be

a collection is usually made on the great festivals of our church;-but that this will be my last opportunity of thus commending them to your nevolence. More than four years have elapsed since I first appealed to you on these occasions. The spring of charity, which was then unsealed, has ever since flowed with an undiminished stream hundreds have been cheered and relieved by your timely beneficence: and I pray God, that in this church the enjoyment of peculiar privileges in Christ may ever be thus associated with the great Christian duty of showing mercy to the poor. Do as you have ever done, and the bless

ing of God be your reward!

SERMON XVII.

THE MINISTER RESIGNING HIS CHARGE, AND COMMENDING HIS HEARERS TO GOD.

ACTS XX, 32.

"And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified."

THESE simple yet impressive words-replete with the most solemn exhortation, while breathing the most affectionate regard-form a part of St. Paul's valedictory address to the elders of the church of Ephesus, and, through them, to the flock entrusted to their charge. The Apostle had been himself the founder of the Ephesian church; he had laboured in it with unwearied assiduity, watching over its progress with peculiar interest and solicitude; and that for a longer period of time than the ample circuit of his visitation and journeying ordinarily permitted him to devote to any single church. For the space of three

years he "ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." Nor were his ministrations confined to the public service of the sanctuary: though in such destitute and abject circumstances as to worldly goods, that his own hands ministered to his necessities, he yet taught the disciples, not only publicly, but from house to house while in the performance of this pastoral duty, he made no difference with regard to those whom he thus visited and exhorted, arising out of their former religious profession. Notwithstanding his strong bias and predilection towards his brethren, "the seed of Abraham according to the flesh"-he "testified both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." Thus extending his parental care individually even to the most obscure and most insignificant member of the church-thus being ever ready to bear the infirmities of the weak, to become all things to all men; and even with some, to use his own inimitable expression, "travailing in birth again, till Christ was formed in them"-thus being enabled to appeal to their own grateful remembrance in attestation of his unwearied exertions and unexhausted zeal for the salvation of their souls, "Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you

at all seasons"-there is little cause to wonder that the liveliest affections of these representatives of the Ephesian church were kindled towards their apostolic Pastor-that they viewed his departure as a great and almost irreparable loss-that they wept sore, and, after the patriarchal custom of their age and nation, "fell upon his neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more."

Between the unworthy individual who now addresses you, like Paul, for the last time, and that least of the apostles in his own estimation, though chiefest in the estimation of all beside, there can be no other similarity, than such as may arise out of past connection and present circumstances. "Be ye followers of me," said that devoted servant of his heavenly Master, "as I also am of Christ." For although we have striven to be a follower of him, to tread in the same path, to seek the same end-we have but just kept him in view, like a dark speck moving on the verge of the horizon, unable to discern the floating of the garments, or the proportions of the figure, much less the features of the counWe have indeed adopted for our own the leading principle of his conduct, in declaring fully unto you "the whole counsel of God," in

tenance.

"determining to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." But where has been the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake-what has been in our hands the sword of the Spirit, wielded so ably by him, that it "divided asunder even to the joints and marrow, and became a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart?" Alas! there is almost as wide a difference between what we might have done, had we followed him more closely, and what we have done, as between the words of the Apostle and our own; and it is our chief, our only consolation, that He with whom there is no limit nor restraint, to work by many or by few, may have directed to its mark the shaft shot by us at random; may have guided the strokes, which we aimed "fighting uncertainly," to their proper aim and object, in some hitherto hardened or insensible or heedless heart.-Since, however, the Apostle's past connection and present circumstances are at least thus far corresponding with my own since, after having been put in trust with the ministry of the Gospel, and exercised it among you for nearly double the period of which he spake, I am about to bid you a reluctant farewell—surely I may borrow the words in which his affectionate attachment was expressed, as indicative of that which have so well deserved from me,

you