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therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible." Whatever pains the competitor in the games had taken, he was not sure of victory. An adversary might still be superior to him in strength, or activity, or skill. If he ran, another might reach the goal before him. If he fought, the dexterity of his opponent might avoid his strokes, and his blows might be wasted on the air. It is not thus with the Christian-there is nothing uncertain about the event of his exertions. With the love of God in his heart, supported by faith in the promises of his Saviour, he strives with the assurance of success. It is not in his

own strength he contends. If he trusts for a moment to himself, he will be made to feel his weakness. But he can do all things through Christ strengthening him. His Redeemer can enable him to attain the reward which he has purchased. If he trusts to him, he will enable him. He runs not as uncertainly, nor yet does he fight as one that beateth the air. His

exertions are not lost. His prayers, and faith, and patience, and labours, are not in vain. He, whose grace is working in him, is not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love. The reward is certain-and what a reward! The Greeks were encouraged by the hope of gaining a corruptible crown, a poor wreath, which received its value from being the pledge of the applause of their fellow-mortals. The Christian will obtain a crown incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved for him in heaven. An everlasting inheritance will be the recompense of his reward a state of enjoyment fuller and more perfect than he can now conceive. His crown will be the welcome, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." My brethren, may the thought of the Christian's privileges and the Christian's portion make us all anxious to share the one, and to attain to the blessed hope of the other. We must all, however, enter the course, and strive in the contest, before we can gain the victory. And this contest is

still a reality. We must devote to it every energy. If we would engage in it, we must avoid everything that would distract, or impede, or encumber us; and put ourselves under the discipline which is prescribed to all who would strive lawfully. If we begin our efforts in prayer and humility, depending on the Saviour, and looking for the aid of the Holy Spirit, we need not fear for the issue. If God be for us, who can be against us? He can enable us to build on the right foundation, to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, and to "hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."

SERMON XXV.

THE HEALING VIRTUE OF THE SAVIOUR.

ST. LUKE vi. 19.

"The whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all."

THE passage in immediate connexion with these words, sets before us a transaction of the utmost importance in the history of the Church: it is the institution of the Christian ministry; the first constitution of an order of men, which God has been pleased visibly to continue from that time to the present, to promote his purposes of mercy. The circumstances which preceded and followed it, are highly calculated to display its importance. "It came to pass

in those days," says the Evangelist, "that Jesus went into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." Several instances are recorded in which our blessed Lord engaged in prayer. But there is no other occasion noticed by the sacred writers in which he spent so long a space of time in uninterrupted prayer. After a night devoted to this solemn employment, "when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles." The appointment of these first ministers of the Gospel was signalised by an extraordinary display of our Lord's miraculous powers. "And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judæa and Jerusalem, and from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him; for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all."

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