2. Christ loves special acts and testimonials of love. If you have children, and earnestly pray the Saviour to use them for his glory, he will be pleased with the offering and consecration.

If you ever have a gift which you desire to make to him, some gold, or silver, or ornament, which no one requires you to give away, and with love to Christ you come to him in prayer, and break that box upon his head and his feet, he will love you for it, and you will love him. But it must not be a mere sense of duty that prompts it.

If you have only two mites, which make a farthing,' and they are your all, and yet your love and gratitude impel you to offer them to Christ, and any one would remonstrate, Christ takes your part, and says, Let them alone. He will take the gift, and enrich your souls. Ministers sometimes hear of incidents among their people, in their contributions, for example, to foreign missions-which make them feel that perhaps Christ loves individuals among them very much. Some of you shed spikenard on the Saviour, bestowing your gifts upon him through his cause, or his suffering friends; and wherever you go, you will be sure to carry the joy of it in your heart, as Mary carried in her hair the perfume which she took from Jesus' feet. It was little, it may be, in your esteem, and you thought only how small it seemed; but you were not ashamed of it, nor was Christ. Let us

make every contribution to the cause of Christ an express offering to him; sometimes let us bring special gifts to him who gave his blood for us. The oftener, like Mary, we are at his feet, for any purpose, to learn, to be comforted, or to give gifts, the wiser, the safer, the happier, shall we be. A lady once had a rare and beautiful plant, which bloomed with such surpassing richness that it seemed due to her sovereign, and, as the highest expression of her love and respect, she sent it to the Queen. With the same feelings did Hannah give her Samuel, the object of such desire and love, to God; and, more distinguished still, a poor widow, no doubt with the same emotions, in offering one farthing to her God, 'cast in more than they all.' Let secret prayer and consecration precede religious and charitable offerings, and they will be new cords of love between your soul and Christ.

3. Whenever we come to the table of Christ, we may say, by faith, This is Bethany. Can there be places or scenes on earth more interesting to Christ than those in which his people partake of the memorials of his death? If he is ever specially present with us, it is in connection with that which he bids. us do in remembrance of him, and which, more than any thing else, reminds him of us.

Would that we could always receive him and commune with him in the spirit of Mary, who forgot

every thing but Christ as soon as he entered her dwelling.

Would that we could honor him by a room full of guests. We have invited several hundreds of our friends to join with us in communion with Christ at his table, but hitherto they have said, I pray thee have me excused.

But, after all, our chief thought at the table of Christ must be with regard to ourselves, if we would profit by the sacramental season. The Master is come, and calleth for thee.' Let him search your heart, reprove you, not sparing your faults, but setting them in order before you. If he would treat us all as he did Martha, it would be well for us. He knows our faults; we may also say to him, with David, "Thou knowest my foolishness." Let us never go away without feeling reproved for some particular fault or sin. Nor may he depart without bearing with him some new proofs of our love, some purposes of amendment, a consecration to him of all that we have and are, and with new bonds between him and us, whose influence shall be felt by us not only in life and in death, but when we shall ́EAT AND DRINK AT HIS TABLE, IN HIS KINGDOM.'

SERMON IX:

SIMON THE CYRENIAN.

LUKE XXIII. 26.

AND AS THEY LED HIM AWAY, THEY LAID HOLD UPON ONE SIMON, A CYRENIAN, COMING OUT OF THE COUNTRY, AND ON HIM THEY LAID THE CROSS, THAT HE MIGHT BEAR IT AFTER JESUS.

THE cross was so ignominious and hateful, that no menial servant was willing to carry it to the place of execution, and the people were unwilling that any man who was not in disgrace should be compelled to bear it through the public ways.

It would seem that when they led Jesus away to be crucified, they laid the transverse beam of the cross upon him, according to the custom of making the criminal bear the instrument of his own torture and death. But either out of compassion to Christ, which is hardly probable, or because his strength, reduced by previous sufferings, was insufficient for the load, or because they feared that their victim, who was already much exhausted by the loss of blood,

might faint and die before they had executed their purposes, they found it expedient to relieve him of the burden. John says, " And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull." But the other evangelists say that another bore the cross. Both statements are consistent. Christ carried his cross through the city, and was then relieved of it, as one of the evangelists says, "when they came out." It is generally supposed, that this Simon was suspected, or known to be a friend, or a disciple, of Christ. Commentators agree in this impression. The reason seems to be, that only one who was odious ever had such ignominy put upon him as to bear a cross in public. Mark says, that this man was the father of Alexander and Rufus,' who are thus named familiarly, as though they were two disciples of Christ, well known. Two of the three evangelists who mention him, however, use the word 'compel,' in speaking of the act of the people in laying the cross upon him. Still, this may be intended merely to describe the act as it would appear generally to spectators, without intending to intimate the feelings of Simon at the force which the people would naturally use, whether he were, or were not, a friend.

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He was on his way from the country into the city, when the crowd met him as they went to the exe