who have lighted up the fires of persecution, and fulminated Heaven's vengeance with no unsparing hand; but it is the spirit of that meek and holy Jesus, whose mind we are to seek to possess ; in whom there is neither "barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free," and whose prayer, not merely for his apostles, but for them also which believe on him through their word, was, That they all may be one, even as he and the Father is one :" It is the spirit of that honourable exception to Samaritan bigotry, the traveller who showed kindness to the man who had fallen among thieves, and whose wounds excited not the compassion of the Priest and the Levite, who passed by on the other side.

"Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." May he hasten that glorious period, when the Christian church shall present the beauteous spectacle of "one fold under one Shepherd," that Shepherd who shall lead his ransomed unto living fountains of waters; when "God shall wipe away all tears from, their eyes."

SERMON VIII.

PERSECUTION.

LUKE ix. 54, 55.

"And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of."

THE refusal of the Samaritans to admit our blessed Lord into their cities "because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem," affords a very melancholy, though by no means uncommon, instance of bigotry and prejudice. To that conduct our attention was directed in a former discourse, and we proceed to consider the effects which it produced on the minds of the disciples. "When James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire

to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" The disciples here referred to the destruction of the captains of Ahaziah, upon whom the prophets called down fire from heaven, testifying at once his commission from on high, and his displeasure at the idolatry of their kings, for messengers had been sent by Ahaziah to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, if he should recover from an accident which threatened a fatal termination. James and John were anxious that a similar calamity should befal the people of Samaria; that, like their forefathers, they should immediately suffer the merited displeasure of Heaven. But their divine Master would not sanction such an act of violence: "Ye know not," said he, "what manner of spirit ye are of;" ye know not how utterly at variance such a request as this is, with that kindness, and tenderness, and forgiveness, which has been so often inculcated by me. You may think to appear more sincerely devoted to my cause by an over expression of zeal. Alas! you wholly misunderstand the nature of that kingdom which I am come down from heaven to establish the very request you have made is a lamentable proof of your ignorance, how little you have profited by my discourses, and example, how much you have yet to learn before you can become qualified to preach my gospel. How different

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was the conduct of the Father of the faithful, who interceded so earnestly for the cities of the plain, whose language so powerfully illustrated the humility of his heart, the tenderness of his disposition, and his entire acquiescence in the will of God.

We may consider, first, the spirit which manifested itself in the disciples; and secondly, How much the same spirit has pervaded the visible church of Christ, with the manifold evils of which it has been the source.

I. The first feeling which arises, in adverting to the question of the disciples, is that of astonishment that they should have profited so little by their intercourse with the Saviour, that they should have testified a spirit so diametrically opposed to the benevolent and forgiving spirit of Jesus; that their zeal for the honour of their Lord should not have been testified by kindness to their fellow-men. We cannot wonder, indeed, that they should have felt hurt at the dishonour cast upon their divine Master; that the same feeling of honest indignation which induced their Lord to drive the money-changers from the temple, should have induced them to seek to convince the Samaritans of their error; but it should have been done in a very different manner from that proposed. They had not only witnessed

the Saviour's deeds of mercy, but they had heard from his lips the most earnest exhortations to be merciful. They had been instructed not to resist evil, to love their enemies, to bless those that cursed them, to do good to those who hated them, and to pray for those who despitefully used them and persecuted them, that they might "be the children of their Father which is in heaven, who maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust." Strange that such precepts had produced so little effect on those who professed to follow the Saviour; more strange that John should have been one of those who made the inquiry in the text,-John, whom we are usually wont to regard as perhaps the most amiable of the apostles, who was honoured with the title of the "disciple whom Jesus loved," who leaned on his breast at the paschal supper, to whom he committed the care of his mother as he hung in agony on the cross, and whose epistles breathe a spirit of the purest benevolence, gentleness, and peace, who declares, that "if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? and this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also."