my Father draw him, except it be given him from above.

Now then meet the necessity, we pray you, in all its certainty of consequence. If your natural will, your carnal, world-loving, pleasure-loving, creatureloving will, is not converted by heavenly grace into a will that has God himself for its object in the Lord Jesus Christ, then, whatever be your forms and your customs, your cares and your prayers, you cannot enter into his kingdon. Time is passing away, and soon that event of your course in this present world, will be fixed and decided upon you. Do not shut your eyes to this fact. Do not place confidence in external things, or the diligent use of external means. But look at your heart. Is it renewed and converted? Is it given to God? Is it the tide of its affections actually turned? Are sin and self, that were once its breath and its nature, now its hatred and abhorrence? Are Christ, and holiness, and heaven, the end which it longs for, and to which it desires to come?

And if you do not find this to be the case, then 'begin, we beseech you, and pray most earnestly to God that he will do this for you. However you have to seek it, however you wait for it, perhaps with days of labour and nights of tears, do not rest, do not feel yourself at a moment's ease, till you get the will that we speak of, a spiritual, sanctified, converted, holy will. Ask it in faith in the name of the Son of God. Ask it of the Father through the all-prevailing mediation of the Great High-Priest, that sitteth upon the throne. Plead the promise he has given you, "For this I will be enquired of," and then "a new heart will I give you." Then "a new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."*

⚫ Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27, 37.

SERMON VIII.

CLASS IV. DEFECT IN DEGREE. SECTION II.

THE YOUNG RULER.

I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Matt. xix. 24. See also from ver. 16 to ver. 30, and to ver. 16, of chap. xx,

THE circumstance which caused our Lord to make this remarkable observation, was a very affecting one. Amongst the multitude of persons that came to him at different times, and from different motives, some from curiosity, to see his miracles, or to hear his doctrine; some from self-interest, to be healed of their diseases or to eat of the loaves and fishes; and some, on a still worse principle, to watch him as enemies, to cavil at his sayings, and to try to entangle him in his talk: amongst all these applications to Christ, there came to him one, on the present occasion, of a very different, and a much more interesting kind. There came to him one that said to him, What shall I do that I may have eternal life? Surely a most important question, brethren, for all of us to be asking, and getting information about it! Surely the most important question that can ever engage our attention! Surely, in such a dying world as this is, and with eternity before us, and inheritors as we are of a sinful

F

nature, for which it is appointed to us once to die, and after that the judgment, it is fit we should each of us be asking, What shall I do to be saved? What shall I do that I may have eternal life?

We should expect that such an application, made in the way in which it was made, with so much sincerity, and with apparently so much desire, must have been a successful one, must have ended in his obtaining that eternal life which he was seeking for, and becoming, from that time, a true and faithful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what was the fact? After a most interesting conversation with the Lord, to enable him to count the cost of becoming his disciple, he was unwilling to make the sacrifice required, he could not bring himself to give up the world for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He would not sell all that he had, to buy the pearl of great price. He went away sorrowful into the world again. And he stands on record as an exemplification of that peculiar rule of the Gospel, which our Lord, in the subsequent chapter, drew from his case, that "many are called indeed, but that few are chosen :" or of that Scripture; "Strive to enter in at the strait gate," the needle's eye, "for many shall seek to enter in, but shall not be able." For then said our Lord to his disciples, when he was gone away sorrowful from them, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

Now here we have a second example of what has been considered in the instance of king Agrippa, the want of a full persuasion, of a sufficient degree of gracious influence on the natural will, to bring it to a thorough conversion, and entire surrender to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And in this particular instance, we have two very common and frequent causes un

Folded, of that deficiency of willingness:-the love of this present world and its temporal advantages, and a confined and inadequate view of what religion has to offer instead of it, in the divine privileges and enjoyments which it confers upon the soul. May the Holy Spirit of God open our understandings, and apply it with power to our hearts, that it may serve as a warning to us not to stop short or rest satisfied, till, by the power of God that worketh in us, we have made a complete surrender of ourselves to Christ, both in body and soul, to take up the cross and follow him!

I. The first thing which strikes us, in reading the account which is given us of this person, is the encouraging appearances: how much there was that was pleasing and interesting in his character, and that seemed to give promise of better things.

66

1. There was, first of all, his disinterestedness. He did not come to the Lord to obtain some temporal boon of him, nor to be healed of some bodily affliction. He only came to enquire of him what was the way of life. Did he come then to make that enquiry, from a selfish and slavish fear, because he was old in years, and drawing near to the end of his days, and saw that death was before him? On the contrary, it is said of him, that he was a young man.' Was it then that his lot was cast amongst the poor of this world, and that, having little of this world's good, he was therefore more willing to be rich in faith, and to obtain an interest in the world to come? Nay, but it is said that "he had great possessions."+ Was it ambition then, for which he wished to be a follower of Christ, as if he hoped it would promote him to honour? Rather we learn from St. Luke's account of him, that he was already, by his position in life, a

man of rank and distinction, one of the "rulers ;' whereas the kingdom of Christ, on the contrary, is a "kingdom not of this world."

2. Next, mark his sincerity. "What good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?" Only tell me, and point it out to me, and whatever it is, I shall set about to perform it. All the commandments I have diligently kept from my childhood. What lack I yet?

66

3. Mark, too, his eager desire. St. Mark, in his account of it, tells us that he came running" to Christ, and asking him. So anxiously desirous was he to be taught and instructed, and to have rest for his soul! So that when that saying of Christ was too hard for him, he was not able to be happy, but went away from him "sorrowful."

4. And mark his disciple-like spirit in the reverence he showed for Christ: he came "kneeling down to him." When one of the lawyers once asked the same question of Christ, only to try and entangle him in his talk, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? it is said, that he "stood up, tempting him."§ But here, where there was a real desire to learn of him, it was kneeling down and beseeching him, Good Master,-Teacher of that which is good,-tell me what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Now then, surely here was a character not far from the kingdom of God! Yea, it is said by St. Mark, that Jesus himself "beholding him," that is, looking anxiously and earnestly upon him, "Jesus beholding him loved him."|| My brethren, are you as near to the kingdom of God as he was? Have you felt this eager desire? Have you asked and enquired, * Luke xviii. 18. † Mark, x. 17. Ib. § Luke x. 25. I Mark x. 21.