others, hands as a personal honour or disrespect to himself;--saying, "Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me;" and, on the other hand, "inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me." From these words then we learn, besides the many incentives to piety which they convey, that the promised presence of Christ is no vague or unmeaning privilege, no proffered communication of a mere general and undistinguishing bounty from on high ;-but that it is the opera

*John xiv. 21. + John xiii. 20. Matt. xxv. 40, 45.

tion of a divine and expanded sympathy which,emancipated from that withering predominance of self which, in an earthly creature, so cruelly crushes every generous emotion under the despotism of its usurped and unresisted sway-can open unto the wide world the asylum of its infinite love, and can take into the holy sanctuary of its deep sensibilities, and even domesticate and adopt as its own, all the interests of her great and mighty populations. Of a sympathy too which does not lose itself, as it has been too frequently the case with human benevolence,in mere cold and vague generalities, but which enters into all the feelings of its objects with a particularity and minuteness of personal regard that could even make the very experience which it partakes with them of the conduct of others, a standard for the award of a final and eternal retribution.

And what a sublime consolation is held out to him who seeks and enjoys a share in such a sympathy as this! We learned before that "the man Christ" took our sins upon himself, and suffered as though the guilt were his. Here we further learn that the glorified God still continues to retain the same individual concern, the same distinguishing mercy that led him of old to the house of mourning, the abode of poverty, the

haunts of sickness and of sorrow, in all the interests of still suffering and sinful humanity. That he even condescends to make our trials his trials, and our joys his joys. That the divine sympathy can mitigate our griefs, and that the Christian's enjoyments are hallowed and enlarged by the participation and fellowship of heaven. The gospel itself, in this light, becomes a treasure of still more inestimable price than it was before. The narrative of our Saviour's life is no longer a mere record of events irrevocably past, for, though he died and was crucified, he is with us still; though he was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,"-though the days of his humiliation have long been passed, yet he lives over again that life of sorrows with every one of his suffering disciples on earth.

Something indeed to the same effect as this was intimated in other parts of scripture, where, in the close imitation enjoined on us of every lineament of our divine exemplar, it is required that even the spiritual changes of our Christian life should exhibit some representation of the history of Christ, and should convey to us a certain realizing sense of his presence by calling him, (to our minds at least,) back again to earth, and bidding him, as it were, enact anew the many scenes of his past and painful pilgrimage.

His very crucifixion, and death, and burial, and resurrection, as those passages inform us, are to be revived and transacted again in the inward affections of the souls of his people, which are required to be conformed unto the model and similitude of Christ. "We are buried with him

by baptism unto death." The "old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed." "We are planted together with him in the likeness of his death." And, as "Christ was raised up from the dead," so we also are bidden to "be conformed to the likeness of his resurrection," and "to walk in newness of life."* But the view which the consideration now before us presents, is far stronger yet than this. Even in this metaphorical application, we can learn from the passages just quoted how intimately Christ must be mixed up with every incident, temporal or spiritual, of our lives. But his promise to be with his disciples, in that strong and peculiar sense in which he spoke of it in his description of the final judgment, is literally as well as metaphorically fulfilled. Christ is the present sharer of our troubles, and participator of our joys. He lives again, he suffers again-in the lives and sufferings of his people. His very history they find to be more than a text-book and a * Rom. vi. 4, 5, 6.

comment on the life of man in general,-it grows into a still closer and more intimate parallel with his own. Are they in poverty and destitution? It is not mere human strength that bears that burthen; the fortitude, the firmness they shew are His who wandered about without a home, and yet uttered no word of murmur or complaint. Are they tempted? When Christ's presence is with them, the temptation and the resistance (as far as the infirmities of our nature-even strengthened and assisted-will admit the parallel) are but a repetition of that awful scene in the wilderness, when he was a personal object of assault who now promises that "we shall not be tempted above that we are able to bear." Are they reduced to the last extremity in the trial of their faith? Though great may be the struggle, yet, by the suggestion of that present counsellor whose spirit is in their hearts, and whose resolutions animates their breasts, there may yet be a renewal of that triumphant answer, "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." It is Christ, whose preternatural power enables his people to support the difficulties and trials of life. chastens and purifies them in joy, he cheers them in sorrow. He is strength in their weakness; he is riches in their poverty; he is light in darkness; he is hope in despair; he attends them

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