have profited as St. Luke did, by being companion of the blessed Apostle.

For let us consider the case more nearly. Here is a person, poor, despised, of weak bodily presence and contemptible speech, shut up in a prison, from which he has no earthly hope of escape, and out of which he is daily expecting to be led to a cruel death: and it will be a shameful death too, for he will be punished as a criminal, and most part of the people will insult him, believing him guilty. What is there in this to tempt or delight any one, except it were one who had a faith like the faith of St. Paul himself; such a faith as could look through all this cloud of troubles to the glorious end, the crown of righteousness?

Again, what if the Apostle spake, almost as never man spake, about the love of GOD to His people, and the things prepared for them that love HIM? All this would fall dead and useless on the ears of men, taken up hitherto with the diversions, and business, and imaginations of this present evil world. To associate with him from morning to night, and hear his good and holy sayings, and observe the Christian use he would make of all things, would be but flat and wearisome work to a mind taken up with the love of this world; a mind selfish and impatient, sensual and greedy.

To take an instance which every one can understand :-How would a mere ordinary person, a child of this world, used always to indulge himself,-how would such an one like to be with the Apostle on his fasting days? We know that he did keep fasts; that he restrained his body and brought it into subjection: he denied himself in many things, which the generality of men, even such as were called respectable, took freely, as of course. such respects his company could not be very agreeable to them, however much they may have admired him on other accounts, when they heard of him at a distance.

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But St. Luke had been long used to delight in the same things as St. Paul. He had been, as one may say, in training for this life of imprisonment and self-denial. When he first joined himself to St. Paul, he knew that he should have to suffer affliction, and it came on him very soon; for the very next place they preached in, we read of St. Paul and Silas being scourged and imprisoned, and delivered only by a miracle. Thus he was used to danger, pain, and shame: he had his soul, as the Psalmist says, "always

in his hand;" that is, he felt continually how very uncertain his life was; he knew he could not count on it for a moment, nor yet on any of the comforts which make life tolerable; and thus he was well prepared to attend the Teacher, whom he had so long loved, both in prison and to death.

But if his life had been, from the beginning, a life of ease and self-satisfaction, how different would it all have seemed! Even if his love for his friend had caused him to wait diligently on him, yet he could not have done it so effectually. His devout and affectionate purposes would have been continually more or less interrupted with thoughts of his own uneasiness. He would have missed very much of St. Paul's good example, and of his holy and instructive words, from being so greatly taken up with himself. And much of what he did see and hear, he would not have at all understood, the Christian ways being altogether new to him.

For we may depend upon it, that as it is a hard thing to enter into the meaning of the Scriptures or of the Church, or what is called in the Bible" the mind of CHRIST," So it is no easy matter to understand and value the behaviour of any of CHRIST's Saints, in such measure as they really come up to the name. There will always be things in every good man's conduct, which will seem strange, and harsh, and unaccountable, to those who are below him in goodness. He will often keep silence where they would expect him to speak; he will be grave where they look for encouragement from him; composed and calm about matters, in which they think it impossible to be too eager; and he will very often see deep meanings, and act accordingly, on occasions which they would turn from as merely trifling. In short, it must require a good deal of Christian practice, to enable a man to enter into the spirit of any one who is worthy to be followed, and really to make the most of his example.

St. Luke seems to have been a pattern of this. His whole manner of writing proves, that he answered well to David's description of a good Churchman, one worthy to abide in God's Tabernacle, as in other respects, so in this: that he “made much of them that fear the LORD." That, no doubt, was what he looked to: he did not seek after amusing companions, nor such as would better his condition, or advance his credit and consequence in the world. 7 Psalm xv. 4.

Nor, even among Christians, did he seek to be with eloquent or learned persons, or persons called wise, or much followed by the people. But the one thing which he sought was this, a heart set upon fearing GoD, and a life spent in keeping His commandments. Where he found that, to such an one he was presently ready to become a companion.

Or, as it is in another Psalm, "All his delight" was "in the Saints that are in the earth, and in such as excel in virtue." Those are very sacred words, for they are spoken in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST himself. And they show plainly what sort of company we must keep, if we would be minded like CHRIST, and approved by HIM. We must not look on things after the outward appearance; we must not be carried away with beauty, or strength, or skill, or what is called cleverness, or with learning, or with mirth and amusing ways, or with any such thing we must always stop and ask ourselves, "Does this man fear GOD? Does he keep His commandments ?" before we choose any to be our friend.

And, on the other hand, when we clearly see that any one is truly devout in his life and conversation, a lover of GOD and good men, a humble and watchful servant of CHRIST, and an obedient member of His Holy Catholic Church, we ought not to draw back from him on account of any outward disadvantages, or for any of the thousand fanciful reasons which, as weak vain mortals, we are apt to be so much governed by. St. Luke did not so withdraw himself from the great Apostle, because his bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible." He was superior to such childish unworthy feelings.

And this is the more remarkable, as it seems from St. Luke's writings, and from what is told concerning him, that he was a person of more education,-higher breeding, as it is called,-than the holy writers were in general. No doubt he was a judge of good speaking, fine writing, and other such matters, and of what is beautiful and otherwise. There was a tradition among the ancient Christians, that he was a painter of no small skill. But none of these things moved him, neither outward beauty, nor ready speech, nor worldly wisdom and accomplishments; but he chose to be with St. Paul, because he saw that St. Paul was chief among those who feared GoD and kept His commandments. It

was not for his own pleasure, or credit, or consequence, that he joined himself to the Apostle, but for the salvation of his soul; and therefore he did not look to those things in his friend, which the world might take notice of and admire, but to his bright and pure example, and to the grace of GoD which was in him.

And having made his choice, he kept constantly to it. Others fell away from St. Paul's company, when times grew bad, and death seemed to draw near. Demas forsook him, as thinking himself well off in this present world; and not only Demas, but many others: for he writes, that when he first appeared on his trial before Cæsar, no man stood by him, but all forsook him. Only Luke," he says, is with me."

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Thus we see how constant that friendship is, which is founded on the fear of GOD, and keeping His commandments. It fails not, for it is builded on a rock, and that rock is CHRIST; CHRIST, in whom such friends are firmly knit together, as members of the same body, and cannot, therefore, fail to have the same care one of another.

But again, we see that the Evangelist was not content with merely admiring, and loving, and following the Apostle, but that he also employed himself in many things, which did great service to the Church. He wrote that precious Gospel, which was and is his praise in all the Churches. He was sent by St. Paul on errands of charity, being chosen to go a long journey, in charge of a sum which had been collected for the Saints at Jerusalem. And as St. Paul calls him in one place "the beloved physician," so we may well believe, that the experience he had in his first profession helped him much in that charitable waiting, both on the souls and bodies of men, which belonged to him in his second and higher office of evangelist and physician of the soul.

I will mention one more circumstance in St. Luke's character, which particularly qualified him to be a companion of good and holy men, namely, the delight which he plainly took in watching and remembering their exemplary ways; making much of them, and setting them down, that they might not pass away as in a dream; and again, in observing and noting down the wonderful turns and order of God's Providence, in regard of them and of His whole Church.

Being so minded, the ALMIGHTY chose out St. Luke from

among all the Disciples, to write the Church History, from the birth of St. John Baptist to the imprisonment of St. Paul in Rome. This was a glorious privilege indeed, for one whose delight was in the Saints, or, rather, in the LORD JESUS, both in Himself, and as manifested in His Saints. And surely it is a great encouragement also, to all such as humbly and obediently apply themselves to watching and copying the examples of holy men departed; seeking praise, not for themselves, but for them, and for the GOD who sanctified them.

We have seen the high privileges of the Evangelist St. Luke, and how he was trained and prepared for them, and made much of them. It is a matter to be much considered, and laid to heart by every one of us. For certainly, whether we consider it or no, we are sharers, to a great degree, in those divine favours which St. Luke enjoyed; and if we are not trying to make the same use of them as he did, if we are not greatly the better for them, we must be greatly the worse.

All of us, I say, are partakers in St. Luke's privileges; I mean in the spiritual advantages he enjoyed as a companion of the fervent Apostle St. Paul. For we, too, are in a measure companions of St. Paul; we are made acquainted with him by his sacred writings, and by St. Luke's own history of him: we read and hear of him a great deal, both in school and in Church. Now, what is St. Paul to us? Why did God's Providence take order that we should so often be brought to remembrance of him, except because it was His will that we should follow St. Paul's example? Are we, generally, trying to follow it?

Again, most of us know some one or more friends, whom we believe, without any question, to be sericus in God's service, trying to do all their duty. We have, perhaps, all of us, more or less, opportunities of intercourse with such persons. Let us understand that those opportunities are so many favours and privileges from GOD ALMIGHTY; they are talents, of which we must give account; if abused or hidden, they will add to the weight which will sink us down irrevocably in the day of judg

ment.

Why is it that people do not consider this more? why are many of us so little the better for the goodness of those among whom we live?