"Looking unto Jefus."-Her. xii. 2.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS.

Amid the world's vain pleafures, din, and ftrife,
The Chriftian treads the upward path of life;
Though forely tempted to forfake the way,
He preffes onward still from day to day ;

On worldly honours he with fcorn looks down,
Content if he at laft fhall wear a crown;
And worldly wealth without regret he leaves,
He treafure has beyond the reach of thieves.
The Syren Pleasure with voluptuous strain,
Strives to enfnare him, but she strives in vain ;
His ear he clofes to their idle noife,

And haftens upward to celeftial joys;
At God's right hand he owns an ample store,
Of joys fubftantial, lafting evermore;
He looks to Jefus, his Almighty Friend,
Nor fails at last to reach his journey's end.

THE Christian is here depicted making his way up the path of life. The wealth of this world is offered to him on condition that he will turn aside. He rejects the offer with disdain; he points upward, intimating that his treasure is in heaven. Honours are presented; these he defpifes alfo, content with the honour that comes from God. The votaries of finful pleasures next addrefs him; they promife all forts of delights if he would stay and dwell with them. He clofes his ear to their deceitful fong: he looks upward to Jefus his Lord and his God, and, taking up the fong of an old pilgrim, he goes on his way, finging :

"Thou wilt show to me the path of life, In thy prefence is fulness of joy, Pleasures at thy right hand for evermore." But what will not men in general do in order to obtain thofe very things which the Chriftian rejects with fo much difdain? What have they not done? Answer, ye battle-fields that have

heard the dying groans of fo many myriads! Anfwer, ye death-beds that have liftened to the lamentations of the votaries of pleasure! Answer, ye habitations of cruelty, where the life's blood of the victims of avarice oozes away from day to day, under the rod of the oppreffor! And who or what is the Chriftian, that these things have no influence over him? Is he not a man? Yes; an altered man from what he was once; a new man. Old things have paffed away. All things have become new. He looks to fefus. Here is where his great ftrength lies. Here is the power by which he overcometh the world, even by looking to Jefus. Do you afk what is this looking to Jefus? What magic is there in this fo powerful? Liften! Our fins have separated us from God, for "all have finned, and come fhort of the glory of God." Death temporal has paffed upon all men, as the forerunner of eternal death, except we repent, and be converted. But how fhall we repent and be converted? How fhall we guilty ones dare to approach the Holy God? He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. What shall we bring to gain his favour? Alas for our poverty, if it were to be bought with money! Alas for our finfulness, if our own righteousness could have fufficed to recommend us to God! Alas for our impotence, if we had been left unaided to defcend Bethesda's pool! Alas for our blindness, if we had been left to ourselves to discover a door of Hope.

While in this plight, Jefus comes to our relief.

He brings a price—a righteousness—a ftrength— a light. He is the light of the world-the Sun of righteousness. He fhines and difpels the gloom. O how cheering are His rays! As the beams of the morning give hope and confolation to the benighted traveller in fome dreary wildernefs, fo does Jefus, the "dayspring from on high," give light and hope to those who fit in "darkness, and in the shadow of death." The light of love and the hope of heaven. The path of duty is revealed, the promise of immortality is given. Do you afk yet again, what is meant by looking to Jefus? Again liften. The exercife of faith in the Lord Jefus Chrift. This is what is meant. Man is made capable of confidence, of confidence in man. In this confifts the charms of domeftic felicity. A man without confidence in his race is an isolated being; he is cut off from all the fympathies of his kind. Juft fo, man without confidence in God, is separated from him. He is in the world without God, and without Hope. Faith unites man to God. The Chriftian is a man of faith. He is united to God; he walks by faith, he lives by faith. The life which he lives is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself -O wondrous gift-for him.

He looks to Jefus, as unto an "offering for fin." He receives it as a faithful faying, worthy of all acceptation, that "He hath made Him who knew no fin to be a fin-offering for us, that we might be made the righteoufnefs of God in Him." That