absolutely unanswerable. Be of good cbeer then ; and bless your God for the privileges which you enjoy. True, indeed, no rich man shall perish because he is rich ; nor shall any poor man be saved because he is poor : but if the rich neglect their Saviour and their God, however full their tables may now be, they shall soon " want a drop of water to cool their tongues :" but the poor, though they be so destitute that they have not rags to cover their sores from the dogs that molest them, shall, if they truly seek after God, soon sit down with Abraham at the heavenly banquet, and rejoice in all the abundance of God's glory for ever and ever*. Let not your poverty, then, be urged as an excuse for neglecting God ; but be improved rather, as an incentive to secure the true riches, which shall never fade away.]
* Luke xvi. 19 — 25.
John vi. 28, 29. Then said they unto him, What shall ive do, that we might work the works of God ? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
THE real scope of these words is more clearly seen in the original than in the translation. Our blessed Lord, knowing that many had followed him from carnal motives, and under an expectation that He who had fed thousands of persons with a few loaves and fishes would establish a temporal kingdom amongst them, had given them this solemn caution : " Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed." These words they had not fully understood. They supposed that some great advantages were to be derived from him ; and that some particular works were to be done, in order to obtain them : but what works they were, they did not know. They asked therefore of our Lord, " What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? thou speakest of some works appointed to be