SERMON XXVII.

CHRISTIAN CAUTION.

ST. MATTHEW X. 17

"Beware of men."

THE rapid spread of Christianity has always been regarded, and justly regarded, as one of the strongest evidences of its Divine origin. It gratified no passions, it fell in with no prejudices, it was supported by no authority. We may truly say, that it had no human considerations in its favour. On the contrary, it had many things against it. To the self-righteous Jew, and the licentious Gentile, it was alike" without form and comeliness;" to the one as recommending humility, to the other as insisting upon holiness. All, too,

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must have been shocked by its proposing for their belief a suffering Messiah, and all would naturally examine with more than ordinary circumspection the claims of a system, which could not be received without exposing those who received it to persecution and ridicule. The establishment of the Gospel under such circumstances was evidently "the Lord's doing." The grain of mustard seed grew into a tree, which offered the birds of the air a shelter in its branches; and, thanks to the gracious Husbandman, it still waves in all the gracefulness of luxuriant vegetation! It has experienced the vicissitudes of many a changing year. The cold of winter has haply sometimes chilled it, and the heat and drought of summer have sometimes caused it to droop in languor. A more genial season has revived it. The refreshing showers have awakened it to new life and vigour; and, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, the Church is among us as a goodly tree, casting a noble shadow, yielding its proper fruit, and, like that still more noble tree which was shown in vision

to the prophet-evangelist, producing “leaves for the healing of the nations."

The Church is a tree rooted in the promises of God. It is a house founded upon a rock. The God of truth engaged that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. That promise explains to us its establishment, it accounts for its continuance, and it forbids us to fear its ruin. Every thing that the malice and ingenuity of "the powers of darkness" could devise, and that the wickedness of men could put into execution, has been done to check its progress, and to destroy its very existence. It has been assailed by the storms of persecution, it has been exposed to the sunshine of prosperity. But the eyes of real believers have ever been opened to perceive that He that was with them, was greatly more powerful than they that were with their enemies; and feeling that the cause of the Gospel was the cause of God, they have never doubted about its final triumph.

When our blessed Lord first sent forth his Apostles to preach the Gospel, he explained to them with much precise

ness the nature of the reception which they might expect to meet with from an evil world. Satisfied of the power and Messiahship of their Master, they were going forth expecting that their countrymen would universally attend to their message, and admit his claims. He checks these extravagant expectations, and warns them to look for opposition and neglect. He tells them that they are going forth defenceless, among cruel and unscrupulous enemies. They therefore needed uncommon correctness and prudence. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." But no conduct, however excellent and judicious, would secure them from the malice of those who hated the great truths which they proclaimed. "But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in the synagogues ; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles." And this was not the language of apprehension

merely. Our Lord spoke in the spirit of prophecy. We have ample testimony to the literal fulfilment of his prediction. The inspired history of the Acts of the Apostles, and in fact all the records of the first three centuries of Christianity, show the wisdom of the Saviour's warning. A Peter in the iron grasp of Herod, when naught but the interposition of Omnipotence could save him from the morrow's martyrdom, must have felt how justly he had been warned to "beware of men." The Apostle of the Gentiles, in those frequent trials which befel him in his successful labours, must have often felt the propriety of the warning, "Beware of men;" and when the haughty Roman, during nearly three hundred years of persecution, brandished the sword over the infant Church, the noble army of confessors and martyrs, while they trembled. in the consciousness of man's weakness, and triumphed in the confidence of God's sufficiency, must have read in their own. experience a terrible commentary on those words of wisdom, "Beware of men."

Persecution was the first and most in