buds which promise an abundant supply of fruit. No person, with these objects before him, doubts of their comparative value : no one doubts which of the two better answers the end of all the cultivation bestowed upon it, or which is the more acceptable to him on whose ground they stand. Know ye then, my Brethren, that this is the evidence which ye must give of a work of grace within you. You must, as David speaks, " be beautified with salvation:" the power of divine grace must display itself within you, by all those holy disposi- tions which were in Christ himself. Behold the Saviour in his whole deportment towards God and man ; how meek and lowly ; how patient and forbearing ; how superior to earthly things, and intent on the work assigned him ! " His path was like the sun" in its course : and " such should yours be, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day : " yea, so clearly and constantly should it shine, that all who behold you should confess that God is with you, and should glorify him for the grace conferred upon you. It is in this way that we are to approve ourselves trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, " in whom he shall be glorified."]
3. To extend the knowledge of him throughout the
world —
[" No one of us should live unto himself." From the moment that we are engrafted into Christ, we should begin to bring forth fruit to his glory, and should labour to diffuse to the utmost possible extent the benefits we have received. Our domestic circle should occupy our first attention ; and then the neighbourhood in which we live : and then we should go on further, to extend our efforts, till we have " filled the face of the whole world with fruit." This should be the ambi- tion of every child of God : and, if facilities are afforded us for combined exertion, we should gladly avail ourselves of them, in order that our labours may be more useful, and that we may effect by union what cannot be wrought by individual exertion. In particular, we should look upon the state of the Jewish and Heathen world. We should lament to see in what darkness both the one and the other are lying : and, like the holy apostles, we should endeavour to advance the Redeemer's kingdom throughout the world. Like St. Paul, we should have great heaviness and continual sorrow in our hearts for those who are " perishing for lack of knowledge ; " and, by all the means within our reach, we should labour, that " all the king- doms of the world may become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ."]
And now, let me further improve this subject, 1. In a way of reproof to ourselves —