and who, as a consequence, survives in the stormy day. Settle it in your minds, wherever you go, whatever you do, each one for himself "IN ALL, THROUGH ALL, ABOVE ALL, I MUST WORK OUT MY OWN SALVATION. I must follow my Saviour's steps, and secure my Saviour's approval. A steward with certain talents committed to me, my one high aim must be, to hear my Master say at last -Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful in a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Let the anticipated sound of these words be ever ringing in your consciences-be ever quickening you to run "with patience the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith." Let not your earthly concerns secularize you, but do you spiritualize them. Convert your worldly avocations into a heavenly discipline. Let them exercise faith, meekness, charity, truth, uprightness; so may you be strengthening the inner man by the toils of the warehouse, as well as by the devotions of the closet and the sanctuary. Ask then, beloved, that the Spirit of God may "give you one heart," that you may have "one way." Energy of faith is the spring of earnestness of life. When the things unseen mightily impress, and the love of Christ mightily constrains, then

there will be a lofty decision of character: then will you keep the world, with its impertinencies, its blandishments, its vexations, and its artifices, in the proper place. However it may beset or assail you, whether it threaten or allure, you will meet it with the majestic reply-"I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?" "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the good work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." "And the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." "And I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Amen.

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LECTURE VII.

THE UPRIGHTNESS OF NEHEMIAH'S DEALINGS.

"I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury."-NEH. v. 10.

THE perfection of a painting is its keeping. The perfection of a building is its architectural proportion and symmetry. Nothing can make amends for a fault in this respect. As it is in things material, so it is in things moral. The perfection of a character is its unity and congruity. Study the character of Him who presents to us the only spotless character that the world ever beheld-study the character of Immanuel, and you will find that its crowning excellency is its unity and harmony. In speaking of His servants we speak of their distinguishing graces; we cannot so speak in speaking of the Master. He had no distinctive virtues;

for distinctive virtues are such as stand out beyond the proportion of the rest. But in Him every virtue was so exquisitely balanced and adjusted, that you cannot say He was more just than true, or more true than charitable, or more charitable than intolerant of evil. In the character of Jesus everything is so symmetrical, that you may compare it to the beautiful bow-that emblem of the covenant of grace-in which all the primitive colours melt into each other with such perfect harmony, that no one of them overshadows another, but all equally delight the eye. Now, just in so far as a follower of Christ attains to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, will he resemble his Lord in this perfection. He will not be simply a man of prayer, or simply a man of practical integrity; he will be both in lovely unison. He will be in the closet what he is in the market-place, and in the market-place what he is in the closet. He will be before God what he is before man-such, at least, will be his aim. He will never set up one class of duties in opposition to another, nor look upon the performance of a few as a counterpoise to the neglect of the rest. His aim and his effort will be, to "have respect to all" the commandments of God, from the least to the greatestif we may presume to graduate precepts which are

alike enjoined by the same sovereign authority. Sad is it when men who "name the name of Christ," divorce what God has united; some speaking of themselves as evangelical, in contrast to being moral; and others as being moral, in contrast to being evangelical. Such antagonisms have no place in the economy of grace; they are the figments of human passion and prejudice. According to the glorious gospel, no man is truly moral that is not evangelical, and none honestly evangelical that is not truly moral.

From the root of grace, through the stem of faith, there stretch forth two main branches; the one the love of God, the other the love of our neighbour. From these two shoot out and depend all the ramifications of obedience. Where the one is not, neither is the other; and where the one is found, you may be sure the other is not wanting. How beautifully were they combined in the character of Cornelius! His "prayers and his alms came up for a memorial before God;" there was devotion towards God, there was bountifulness towards man.

We trace the same beautiful combination in the noble character to which your attention is directed. Nehemiah was pre-eminently a man of faith and piety. We have explored the secrets of his closet; we have penetrated into the recesses of his soul.