temptations to be otherwise are not thrown in our way: "I beseech you," says St. Peter, "as strangers and pilgrims," abstain from fleshly lusts, which war

against the soul." We are strangers and pilgrims. We must up, and be moving on. The Lord of life, to show that on the earth he had no abiding city, was born at an inn; and there was no room for him but in the stable. Such were the accommodations with which he was content. What he once said to his disciples, he says to all-" Arise, let us go hence."

But it is not enough, that the Christian traveller be content. Let him be cheerful, and beguile the tediousness of the way with a sacred song-" Awake up,

rr

my glory; awake, lute and harp!-I will praise "thee, O Lord, among the people, I will sing unto "thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great "unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds, "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live, I will

praise my God while I have my being. And so "shall my words please him; my joy shall be in the "Lord." This is the language of the very same person who says, in the text, "I am a stranger in the "earth." Thus it was, that he consoled himself under the fatigues of his journey, and rejoiced even in tribulation, because every step he set, however painful, brought him nearer to his eternal home. Consider the case of those two travellers, Paul and Silas, in the dungeon of a prison, at the dead of midnight, with their feet fast in the stocks. And in this situation how did they employ themselves? In groaning and lamenting? No; they "prayed and sang praises unto God." Let us hear no more of

"Thy

murmuring and complaining. In all things let us give thanks, and be able to say, with David, “statutes have been my songs in the house of my "pilgrimage.

It will greatly contribute towards relieving the sufferings and hardships of our journey, if we can have the company of some of like sentiments, tempers, and dispositions, who are travelling the same way, with whom we may converse about the country to which we are all going, consult upon the best means of arriving safely at it, and mutually communicate our observations upon the objects that present themselves, and the incidents that happen upon the road. "They "that fear thee," says the Psalmist, "when they see me, because I have hoped in thy "word. I am a companion of all them that fear "thee, and keep thy precepts. We took sweet

"will be glad

counsel together, and walked in the house of God as "friends." He who travels alone, will often find himself weary and melancholy: he will often want help and assistance. As the wise man observes, "Two are bet

ter than one; for, if they fall" (and who can at any "time be assured he shall not?) "the one will help his fellow." Much does it concern us, in making up our connexions and choosing our friends, to make and choose such as will forward us on our way, and continue with us unto the end; and it is happy for us when they who stand in the nearest relation to us, and with whom we must of necessity spend the greatest part of our time, are of this sort. Blessed are they who thus go through life together, in peace and love, comforting and encouraging one another,

and talking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. To these heirs of salvation angels delight to minister; and that which happened to the two disciples upon the road to Emmaus, will happen tò them: "Jesus himself," though they do not know it, ❝ will draw near, and go with them." :

With such companions, and such a guide, our journey will seem short, because it will become pleasant; and there will be nothing formidable even in the last and worst part of it, death itself. In the history which the Scriptures give us of good men in old time, it is worth observing, that their dying appears to have been a circumstance as easy and indif ferent to them as to the historian who relates it. With Moses it is only, Go up to mount Nebo, and die ; with Aaron, Ascend to mount Hor, and do the same. And, before them, we find the holy patriarchs, when' the appointed hour came, calling their children about them, bequeathing to posterity the promised blessing of salvation by Messiah, gathering up their feet into the bed, and dying with the same satisfaction and complacency as they would have fallen asleep. And why? but because, having been always accustomed to think of themselves as strangers in the earth, they constantly regarded death as a departure to that other and better country of which they lived in perpetual expectation, and could not therefore be surprised or alarmed at being called to take possession, as knowing they began their journey in order to finish it. Could we think as they did, we should live as they did, and die as they did. Nor should we grieve for the dead who have died in the Lord. They have only

passed us upon the road, and are gone, as it were, to prepare for our reception. And surely, in the journey of life, as in other journeys, it is a pleasing reflection that, whatever usage we may meet with abroad (and strangers do not often meet with the best), we have friends who are thinking of us at home, and will receive us with joy when our journey is at an end. And, lo, the heavens are opened, and the habitations of the blessed disclose themselves to view. The glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, all that have departed hence, from the beginning of the world, in the faith and fear of God, a great multitude which no man can number, are seen standing in white robes, with palms in their hands. They beckon us away to those blissful regions from whence sin and sorrow are for ever excluded, and into which they who are admitted "go no more "out." All, once, like us, trod, with many a toil-: some step, this valley of weeping; all, once, were

strangers in the earth." Now, they rest from their labours, and are entered into the joy of their Lord. ` They have accomplished happily their journey, and through faith and patience have inherited the promises. A seraph's voice, from the eternal throne, calls to every one of us-" Go, and do thou like!!wise.'

346

DISCOURSE XXIV.

THE FULNESS OF TIME.

GALATIANS, iv. 4, 5.

When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

THE words make part of the epistle for the day. And none could have been chosen with greater propriety: none can more fully represent to us, in a short compass, the wonderful nature and blessed effects of the redemption, begun as at this season to be wrought for us. Highly fit it is, that our thoughts should still continue to be employed upon it. The angels desire to look into it: we surely cannot yet be weary of meditating upon it. To refresh, to quicken, to fix, the impressions that may have. been made, is the intention of the following discourse, in which some reflections shall be offered, on the several particulars of the text, exactly in the order in which they lie; for a better cannot be devised.

I. "When the fulness of time was come."-The same truth is here pointed out, which is taught us by the wise man in the book of Ecclesiastes: “To