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highest battlement of the foe, received a special crown. And in more modern times we shall find instances of this also. During the Republic of Rome, in 1341, Petrarch was summoned to that great capital; there, after the sound of a trumpet, and in the midst of a vast assemblage of illustrious Romans, patricians, generals, and successful soldiers, the President of the Roman Republic put a laurel crown around the poet's brow, with which he walked to St Peter's, and there laid it upon the altar, that it might be consecrated, and put upon his brow again not only an honourable, but a sacred thing.

These crowns were composed of ivy, of bay, or of laurel or oak leaves; they were no sooner wreathed around the brow of the conqueror than the chaplet began to fade, leaving but the memory of it behind. Such is the figure or imagery employed by our blessed Lord to describe that crown which he will bestow on those who are faithful even unto death.

In this world faithfulness does not always get the prize; there must be success or victory. But in that better world for which we are candidates the crown is given not to the successful only, but to the faithful; and the eulogium pronounced by our blessed Lord is not, Thou hast been successful; but "Thou hast been faithful over a few things; and the promise of the crown here is not merely to him who is successful, but unto him who is faithful unto death. At that glorious day, when the Prince of the kings of the earth shall sit upon the throne

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of His glory, and there shall be gathered before Him all nations, and the angels of heaven shall constitute his gorgeous retinue, and the stars above and all the powers of nature below shall respond to what He says; at that day, when all nature shall be wrapped in silence of the intensity of which we have now no conception, a voice will roll and echo through the universe, clear and musical, transmitting its reverberations from sea to sea, and from height to depth, and from depth to height; a voice that will have thousands of responses from glad hearts in songs of joy: "Come, ye blessed of my Father;" wear not a laurel, that fades, not an ivy leaf, that time tints, but a crown of life; "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world." When the King shall sit upon the throne of His glory, there shall be all nations, people, kindreds, and tongues; as if to teach us that no nation has a monopoly of the gospel, no Church is an exclusive preserver of Christianity; for at that day they that receive a crown shall come out of every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue.

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NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."-ROM. i. 16.

In the

PAUL was never ashamed of the gospel. Academy, in the Forum, under the shadow of the Pantheon, or in the presence of the haughty eagles of Imperial Rome, he never feared to say, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." He had no reason to be ashamed.

We shall be convinced of this if we consider THE AUTHOR OF THE GOSPEL -CHRIST; AND THE GOSPEL

ITSELF; ITS POWER, ITS PROGRESS, AND ITS RESULTS.

Who was the author of this gospel? He was born of a woman, made under the law; and yet the "Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace." He was born so poor that He declared, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head ;” yet—seeming contradiction, but perfect truth-"though rich," in

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all the glory of the universe, “for our sakes he became poor," homeless and houseless. His birth was in a manger, for there was no room in the inn; but angel choirs drew near to chant His praise; and royal personages came from afar to offer homage prophetic of His universal empire, when all the redeemed shall cast their crowns in flashing showers before His throne, and cry, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us priests and kings unto our God; unto him be glory and dominion for ever and for ever." spake the language of the common people; but his enemies testified-"Never man spake like this man." He wept; but every tear was the extinction of a sin; He suffered, but every agony was the exhaustion of a curse; He died, and yet He was the Prince of life; and the rending rocks and the gathering gloom that followed the sun as he retreated from the spectacle, composed a pall such as was never spread over royal dead or dying before. The Roman soldiers when they came into the holy of holies in the temple at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus and Vespasian, and approached the presence of the cherubim, and the ark, and saw the glory, were so struck by the awful and unspent splendour of that spot that had once been the dwelling-place of Deity, that they fell back, and refused to lay a profane hand upon the holy thing. What occurred in the history of the type has been fulfilled in that of Jesus. Of all the bitter attacks that have been made upon the Bible, on religion, on

Christianity, not one sceptic, infidel, or atheist has dared to say a word against the person of Jesus of Nazareth. If you were to seek out the most eloquent eulogium upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you must turn to Rousseau, the sensual and profane sceptic, who has written the most exquisite, beautiful, and eloquent sketch of the person of Jesus that ever came from the pen of uninspired man. Napoleon I. confirmed all that Rousseau wrote. In a conversation with General Bertrand in St Helena, Napoleon said, “I see in Lycurgus, in Duma, in Mahomet, only legislators; nothing in them announces that which is divine. It is not so with Christ. Believe me, all else in the world has no point of comparison with Him. Everything in Him astonishes me. Alexander, Crœsus, Charlemagne, myself, founded empires on force, Jesus founded an empire in love. The death of Christ was the death of God. Bertrand, believe me, believe me ; if you do not perceive from Scripture that Jesus Christ is God, I made a great blunder in making you one of my generals." What a remarkable testimony from so great a soldier, so powerful an intellect, so remarkable a man! Yet all he said is less than literal truth. Neither Mahomet, nor Confucius, nor any author of any religion of any sort orage, can for one moment be compared with Him. He spake as never man spake; He lived as no man ever lived; and, thank God, He died as no man ever died. Prophet, patriarch, priest, and king retire. Depart, ye servants, in peace-fade, ye flickering tapers; the Sun

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