In how many ways then, and through how many voices, is the message syllabled, which Christ sent to them whose property he required. Hearken for it, and it will come to you through all the wants of your fellowmen, through the prevalence of ignorance, through the pressure of indigence, through the accidents, sorrows, and bereavements of life. In a thousand ways is God saying to us that he has need of our property, need of our talents, need of our time, need of those whom we love, and of that which we cherish. Shall we refuse him? or, where we have no option, shall we yield up grudgingly, in place of cheerfully, what he requires? Nay, let us take pattern from men to whom probably but little had been intrusted, but who readily gave up that little so soon as it was needed for the service of God. It may be, that we are often inclined to excuse ourselves from imitating scriptural examples, by pleading that the saints of old were of extraordinary character, and in extraordinary circumstances, and cannot therefore with justice be set before us as models. If I hold up the patriarch Job to those on whom sorrow presses hard, and bid them observe how, when children were dead, and possessions destroyed, this man of God meekly said,The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord "Yes, is the feeling, if not the answer; but Job was no common man his name has passed into a proverb and it is not to be expected that such as we should emulate his marvellous patience. If again, when I would urge men to sacrifices and endurances in the cause of Christ and his Gospel, I dwell on the example of St. Paul, who counted "all things but loss," that he might know and serve the Redeemer, "in journeyings often, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness"-Yes, is the sentiment, if not the expression; but St. Paul has never had his equal; the wonder of his own and every succeeding generation, we may not think to reach so lofty a standard. Thus there is a way of evading the force of scriptural examples: men imagine circumstances of distinction i between themselves and eminent saints, and give those circumstances in apology for coming far behind them in piety. Let us then learn from the mean and unknown, of whom we may not plead that they were separated from us by any thing rare in endowment or position. Men who are reluctant to part with property, that it may be employed in the cause of God; parents who would withhold their children from missionary work, or murmur at their being transplanted from earth to. heaven; sufferers, to whom is allotted one kind or another of afflictive dispensation, and who rebel under the chastisement, as though it were not for good-come ye all, and learn, if not from exalted persons such as Job and St. Paul, yet from the owners of the ass and the colt which Christ sent for, when designing his last entry to Jerusalem. There is virtually the same message to every one of you as was brought to these poor and unknown. individuals. The motive to your surrendering what is asked, or bearing what is imposed, is precisely the same as was urged upon them. And they will rise up in the judgment and condemn you, if, with all your superior advantages-the advantages of Christianity above Judaism, of an imperfect over an introductory dispensationyou show yourselves less compliant than they were with a summons from the universal Proprietor. Christ, who knoweth the heart, could reckon on readiness, so soon as the owners should be told of his requiring the ass and the colt. May he reckon on the same with us? Ah, let us, when we go hence, consider what we have which God may speedily require at our hands; let us search, and see whether we are prepared to resign it, when asked for by God-be it wealth, or child, or honor, or friend-and let us observe how reluctance is rebuked now, and will be witnessed against hereafter, by the wil lingness of the owners of the ass and the colt, of whom Christ could affirm, "Say ye, the Lord hath need of them, and straightway they will send them." We have thus considered the incidents to which our text has respect, with reference to Christ himself, to his disciples, and to the owners of the ass and the colt. We have endeavored to १९ show you that our Lord added to the | It ought to encourage them who have witness for his being the Messiah, by but little in their power, that it was the prescience and power displayed; and that the manner of the display was admirably appropriate to the wants and circumstances of his followers. We have set before you the disciples as worthy of your close imitation, in that they unhesitatingly obeyed where they might have plausibly objected, and were as ready for a menial service as for the most honored and illustrious. And then the owners have been considered, as exemplifying a great principle of which we are apt to lose sight-the principle, that, in the matter of our possessions, we are not proprietors, but stewards, and should therefore hold ourselves ready to part with what we have, so soon as we know that it is needed by the Lord. They are great lessons, and striking truths, which have thus been derived and illustrated from our text and the context. But, before we conclude, let us dwell for a moment on the vast honor given to humble individuals, in that they were allowed to contribute to the progress of the Savior, when, accomplishing ancient prediction, he advanced towards the city where he was to sacrifice himself. I think, that, if the men saw the triumphal procession, the multitude spreading their garments, strewing the way with branches, and burdening the air with hosannahs, they must have felt an elation of heart, that their beasts should have been chosen for a personage whom thousands thus combined to reverence and honor. The noblest and wealthiest might justly have exulted, had they been allowed to aid the glorious advance: but, as though to show how the mean may serve him, and how their service shall be owned, Christ openly used the property of the poor, on the single occasion when there was any thing like pomp in his earthly career. And why should we not gather from this, that, when he shall come in power and great majesty-not the lowly inan, entering Jerusalem in a triumph which was itself almost humiliation, but the "King of kings, and Lord of lords"-he will acknowledge and exhibit the services rendered him by the poor and despised, as well as those wrought by the great ones of the earth? | the foal of an ass on which Christ rode, and that this foal in all probability, belonged to the poor. We may all do something towards that sublime consummation for which the church watches and prays, when, not from a solitary city, and not from a single and inconstant people, but from ten thousand times ten thousand voices, from every clime, and land, and tongue, shall be heard the shout, "Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest." "The Lord hath need" of the strength of the mighty and of the feebleness of the weak; of the abundance of the rich and of the mites of the impoverished; and if we will go forth to his help, if each, according to his means and ability, will strive to accelerate the day when "all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest," we may be sure that our labor shall not be forgotten, when "the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him." Oh, if there be some of whom it shall then be told that they contributed the rich and the costly towards preparing the way for the advancing Redeemer, of others it may be said that they had not the rich and the costly to give, but that, with a willing heart, they offered their best, though that best was only the refuse and mean. And we do not merely say that the poorness of the gift shall not cause it to be overlooked: the inconsiderable offering may be shown to have been as instrumental as the magnificent in furthering the progress of the Gospel : he who, when he would accomplish prophecy, entered Jerusalem, not in the rich man's chariot, but on the poor man's ass, may prove that he went forwards to his kingdom, as much through what the feeble wrought in their weakness, as what the mighty effected in their strength. Let this encourage all, that they be not weary in well-doing. May all make a practical use of the great doctrine of Christ's second coming. Anticipate that coming: realize your own personal share in that coming. He will come "to take account of his servants" are you ready with your account? have you improved your talents? have you acted up to your ability in furthering the great cause of truth upon earth? Let none think himself either excused or injured by insignificance. There was, you remember, a servant to whom but one talent had been given; and he was bound hand and foot and cast to "outer darkness," because that one had been hidden, when it might have been put "to the exchangers." There were men who perhaps owned little more than an ass and a colt, but they were ready to surrender what they had, when needed by Christ; and lo, they were honored to the effecting what prophecy had announced in one of its loftiest strains, they were instrumental to the bringing and displaying her King to "the daughter of Zion." SERMON XIII. NEHEMIAH BEFORE ARTAXERXES. "I said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.”—Nehemiah, 23, 4, 5. When the seventy years had expired, during which God, in just judgment for their many offences, had sentenced the Jews to captivity in Babylon, he graciously remembered his promise, and raised them up a deliverer in the person of Cyrus. In the first year of that monarch's reign, "that the word of the Lord, spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be accomplished," a royal edict was issued, which not only permitted the captives to return to their own land, but enjoined that every facility should be afforded to their march, and every assistance rendered them in the rebuilding their city and temple. It does not appear that immediate and general advantage was taken of this edict; the Jews did not rise as one man, under the influence of a desire to resettle themselves in Palestine. And this is little to be wondered, at, if you remember the utter desolation in which Jerusalem and Judea then lay, the arduousness and perils of the journey, and the fact that the captivity had continued so long that few, and those only men fast advancing in years, had ever seen the land of their fathers, or were bound to it by the ties of remembrance or acquaintance. No marvel if there was something of pause and hesitation, if piety and patriotism did not instantly nerve all the exiles to abandon the country which had almost become theirs by adoption, and to seek a home where, though they had once been possessors, they would only find themselves strangers. But God purposed the restoration of the people, and therefore, as we read, he raised the spirit of "the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is at Jerusalem." And soon, under the guidance of Zerubba bel, there went forth a mixed compa ny of the old and the young, bearing with them not only their own riches, but the vessels of the house of the Lord:" obstacles were surmounted, dangers escaped, through the assist ance and protection of God; and in due time the wanderers reached the spot, hallowed by so many magnificent recollections, and which was yet to be the scene of mightier things than past days had witnessed. thereby exposed themselves to his wrath. In this crisis, Ezra was raised up, A ready scribe in the law of Moses :" having obtained sanction and assistance from king Artaxerxes, he visited Jerusalem that he might "teach in Israel statutes and judgments." It would seem to have been almost exclusively to religious matters that Ezra directed his attention; he accomplished a great work in dissolving the unlawful connexions which the Jews had formed with the people of the land; but he did little or nothing towards reinstating his country in the position which it had once held amongst nations. Jerusalem appears to have remained without defences, exposed to the assault of every enemy, and liable at any moment-so ill was it provided with the munitions of war-to be reduced to the ruins from which it had so lately, and as yet so imperfectly, sprung. But the difficulties, as you well remember, of the Jews did not terminate with their arrival in Judea; their city and temple were to be rebuilded; and in this great work, they found inveterate adversaries in the Samaritans, who had been settled in the land by Esarhaddon, and who, professing a mixed and spurious religion, wished not the revival of the pure worship of Jehovah. The opposition of these adHere we come to the actions of anversaries was so far successful, that other worthy, whose history furnishes Cyrus, the patron of the Jews, being the latest canonical records of the dead, "the work of the house of God" Jews till the days of our Lord. When was made to cease "until the second about twelve years had elapsed from year of the reign of Darius." Then, the events commemorated in the close however, it recommenced, the pro- of the book of Ezra, we find a Jew, phets Haggai and Zechariah stirred up named Nehemiah, residing in Shushan, the people, and God inclined the new the capital of Persia, and filling the monarch to re-enact the decree which office of cup-bearer to Artaxerxes the had been issued by Cyrus. Under king. His father, Hachaliah, was prothese altered circumstances, Jerusa- bably one of them who had declined lem had soon again a temple, which, to take advantage of the decree of Cyif inferior to that of Solomon in stateliness of structure, and richness of adornment, was yet prophetically declared destined to far higher dignity, inasmuch as it should receive the promised Messiah: "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts." But when the temple had thus risen, and the inspired men were dead whom God had raised up for the instruction and encouragement of the people, there appears to have been great unsettlement in both the civil and ecclesiastical policy of the Jews; as a nation, their position was made precarious by surrounding enemies and internal confusion; whilst, as the people of God, they had mingled themselves with the people of the lands, and rus, preferring to remain where he had made himself a home, to returning to a country where he must feel himself an alien. The son, Nehemiah, occupying a post of great honor in the Persian court, may never have had an opportunity of visiting Jerusalem, but his heart yearned towards the land and city of his fathers; with the spirit of a true patriot, he sought eagerly for information as to the condition of his countrymen, and longed to be instrumental in advancing their prosperity. The information came: Hanani, one of his brethren, and certain men of Judah, reached Shushan from Jerusalem, perhaps disheartened by the difficulties which they had experienced, and accounting it better to resettle in the land in which they had been captives. They gave Nehemiah a melancholy, though not, as it would seem, an exaggerated account. "The his object to attract the attention of remnant that are left of the captivity the king; to do this he had only to there in the province are in great allow his countenance to betray what, affliction and reproach; the wall of perhaps, he could hardly have forced Jerusalem also is broken down, and it to conceal-for we are expressly the gates thereof are burned with told that he had never "beforetime fire." been sad in his presence"-so that the altered demeanor was immediately observed, and its reason demanded with all the quickness of eastern suspicion. And now it was that the man of piety appeared in the man of patriotism; and admirably does Nehemiah stand forth as an example to them who profess to have at heart their country's good, and to be stricken by its calamities. He did not immediately call a meeting of the Jews, to consult what might be done for their afflicted countrymen. He did not gather round him a knot of politicians, that plans might be discussed, and assistance levied. But, as one who knew in calamity the offspring of sin, and in the Almighty the single patron of the distressed, Nehemiah "sat down, and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven." But Nehemiah did not count his part done when he had thus, in all humility, confessed the sins of his nation, and entreated the interference of God. He was not one of them who substitute prayer for endeavor, though he would not make an endeavor until he had prepared himself by prayer. Fortified through humiliation and supplication, he now sought to take advantage of his position with the king, and, true patriot as he was, to render that position useful to his countrymen. Nearly four months elapsed from his interview with Hanani, before an opportunity occurred for his addressing Artaxerxes. There was probably a rotation in the office of cup-bearer, which obliged him to await his turn; and it was at the hazard of life to any one to enter, unbidden, into the presence of the Persian monarch. But in the month of Nisan he stood before Artaxerxes, and he "took up the wine, and gave it unto the king." He was now, however, heavy at heart, and the handing the sparkling draught to the monarch at his banquet, ill assorted with a mind distracted and sad. He had not the skill, indeed he could not have had the wish, to disguise his feelings, and affect a cheerfulness which he did not experience. It was And here it is that we reach the very simple, but touching, narration of our text. Nehemiah was sore afraid, when Artaxerxes, struck with the sorrow depicted on his features, imperiously asked the cause of the too evident grief. It was the moment for which he had wished, yea, for which he had prayed, yet, now that it had come, he felt so deeply what consequences hung upon a word, that he was almost unmanned, and could scarce venture to unburden his heart. He spake, however, and, first offering the customary wish on behalf of the king, asked how he could be other than sad, whilst the city, and the place of the sepulchres of his fathers, lay desolate and waste, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire? Upon this, Artaxerxes demanded what request he had to make; and Nehemiah, though his answer had of course to be immediately given, gave it not till he had strengthened himself by silent petition to one greater than the king; he "prayed to the God of heaven," and then entreated permission to go unto Judah, and build up the city of the sepulchres of his fathers. The request was successful, though the passage, which we have selected as our subject of discourse, does not require us to refer to subsequent events in the history of Nehemiah. There is enough in this passage itself to require and repay the most serious attention; and we have but engaged you with a somewhat lengthened review of foregoing circumstances, that you might the better appreciate what is here re-. corded of the conduct of Nehemiah. The two prominent facts on which we wish to seize, do indeed widely differ the one from the other, so that, in making them the subject of a single discourse, we cannot hope to preserve that continuousness of thought which |