die with him, they would not deny him. Yet, with every thing that could conduce to watchfulness and awe, with all these protestations still as it were hanging upon their lips, and their Master's earnest injunction upon his, when he cometh to them in the midst of his agony, he "findeth them asleep!"

The Scriptures present us with examples of weakness to check our presumption, as well as of firmness to encourage our fortitude; and our Saviour's emphatic words on another occasion, "what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch!” may be applied to every one of us, as our respective cases may require. Yes, brethren, "watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation," was not to be confined to those disciples alone. Then, indeed, was peculiarly the hour of the wicked, and the power of darkness; then was the Messiah's fortitude to be tried to the utmost, and the faith of his disciples to be most severely assailed. But Gethsemane's garden was not the only scene in which the Powers of Darkness were to reign; nor were those disciples the only persons bound by the most solemn and often renewed covenant, to Jesus Christ. The world itself is one wide scene of trial, where hosts of enemies surround us: and, both in the early days of our Lord's temptation, and in this concluding crisis of his agony, he has taught us, by his example, what, as fallen children of Adam, we are

to expect; and how, as "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," we are required to act.

Whatever could declare Christ's dignity, had long been signally manifested to his disciples. At his entrance on his ministry, the heavens had opened, and the voice of Omnipotence had pronounced him God's "beloved Son." All nature had submitted to his command; winds had been hushed; the stormy waters calmed; the blind had been restored to sight, the dead to life. Angels had descended from above to minister unto him; legions of evil spirits had trembled and fled before him. Heaven, Earth, and Hell had owned him as "the Holy One of God." The three chosen disciples, too, were those who had been admitted to behold the glories of his transfiguration; when, apart from all the world besides, he took them up into a mountain, and his face became like the sun, and his raiment white as the light;-when Moses and Elias appeared in glory to them, "and spake of his decease, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem." He had warned them also, of the troubles that were coming on him and on the earth; had told them that, to fulfil Jehovah's councils, it must needs be that he should suffer. And, therefore, with all these evidences of his power, all this prophetic announcement of the trials awaiting the Master whom they professed to love, well might the sorrowing Jesus

turn to them with the affecting remonstrance,"What! could ye not watch with me one hour?"

But consider, I intreat you, brethren, how the remonstrance addresses us. If those disciples, influenced by the Jewish prejudices in which they had been born, by the clamours of their nation against the pretensions of Jesus, by their inability, as yet, to discern all that he was to effect on earth,—not yet having been witnesses of his death, resurrection, and ascension, nor acquainted with the gifts of the Holy Spirit;if they were thus culpable for their carelessness and indifference, what shall be said of us, to whom the councils of the Almighty have been so much more fully unfolded-who have seen the completion of what Jesus promised-the fulfilment of what the Prophets had predicted concerning him;-who know the miracles that attended his death-who know by such "infallible proofs," that he rose again from the dead, and that he ascended into heaven;-who, with the veil removed from our eyes, which hid his real nature from the unbelieving Jews, behold in Him "the true God and eternal life;”—who can see in Him all former incomplete revelations perfected, all obscure ones cleared ;—who, in the great Emanuel, the one all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world, can distinctly trace the grand, the mysterious design of a merciful Providence, extending from the days of Adam, till

time itself shall be no more, to bring fallen, rebellious, guilty man, to his offended, but now reconciled God! O compare, I say, your situation, my friends, with that of the disciples, near their suffering Lord, and shall not his remonstrance be recognised as speaking even more forcibly to you? You see him not indeed in those agonies in which their eyes might have beheld him; but you know, that by every act of wilful carelessness and disobedience, you are, in fact, "treading under foot the Son of God,"

crucifying him afresh, and putting him to an open shame." You behold him not, as they might have beheld him, in his deep and earnest prayer; but you may see him, with the eye of faith, now living to make intercession for you, and at the right hand of the Majesty on High, pleading his merits for the pardon of your sins, and the sins of the whole world. You may hear him saying unto you, "Tarry ye here and watch, while I pray and intercede for you." And shall Hethus beever ministering for you, and ye beslumbering away the time in carelessness or sinfulness? Shall the Holy Spirit have been graciously promised to sanctify your labours and your sorrows?-to be always with you, your Comforter, your Director, and your Strength? Shall He that keepeth you, neither slumber nor sleep? Shall the blood which He shed for you, be still flowing before the throne of God, to wash away your

sins? And will you, in heedless sloth, shed not one tear, “watch not one hour?"—Yes, but "one hour," comparatively, is the time of our probation, during which our watch is to be kept. He that delivereth you to judgment, Death-the fearful offspring of Transgression, is at hand : and when ye are required to "watch" that he come not on you unawares,-to "watch" against every evil passion, and unholy lust,-to "watch" against every temptation and enticement to sin,against the deceitfulness of a corrupt heart, and the "deadly poison" of an unruly tongue;-to "watch" too, and wait for the return of your Lord from the scene of his intercessions ;-to "watch" for the influences of his grace on the soul, and to "watch" over the effects it should produce on the life :-O shall He still have reason to reproach you with the moving enquiry, "What! could ye not watch with me one hour?" Indeed—indeed brethren, "the time is short." For some of us the messenger may be already knocking at the door; and "blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh, shall find watching." Yes, doubtless, to some of us, the mandate may even now be coming forth; but to all, Time on its silent wings, glides rapidly away. The The past will soon be forgotten. The present flows like sand in the admonitory glass, and mingles with the past; and the future will in like manner, soon be gone for ever.