03. Because he is more nearly related to God than others

How has God embraced you, who are believers, over many shoulders! He has made you his own dials, on which the beams of the sun of righteousness do shine! He has made you studs for his crown, while others are stools for his feet! Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not unto the world? As if he had said, Lord, what are we more than others, that thou shouldest show thyself to us; when thou mightest have shewn thyself to them and not to us?

Reader! has God made you a vessel to honour out of the same lump? Has he shewn himself to you, and not unto the world? And will you not shew yourself for God, and not for the world? Remember, that it lay as a great blotch on Hezekiah's escutcheon, That he rendered not unto the Lord according to the benefit done unto him.

2. Another reason why Christians do more than others, is, Because they stand in a nearer relation to God than others.

The nearer the relation, the stronger are the ties of obligation. In this view, believers on earth are superior to angels in heaven. Christ is related to them as a lord to his servants: but he is united to these as a head to its members. In this head there are no glazed eyes, nor are there any withered or dead members in this body. While others are made of God, these are born of God. While others stand before him as prisoners before their judge, these appear before him as children before a father, and as a bride before a bridegroom. There are no still-born children in the family of grace. God is the living father, and therefore all his children live by him; he is also the everlasting Father, and therefore he will have due honour paid him. For a son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? As a father, he will be revered for his goodness: and as a master, he will be feared for his greatness.

If honour be not the Lord's due, let him not have it: if it be his due, let him not be denied it. As man was born to serve God, he had better never have been born, than to refuse him that service.

When the son of Fluvius was found in the conspiracy of Catiline, the displeased Father reprehended him sharply, saying, Non ego te Catiline, genui sed patriae. 'I did not beget you for Catiline, but for your country.' This is the language of God to his children. I gave you not bodies and souls to serve sin with, but to serve me with. Our bodies were not formed to be the instruments of unrighteous actions, nor our souls the gloomy abodes of foul spirits.

The everlasting Father cannot brook the ungrateful behaviour of his own children. Therefore, attend to the great complaint he prefers against them: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for my children refuse to hear; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me!—Where the relation is the nearest, there the provocation is the greatest. It is far more pleasing to behold rebels becoming children, than to behold children becoming rebels.

When Cæsar was wounded by the senators of Rome, Brutus, a Roman of an illustrious family, also made a pass at him. With that, Cæsar gave him a wishful look, saying, 'What thou, my son Brutus!' How can that tender mother endure to feel those lips sucking her blood, which were wont to draw her maternal breast? The unkindness of a friend is more sensibly felt than that of an enemy.

The Roman censors took such an utter dislike to the debauched son of Africanus, that they refused to let him wear a ring on which his father's likeness was engraven; alleging, 'that he who was so unlike the father's person, was unworthy to wear the father's picture.' Thus God will never grant any to enjoy the love of Christ in heaven, who are destitute of the likeness of Christ on earth.

Alexander, who is reported to have been an exceedingly swift runner, was once solicited to run in the olympic games. He answered, 'I will, if kings are mine antagonists.' Give me such a saint who will pursue nothing on earth, which may be unsuitable to his birth from heaven. What, shall he walk in darkness, whose father is light? Shall those lips be found broaching falsehood, which were found breathing out prayers? Shall those eyes be found gazing on unseemly objects, which were found reading the lively oracles of God?

The remembrance of our dignity should engage us to our heavenly duty. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine and strong drink. Such a sin is detestable in a sovereign, who has the eyes of his subjects upon him; but it is ag-

C gravated in a saint, who has the eyes of his Saviour upon him.