depend upon your own exertions for the attainment of it : engage heartily in my service, and expect assuredly at my hands a reward proportioned to your diligence and fidelity.' This is an encouraging consideration to every one of us : the cup we may have to drink of may be bitter at the time ; but it shall soon be exchanged for a far different cup, which we shall drink of to all eternity : and though we go through a sea of troubles now, our augmented weight of glory shall abundantly compensate for all the sorrows we have endured.]
Let us learn then from hence,
1. What we are to desire —
[If we will hear a Prophet, he says, " Seekest thou great things unto thyself? seek them not1." If we will attend to an Apostle, he says, " Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth m." Let us attend to these in- structions, and " count all things but loss, that we may win Christ" ]
2. What we are to expect —
[If we look for honour and acceptance with man, we shall be disappointed. Which of the Prophets, which of the Apostles, was not an object of hatred and persecution to an ungodly world? Who are we then, that we should expect different treatment from them? Let us bear in mind, that "all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution :" and let us be content to bear our cross, in order that we may hereafter receive a crown ]
3. What we are to do —
[God has appointed to every one of us our work : let us be diligent in the performance of it : " whatsoever our hand findeth to do, let us do it with all our might." But let us be especially careful of the rock which these presumptuous Dis- ciples split upon. When our Lord asked them whether they could " drink of his cup, and be baptized with his baptism," they confidently answered that they could. And how justly they estimated their own powers, they soon shewed, when, upon our Lord's apprehension in the garden, they all forsook him and fled. Thus will it be with us, if we attempt to do any thing in our own strength : we shall soon find that " we have not of ourselves a sufficiency even to think a good thought," much less to do and suffer all the will of God. Our Lord tells us, that " without Him we can do nothing." Let us remember then, that, whilst we engage in his service, we must derive all our strength from him. If we look to him, we need not fear either men or devils : we may set at nought all the menaces of
1 Jcr. xlv. 5. m Col. iii. 2.
t Q