they will have few more delightful sources of support-none indeed which the creature, and the comforts of the creature can supply, more cheering and soothing, than the certainty, that you bear them upon your hearts, and that they are the objects of your solicitude, your tenderness, and your prayers. "Honour thy father and thy mother; which is the first commandment with promise."

II. In addition, however, to the immediate and obvious purport of our Lord's dying charge to St. John and his mother, there are SOME CONSIDERATIONS OF A SPIRITUAL IMPORT which I am anxious, very briefly to lay before you.

(1.) We may observe, that here, as elsewhere, our Saviour addresses his mother, not under the endearing relation which she bare towards Him, but simply "Woman, behold thy Son." It is possible, that He might thus have been willing to screen her, under this general title, from

the reproach of his enemies, who would be disposed to insult her, and so heap additional fuel to that flame of suffering, which was already consuming her. It may be, that He used this title, as now standing on the very borders of the eternal world, although his sympathies and his love were still human, and therefore wishing her to look upon the tie that united them, as mother and child, to be for ever broken; and Himself to be no more in the world, as her Son? But may we not, and as Bible Christians, with the dark superstitions of the Church of Rome before us, standing in broad and palpable opposition to the faith once delivered to the Saints-may we not, and must we not, think that He might have some reference to the names and titles, wherewith that superstition hath invested her-especially as "the Mother of God," the " Queen of Heaven," and others, not only unwarranted by the Scriptures, but absolutely and irreconcileably opposed to them?

Some of the writers of this Church assert her, I believe, to have stood near the cross; and by her participation in the sufferings of our Lord, to have been assisting to his atoning mediation. Neither Jesus himself, nor the Holy Ghost, ever distinguished her by high titles and what more decided method could He have chosen, whereby to discountenance the idolatry, than when, in His dying moments, He merely called her "Woman!" Besides, if He were the seed of the woman, who was to bruise the serpent's head, such a dying testimony might serve, instead of a thousand witnesses, in proof of the fact. "Woman!" Thou, whose seed is now vanquishing Satan, in fulfilment of that promise given in paradise, with which, as well as with all the prophecies connected with it, as streams of the fountain of salvation to sinners in my blood, my church of the redeemed hath been refreshed, during all the generations of its past earthly warfare."Woman!" although I am no

more in the world, "behold thy Son, who shall sustain thee, when I am gone to my father, and his father, to my God and his God." Surely, if Mary's faith brought home this blessed idea to her heart, when Jesus said, "Woman, behold thy Son," she might well remember the song of other years, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." Saviour." O be zealous, truly zealous, for the honour of your Redeemer. Let no one, unnoticed and unrebuked by you, daringly attempt to sit upon his throne; no one to share his glory; no one to usurp any of those titles which he hath so dearly won; no one to wear with Him that robe of complete and everlasting redemption, which He hath rolled and dyed in the blood of the cross. And when you take your stand there, stand there, with the three Maries, and with the beloved John, remember the completeness of the salvation which He has wrought :-remember that He hath bruised the head of Satan,—that

your enemy, and God's enemy, and the Church's enemy, my brethren, in the faith of Christ crucified, hath been slain, utterly and for ever slain; that you, and all the Church triumphed over Satan, in Christ crucified: and, lifting up your song, in glad remembrance of this unity with the conquering Saviour, cry, Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!

(2.) Moreover, this dying act of our Redeemer's tenderness to his mother, may well recommend all the endearing affections of regard and love, through all the members of Christ's mystical body. If we are thus honored by a union with Him, so entire, so absolute, so inviolable,-if members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, then the great principle which animated Him, towards all who are in Him by faith-the great principle, which acts and influences Him, now upon the throne of heavenly victory-the great principle, that shall influence Him everlastingly, when his saints