Illustration.

Case of the sick man.

your heart better, but not as a means of recommending yourself to the Savior. Come to him at once, just as you are, and seek his sympathy and assistance in the work.

Inquirers after the path of piety are very slow to learn that the Savior is the friend of sinners. They will not learn that he came to help us while we are in our trials and difficulties, not after we get out of them. How many say in their hearts, I must overcome this sin, or free myself from that temptation, and then I will come to the Savior. I must have clearer views of my own sins, or deeper penitence, or awaken true love to God in my heart, and then, but not till then, can I expect Christ to be my friend. What! do you suppose that it is the office of Jesus Christ to stand aloof from the struggling sinner until he has, by his own unaided strength, and, without assistance or sympathy, finished the contest, and then only to come and offer his congratulations after the victory is won? Is this such a Savior as you imagine the Bible to describe?

At the door of one of the chambers of the house in which you reside, you hear a moaning sound, as of one in distress. You enter hastily, and find a sick man writhing in pain, and struggling alone with his sufferings. As soon as you understand the case, you say to him,

"We must send for a physician immediately; there is one at the next door who will come in in a moment.

"O no." groans out the sufferer, "I am in no state to send for a physician. My head aches dreadfully—I am almost distracted with pain. I fear I am very dangerously ill."

"Then we must have a physician immediately," you reply. "Run and call him," you say, turning to an attendant, "ask him to come as soon as possible."

"O stop! stop!" says the sick man, "wait till I get a little easier;-my breath is very short and my pulse very feeble, and besides I have been getting worse and worse every half hour for some time, and I am afraid

Jesus Christ a physician.

Struggling with temptation.

there is no hope for me. Wait a little while, and perhaps I may feel better, and then I will send for him."

You would turn after hearing such words, and say in a gentle voice to the attendant, "He is wandering in mind. Call the physician immediately."

Now Jesus Christ is a physician. He comes to heal your sins. If you wish to be healed, come to him at once, just as you are. The soul that waits for purer motives, or for a deeper sense of guilt, or for a stronger interest in the subject, before it comes to Christ, is a sick person waiting for health before he sends for a physician. Jesus Christ came to help you in obtaining these feelings, not to receive you after you have made yourself holy without him. You have, I well know, great and arduous struggles to make with sin. Just as certainly as you attempt them alone, you will become discouraged and fail. Come to the Savior before you begin them, for I do assure you you will need help.

One great object which our Savior had in view in remaining so long in the world, was to understand our temptations, and the contests which they bring up in the heart.

It is very often the case, that persons are struggling with temptations and sins almost in solitude, and those to whom they are directly accountable do not appreciate the circumstances in which they are placed, and the ef forts they make to overcome temptation. I presume that teachers very often blame their pupils with a severity which they would not use if they remembered distinctly the feelings of childhood. Perhaps a little boy is placed on a seat by his intimate friend, and commanded upon pain of some very severe punishment not to whisper. He tries to refrain, and succeeds perhaps for half an hour in avoiding every temptation. At last some unexpected occurrence or some sudden thought darts into his mind,his resolutions are forgotten,-the presence of the mas

The benevolent teacher.

The teacher imagined a scholar.

ter, the regulations of the school, and the special prohibition to him, all flit from his mind, and after the forbidden act, which occupied but an instant, is done, he immediately awakes to the consciousness of having disobeyed, and looks up just in time to see the stern eye of his teacher upon him speaking most distinctly of displeasure and of punishment. Now if any severe punishment should follow such a transgression, how disproportionate would it be to the guilt! The boy may indeed have done wrong, but how slight must the wrong be in the view of any one who could look into the heart, and estimate truly its moral movements in such a case! It is unquestionably true, and every wise teacher is fully aware of it, that in school discipline there is constant danger that the teacher will estimate erroneously the moral character of the actions he witnesses, just because he has forgotten the feelings of childhood. He cannot appreciate its temptations or understand its difficulties, and many a little struggler with the inclinations which would draw him from duty, is chilled and discouraged in his efforts, because the teacher never knows that he is making an effort to do his duty, or at least never understands the difficulties and trials which he finds in his way.

Suppose now that such a teacher should say to himself, and suppose he could by some magic power carry the plan into effect,-'I will become a little child myself, and go to school. I will take these same lessons which I assign, and endeavor to keep, myself, the rules which I have been endeavoring to enforce. I will spend two or three weeks in this way, that I may learn by actual experience what the difficulties and temptations and trials of childhood are. Suppose he could carry this plan into effect, and laying aside his accumulated knowledge and that strength of moral principle which long habit had formed, should assume the youth and the spirits and all the feelings of childhood, and should take his place in

Sympathy of Christ.

Howard.

some neighboring school, unknown to his new companions, to partake with them in all their trials and temptations. He toils upon a perplexing lesson, that he may know by experience what the perplexity of childhood is; he obeys the strictest rules, that he may understand the difficulty of obedience; and he exposes himself to the unkindness or oppression of the vicious boys, that he may learn how hard it is patiently to endure them. After fully making the experiment, he resumes his former character and returns to his station of authority. Now if this were done, how cordially, how much better can he afterward sympathize with his pupils in their trials, and with what confidence can they come to him in all their cares. Now we have such a Savior as this. The Word was made flesh, i. e. became man and dwelt among us. He took not on him the nature of angels, but the nature of "Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest." "We have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are."

man.

But

My reader will doubtless observe that this case is somewhat similar to that of Howard, which I imagined in the former part of this chapter; and perhaps you may imagine that if my paragraphs had been well arranged, this supposition would have come in connection with that. no. I was then upon the subject of sympathy with suf fering. I imagined Howard to become a prisoner, that he might understand and sympathize with the sufferings of prisoners. Now I am speaking of the subject of temptation and struggle against sin, and I imagine the teacher to become a child, that he may appreciate the trials and temptations of childhood.

We may

last

trust in the sympathy of our Savior in this respect as well as in the other. His disposition to feel compassion and sympathy, and not indignation, in

His thirty years of life.

Howard.

age. Thirty years he spent--in what? Why, in learning, by slow and painful experience, what it is to be a human being in this world of trial. Have I a reader who is only ten or twelve years of age? Remember, the Savior was once as young as you,-exposed to such little difficulties and trials as you are. He has gone through the whole, from infancy upward, and he does not forget. You may be sure, then, that he is ready to sympathize with you. If any thing is great enough to interest you, you may be sure it is great enough to interest him in your behalf. He remembers his own childhood, and will sympathize with the feelings of yours.

This plan of coming into our world and becoming one of us, and remaining in obscurity so long, that he might learn by experiment what the human condition is, in all its details, was certainly a very extraordinary,onc. It is spoken of as very extraordinary every where in the Bible.

You have all heard of Howard, the philanthropist. When he was thirty or forty years of age, there were, every where in Europe, jails and dungeons filled with wretched prisoners, some of whom were guilty and some innocent. They were crowded together in small, cold, damp rooms. Their food was scanty and bad,—dreadful diseases broke out among them; and when this was the case they were, in a vast multitude of cases, left to suffer and to die in unmitigated agony. Very few knew their condition, and there were none to pity or relieve them, until Howard undertook the task. He left his home in England and went forth, encountering every difficulty and every discouragement, until he had explored thoroughly this mass of misery and brought it to public view, and had done every thing he could to mitigate its severity

This was extraordinary enough, and it attracted universal attention. All Europe was surprised that a man should devote years of life to a most arduous and hazard